Story of Ádityaśarman the father of Guṇaśarman.
In the city of Ujjayiní there was a Bráhman’s son named Ádityaśarman, and when he was a child, his father died, and his mother entered the fire with her husband. Then Ádityaśarman grew up in that city, in his uncle’s house, reading the Vedas, and the books of knowledge, and also the treatises on accomplishments. And after he had acquired knowledge, and was engaged in a vow of muttering prayers, he struck up a friendship with a certain wandering hermit. That wandering hermit went with his friend Ádityaśarman, and performed a sacrifice in a cemetery to get a Yakshiṇí into his power. Then a heavenly maiden, beautifully adorned, appeared to him in a chariot of gold, surrounded with beautiful maidens. She said to him in a sweet voice, “Mendicant, I am a Yakshí named Vidyunmálá, and these others are Yakshiṇís. Take a suitable wife from my following according to your pleasure. So much have you obtained by your employment of spells; you have not discovered the perfect spell for obtaining me; so, as I am obtained by that only, do not take any further trouble to no purpose.” When the Yakshí said this to him, the mendicant consented, and chose one Yakshiṇí from her retinue. Then Vidyunmálá disappeared, and Ádityaśarman asked that Yakshiṇí, whom the hermit had obtained, “Is there any Yakshiṇí superior to Vidyunmálá?” When the Yakshiṇí heard that, she answered, “Yes, handsome man, there is. Vidyunmálá, Chandralekhá, and Sulochaná the third, are the best among the Yakshiṇís, and among these Sulochaná.” After saying that, the Yakshiṇí departed, to return at the appointed time; and the mendicant went with Ádityaśarman to his house. There the loving Yakshiṇí every day visited the hermit at the appointed time, and granted him all that he desired. One day Ádityaśarman asked her this question by the mouth of that mendicant: “Who knows the proper spell for attracting Sulochaná?” And the Yakshiṇí sent him this message by the mouth of the mendicant—“There is a place called Jambuvana in the south. There is a mendicant there, named Vishṇugupta, who has made his dwelling on the banks of the Veṇí; he is the best of Buddhist mendicants, and knows the spell at full length.” When Ádityaśarman learned this from the Yakshiṇí, he went in all eagerness to that country, followed by the mendicant out of love. There he duly searched for the Buddhist mendicant, and after he had approached him, he served him devotedly for three years, and waited upon him continually. And by the help of that Yakshiṇí, who was at the beck and call of the first mendicant, his friend, he provided him with heavenly luxuries, ministered seasonably. Then that Buddhist mendicant, being pleased, gave to that Ádityaśarman the spell for obtaining Sulochaná, which he desired, together with the prescribed rites to accompany it. Then Ádityaśarman, having obtained that spell, and having duly employed it, went into a solitary place and performed there the final sacrifice according to the prescribed ritual, leaving no ceremony out. Then the Yakshiṇí Sulochaná appeared to him in an air-chariot, with world-enchanting beauty, and said to him, “Come! come! I have been won by you, but you must not make me your wife for six months, great hero, if you wish to have by me a son, who will be a favourite of fortune, marked with auspicious marks, all-knowing and invincible.” When she said this, Ádityaśarman consented, and she took him off in her chariot to Alaká. And Ádityaśarman remained there, looking at her ever near him, with his suspense and doubts at an end, and performed for six months a vow as difficult as standing on the edge of a sword. Then the god of wealth, being pleased, himself gave that Sulochaná to Ádityaśarman according to a heavenly ritual. I was born as that Bráhman’s son by her, and I was named Guṇaśarman by my father on account of my good qualities. Then in that very place I learned in succession the Vedas, the sciences, and the accomplishments, from a prince of the Yakshas named Maṇidara.
Then, once upon a time, it happened that Indra came to the god of wealth, and all who sat there rose up when they saw him. But as Fate would have it, Ádityaśarman my father was at that time thinking of something else, and did not rise up in a hurry. Then Indra, being angry, cursed him, and said—“Out, fool! go to your own world of mortals, you are out of place here.” Then Sulochaná fell at his feet, and propitiated him, and Indra answered, “Then let him not go to the world of mortals himself, but let this son of his go, for one’s son is said to be a second self. Let not my word have been spoken in vain.” When Indra had said so much, he was satisfied. Then my father took me and deposited me in my uncle’s house in Ujjayiní. For what is ordained to be a man’s lot must be. There, as it happened, I struck up a friendship with the king of that place. And listen, I will tell you what happened to me there afterwards.
