Story of Chandrasvámin who recovered his wife alive after her death.
I am a young Bráhman of the name of Chandrasvámin, living on that magnificent grant to Bráhmans, called Brahmasthala, and I have a beautiful wife in my house. One day I had gone to the village for some object, by my father’s orders, and a kápálika, who had come to beg, cast eyes on that wife of mine. She caught a fever from the moment he looked at her, and in the evening she died. Then my relations took her, and put her on the pyre during the night. And when the pyre was in full blaze, I returned there from the village; and I heard what had happened from my family who wept before me.
Then I went near the pyre, and the kápálika came there with the magic staff dancing[1] on his shoulder, and the booming drum in his hand. He quenched the flume of the pyre, king, by throwing ashes on it,[2] and then my wife rose up from the midst of it uninjured. The kápálika took with him my wife who followed him, drawn by his magic power, and ran off quickly, and I followed him with my bow and arrows.
And when he reached a cave on the bank of the Ganges, he put the magic staff down on the ground, and said exultingly to two maidens who were in it, “She, without whom I could not marry you, though I had obtained you, has come into my possession; and so my vow has been successfully accomplished,”[3] Saying this he shewed them my wife, and at that moment I flung his magic staff into the Ganges; and when he had lost his magic power by the loss of the staff, I reproached him, exclaiming, “Kápálika, as you wish to rob me of my wife, you shall live no longer.” Then the scoundrel, not seeing his magic staff, tried to run away; but I drew my bow and killed him with a poisoned arrow. Thus do heretics, who feign the vows of Śiva only for the pleasure of accomplishing nefarious ends, fall, though their sin has already sunk them deep enough.
Then I took my wife, and those other two maidens, and I returned home, exciting the astonishment of my relations. Then I asked those two maidens to tell me their history, and they gave me this answer, “We are the daughters respectively of a king and a chief merchant in Benares, and the kápálika carried us off by the same magic process by which he carried off your wife, and thanks to you we have been delivered from the villain without suffering insult.” This was their tale; and the next day I took them to Benares, and handed them over to their relations, after telling what had befallen them.[4]
And as I was returning thence, I saw this young merchant, who had lost his wife, and I came here with him. Moreover, I anointed my body with an ointment that I found in the cave of the kápálika; and, observe, perfume still exhales from it, even though it has been washed.
“In this sense did I recover my wife arisen from the dead.” When the Bráhman had told this story, the king honoured him and the young merchant, and sent them on their way. And then that king Vikramáditya, taking with him Guṇavatí, Chandravatí, and Madanasundarí, and having met his own forces, returned to the city of Ujjayiní, and there he married Guṇavatí and Chandravatí.
Then the king called to mind the figure carved on a pillar that he had seen in the temple built by Viśvakarman, and he gave this order to the warder, “Let an ambassador be sent to Kalingasena to demand from him that maiden whose likeness I saw carved on the pillar.” When the warder received this command from the king, he brought before him an ambassador named Suvigraha, and sent him off with a message.
So the ambassador went to the country of Kalinga, and when he had seen the king Kalingasena, he delivered to him the message with which he had been entrusted, which was as follows, “King, the glorious sovereign Vikramáditya sends you this command, ‘You know that every jewel on the earth comes to me as my due; and you have a pearl of a daughter, so hand her over to me, and then by my favour you shall enjoy in your own realm an unopposed sway.’” When the king of Kalinga heard this, he was very angry, and he said, “Who is this king Vikramáditya? Does he presume to give me orders and ask for my daughter as a tribute? Blinded with pride he shall be cast down.” When the ambassador heard this from Kalingasena, he said to him, “How can you, being a servant, dare to set yourself up against your master? You do not know your place. What, madman, do you wish to be shrivelled like a moth in the fire of his wrath?”
When the ambassador had said this, he returned and communicated to king Vikramáditya that speech of Kalingasena’s. Then king Vikramáditya, being angry, marched out with his forces to attack the king of Kalinga, and the Vetála Bhútaketu went with him. As he marched along, the quarters, re-echoing the roar of his army, seemed to say to the king of Kalinga, “Surrender the maiden quickly,” and so he reached that country. When king Vikramáditya saw the king of Kalinga ready for battle, he surrounded him with his forces; but then he thought in his mind, “I shall never be happy without this king’s daughter; and yet how can I kill my own father-in-law? Suppose I have recourse to some stratagem.”
When the king had gone through these reflections, he went with the Vetála, and by his supernatural power entered the bedchamber of the king of Kalinga at night, when he was asleep, without being seen. Then the Vetála woke up the king, and when he was terrified, said to him laughing, “What! do you dare to sleep, when you are at war with king Vikramáditya?” Then the king of Kalinga rose up, and seeing the monarch, who had thus shown his daring, standing with a terrible Vetála at his side, and recognising him, bowed trembling at his feet, and said, “King, I now acknowledge your supremacy; tell me what I am to do.” And the king answered him, “If you wish to have me as your overlord, give me your daughter Kalingasená.” Then the king of Kalinga agreed, and promised to give him his daughter, and so the monarch returned successful to his camp.
And the next day, queen, your father the king of Kalinga bestowed you on king Vishamaśíla with appropriate ceremonies, and a splendid marriage-gift. Thus, queen, you were lawfully married by the king out of his deep love for you, and at the risk of his own life, and not out of any desire to triumph over an enemy.
