[6] In this there is a pun; the word translated “lotus” may also refer to Lakshmí the wife of Vishṇu.
[7] Pandit Śyámá Charan Mukhopádhyáya thinks that the word dantagháṭaka must mean “dentist:” the Petersburg lexicographers take it to mean, “a worker in ivory.” His name Sangrámavardhana has a warlike sound. Pandit Maheśa Chandra Nyáyaratna thinks that dantagháṭa is a proper name. If so, sangrámavardhana must mean prime minister.
[8] Cp. the way in which Pushpadanta’s preceptor guesses the riddle in page 44 of Vol. I of this work; so Prince Ivan is assisted by his tutor Katoma in the story of “The Blind Man and the Cripple,” Ralston’s Russian Folk-Tales, p. 240. Compare also the story of Azeez and Azeezeh in Lane’s Arabian Nights, Vol. I, particularly page 484. The rapid manner, in which the hero and heroine fall in love in these stories, is quite in the style of Greek romances. See Rohde, Der Griechische Roman, p. 148.
Chapter LXXVI.
(Vetála 2.)
Then king Trivikramasena again went to the aśoka-tree to fetch the Vetála. And when he arrived there, and looked about in the darkness by the help of the light of the funeral pyres, he saw the corpse lying on the ground groaning. Then the king took the corpse, with the Vetála in it, on his shoulder, and set out quickly and in silence to carry it to the appointed place. Then the Vetála again said to the king from his shoulder, “King, this trouble, into which you have fallen, is great and unsuitable to you; so I will tell you a tale to amuse you, listen.”
Story of the three young Bráhmans who restored a dead lady to life.
There is, on the banks of the river Yamuná, a district assigned to Bráhmans, named Brahmasthala. In it there lived a Bráhman, named Agnisvámin, who had completely mastered the Vedas. To him there was born a very beautiful daughter named Mandáravatí. Indeed, when Providence had created this maiden of novel and priceless beauty, he was disgusted with the nymphs of Heaven, his own previous handiwork. And when she grew up, there came there from Kányakubja three young Bráhmans, equally matched in all accomplishments. And each one of these demanded the maiden from her father for himself, and would sooner sacrifice his life than allow her to be given to another. But her father would not give her to any one of them, being afraid that, if he did so, he would cause the death of the others; so the damsel remained unmarried. And those three remained there day and night, with their eyes exclusively fixed on the moon of her countenance, as if they had taken upon themselves a vow to imitate the partridge.[1]