Hindoo Tales Part 10

After finishing my devotions, I was going on my way, when I saw a tall, stout man, carrying an iron club, with his eyes red and swelled from weeping, and engaged in making a noose with his sash.

I thought to myself: "This man has fallen into some great calamity.

He is thinking of doing violence to himself or to others. I will see if I can a.s.sist him." I therefore went up to him, and said: "This conduct of yours seems to indicate some rash purpose. May I know the cause of your grief? Perhaps I may be able to help you."

He hesitated for a moment, and looked very hard at me; but at last he said: "What harm can there be in telling you? You shall know my troubles, if you wish to learn them."

Then we sat down together under a shady tree, and he began his tale as follows: "O, fortunate sir, I was once as happy as you appear to be.

My father was in good circ.u.mstances, and brought me up carefully; but I preferred a wild, dissipated life, and at last became a robber. One night I broke into the house of a rich man in this city, was caught in the act, and condemned to death.

"My hands were fettered by being pa.s.sed through holes in a heavy piece of wood; and in this state I was led out for execution into a public square, where a furious elephant was brought forward to trample me to death. When he came near me, I shouted as loudly as possible, in order to frighten him; and lifting up my arms, gave him a violent blow on the trunk. Upon this, he turned away; and as I continued to shout out and abuse him, all the efforts of the driver to make him attack me were in vain.

"Again and again, with much difficulty, the driver brought him in front of me; but each time, instead of attacking me, he turned back, alarmed by my menacing appearance and loud shouts; and at last ran right away, leaving me uninjured.

"The courage which I had shown was observed by the king's chief minister, Kamapala, who was looking on from one of the towers of the palace; and he sent for me, and said: 'You seem to be a very strong, brave man. I did not think that elephant could have been so cowed by any one. It is a pity that such qualities should not be better employed. Are you willing, if you are pardoned, to forsake your evil ways, and lead an honest life? If you will give me a promise to this effect, I will take you into my service.'

"I gladly gave the promise which he required; and he obtained my pardon, and became my protector and master; and I have served him faithfully ever since. After some years, seeing my devotion to him, he placed great confidence in me, and one day told me his own history.

"'There was,' said he, 'formerly at Pushpapuri a very learned and pious man, named Dharmapala, one of the king's ministers. His eldest son was like him; but I, the youngest, was of a very different disposition. I had no inclination for work or study; but thought only of amus.e.m.e.nt, and spent my time among gamblers and disreputable characters. My father and brother did all they could to restrain me; but, impatient of their control, I left my home and friends, and wandered about the world. One day I came to this city, Benares, and not long after my arrival, I made acquaintance with the king's daughter, who, with her female friends, was playing at ball in a park outside the town. We fell in love with each other; and I contrived, by disguising myself as a woman, to enter her private apartments and to have many secret meetings with her; the result of which was the birth of a child.

"'The devoted attendants kept the whole affair secret, removed the infant as soon as it was born, and telling the mother it was dead, gave it to a savari woman, who carried it to the public cemetery and left it there.

"'As she was returning; she was stopped by the watchmen, and in her fright told them what she had done. Information was given to the king, and further inquiry being made, my offence was discovered, and one night I was arrested, while quietly sleeping unsuspicious of danger.

Being condemned to death, I was led to execution outside the city. By a fortunate chance I got my hands free, and s.n.a.t.c.hing the sword from the executioner, laid about me so vigorously that all the men fell back, and I made my escape to the forest. There I wandered about for some time, subsisting on wild fruits and roots, and sleeping in the trees.

"'While living this precarious life, I was one day astonished at meeting a young lady, with many female attendants. She addressed me by my name, and desired me to sit down with her, under a large tree.

"'When, with much surprise, I asked who she was, and how she came to be in that wild forest, with such a retinue, and why I was so favoured by her, she told me the reason of her coming, saying: My name is Taravali. I am the daughter of a chief Yaksha. A short time ago I went to visit a friend, living on the Malaya Mountains, and while flying through the air on my return, as I pa.s.sed over the cemetery of Benares, I heard the cry of a child.

"'Moved with compa.s.sion, I alighted on the ground, took it up and carried it to my father. He took it to our master, the G.o.d Kuvera, who sent for me, and asked, "What induced you to bring this child?" "A strong feeling of compa.s.sion," I answered, as if it had been my own.

