Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/571

 that he was a foe hard to subdue, proceeded, after he had endured that ordeal, to propitiate Ganeśa with praises.

" Honour to thee, O god of the projecting belly, adorned with the elephant's ornament, whose body is like a swelling pitcher containing success in all affairs ! Victory to thee, O elephant-faced one, that makest even Brahmá afraid, shaking the lotus, which is his throne, with thy trunk flung up in sport ! Even the gods, the Asuras, and the chief hermits do not succeed, unless thou art pleased, the only refuge of the world, O thou beloved of Śiva ! The chief of the gods praise thee by thy sixty -eight sindestroying names, calling thee the pitcher-bellied, the basket-eared one,* the chief of the Ganas, the furious mast elephant, Yama the noose -handed, the Sun, Vishnu,- and Śiva. With these names to the number of sixty-eight, corresponding to so many parts of the body, do they praise thee. And when one remembers thee, and praises thee, O Lord, fear produced by the battle-field, by the king's court, by gambling, by thieves, by fire, by wild beasts, and other harms, departs." With these laudatory verses, and with many others of the same kind, king Kanakavarsha honoured that king of impediments. And the conqueror of impediments said, " I will not throw an impediment in thy way, obtain a son," and disappeared then and there from the eyes of that king. Then Kártikeya said to that king, who had endured the rain; " Resolute man, I am pleased with thee, so crave thy boon." Then the king delighted, said to the god, " Let a son be born to me by thy favour." Then the god said, " Thou shalt have a son, the incarnation of one of my Ganas, and his name shall be Hiranyavarsha on the earth." And then the rider on the peacock summoned him to enter his inmost shrine, in order to shew him special favour. † Thereupon the Nágí left his body invisibly, for females do not enter the house of Kártikeya through dread of a curse. Then king Kanakavarsha entered the sanctifying temple of that god, armed only with his human excellence. When the god saw that he was deprived of the excellence he formerly had, because he was no longer inhabited by the Nágí, he reflected— " What can this mean?" And Kártikeya, perceiving by his divine meditation, that that king had performed a very difficult vow by the secret help of the Nágí, thus cursed him in his wrath: " Since thou didst make use of deceit, intractable man, thou shalt be separated from thy son, as soon as he is born,and from thy queen. When the king heard this curse, terrible as a thunderstroke, he was not amazed, but