Canto LXX - About the Auttāna Manvantara (continued)

(Auttāna)^[1]

King Uttama finds the brāhman’s wife in the forest and is courteously received by the Rākṣasa, who says he carried her off in order to impair the brāhman’s religious merit.—At the king’s reguest the Rākṣasa consumes her evil disposition and restores her to her husband.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Then the king prostrated himself before the great muni, and mounted his chariot, and went to the forest Utpalāvata mentioned by him. And the king saw^[2] the brāhman’s wife, in appearance such as her husband described her, eating the fruit of the bel tree;^[3] and asked — “How didst thou come to this forest, lady? tell me plainly; art thou the wife of Suśarman Vaiśāli?^[4]

The brahman woman spoke:

I am daughter of the brahman Atirātra, who dwells in the forest, and wife of Viśāla’s son whose name thou hast uttered. Being such, I was carried off by the evil-minded Rākṣasa Yalāka, while asleep at the extremity of my house, and parted from my brothers and mother. May that Rākṣasa become ashes, by whom I have been parted thus from my mother, brothers and other relatives! Here I remain in great affliction. Bringing me to this very dense forest he has cast me off. I know not what is the reason he neither has intercourse with me nor devours me.

The king spoke:

Perchance thou knowest, where has the Bākṣasa gone after leaving thee? I have been sent here by thy husband indeed, O brāhman lady.

The brāhman woman spoke:

The night-stalking demon stands at the edge of this very forest. Enter and see him, Sir, if thou dost not fear him.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Then he entered by the path that she showed, and saw the Rākṣasa attended by his retinue. Then the Rākṣasa hurrying, the moment he saw him, touching the earth with his head from afar indeed, approached his feet.

The Rākṣasa spoke:

Thou hast done me great favour in that thou hast come to my abode here. Give me thy command. What shall I do, such as 1 am here? I dwell within thy country. Accept thou this arghya offering, and let this seat be placed for thee. We are servants, thou, Sir, art master; command me firmly.

The king spoke:

Thou hast done everything, even every rite due to a guest.^[5] Why hast thou brought the brāhman’s wife here, O night-stalker? She is not comely; there are others comely, if thou didst carry her off for a wife: if to devour her, why hast thou not eaten her? Tell me this.

The Rākṣasa spoke:

We do not feed on men; such are other Rākṣasas. But we eat the fruit that springs from a good deed, O king; and we consume the natural disposition of men and women, being treated with disrespect, and yet honoured; we are not eaters of living creatures. When we have eaten the patience of men, they become enraged; and when we have eaten their evil nature, they also become virtuous. We have Rākṣasīs who are fascinating, rivalling the Apsarases in beauty, O king; while they are with us, how should we delight in the females of mankind?

The king spoke:

If she is not for sensual enjoyment nor for food, O night-roamer, why then didst thou enter the brāhman’s house and carry her off?

The Rākṣasa spoke:

That excellent brāhman, learned in spells, keeps on expelling me, when I goto sacrifice after sacrifice, by uttering spells that destroy Rākṣasas, O king. By reason of his spells and expulsive rites we were a-hungered; where shall we go? that brāhman^[6] is the priest at every sacrifice. Therefore we inflicted this damage^[7] on him; without a wife a man becomes unfit to perform sacrifices.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

At his announcement of the high-minded brāhman’s impaired condition the king became exceedingly dejected then, thinking “While ho speaks of the brahman’s impaired condition, it is me indeed he censures. That best of munis also said I was unworthy of the argha offering. As the Rākṣasa also has spoken to me of that brāhman’s impaired condition, I being in like plight am placed in a great strait, because I am wifeless.”

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

While he thus thought, O muni, the Rākṣasa spoke again to the king, bowing in obeisance and placing his hands together respectfully—“O king, favour with thy command me, thy servant, prostrate before thee^[8], a dweller within thy realm.”

The king spoke:

Since thou hast said, O night-roamer—“We feed on &,person’s disposition,” hear then from me what deed we solicit. Do thou consume this brāhman woman’s evil disposition this day; since she will have her evil disposition eaten by thee, she may then become good in behaviour. Take her to his house whose wife she is, O night-roamer. When this is done, thou hast done all for me who am come as a guest to thy house.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Thereupon the Rākṣasa, entering within her though his own faculty of illusion, devoured her evil disposition by his own power at the king’s command. Being rid entirely of that very violent evil disposition that brāhman’s wife said to the king—“By the maturing of the fruit of my own actions 1 was separated from that magnanimous man, my husband; this night-roaming demon was the cause thereof. He is not in fault, nor that magnanimous man, my husband; mine in truth was the fault, no one else’s. A good deed is verily enjoyed. In some former life I separated myself from some husband that same separation^[9] has been encountered again even by me.^[10] What fault is there in this magnanimous man?”

The Rākṣasa spoke:

I will cause her to reach her husband’s house at thy command, my lord. Enjoin me whatever else should be done for thee, O king!

The king spoke:

When this is done, thou hast done all for me, O night-roamer. And thou must come, O hero, at the time of action when I recall thee to mind.^[11]

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

“So be it!” then quoth the Rākṣasa, and taking the brāhman woman conveyed her, purified then by the removal of her evil disposition, to her husband’s house.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

This should be Auttama, see page 419, note *.

[2]:

For dadārśa read dadarśa.

[3]:

Śrī-phala, the fruit of the Mitra or vilva tree, Ægle marmelos, and also the tree itself. It is a pretty large tree, a native of the mountainous parts of the East coast, and also found in the low lands; its fruit is considered “nutritious, warm, cathartic ; in taste delicious ; in fragrance exquisite Roxburgh’s Flora Indica, vol II. 579-80. See page 25 note * ; but I have made an error there in assigning the name bel-phul to this tree. Bel-phūl is the name of the double Arabian jasmine, Jasminum Zambac, Roxb. (I. 88) or J. Bambac, Oliver. This jasmine is a shrub with delightfully fragrant white flowers, and is in common cultivation. Its Sanskrit name is mallikā, and also saptalā; and bel-phūl is the common modern name both for the flower and for the plant itself. It has numerous other vernacular names, and Roxburgh says bela is one of them, but this seems doubtful.

[4]:

Son of Viśāla; see next verse.

[5]:

There appears to be a mistake in this line, read kṛtavān eva tvam instead of Kṛtam eva tvayā? or else sarvā evātithi-kriyāḥ for sarvām evātithi-kriyām? unless kṛta-vān is understood in the second half of the line.

[6]:

Dvijaḥ seems preferable to dvija.

[7]:

Vaikalyam, “impaired or mutilated condition.”

[8]:

For tvaṃ read tvāṃ?

[9]:

Or perhaps doṣa, “fault,” should be understood.

[10]:

Or perhaps for mayāpy-upagataḥ we should read mayy-apy-upagataḥ ?

[11]:

For ca te read tvayd, in order to make a pronoun agreeing with smṛtena ? See canto lxxii, verses 15 and 16.