"'You are right,' he replied; 'there is good reason for what you have done;' and he showed me how, in a former existence, when you were Sudraka and I Aryadasi, the child, now born of the Princess Kantimati, was ours; therefore, I am really your wife, and it was indeed a maternal instinct which prompted me to save the infant. Kuvera, however, would not allow me to keep the boy, but ordered me to take him to the Queen Vasumati, that he might be brought up together with her son, who will one day become a great monarch.

"Having performed the command of the G.o.d, I am permitted by him to find you out, and relieve you from your present distress."

"So saying, she embraced me, and afterwards took me to a fairy palace in the forest, furnished with all comforts and luxuries, where I pa.s.sed some time with her in great happiness.

"One day, when she was expressing her great love for me, I said: 'I have a strong desire to take some vengeance on the king who would have put me to death.' Upon which, with a smile, she said, 'Ah! you wish to see Kantimati; I am not jealous, I will take you to her.'

"Then lifting me up, she bore me through the air to the palace, and without disturbing the guards, placed me at the bedside of the king.

"Grasping a sword lying near him, I awakened him, and said: 'I am, your son-in-law; I took your daughter without your consent, and am now come to make submission and atone for my fault."

"Seeing the drawn sword held over him he was much alarmed, and said: 'I must have been mad to act as I did and reject such a son-in-law; I will now acknowledge you, and you shall duly marry my daughter.'

"He kept his word, the next day announced the intended marriage to all the court, and shortly afterwards publicly gave me his daughter.

"Taravali remained with me, became great friends with her fellow-wife, told her the story which she had related to me, and how her son had been preserved and was taken care of by Queen Vasumati.

"Thus I have for some years lived happily, holding, as you know, a very important office."

[End of the story of Kamapala as told to his servant.]

"Some time after this, the death of the old king occurred, and as the eldest son had died during his father's lifetime, of consumption brought on by dissipation and debauchery; my master, together with the other ministers, placed Sinhaghosha, a boy about five years old, on the throne, and had him carefully educated.

"As the young king grew older, he was surrounded by companions nearer his own age, and they not liking the restraint put upon them by the wise and prudent Kamapala, endeavoured secretly to excite a prejudice against him, saying, 'This fellow, who sets himself up to be so wise and virtuous, is a wicked wretch, who first seduced the princess, and then, having escaped the death he so well deserved, managed to get to the bedside of the sleeping king, and to frighten him into compliance with his demands. This Kamapala intends to make himself king; he poisoned your eldest brother, and only spared you in order to obtain the support of the people, knowing that the real power would remain in his own hands. Depend on it you will not be suffered to live when you are old enough to shake off his authority. If you wish to be safe you should get rid of him at once.'

"With these, and other similar speeches, they so prejudiced the young king against his guardian and minister, that he would gladly have got rid of him at once, but was deterred by fear of the power of his Yaksha wife.

"One day the queen, seeing the Princess Kantimati very sad, asked her the reason of her sadness, saying, 'Tell me the truth; you cannot deceive me; what is the cause of this depression?' 'Did I ever deceive you?' she answered; 'my friend and fellow-wife, Taravali, has taken offence at something done or said by our husband, and though we tried to soothe her, she went away, and has not returned; this is the cause of my distress.'

"The queen hearing this, immediately told her husband, 'Kamapala has quarrelled with his fairy wife, and she has left him. There is nothing now to prevent your proceeding against him as you please.'

"Sinhaghosha, longing to be freed from restraint, caused his minister to be arrested, when he came the next day to the palace, as usual, unsuspicious of danger. This very day he will be led round the city, be proclaimed a traitor, and have his eyes put out.

"I, having lost my only friend and protector, have no wish to live, and was fastening my sash to hang myself, when you interrupted me."

When Purnabhadra had finished this story, I said to him, "I am that child who was exposed in the cemetery, and saved by the fairy. My coming here is indeed opportune, and with your a.s.sistance I will engage to deliver my father. I would boldly attack the guards as they lead him round the city, but fear, lest in the confusion he might be killed, when all my exertions would have been in vain; some other plan must therefore be thought of."

While I was thus speaking to him a serpent put out his head from a hole near me, and, knowing how to charm serpents, I made it come forth, and secured it.

Then I said to Purnabhadra: "O friend, this is just what I wanted. I will mix with the crowd when my father is led round, let this serpent fall on him as if by chance, and then run up to him and say that I am skilled in charms, and can save his life. No doubt they will allow me to try, and I will stop the effect of the poison in such a manner that he will not die, and yet remain insensible, as if dead. Meanwhile, do you go to my mother, ask to see her in private, and tell her that the son whom she had lost is now here. Explain to her my plan for saving my father, and say that when she hears of the death of her husband, she must go to the king as if in the greatest grief, and ask for permission to burn herself together with the dead body. When this request is granted, as no doubt it will be, she must prepare the funeral pile, and make ready for self-immolation, laying the apparently dead body on a couch in a private room till I come, when I will tell her what is further to be done."

Purnabhadra, delighted with the plan which I proposed, no longer wished to destroy himself. He set out at once to do as I had directed him, and I went immediately into the city. There I saw great crowds already collected, and ascertained where the executioner would stand when the proclamation was made.

Overhanging the place, there happened to be a large tree, with thick foliage. Into this I climbed, and waited patiently, listening to the talk of the people collected underneath.

Presently the executioner and his men came, bringing the prisoner, and the proclamation was made three times.

"Know all men that this traitor, Kamapala, has not only poisoned the late king and his eldest son, but has been convicted of plotting against the life of his present majesty; he endeavoured to persuade two of the king's faithful attendants to administer poison, but they have given information, and his life is justly forfeited; the king, however, in consideration of his being a brahman, and nearly connected with himself, has spared his life, and only sentenced him to have his eyes put out. Let all evil-doers take warning by his punishment."

While this proclamation was being read, I climbed to a branch of the tree just over my father, and dropped on him the poisonous serpent, which immediately bit him. In the confusion which ensued, I slipped down from the tree, and, having mixed with the crowd, managed, while shouting out "This is a just punishment from heaven; so may all traitors perish," to get close to my father, and quickly applied a charm in such a manner that, though he fell down apparently dead, the effect of the poison was stopped. The executioner being also bitten; and his a.s.sistants, as well as the crowd of spectators, being alarmed and dispersed from dread of the poisonous serpent; this act of mine was not noticed.

Meanwhile, my mother, who had been prepared by Purnabhadra to hear of her husband's death, went immediately to the king, attended by a large number of friends, and said; "The G.o.ds know if my husband was your enemy or not; I will not now attempt to defend him; but, whether he was innocent or guilty, your anger should cease now he is dead. I pray you to allow me to burn his body, and according to the custom of widows of my rank, to ascend the funeral pile together with him. Were I not to perform this duty, disgrace would fall on you and on the whole family, as well as on myself."

The king, well pleased to have got rid of the obnoxious minister, without incurring the sin of killing him, exclaimed: "This death is indeed the act of fate!" And, immediately granting her request, permitted the body of Kamapala to be taken to his own house, where I had by that time arrived, and was ready to receive it.

Meanwhile, my mother prepared for death, and, resisting all the entreaties of her friends and servants, expressed her determination to be burnt together with her husband.

When everything for the funeral was arranged, she came into the private room, where the body had been laid, and there saw her husband fully recovered, and me sitting by him. Great was her delight and astonishment at this wonderful and sudden change; and having first embraced her husband, she threw her arms round me, and, with a voice broken by sobs of joy, said: "O, my darling son, how can I deserve such happiness?--I, who so cruelly abandoned you at your birth, and suffered you to be taken away, as if dead? but your father was not to blame for that; he, indeed, deserves to have been restored to life by you, and to have the happiness of seeing you. Cruel, indeed, was Taravali, who, when she had received you again from Kuvera, did not bring you at once to me; but what could I expect from her? It is through her unkindness in leaving us that all this misfortune has happened; but I must not complain; I was not worthy, without previous suffering, to enjoy such great happiness. Come and embrace me."

Saying this, she again threw her arms round me, and kissed me repeatedly, trembling with emotion, and shedding many tears of joy.

My father's feelings were scarcely less excited. He seemed to have risen from the lowest depth of misery to the summit of felicity, and esteemed himself more fortunate than even Indra the King of the G.o.ds.

When we were all somewhat calmed, and I had explained to my father all that had occurred, I said: "There is much yet to be done; the king will soon find out the deception which has been practised, and send to arrest you again; so we must consider how we can defend ourselves."

My father answered: "This house is a very large one; the walls are strong; there are many secret pa.s.sages; I have a great store of weapons; my servants are brave and faithful, so that we could hold out for several days. Besides this I have many friends in the city; most of the authorities will favour me; many of the soldiers will be on my side, and there are many persons discontented and ready to rebel against the king. Therefore, if we act prudently, we shall have much a.s.sistance, and be able to cut off that tyrant."