In the meanwhile that old Bráhman took with him those sons of Tárávaloka, whom he had received as a Bráhman’s fee, and losing his way, arrived, as Fate would have it, at the city of that king Chandrávaloka, and proceeded to sell those princes in the market. Then the citizens recognised those two boys, and went and informed king Chandrávaloka, and took them with the Bráhman into his presence. The king, when he saw his grandsons, shed tears, and after he had questioned the Bráhman, and had heard the state of the case from him, he was for a long time divided between joy and grief. Then, perceiving the exceeding virtue of his son, he at once ceased to care about a kingdom, though his subjects entreated him to remain, but with his wealth he bought those two grandsons from the Bráhman, and taking them with him, went with his retinue to the hermitage of his son Tárávaloka.
There he saw him with matted hair, wearing a dress of bark, looking like a great tree, the advantages of which are enjoyed by birds coming from every quarter, for he in like manner had bestowed all he had upon expectant Bráhmans.[11] That son ran towards him, while still a long way off, and fell at his feet, and his father bedewed him with tears, and took him up on his lap; and thus gave him a foretaste of his ascent of the throne, as emperor over the Vidyádharas, after the solemn sprinkling with water.
Then the king gave back to Tárávaloka his sons Ráma and Lakshmaṇa, saying that he had purchased them, and while they were relating to one another their adventures, an elephant with four tusks and the goddess Lakshmí descended from heaven. And when the chiefs of the Vidyádharas had also descended, Lakshmí, lotus in hand, said to that Tárávaloka, “Mount this elephant, and come to the country of the Vidyádharas, and there enjoy the imperial dignity[12] earned by your great generosity.”
When Lakshmí said this, Tárávaloka, after bowing at the feet of his father, mounted that celestial elephant, with her, and his wife, and his sons, in the sight of all the inhabitants of the hermitage, and surrounded by the kings of the Vidyádharas went through the air to their domain. There the distinctive sciences of the Vidyádharas repaired to him, and he long enjoyed supreme sway, but at last becoming disgusted with all worldly pleasures, he retired to a forest of ascetics.
“Thus Tárávaloka, though a man, acquired in old time by his deeds of spotless virtue the sovereignty of all the Vidyádharas. But others, after acquiring it, lost it by their offences: so be on your guard against unrighteous conduct either on your own part or on that of another.”[13]
When the hermit Kaśyapa had told this story, and had thus admonished Naraváhanadatta, that emperor promised to follow his advice. And he had a royal proclamation made all round the mountain of Śiva, to the following effect, “Listen, Vidyádharas; whoever of my subjects after this commits an unrighteous act, will certainly be put to death by me.” The Vidyádharas received his commands with implicit submission, and his glory was widely diffused on account of his causing Suratamanjarí to be set at liberty; and so he lived with his retinue in the hermitage of that excellent sage, on the Black Mountain,[14] in the society of his maternal uncle, and in this manner spent the rainy season.
[1] See Vol. I, p. 174, and ff. and Vol. II, p. 307, and ff.
[2] The Petersburg lexicographers spell the word Śibi. This story is really the same as the XVIth of Ralston’s Tibetan Tales which begins on page 257. Dr. Kern points out that we ought to read dugdhábdinirmalá. The India Office MSS. give the words correctly. This story is also found in the Chariyá Piṭaka. See Oldenberg’s Buddha, p. 302.
[3] The word saumya means “pleasing” and also “moon-like”; kalá in the next line means “digit of the moon” and also “accomplishment.”