Canto LXXI - About the Auttāna Manvantara (continued)

King Uttama visits the ṛṣi, learns his queen has been taken to Pātāla by a Nāga king, who then curses his daughter for hiding the queen from him—and he is also told his unhappy married life was caused by adverse planetary influence.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Now the king, after despatching the woman to her husband’s house, sighed and thought, “What good deed may there be in this? The high-minded muni declared I was wretched because of my unfitness for the arghya offering; and this night-roaming demon spoke of ‘impaired condition’ with reference to the brāhman. Being such, what shall I do, for I abandoned her, my wife? Or shall I enquire of that best of munis who has the eye of knowledge?”

Thus pondered the king, and mounting the chariot went where dwelt the great muni, righteous in soul, who knew the three periods of time. And descending from the chariot he approached and prostrated himself before that muni, and related how happened his meeting with the Rākṣasa, and his interview with the brahman woman, and the removal of her evil disposition,^[1] and her despatch to her husband’s house, and what was his business in coming back.

The ṛṣi spoke:

I knew this before, which thou hast done, O king, and the whole of thy business in coming back to me. Ask me here “what must I do?” with anxious mind; and since thou art come, O king, hear what thou must do. A wife is a potent cause of righteousness, wealth and love among men; and in particular one who forsakes her has in sooth abandoned righteousness. A wifeless man, O king, is not fit for his own works, be he brāhman or kṣatriya, vaiśya or even śūdra, O king. No brilliant deed didst thou do, Sir, when thou didst abandon thy wife; for as women must not forsake a husband, so men must not forsake a wife.

The king spoke:

Adorable Sir, what shall I do, such as I am? It was the maturing of my actions, that I abandoned her because she was not favourably disposed to me while I was favourable to her. Whatever one does, that one endures with one’s mind burning, even that with one’s inmost soul terrified at the pain of separation thereby, adorable Sir. But now I know not where she when abandoned in the forest has gone, or whether she has been devoured by lions, tigers and night-roaming beasts in the forest.

The ṛṣi spoke:

She has not been devoured by lions or tigers or nightroaming beasts, O king, but she is now in Rasātala with unblemished character.

The king spoke:

Who conveyed her to Pātāla? How dwells she there uncorrupted? Most wonderful is this, O brāhman; deign to tell me of it as it happened.

The ṛṣi spoke:

In Pātāla is a Nāga king and he is famed as Kapotaka. He saw her when abandoned by thee she was wandering in the great forest. Enamoured of her then he declared his object and carried the beautiful young queen to Pātāla, O king. Now that wise Nāga king has a beautiful-browed daughter named Nandā, O king, and a charming wife. That daughter saw thy beautiful queen, and thinking, “this bright lady will become a rival wife to my mother,” brought her to her own house and concealed her in the women’s apartments. But Nandā, when entreated, continually refuses to answer the king; then the father cursed her his daughter that she should become dumb. Thus did be curse his daughter; and she, thy wife, remains there, O king, carried off by that Nāga king, detained by his daughter, and still chaste.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Rejoicing greatly thereat, the king asked the eminent brahman^[2] what was the reason of his ill-fortune with regard to his darling wife.

The king spoke:

Adorable Sir! I meet with the utmost affection from all the world, what then is the reason, why my own wife is not very tender? On the one hand I dearly long for her even beyond my own life, O great muni, and on the other she is ill-disposed towards me. Say, what is the reason, O brāhman.

The ṛṣi spoke:

When thou didst take her hand in marriage, the Sun and Mars and Saturn looked on thee, and Venus and Jupiter looked on thy wife. At that moment the moon was favourable to thee, and Mercury to her. Those two groups of planets are mutually hostile; hence they have been exceedingly adverse to thee, O king. Go then; attended by thy wife, rule the earth in thy righteousness, and perform every rite that pertains to righteousness!

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

At this exhortation king Uttama prostrated himself before the muni, and then mounting his chariot went to his own city.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

For doḥ-śīlyāpagamaṃ read dauḥ-śīlyāpagamaṃ?

[2]:

The text reads dvija-varjyam. But dvija-varyam, which the Bombay edition reads, is much better and I have adopted it; see rāja-varyya in canto lxxii, verse 2. The translation of the text would be “putting aside brahmans.”