When I had seen this, I returned to the hermitage and described both those very wonderful spectacles to Brahmadaṇḍin. And that hermit, who knows the past, present, and future, kindly said to me, “You are fortunate; Śiva has shewn you all this by way of favour. That woman, whom you saw, is Illusion, and the wheel which she caused to revolve, is the wheel of mundane existence, and the bees are living creatures. And the bull and the donkey are respectively symbols of Righteousness and Unrighteousness, and the foam of milk and the foam of blood discharged by them, to which the bees repaired, are typical of good and evil actions. And they acquired properties arising from the things on which they respectively settled, and became spiders of two kinds, white and foul respectively; and then with their energy, which was symbolized by excrement, they produced entangling nets of two kinds, such as offspring and so on, which were attached to wholesome and poisonous flowers, which signify happiness and misery. And while clinging each to its own web, they were bitten by a snake, typical of Death, with its two mouths, the white set with the white mouth symbolical of good fortune, the other with the black mouth symbolical of evil fortune.
Then that female, typifying Illusion[11] plunged them into various wombs typified by the jars, and they again emerged from them, and assuming forms white and black, corresponding to what they had before, they fell into entangling webs, which are symbolical of sons and other worldly connexions, resulting in happiness and misery. Then the black spiders, entangled in their webs, being tortured by the poison, symbolical of pain, began in their affliction to invoke the supreme lord as their help. When the white spiders, who were in their own webs, perceived that, they also became averse to their state, and began to invoke that same lord. Then the god, who was present in the form of an ascetic, awoke from his trance, and consumed all their entangling webs with the fire of knowledge. Accordingly they ascended into the bright coral tube, typical of the orb of the sun, and reached the highest home, which lies above it. And then Illusion vanished, with the revolving wheel of births, and with her ox, and her ass, typical of Righteousness and Unrighteousness.
Even thus in the circle of existence revolve creatures, fair and foul according to their actions, and they are liberated by propitiating Śiva; and this spectacle has been shown to you by Śiva to teach you this lesson, and to put an end to your delusion. As for that sight which you saw in the water of the tank, this is the explanation of it. The holy god produced this apparent reflection in the water, in order to teach you what was destined to befall Mṛigánkadatta. For he may be compared to a young lion-whelp, and he was brought up with ten ministers round him resembling ten arms, and he was banished in anger by his father, (typified by the hunter) from his native land, typified by the forest: and on hearing the report of Śaśánkavatí, (who may be compared to a lioness,) coming from the land of Avanti, (symbolized by the other wood,[12]) he made towards her, and the wind which stripped him of his arms is the curse of the snake, which separated him from his ministers. Then Vináyaka[13] appeared as a man with a pendulous belly, and restored to him his arms, (that is to say, his ministers,) and so he recovered his former condition. Then he went and after enduring great hardship, obtained from another place the lioness, (that is Śaśánkavatí,) and returned. And when the hunter, (that is his father,) saw him coming near with his wife, having swept away the obstacles which his foes put in his way,[14] he resigned to him the whole of his forest, (that is his kingdom,) and retired to a grove of ascetics. Thus has Śiva shewn you the future as if it had already taken place. So you may be sure, your master will recover you, his ministers, and obtain his wife and his kingdom.” When the excellent hermit had thus instructed me, I recovered hope and left that hermitage, and travelling along slowly I have met you here, prince, to-day. So you may rest assured, prince, that you will recover Prachaṇḍaśakti, and your other ministers, and gain your object; you certainly gained the favour of Gaṇeśa by worshipping him before you set out.
When Mṛigánkadatta had listened for a while to this strange story of Vimalabuddhi’s, he was much pleased, and after he had again deliberated with him, he set out for the city of Avanti, with the double object of accomplishing his enterprise and recovering his other ministers.
[1] Cp. “The Story of the First Royal Mendicant,” Lane’s Arabian Nights, Vol. I, p. 136.
[2] I follow the Sanskrit College MS. which reads keśakapáládi; perhaps for keśa we should read veśa. The skulls have been mentioned before.
[3] For áśvasto I read viśvasto. Perhaps we ought to read asvastho, i. e., sick, ill.
[4] The wanderings of Herzog Ernst are brought about in a very similar manner. (See Simrock’s Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. III, p. 278).
[5] Compare the myths of Attis and Cyparissus. In the story called “Der rothe Hund,” Gaal, Märchen der Magyaren, p. 362, the queen becomes a dry mulberry tree. See also Grohmann, Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 116. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, XIV, 517 an abusive pastor is turned into an oleaster.