After saying this, he described to him what happened from the very beginning, and what Aśokavatí did, and what the king did, ending up with his fight. And he went on to say to him—“Bráhman, thus I have fled away to go to a foreign land, and on my way, as I was journeying along, I have seen you.” When the Bráhman heard that, he said to Guṇaśarman—“And thus I have become fortunate by your visit, my lord. So now come to my house, and know that I am Agnidatta by name, and this village is my grant from the king; be at ease here.” After saying this, Agnidatta made Guṇaśarman enter his splendid mansion, in which were many cows, buffaloes, and horses. There he honoured that guest with bath and unguents, and robes and ornaments, and with various kinds of food. And he shewed him his daughter, Sundarí by name, whose beauty was to be desired even by the gods, on the pretence of getting him to inspect her marks. And Guṇaśarman, for his part, seeing that she was unsurpassed in beauty, said “She will have rival wives. She has a mole on her nose, and consequently I assert that she must have a second one on her breast; and men say that such is the result of spots in these two localities.” When he said this, her brother, by command of her father, uncovered her breast, and beheld there a mole.
Then Agnidatta said in astonishment to Guṇaśarman, “You are all-knowing, but these moles of hers portend good fortune to us. For wives generally have many rivals when the husband is fortunate, a poor[9] man would find it difficult to support one, much more to support many.” When Guṇaśarman heard this, he answered him—“It is as you say; how could ill fortune befall a shape with such auspicious marks?” When he had said this, Agnidatta took occasion to ask him concerning the meaning of moles and other marks; and he told him what moles and other marks portended on every single limb, both in men and women.[10]
Then Sundarí, the moment she beheld Guṇaśarman, longed eagerly to drink him in with her eyes, as the female partridge longs to drink the moon. Then Agnidatta said in private to Guṇaśarman, “Illustrious one, I give you this my daughter Sundarí. Do not go to a foreign land, remain at ease in my house.” When Guṇaśarman heard this speech of his, he said to him—“True, I should be happy enough to do so, but as I have been on a false charge scorched with the fire of the king’s contempt, it does not please me. A lovely woman, the rising of the moon, and the fifth note of a lute, these delight the happy but afflict the miserable. And a wife, who falls in love of her own accord with a man, is sure to be chaste, but if she is given away by her father against her will, she will be like Aśokavatí. Moreover, the city of Ujjayiní is near to this place, so the king may perhaps hear of my whereabouts and oppress me. So I will wander round to holy places, and will wash off the stains of sin contracted ever since my birth, and will abandon this body, then I shall be at rest.” When he said this, Agnidatta answered him, smiling, “If even you show so much infatuation, what are we to expect from others? What annoyance can you, a man of pure character, derive from the contempt of a fool? Mud thrown at the heaven falls upon the head of the thrower. The king will soon reap the fruit of his want of discrimination, for Fortune does not long wait upon a man blind with infatuation and wanting in discrimination. Besides, if you are disgusted with women from your experience of Aśokavatí, do you not feel respect for them on beholding a good woman, for you know signs? And even though Ujjayiní be near to this place where you now are, I will take steps to prevent any one’s knowing that you are here. But if you desire to make a pilgrimage to sacred places, then I say—that is approved by the wise only for a man, who cannot, according to the scriptures, attain happiness by performing the actions enjoined by the Vedas; but he who can acquire merit by offerings to the gods, to the manes of deceased ancestors, and to the fire, by vows, and muttering prayers, what is the use of his wandering about on pilgrimages? A pilgrim whose pillow is his arm, who sleeps upon the ground, and lives on alms, and drinks only water, is not free from cares, even though he has attained equality with hermits. And as for your desiring to abandon the body,[11] in this also you are led astray, for in the next world suicides suffer more severe pains than here. An unbecoming fault and folly is not to be committed by one so young and wise: decide for yourself: you must certainly do what I tell you. I will have made for you here a spacious and beautiful subterranean dwelling; marry Sundarí and live at ease in it.” When he was thus diligently schooled by Agnidatta, Guṇaśarman agreed to his proposal, and said to him, “I accept your offer, for who would abandon a wife like Sundarí?[12] But I will not marry this your daughter till I have accomplished my ends. In the meanwhile I will propitiate some god with strict asceticism, in order that I may be revenged on that ungrateful monarch.” When he said this, Agnidatta gladly consented, and Guṇaśarman rested there in comfort during the night. And the next day Agnidatta had a secret subterranean dwelling constructed for his comfort, called Pátálavasati.[13] And while he was there, Guṇaśarman said in secret to Agnidatta: “Tell me, what god, granting boons to his worshippers, shall I propitiate here by performing vows, and what spell shall I use?” When the brave man said that, Agnidatta answered him, “I have a spell for propitiating the god Svámikumára, which was told me by a teacher; so with that propitiate the general of the gods, the foe of Táraka, desiring whose birth the gods, oppressed by their enemies, sent Káma to Śiva, (and he, after burning him up, decreed that henceforth he should be born in the mind;) whose origin they say was various, from Śiva, from the fire-cavity, from fire, from the thicket of reeds and from the Kṛittikás; and who, as soon as he was born, made the whole world bend by his irresistible might, and slew the unconquered Asura Táraka.” Then Guṇaśarman said, “Tell me that spell.” And Agnidatta gave Guṇaśarman that spell. With it Guṇaśarman propitiated Skanda in the subterranean dwelling, unremitting in his vow, waited upon by Sundarí. Then the six-faced god appeared to him in visible form, and said, “I am pleased with you, choose a boon,—[14]
You shall possess an inexhaustible treasury and, after conquering Mahásena, you shall, my son, advance irresistibly and rule the earth.” After giving him this great boon, Skanda disappeared, and Guṇaśarman obtained inexhaustible treasure. Then the successful hero married, according to the prescribed rites, with splendour suited to his greatness, the daughter of the Bráhman Agnidatta, who fell more in love with him every day, like his future good fortune in affairs come to him in bodily form. And then having collected, by virtue of his surpassing accumulation of inexhaustible treasure, an army consisting of many horses, elephants and foot-soldiers, he marched to Ujjayiní, overrunning the earth with the forces of all the kings that crowded to his banner out of gratitude for his gifts. And after proclaiming there to the subjects that immodest conduct of Aśokavatí, and after conquering the king Mahásena in battle, and deposing him from the throne, he obtained the dominion of the earth. And king Guṇaśarman married many daughters of kings, besides Sundarí, and his orders were obeyed even on the shores of the sea, and with Sundarí as his consort he long enjoyed pleasures to his heart’s content.
