Marubhúti’s account of his adventures.
When I was flung away on that occasion by Mánasavega, some divinity took me up in her hands, and placing me in a distant forest, disappeared. Then I wandered about afflicted and anxious to obtain some means of committing suicide, when I saw a certain hermitage encircled with a river. I entered it, and beheld an ascetic with matted hair sitting on a slab of rock, and I bowed before him and went up to him. He said to me, “Who are you, and how did you reach this uninhabited land?” Thereupon, I told him my whole story. Then he understood and said to me, “Do not slay yourself now! You shall learn here the truth about your master, and afterwards you shall do what is fitting.”
In accordance with this advice of his I remained there, eager for tidings of you, my liege: and while I was there, some heavenly nymphs came to bathe in the river. Then the hermit said to me, “Go quickly and carry off the clothes of one of those nymphs bathing there;[6] and then you will learn tidings of your master.” When I heard that, I did as he advised me, and that nymph, whose garments I had taken, followed me, with her bathing-dress dripping with moisture,[7] and with her arms crossed in front of her breasts.
That hermit said to her, “If you tell us tidings of Naraváhanadatta, you may have back your two garments.” Then she said, “Naraváhanadatta is at present on mount Kailása, engaged in worshipping Śiva, and in a few days he will be the emperor of the Vidyádharas.”
After she had said this, that heavenly nymph became, in virtue of a curse, the wife of that ascetic, having made acquaintance with him by conversing with him.[8] So the ascetic lived with that Vidyádharí, and on account of her prophecy I conceived the hope of being reunited with you and I went on living there. And in a few days the heavenly nymph became pregnant, and brought forth a child, and she said to the ascetic, “My curse has been brought to an end by living with you.[9] If you desire to see any more of me, cook this child of mine with rice and eat it; then you will be reunited to me.” When she had said this, she went away, and that ascetic cooked her child with rice, and ate it: and then he flew up into the air and followed her.
At first I was unwilling to eat of that dish, though he urged me to do so; but seeing that eating of it bestowed supernatural powers, I took two grains of rice from the cooking-vessel, and ate them. That produced in me the effect that wherever I spat, gold[10] was immediately produced. Then I roamed about relieved from my poverty, and at last I reached a town. There I lived in the house of a hetæra, and, thanks to the gold I was able to produce, indulged in the most lavish expenditure; but the kuṭṭaní, eager to discover my secret, treacherously gave me an emetic. That made me vomit, and in the process the two grains of rice, that I had previously eaten, came out of my mouth, looking like two glittering rubies. And no sooner had they come out, than the kuṭṭaní snapped them up, and swallowed them. So I lost my power of producing gold, of which the kuṭṭaní thus deprived me.
I thought to myself, “Śiva still retains his crescent and Vishṇu his kaustubha jewel; but I know what would be the result, if those two deities were to fall into the clutches of a kuṭṭaní.[11] But such is this world, full of marvels, full of frauds; who can fathom it, or the sea, at any time?” With such sad reflections in my bosom I went despondent to a temple of Durgá, to propitiate the goddess with asceticism, in order to recover you. And after I had fasted for three nights, the goddess gave me this command in a dream, “Thy master has obtained all he desires: go, and behold him;” upon hearing this I woke up; and this very morning some goddess carried me to your feet; this, prince, is the story of my adventures.
When Marubhúti had said this, Naraváhanadatta and his courtiers laughed at him for having been tricked by a kuṭṭaní.