Chapter CXVIII

170b. Muktāphalaketu and Padmāvatī

WHILE Padmāvatī was engaged in asceticism, in order that she might be reunited to Muktāphalaketu, the son of the emperor of the Vidyādharas, that prince, feeling that his descent into the world of men was nigh at hand owing to the curse of the Brāhman, in his fear fled to Śiva as a refuge.

And while he was worshipping Śiva he heard a voice issue from the inner cell of his temple:

“Fear not! For thou shalt not have to endure misery while dwelling in the womb, and thou shalt not have to suffer during thy life as a mortal, nor shalt thou long remain in that condition.^[1] Thou shalt be born as a strong and valorous prince. Thou shalt obtain from the hermit Tapodhana the control of all weapons, and my Gaṇa named Kiṅkara shall be thy younger brother. With his help thou shalt conquer thy enemies, and accomplish the required service for the gods, and thou shalt be reunited with Padmāvatī and rule the Vidyādharas.”

When that prince had heard this voice he conceived hope, and remained waiting for the ripening, so to speak, of the fruit of the curse pronounced upon him.

At this point of my story there was a city in the eastern region named Devasabha, that surpassed in splendour the court of the gods. In it there lived a universal monarch named Merudhvaja, the comrade of Indra when war arose between the gods and Asuras. That great-hearted prince was greedy of glory, not of the goods of others; his sword was sharp, but not his punishments; he feared sin, but not his enemy. His brows were sometimes curved in anger, but there was no crookedness in his heart. His arm was hard where it was marked with the horny thickening produced by the bowstring, but there was no hardness in his speech. He spared his helpless enemies in battle, but he did not exhibit any mean parsimony with regard to his treasure^[2]; and he took pleasure in virtuous deeds and not in women.

That king had always two anxieties in his heart: the first was that not even one son was as yet born to him; the second was that the Asuras, who escaped from the slaughter in the great fight long ago between the gods and Asuras and fled to Pātāla, kept continually sallying out to a distance from it and treacherously destroying holy places, temples and hermitages in his land, and then retiring into Pātāla again; and the king could not catch them, as they could move through the air as well as through Pātāla: that afflicted the brave monarch, though he had no rivals upon earth.

It happened that once, when he was afflicted with these anxieties, he went to the assembly of the gods, on the day of the full moon in the month Chaitra, in Indra’s splendid chariot, which he sent to fetch him; for Indra always held a general assembly in the early part of that day, and King Merudhvaja always went to it in his chariot. But on that occasion the king kept sighing, though he was amused with the dances and songs of the heavenly nymphs, and honoured by Indra.

When the king of the gods saw that, knowing what was in his heart, he said to him:

“King, I know what thy grief is; dismiss it from thy mind. One son shall be born to thee, who shall be called Muktāphaladhvaja, and shall be a portion of Śiva, and a second, named Malayadhvaja, who shall be an incarnation of a Gaṇa. Muktāphaladhvaja and his younger brother shall obtain from the hermit Tapodhana the sciences and all weapons and a creature to ride on, that shall possess the power of assuming any shape. And that invincible warrior shall again obtain the great weapon of Paśupati, and shall slay the Asuras, and get into his power the earth and Pātāla. And receive from me these two air-going elephants, Kāñcanagiri and Kāñcanaśekhara, together with mighty weapons.”

When Indra had said this to Merudhvaja, he gave him the arms and the elephants, and dismissed him, and he went delighted to his own city on the earth. But those Asuras, who had managed by their treachery to cast discredit upon the king, escaped being caught by him, even when mounted on the sky-going elephant, for they took refuge in Pātāla.

Then the king, desiring a son, went, on his heavenly elephant, to the hermitage of that hermit Tapodhana, of whom Indra had told him.

There he approached that hermit and told him that command of Indra, and said to him:

“Reverend sir, quickly tell me what course I ought to take to gain my end.”

And the hermit recommended that the king and his wife should immediately take upon them a vow for the propitiation of Śiva, in order that they might attain their end.

The king then proceeded to propitiate Śiva with that vow, and then that god, being pleased, said to the king in a dream:

“Rise up, King! Thou shalt soon^[3] obtain one after another two invincible sons for the destruction of the Asuras.”

When the king had heard this, he told it to the hermit when he woke up in the morning, and after he and his wife had broken their fast he returned to his own city.

Then that august and beautiful lady, the queen of Merudhvaja, became pregnant within a few days. And Muktāphalaketu was in some mysterious way conceived in her, having been compelled by the curse to abandon his Vidyādhara body. And that body of his remained in his own city of Candrapura, guarded by his relations, kept by magic from corrupting.

So the queen of Merudhvaja, in the city of Devasabha, delighted her husband by becoming pregnant. And the more the queen was oppressed by her condition, the more sprightly was her husband, the king. And when the time came, she gave birth to a boy resembling the sun, who, though an infant, was of great might, even as Pārvatī gave birth to the God of War. And then not only did rejoicing take place over the whole earth, but in the heaven also, in which the gods struck their drums. And the hermit Tapodhana, who possessed heavenly insight, came there in person to congratulate that King Merudhvaja. With the help of that hermit the rejoicing king gave his son the name Muktāphaladhvaja mentioned by Indra.