“When I heard this story, my friends, from the mouth of the kárpaṭika Devasena, I dismissed my anger, which was caused by the contempt with which I supposed myself to have been treated. So, you see, this king was induced to marry me by seeing a likeness of me carved on a pillar, and to marry Malayavatí by seeing a painted portrait of her.” In these words Kalingasená, the beloved wife of king Vikramáditya, described her husband’s might, and delighted his other wives. Then Vikramáditya, accompanied by all of them, and by Malayavatí, remained delighting in his empire.
Then, one day, a Rájpút named Kṛishṇaśakti, who had been oppressed by the members of his clan, came there from the Dakkan. He went to the palace-gate surrounded by five hundred Rájpúts, and took on himself the vow of kárpaṭika to the king. And though the king tried to dissuade him, he made this declaration, “I will serve king Vikramáditya for twelve years.” And he remained at the gate of the palace, with his followers, determined to carry out this vow, and while he was thus engaged, eleven years passed over his head.
And when the twelfth year came, his wife, who was in another land, grieved at her long separation from him, sent him a letter; and he happened to be reading this Áryá verse which she had written in the letter, at night, by the light of a candle, when the king, who had gone out in search of adventures, was listening concealed, “Hot, long, and tremulous, do these sighs issue forth from me, during thy absence, my lord, but not the breath of life, hard-hearted woman that I am!”
When the king had heard this read over and over again by the kárpaṭika, he went to his palace and said to himself, “This kárpaṭika, whose wife is in such despondency, has long endured affliction, and if his objects are not gained, he will, when this twelfth year is at an end, yield his breath. So I must not let him wait any longer.” After going through these reflections, the king at once sent a female slave, and summoned that kárpaṭika. And after he had caused a grant to be written, he gave him this order, “My good fellow, go towards the northern quarter through Omkárapíṭha; there live on the proceeds of a village of the name of Khaṇḍavaṭaka, which I give you by this grant; you will find it by asking your way as you go along.”
When the king had said this, he gave the grant into his hands; and the kárpaṭika went off by night without telling his followers. He was dissatisfied, saying to himself, “How shall I be helped to conquer my enemies by a single village that will rather disgrace me? Nevertheless my sovereign’s orders must be obeyed.” So he slowly went on, and having passed Omkárapíṭha, he saw in a distant forest many maidens playing, and then he asked them this question, “Do you know where Khaṇḍavaṭaka is?” When they heard that, they answered, “We do not know; go on further; our father lives only ten yojanas from here; ask him; he may perhaps know of that village.”
When the maidens had said this to him, the kárpaṭika went on, and beheld their father, a Rákshasa of terrific appearance. He said to him, “Whereabouts here is Khaṇḍavaṭaka? Tell me, my good fellow.” And the Rákshasa, quite taken aback by his courage, said to him, “What have you got to do there? The city has been long deserted; but if you must go, listen; this road in front of you divides into two: take the one on the left hand, and go on until you reach the main entrance of Khaṇḍavaṭaka, the lofty ramparts on each side of which make it attract the eye.”
When the Rákshasa had told him this, he went on, and reached that main street, and entered that city, which, though of heavenly beauty, was deserted and awe-inspiring. And in it he entered the palace, which was surrounded with seven zones, and ascended the upper storey of it, which was made of jewels and gold. There he saw a gem-bestudded throne, and he sat down on it. Thereupon a Rákshasa came with a wand in his hand, and said to him, “Mortal, why have you sat down here on the king’s throne?” When the resolute kárpaṭika Kṛishṇaśakti heard this, he said, “I am lord here; and you are tribute-paying house-holders whom king Vikramáditya has made over to me by his grant.”
When the Rákshasa heard that, he looked at the grant, and bowing before him, said, “You are king here, and I am your warder; for the decrees of king Vikramáditya are binding everywhere.” When the Rákshasa had said this, he summoned all the subjects, and the ministers and the king’s retinue presented themselves there; and that city was filled with an army of four kinds of troops. And every one paid his respects to the kárpaṭika; and he was delighted, and performed his bathing and his other ceremonies with royal luxury.
Then, having become a king, he said to himself with amazement; “Astonishing truly is the power of king Vikramáditya; and strangely unexampled is the depth of his dignified reserve, in that he bestows a kingdom like this and calls it a village!” Full of amazement at this, he remained there ruling as a king: and Vikramáditya supported his followers in Ujjayiní.
And after some days this kárpaṭika become a king went eagerly to pay his respects to king Vikramáditya, shaking the earth with his army. And when he arrived and threw himself at the feet of Vikramáditya, that king said to him, “Go and put a stop to the sighs of your wife who sent you the letter.” When the king despatched him with these words, Kṛishṇaśakti, full of wonder, went with his friends to his own land. There he drove out his kinsmen, and delighted his wife, who had been long pining for him; and having gained more even than he had ever wished for, enjoyed the most glorious royal fortune.
So wonderful were the deeds of king Vikramáditya.
Now one day he saw a Bráhman with every hair on his head and body standing on end; and he said to him, “What has reduced you, Bráhman, to this state?” Then the Bráhman told him his story in the following words: