And then Svayamvaraprabhá, the wife of Trailokyamálin, began austerities in order to bring about the welfare of her imprisoned husband, and in the same way her daughters, Trailokyaprabhá and Tribhuvanaprabhá, began austerities for the welfare of their father.
And those princes honoured with various favours all the inhabitants of Pátála, who were happy now that they had obtained repose; and they appointed Sangrámasinha and others governors, and went to their father in the hermitage of Tapodhana.
And in the meanwhile the sacrifice of the hermit there reached completion, and the gods and the ṛishis prepared to go to their own abodes.[8] And as Indra was exceedingly pleased, Merudhvaja said to him, “Come with me to my city, king of heaven, if thou be pleased with me.” When Indra heard that, he went, in order to please him, with the king and his son to the city of Devasabha, after taking leave of the hermit. And there the king, who was sovereign of two worlds, entertained Indra so sumptuously, that he forgot his happiness in heaven. Then Indra too, being gratified, took the king and his sons in his own heavenly chariot to his celestial abode, and in that place which was charming with the pleasures of a concert in which Nárada, Rambhá and others performed, he made Merudhvaja, with Muktáphaladhvaja and Malayadhvaja, forget their toils, and gave them garlands from the Párijáta-tree, and celestial diadems, and after honouring them, sent them home.
And they, when they returned, kept going to and fro between the earth and Pátála, and though kings of men, bare sway in two worlds. Then Merudhvaja said to Muktáphaladhvaja, “Our enemies are conquered; you two brothers are young men, and I have various princesses who are subject to my sway, and I have sent for some of them: the fitting time has come; so take to yourselves wives.”
When Muktáphaladhvaja’s father said this to him, he answered, “Father, my mind is not inclined to marriage at present. I will now perform a course of austerities to propitiate[9] Śiva; but let this Malayadhvaja my dear younger brother, be married.” When his younger brother Malayadhvaja heard this, he said, “Noble brother, is it fitting that I should be married, before you have taken a wife, or that I should hold sway while you are without a kingdom? I follow in your footsteps.”
When Malayadhvaja said this, king Merudhvaja said to his eldest son Muktáphaladhvaja, “Your younger brother here has spoken rightly, but what you have just said is not right; it is no time for asceticism in this fresh youth of yours; the present should be to you a time of enjoyment; so abandon, my son, this perverse crotchet of yours, which is most inopportune.” Though the king addressed these admonitions to his eldest son, that prince resolutely refused to take a wife: so the king remained silent, to wait for a more favourable time.
In the meanwhile, in Pátála, the two daughters of Trailokyamálin’s wife, Svayamprabhá, who were engaged in austerities, said to their mother, “Mother, when one of us was seven and the other eight years old, owing to our want of merits,[10] our father was imprisoned, and we were hurled from the royal rank. It is now the eighth year, that we have been engaged in austerities, and yet Śiva is not pleased with us, and our father has not, as yet, been released from his imprisonment. So let us even consume these unlucky bodies in the fire, before we also are imprisoned, or experience some other insult at the hands of our enemy.”
When Svayamprabhá’s daughters said this to her, she answered them, “Wait a while, my daughters, we shall regain our former glory. For I know that, while I was engaged in austerities, the god Śiva said to me in a dream, ‘My child, be of good courage; thy husband shall recover his kingdom, and the princes Muktáphaladhvaja and Malayadhvaja shall be the husbands of thy two daughters. And do not suppose that they are men; for one of them is a noble Vidyádhara, and the other is a Gaṇa of mine.’ When I had received this revelation from Śiva, I woke up at the close of night; and supported by this hope I have borne great suffering. So I will inform the king your father of this matter, and with his consent, I will endeavour to bring about your marriage.”
When the queen Svayamprabhá had in these words comforted her daughters, she said to Indumatí, an old woman of the harem, “Go to my husband in the cave of Śvetaśaila, and fall at his feet, and say to him from me, ‘My husband, the Creator has formed me of such strange wood, that, though the fire of separation from you burns fiercely, I have not yet been consumed by it. But it is because I entertain a hope of seeing you again that I have not abandoned life.’ When you have said this, tell him the revelation that Śiva made to me in a dream, then ask him about the marriage of our daughters, and come back, and tell me what he says; I will then act accordingly.”
When she had said this, she sent off Indumatí; and she left Pátála and reached the well-guarded entrance of that mountain-cave. She entreated the guards and entered, and seeing Trailokyamálin there a prisoner, she burst into tears, and embraced his feet; and when he asked her how she was, she slowly told him all his wife’s message; then that king said, “As for what Śiva says about my restoration to my kingdom, may that turn out as the god announced, but the idea of my giving my daughters to the sons of Merudhvaja is preposterous. I would rather perish here than give my daughters as a present to enemies and men too, while myself a prisoner.”