Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/454

 While Prabhása was saying this to Súryaprabha in private, Prahasta also came there, and being questioned, he said as follows— " When I arrived from this place at the private apartment of Mahalliká, she entered despondent with her two intimate friends. And I entered also invisible by the employment of magic science, and I saw there twelve friends like her; and they sat round Mahalliká, who reclined on a sofa ornamented with splendid jewels; and then one said to her, ' My friend, why do you seem to be suddenly cast down to-day? What is the meaning of this despondency when your marriage is about to come off?' When the daughter of Prahláda heard that, she answered her friend pensively, ' What marriage for me? To whom am I betrothed? Who told you?' When she said that, they all exclaimed, ' Surely your marriage will take place to-morrow, and you are betrothed, my friend, to Súryaprabha. And your mother, the queen, told us to-day when you were not present, and ordered us to decorate you for the marriage ceremony. So you are fortunate, in that you will have Súryaprabha for a husband, through admiration for whose beauty the ladies of this place cannot sleep at night. But this is a source of despondency to us— What a gulf there will now be between you and us ! When you have obtained him for a husband, you will forget us.' When Mahalliká heard this from their mouth, she said, ' Has he been seen by you, and is your heart attached to him?' When they heard that, they said to her— ' We saw him from the top of the palace, and what woman is there that a sight of him would not captivate?' Then she said, ' Then I will persuade my father to cause all of you to be given to him.* So we shall live together, and not be separated.' When she said this, the maidens were shocked, and said to her, ' Kind friend, do not do so. It would not be proper, and would make us ashamed.' When they said this, the daughter of the king of the Asuras answered them, ' Why is it not proper? I am not to be his only wife: all the Daityas and Dánavas will give him their daughters, and there are other princesses on the earth whom he has married, and he will also marry many Vidyádhara maidens. What harm can it do to me that you should be married among these? So far from it, we shall live happily in mutual friendship; but what intercourse can I hold with those others who will be my enemies? And why should you have any shame about the matter? I will arrange it all.' While these ladies were thus conversing, with hearts devoted to you, I came out at my leisure and repaired to your presence." When Súryaprabha had heard this from the mouth of Prahasta, he passed that night in happiness, though he remained sleepless in his bed.

In the morning he went to the court of Prahláda, the king of the Asuras, with Sunítha and Maya and his ministers, to visit him. Then