“Thus king Mahásena, in old time, suddenly incurred calamity through being unable to discriminate the characters of men, being a man of dull intellect, but the clear-headed Guṇaśarman, with the help of his own resolute character alone, obtained the highest prosperity.”
After Súryaprabha had heard this chivalrous tale at night from the mouth of his minister Vítabhíti, the royal hero, who was longing to traverse the great sea of battle, gained great confidence, and gradually dropped off to sleep.
[1] There are three different styles of music called tára, udára, and mudára. So the word márga contains a pun.
[2] Ogha means current and also quick time in music.
[3] Chhaláhataḥ is a mistake for chhaládṛitaḥ. See Böhtlingk and Roth, (s. v. han with á). The MS. in the Sanskrit College has chhaládataḥ.
[4] Here Brockhaus makes a hiatus.
[5] I read Guṇaśarmanaḥ or Guṇaśarmane.
[6] The old story of Hippolyte, the wife of Acastus, (the “Magnessa Hippolyte” of Horace,) and Peleus, of Antea and Bellerophon, of Phædra and Hippolytus, of Fausta and Crispus. See also the beginning of the Seven Wise Masters, Simrock’s Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. XII, pp. 128, 129. Cp. also Grössler, Sagen der Grafschaft Mansfeld, p. 192. See the remarkable statement in Rohde, Der Griechische Roman, p. 31, quoted from Pausanias I, 22, 1, to the effect that the story of Phædra was known to “Barbarians.”
[7] Cp. the English superstitions with regard to the raven, crow and magpie (Henderson’s Folk-lore of the Northern Counties, pp. 95 and 96, Hunt’s Romances and Drolls of the West of England, p. 429, Thiselton Dyer, English Folk-lore, pp. 80 and 81). See also Horace, Odes, III, 27. In Europe the throbbing or tingling of the left ear indicates calamity, (Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 327, Hunt’s Romances and Drolls of the West of England, p. 430, Thiselton Dyer, English Folk-lore, p. 279). See also Bartsch’s Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. II, p. 313, and Birlinger, Aus Schwaben, pp. 374–378, and 404. For similar superstitions in ancient Greece see Jebb’s Characters of Theophrastus, p. 163, “The superstitious man, if a weasel run across his path, will not pursue his walk until some one else has traversed the road, or until he has thrown three stones across it. When he sees a serpent in his house, if it be the red snake, he will invoke Sabazius, if the sacred snake, he will straightway place a shrine on the spot * * * * If an owl is startled by him in his walk, he will exclaim “Glory be to Athene!” before he proceeds.” Jebb refers us to Ar. Eccl. 792.
[8] The Sanskrit College MS. reads nyáyam for práptam “hear my suit against Guṇaśarman.” This makes a far better sense.
[9] Daridryo is probably a misprint for daridro.
[10] Cp. Thiselton Dyer’s English Folk-lore, p. 280. He remarks: “A belief was formerly current throughout the country in the significance of moles on the human body. When one of these appeared on the upper side of the right temple above the eye, to a woman it signified good and happy fortune by marriage. This superstition was especially believed in in Nottinghamshire, as we learn from the following lines, which, says Mr. Briscoe, (author of ‘Nottinghamshire Facts and Fictions’) were often repeated by a poor girl at Bunny:—
‘I have a mole above my right eye,
And shall be a lady before I die.
As things may happen, as things may fall
Who knows but that I may be Lady of Bunny Hall?’
The poor girl’s hopes, it is stated, were ultimately realized, and she became ‘Lady of Bunny Hall.’ See Brand’s Popular Antiquities, Vol. III, pp. 252–255.
[11] I read dehatyágam and vánchasi.
[12] I. e. “beautiful.” There is a pun here.
[13] Pátála = Hades, i. e., the world below, vasati = dwelling.
[14] Here Brockhaus supposes a hiatus.