Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/62

 with the weight of her breasts, with body tender as a śirisha flower, became exhausted with the amusement; she not being able to endure more, said to the king who was sprinkling her with water,——"do not pelt me with water-drops;" on hearing that, the king quickly had some sweet-meats* brought; then the queen burst out laughing and said again "king, what do we want with sweetmeats in the water? For I said to you, do not sprinkle me with water-drops. Do you not even understand the coalescence of the words má and udaka, and do you not know that chapter of the grammar, how can you be such a blockhead?" When the queen, who knew grammatical treatises, said this to him, and the attendants laughed, the king was at once overpowered with secret shame; he left off romping in the water and immediately entered his own palace unperceived, crestfallen, and full of self-contempt. Then he remained lost in thought, bewildered, averse to food and other enjoyments, and, like a picture, even when asked a question, he answered nothing. Thinking that his only resource was to acquire learning or die, he flung himself down on a couch, and remained in an agony of grief. Then all the king's attendants, seeing that he had suddenly fallen into such a state, were utterly beside themselves to think what it could mean. Then I and Śarvavarman came at last to hear of the king's condition, and by that time the day was almost at an end. So perceiving that the king was still in an unsatisfactory condition, we immediately summoned a servant of the king named Rájahansa. And he when asked by us about the state of the king's health, said this—"I never before in my life saw the king in such a state of depression: and the other queens told me with much indignation that he had been humiliated to-day by that superficial blue-stocking, the daughter of Vishnusakti." When S'arvavarman and I had heard this from the mouth of the king's servant, we fell into a state of despondency, and thus reflected in our dilemma; " If the king were afflicted with bodily di.~ we might introduce the physicians, but if his disease is mental it is impossible to find the cause of it. For there is no enemy in his country the thorns of which arc destroyed, and these subjects are attached to him; no dearth of any kind is to be seen ; so how can this sudden melancholy of the king's have arisen?" After we had debated to this effect, the wise S'arvavarman said as follows—"I know the cause, this king is discressed by sorrow for his own ignorance, for he is always expressing a desire for culture, saying 'I am a blockhead;' I long ago detected this desire of his, and we have heard that the occasion of the present fit is his having been humiliated by the queen." Thus we debated with one another and after