Chapter CXII.
Now, one day, when Naraváhanadatta was in the hall of audience on the Black Mountain, his Commander-in-chief came before him, and said, “Last night, my sovereign, when I was on the top of my house, looking after my troops, I saw a woman being carried off through the air by a heavenly being, crying out, ‘Alas! my husband!’ and it seemed as if the moon, which is powerful at that season, had taken her and carried her off, finding that she robbed it of all its beauty. I exclaimed, ‘Ah villain! where will you go, thus carrying off the wife of another? In the kingdom of king Naraváhanadatta the protector, which is the territory of the Vidyádharas, extending over sixty thousand yojanas, even animals do not work wickedness, much less other creatures.’ When I had said this, I hastened with my attendants and arrested that swift-footed[1] one, and brought him down from the air with the lady: and when we looked at him, after bringing him down, we found that it was your brother-in-law, the Vidyádhara Ityaka, the brother of your principal queen, born to Madanavega by queen Kalingasená. We said to him, ‘Who is this lady, and where are you taking her?’ and then he answered; ‘This is Suratamanjarí the daughter of the Vidyádhara chief Matangadeva by Chútamanjarí. Her mother promised her to me long ago; and then her father bestowed her on another, a mere man. So, if I have to-day recovered my own wife, and carried her off, what harm have I done?’ When Ityaka had said so much, he was silent.
“Then I said to Suratamanjarí, ‘Lady, by whom were you married, and how did this person get possession of you?’ Then she said, ‘There is in Ujjayiní a fortunate king named Pálaka, he has a son, a prince named[2] Avantivardhana; by him I was married; and this night, when I was asleep on the top of the palace, and my husband was asleep also, I was carried off by this villain.’ When she said this, I kept both of them here, the lady and Ityaka, the latter in fetters; it now remains for your majesty to decide what is to be done.”
When the emperor heard this from his Commander-in-chief Hariśikha, he went in some perplexity to Gopálaka, and told him the story. Gopálaka said, “My dear nephew, I do not know about this; I know so much, that the lady was lately married to Pálaka’s son; so let the prince be summoned from Ujjayiní, together with the minister Bharataroha; then we shall get at the truth.” When the emperor received this advice from his uncle, he sent the Vidyádhara Dhúmaśikha to Pálaka his younger uncle, and summoned from Ujjayiní that prince, his son, and the minister. When they arrived and bowed before the emperor, he and Gopálaka received them with love and courtesy, and questioned them about the matter under consideration.
Then, in the presence of Avantivardhana, who looked like the moon robbed of the night,[3] of Suratamanjarí, her father, and of Ityaka, of Váyupatha and his peers, and the hermit Kaśyapa, and the men-at-arms, Bharataroha began to speak as follows, “Once on a time all the citizens of Ujjayiní met together and said to Pálaka the king of that city ‘To-morrow the festival, called the giving of water, will take place in this city, and if your majesty has not heard the true account of the origin of this festival, please listen to it now.’”
Story of king Chaṇḍamahásena and the Asura’s daughter.[4]
Long ago your father Chaṇḍamahásena propitiated the goddess Chaṇḍí with asceticism, in order to obtain a splendid sword and a wife. She gave him her own sword, and about a wife said to him, “Thou shalt soon slay, my son, the Asura called Angáraka, and obtain his beautiful daughter Angáravatí for a wife.” When the king had been favoured with this revelation from the goddess, he remained thinking on the Asura’s daughter.
Now, at this time, everybody that was appointed head police officer in Ujjayiní, was at once carried off by some creature at night and devoured. And this went on night after night. Then Chaṇḍamahásena roaming leisurely about the city at night, to investigate the matter for himself, found an adulterer. He cut off with his sword his oiled and curled head, and no sooner was his neck severed than a certain Rákshasa came and laid hold of him. The king exclaimed, “This is the gentleman that comes and eats the heads of the police at night,” and laying hold of that Rákshasa by the hair, he prepared to slay him.
Then the Rákshasa said “King, do not slay me under a false impression! There is another creature in this neighbourhood that eats the heads of the police.” The king said, “Tell me! who is it?” and the Rákshasa continued, “There is in this neighbourhood an Asura of the name of Angáraka, whose home is in Pátála. He it is that eats your police-officers at the dead of night, O smiter of your foes. Moreover, prince, he carries off by force the daughters of kings from every quarter, and makes them attend on his daughter Angáravatí. If you see him roaming about in the forest, slay him, and attain your object in that way.”