And Indra said to Chandraketu the king of the Vidyádharas, “Why has Muktáphalaketu not yet come?” Then Chandraketu humbly made answer, “When I was marching out I was in such a hurry that I forgot to tell him; but he is sure to hear of it, and will certainly follow me quickly.” When the king of the gods heard this, he quickly sent the dexterous charioteer of the Wind-god to bring the noble Muktáphalaketu. And his father Chandraketu sent with Indra’s messenger his own warder, with a force and a chariot, to summon him.
But Muktáphalaketu, hearing that his father had gone to battle with the Daityas, was eager to set out for that fight with his followers. Then he mounted his elephant of victory, and his mother performed for him the ceremony to ensure good fortune, and he set out from the world of the Wind, bearing the sword of Śiva. And when he had set out, a rain of flowers fell on him from heaven, and the gods beat their drums, and favouring breezes blew. And then the hosts of the gods, that had fled and hid themselves out of fear of Vidyuddhvaja, assembled and surrounded him. As he was marching along with that large army, he saw in his way a great temple of Párvatí named Meghavana. His devotion to the goddess would not allow him to pass it without worshipping[2]; so he got down from his elephant, and taking in his hand heavenly flowers, he proceeded to adore the goddess.
Now it happened that, at that very time, Padmávatí the daughter of Padmaśekhara the king of the Gandharvas, who had now grown up, had taken leave of her mother, who was engaged in austerities to bring good fortune to her husband who had gone to war, and had come, with her attendant ladies, in a chariot, from the world of Indra, to that temple of Gaurí, with the intention of performing asceticism in order to ensure success to her father in battle, and to the bridegroom on whom she had set her heart.
On the way one of her ladies said to her, “You have not as yet any chosen lover, who might have gone to the war, and your mother is engaged in asceticism for the well-being of your father; for whose sake, my friend, do you, a maiden, seek to perform asceticism?” When Padmávatí had been thus addressed by her friend on the way, she answered, “My friend, a father is to maidens a divinity procuring all happiness; moreover there has already been chosen for me a bridegroom of unequalled excellence. That Muktáphalaketu, the son who has been born to the Vidyádhara king, in order that he may slay Vidyuddhvaja, has been destined for my husband by Śiva. This I heard from the mouth of my father, when questioned by my mother. And that chosen bridegroom of mine has either gone, or certainly is going to battle: so I am about to propitiate with asceticism the holy Gaurí, desiring victory for my future husband[3] as well as for my father.”
When the princess said this, her attendant lady answered her, “Then this exertion on your part, though directed towards an object still in the future, is right and proper; may your desire be accomplished!” Just as her friend was saying this to her, the princess reached a large and beautiful lake in the neighbourhood of the temple of Gaurí. It was covered all over with bright full-blown golden lotuses, and they seemed as if they were suffused with the beauty flowing forth from the lotus of her face. The Gandharva maiden went down into that lake, and gathered lotuses with which to worship Ambiká, and was preparing to bathe, when two Rákshasís came that way, as all the Rákshasas were rushing to the battle between the gods and Asuras, eager for flesh. They had up-standing hair, yellow as the flames vomited forth from their mouths terrible with tusks, gigantic bodies black as smoke, and pendulous breasts and bellies. The moment that those wanderers of the night saw that Gandharva princess, they swooped down upon her, and seized her, and carried her up towards the heaven.
But the deity, that presided over her chariot, impeded the flight of those Rákshasís, and her grieving retinue cried for help; and while this was going on, Muktáphalaketu issued from the temple of the goddess, having performed his worship; and hearing the lamentation, he came in that direction. When the great hero beheld Padmávatí gleaming bright in the grasp of that pair of Rákshasís, looking like a flash of lightning in the midst of a bank of black clouds, he ran forward and delivered her, hurling the Rákshasís senseless to earth by a blow from the flat of his hand. And he looked on that torrent river of the elixir of beauty, adorned with a waist charming with three wave-like wrinkles, who seemed to have been composed by the Creator of the essence of all beauty, when he was full of the wonderful skill he had acquired by forming the nymphs of heaven. And the moment he looked on her, his senses were benumbed by love’s opiate, though he was strong of will; and he remained for a moment motionless, as if painted in a picture.
And Padmávatí too, now that the alarm caused by the Rákshasís was at an end, at once recovered her spirits, and looked on the prince, who possessed a form that was a feast to the eyes of the world, and who was one fitted to madden womankind, and seemed to have been created by Fate by a blending together in one body of the moon and the god of Love. Then, her face being cast down with shame, she said of her own accord to her friend, “May good luck befall him! I will depart hence, from the presence of a strange man.”
Even while she was saying this, Muktáphalaketu said to her friend, “What did this young lady say?” And she answered, “This lovely maiden bestowed a blessing on you, the saver of her life, and said to me, “Come, let us depart from the presence of a strange man.” When Muktáphalaketu heard this, he said to her with eager excitement, “Who is she? Whose daughter is she? To what man of great merit in a former life is she to be given in marriage?[4]”
When he addressed this question to the princess’s companion, she answered him, “Fair sir, this my friend is the maiden named Padmávatí, the daughter of Padmaśekhara the king of the Gandharvas, and Śiva has ordained that her husband is to be Muktáphalaketu, the son of Chandraketu, the darling of the world, the ally of Indra, the destined slayer of Vidyuddhvaja. Because she desires the victory for that future husband of hers and for her father in the battle now at hand, she has come to this temple of Gaurí to perform asceticism.”
When the followers of Chandraketu’s son heard this, they delighted the princess by exclaiming, “Bravo! here is that future husband of yours.” Then the princess and her lover had their hearts filled with joy at discovering one another, and they both thought, “It is well that we came here to-day,” and they continued casting loving sidelong timid glances at one another; and while they were thus engaged, the sound of drums was heard, and then a host appeared, and a chariot with the wind-god,[5] and the warder of Chandraketu coming quickly.