[6] Two of the India Office MSS. read haste. So also the Sanskrit College MS.
Chapter CVI.
Then a certain Gandharva, of the name of Vínádatta, saw Naraváhanadatta in that well. Truly if there were not great souls in this world, born for the benefit of others, relieving distress as wayside trees heat, the world would be a withered forest. Thus the good Gandharva, as soon as he saw Naraváhanadatta, asked him his name and lineage, and supporting him with his hand, drew him out of that well, and said to him,[1] “If you are a man and not a god, how did you reach this city of the Gandharvas inaccessible to man? Tell me!” Then Naraváhanadatta answered him, “A Vidyádharí brought me here, and threw me into the well by her power.” Then the good Gandharva Vínádatta, seeing that he had the veritable signs of an emperor, took him to his own dwelling, and waited upon him with all the luxuries at his command. And the next day, Naraváhanadatta, perceiving that the inhabitants of the city carried lyres in their hands, said to his host, “Why have all these people, even down to the children, got lyres in their hands?”[2]
Then Vínádatta gave him this answer, “Ságaradatta the king of the Gandharvas, who lives here, has a daughter named Gandharvadattá, who eclipses the nymphs of heaven; it seems as if the Creator had blended nectar, the moon, and sandalwood, and other choice things, in order to compose her body, as a specimen of his skill in making all that is fair. She is always singing to the lyre the hymn of Vishṇu, which the god himself bestowed on her, and so she has attained supreme skill in music.[3] And the princess has firmly resolved that whoever is so well skilled in music, that he can play on the lyre, and sing perfectly in three scales a song in praise of Vishṇu, shall be her husband. The consequence is, that all here are trying to learn to play the lyre, but they have not acquired the amount of skill demanded by the princess.”
Prince Naraváhanadatta was delighted at hearing this speech from the mouth of Vínádatta and he said to him, “All the accomplishments have chosen me for a husband, and I know all the music, that there is in the three worlds.” When he said this, his friend Vínádatta conducted him into the presence of king Ságaradatta, and said there, “Here is Naraváhanadatta, the son of the king of Vatsa, who has fallen into your city from the hand of a Vidyádharí. He is an adept in music, and he knows the song in praise of Vishṇu, in which the princess Gandharvadattá takes so much pleasure.” When the king heard this, he said, “It is true; I heard so much before from the Gandharvas; so I must to-day receive him with respect here. And he is an emanation of a divinity; he is not out of place in the abode of gods; otherwise, if he were a man, how could he have come here by associating with a Vidyádharí? So summon Gandharvadattá quickly and let us test him.” When the king said this, the chamberlains went to fetch her.
And the fair one came there, all glorious with flower-ornaments, agitating with her beauty, as if with a wind, the creepers of spring. She sat down at her father’s side, and the servants told her what had taken place, and immediately, at his command, she sang a song to the lyre. When she was joining the notes to the quarter-tones, like Sarasvatí the wife of Brahmá, Naraváhanadatta was astonished at her singing and her beauty. Then he said to her, “Princess, your lyre does not seem to me to sound well, I think there must be a hair on the string.” Thereupon the lyre was examined, and they found the hair where he said, and that astonished even the Gandharvas. Then the king took the lyre from his daughter’s hand, and gave it to him, saying, “Prince, take this, and pour nectar into our ears.” Then he played on it, and sang the hymn of Vishṇu with such skill that the Gandharvas there became motionless as painted pictures.
Then Gandharvadattá herself threw on him a look tender with affection, as it were a garland of full-blown blue lotuses,[4] and therewith chose him as her husband. When the king saw it, and called to mind his promise of that import, he at once gave him his daughter Gandharvadattá in marriage. As for the wedding that thereupon took place, gladdened by the drums of the gods and other festal signs, to what could we compare it, as it served as the standard by which to estimate all similar rejoicings? Then Naraváhanadatta lived there with his new bride Gandharvadattá in heavenly bliss.
And one day he went out to behold the beauty of the city, and after he had seen all kinds of places, he entered the park attached to it. There he saw a heavenly female descending from the sky with her daughter, like the lightning with the rain in a cloudless atmosphere. And she was saying to her daughter, as she descended, recognising him by her knowledge, “This, my daughter, is your future husband, the son of the king of Vatsa.” “When he saw her alight and come towards him, he said to her, “Who are you, and why have you come?” And the heavenly female said to him, thus introducing the object of her desire:
“Prince, I am Dhanavatí, the wife of a chief of the Vidyádharas, named Sinha, and this is my unmarried daughter, the sister of Chaṇḍasinha, and her name is Ajinávatí. You were announced as her future husband by a voice that came from heaven. Then, learning by my magic science, that you, the future emperor of the Vidyádharas, had been deposited here by Vegavatí, I came to tell you my desire. You ought not to remain in such a place as this which is accessible to the Vidyádharas, for they might slay you out of enmity, as you are alone, and have not obtained your position of emperor. So come, let us now take you to a land which is inaccessible to them. Does not the moon delay to shine, when the circle of the sun is eclipsed? And when the auspicious day arrives you shall marry this daughter of mine.” When she had said this, she took him and flew up into the air with him, and her daughter accompanied them. And she took him to the city of Śrávastí, and deposited him in a garden, and then she disappeared with her daughter Ajinávatí.