Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/528

 her, crushed by the extinction of his race.* And the queen Padmarati also fell down to the earth in a swoon, and with her ornaments fallen from her like flowers, appeared like a cluster of blossoms broken by an elephant.

The attendants raised cries of lamentation, and those heroes were full of grief, but the king, immediately recovering consciousness, said to that Jívadatta, " In this matter those others have no power, but now it is your opportunity; you boasted that you could raise to life a dead woman; if you possess power by means of science, then recall my daughter to life; I will give her, when restored to life, to you as being a Bráhman." When Jívadatta heard this speech of the king's, he sprinkled that princess with water, over which charms had been said, and chanted this Áryá verse: " O thou of the loud laugh, adorned with a garland of skulls, not to be gazed on, Chámundá, the terrible goddess, assist me quickly." When, in spite of this effort of Jívadatta's, that maiden was not restored to life, he was despondent, and said— " My science, though bestowed by the goddess that dwells in the Vindhya range, has proved fruitless, so what is the use to me of my life that has become an object of scorn? " When he had said this, he was preparing to cut off his head with a great sword, when a voice came from the sky— " Jívadatta, do not act rashly, listen now. This noble Vidhyádhara maiden, named Anangaprabhá, has been for so long a time a mortal owing to the curse of her parents. She has now quitted this human body, and has gone to her own world, and taken her own body. So go and propitiate again the goddess that dwells in the Vindhya hills, and by her favour you shall recover this noble Vidyádhara maiden. But as she is enjoying heavenly bliss, neither you nor the king ought to mourn for her." When the heavenly voice had told this true tale, it ceased. Then the king performed his daughter's rites, and he and his wife ceased to mourn for her, and those other three heroes returned as they had come.

But hope was kindled in the breast of Jívadatta, and he went and propitiated with austerities the dweller in the Vindhya hills, and she said to him in a dream:

" I am satisfied with thee, so rise up and listen to this that I am about to tell thee."

Story of Anangarati in a former birth when she was a Vidyádhari named Anangaprabhá.:— There is a city on the Himálayas named Vírapura; and in it there dwells a sovereign of Vidyádharas named Samara. He had a daughter, named Anangaprabhá, born to him by his queen Anangavatí. When, in the pride of her youth and beauty, she refused to have any husband, her parents, enraged at her persistence, cursed her—