“So you see that in this world even those who are reduced to ashes meet again, much more men who are alive and can go where they will. So, my son, no more of abandoning the body! Go, for you are a brave man, and you shall certainly be re-united with Mṛigánkadatta.” When I had heard this tale from the old female ascetic, I bowed before her, and set out, sword in hand, with renewed hope, and in course of time I reached this forest, and was, as fate would have it, captured by these Śavaras, who were seeking a victim for Durgá. And after wounding me in fight, they bound me, and brought me as a prisoner to this king of the Śavaras Máyávaṭu. Here I have found you, my sovereign, accompanied by two or three of your ministers, and by your favour I am as happy as if I were in my own house.
When Mṛigánkadatta, who was in the palace of the Śavara prince, had heard this history of the adventures of his friend Guṇákara told by himself, he was much pleased, and after he had seen the proper remedies applied to the body of that minister who had been wounded in fight, as the day was advancing, he rose up with his other friends, and performed the duties of the day.
And he remained there for some days engaged in restoring Guṇákara to health, though eager to go to Ujjayiní, in order to be re-united with his other friends and to obtain Śaśánkavatí.[22]
[1] This city is identified by General Cunningham with Adikot near Ramnagar in Rohilcund. (Ancient Geography of India, p. 359 and ff.)
[2] The male and female of this bird are represented by Hindu poets as separated at night.
[3] The sword may be compared with that of Chaṇḍamahásena in the eleventh chapter, and with Morglay, Excalibur, Durandal, Gram, Balmung, Chrysaor &c. (See Sir G. Cox’s Mythology of the Aryan nations, Vol. I, p. 308.) The same author has some remarks upon Pegasus and other magic horses in his IInd Vol. p. 287 and ff. See also Ralston’s Russian Folk-Tales, p. 256 and ff.
[4] Excessive rain, drought, rats, locusts, birds, and foreign invasion.
[5] I have before referred to Ralston’s remarks on snakes in his Russian Folk-Tales, p. 65. Melusina is a clear instance of a snake-maiden in European Folk-lore. See her story in Simrock’s Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. VI. There is a similar marriage in Prym und Socin, Syrische Märchen, p. 246.
[6] Compare the commencement of the story of the Blind Man and the Cripple in Ralston’s Russian Folk-Tales, and Waldau’s Böhmische Märchen, p. 445. This tale appears to belong to the Atalanta cycle.