Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/510

 Story of Alankáravatí:— There is on the mountain-heights or the rather or Gaurí,* a city named Śrisundarapura, and in it there dwells a king of the Vidyádharas, named Alankáraśila. That lofty-souled king had a wife named Kánchanaprabha, and in course of time a son was born to the king by her. And, when Umá announced to his father in a dream that he should be devoted to religion, he named him Dharmaśíla. And in course of time that son Dharmaśíla grew up to be a young man, and the king, having had him taught the sciences, appointed him Crown-prince. Then DharmaŚíla, when appointed Crown- prince, being exclusively devoted to virtue, and self-controlled, delighted the subjects even more than did his father. Then the queen Kánchanaprabhá, the consort of king Alankáraśíla, became pregnant again, and gave birth to a daughter. Then a heavenly voice proclaimed, " This daughter shall be the wife of the emperor Naraváhanadatta." Then, her father gave her the name of Alankáravatí, and the girl gradually grew like a digit of the moon. And in course of time she attained mature youth, and learned the sciences from her own father, and through devotion to the god Śiva, began to roam from temple to temple of his. In the meanwhile that brother of hers, Dharmaśíla, who was saintly, though in the bloom of youth, said in secret to his father Alankáraśíla— " My father, these enjoyments, that, vanish in a moment, do not please me; for what is there in this world which is not distasteful at the last? Have you not heard on this point the saying of the hermit Vyása? ' All aggregations end in dissolution, all erections end in a fall, all unions end in separation, and life ends in death.' So what pleasure can wise men take in these perishable objects? Moreover, neither enjoyments nor heaps of wealth accompany one into the other world, but virtue is the only friend that never moves a step from one's side. Therefore I will go to the forest, and perform a severe penance, in order by it to attain everlasting supreme felicity." When the king's son Dharmaśíla said this, his father Alankáraśíla was perturbed, and answered him with tears in his eyes; " My son, what is this sudden delusion that has overtaken you while still a boy? For good men desire a life of retirement after they have enjoyed their youth. This is the time for you to marry a wife, and rule your kingdom justly, and enjoy pleasures, not to abandon the world." When Dharmaśíla heard this speech of his father's, he answered: " There is no period for self-control or absence of self-control fixed by age; any one, even when a child, attains self-control, if favoured by the Lord, but no bad man attains self-control even when old. And I take no pleasure in reigning, nor in marrying a wife; the object of my life is to propitiate Śiva by austerities." When the prince said this, his father Alankáraśíla, seeing that he could not be turned