Then the hermit departed. But after the lapse of a year a second son was born to the king by that queen, and the king, with the help of that hermit, who, in the same way, came there out of joy, named him Malayadhvaja.

Then Saṃyataka was born as the son of the king’s minister, in accordance with the curse, and his father gave him the name of Mahābuddhi. Then those two princes gradually grew up, like lions’ whelps, with that minister’s son, and as they grew their might developed also.

And after eight years only had passed, the hermit Tapodhana came and invested those princes with the sacred thread.^[4] And during eight more years he instructed them^[5] in knowledge, and in the accomplishments, and in the use of all the mighty weapons. Then King Merudhvaja, seeing that his sons were young men, able to fight with all weapons, considered that he had not lived in vain.

Then the hermit was about to return to his hermitage, but the king said to him:

“Reverend sir, now take whatever present you desire.”

The great sage answered:

“This is the present I desire from you, King: that, with your sons, you would slay the Asuras that impede my sacrifices.”

The king said to him:

“Then, reverend sir, you must now take your present. So begin a sacrifice: the Asuras will come to impede it, and then I will come with my sons. For formerly those Daityas, after they had treacherously wrought you wrong, used to fly up into the air, and dive into the sea, and go to Pātāla. But now I have two air-going elephants given me by Indra; by means of those two I and my sons will catch them, even if they do fly through the air.”

When the hermit heard that he was pleased, and he said to the king:

“Then do you make in the meantime fit preparation for my sacrifice, in order that I may go and begin a long sacrificial session that will be famous in every corner of the earth. And I will send you as a messenger this my pupil Dṛḍhavrata, who has acquired the shape of an unrestrained mighty bird going with a wish; and on him shall Muktāphaladhvaja ride.”^[6]

When the hermit had said this he returned to his hermitage, and the king sent after him the preparations for the sacrifice. With those he began a sacrifice, at which the gods and ṛṣis assembled in a body, and the Dānavas, dwelling in Pātāla, were excited when they heard of it.

When the hermit knew that, he sent his pupil Dṛḍhavrata, who had been made by the curse to assume the form of a bird, to the city of Devasabha. When King Merudhvaja saw him arrive there, he remembered the words of the hermit, and got ready those two heavenly elephants. And he himself mounted the chief one, which was named Kāñcanagiri, and the lesser one, which was named Kāñcanaśekhara, he gave to the younger of his sons. But Muktāphaladhvaja, taking with him the heavenly weapons, mounted the great bird Dṛḍhavrata, and the bards hailed him with songs. Then those three heroes sent their armies on in front, and set forth, mounted on air-going steeds, and blessed by holy Brāhmans. And when they reached the hermitage, the hermit, being pleased with them, granted them this boon, that they should be invulnerable by all weapons.

In the meanwhile the army of the Asuras came to impede the sacrifice, and the soldiers of Merudhvaja, when they saw the Asuras, charged them with a shout. Then a battle took place between the Daityas and the men, but the Daityas, being in the air, pressed sore on the men who were on the ground. Then Muktāphaladhvaja, mounted on his winged steed, rushed forward and cut and crushed the Daityas with a shower of arrows. And those Daityas who escaped his destroying hand, seeing him mounted on a bird, and resplendent with brightness, took to flight, supposing that he was Nārāyaṇa. And all of them fled in fear to Pātāla, and told what had happened to Trailokyamālin, who was at that time king of the Daityas.

When the king of the Asuras heard that, he quickly inquired into the matter by means of his spies, and found out that Muktāphaladhvaja was a mortal; and, unable to endure the disgrace of having been defeated by a man, he collected all the Dānavas in Pātāla, and, though warned by omens to desist, went to that hermitage to fight. But Muktāphaladhvaja and his men, who were on the alert there, rushed to attack the king of the Dānavas as soon as they saw him arrive with his army. Then a second great battle took place between the Asuras and the men; and the gods, headed by Rudra and Indra, came in their chariots to witness it.

And then Muktāphaladhvaja saw instantly presenting itself before him there a great weapon of Paśupati, of irresistible might, of huge size, with a flame of fire streaming up from it, with three eyes, with four faces, with one leg and eight arms, looking like the fire which is to burn up the world at the end of the kalpa.

The weapon said:

“Know that I have come by the command of Śiva to ensure your victory.”

When the weapon said this, the prince worshipped it and clutched it.

In the meanwhile those Asuras in the air, raining arrows, pressed hard the fainting army of Merudhvaja that was below them. Then Muktāphaladhvaja, who fought in various manners, came to deliver that army, and fought with the Asuras, placing a net of arrows between them and his own men.

And when Trailokyamālin, the king of the Asuras, saw him and his father and brother mounted on their air-going steeds, he sent forth the snake-weapon. Innumerable terrible venomous snakes came out of it, and these Malayadhvaja slew with Garuḍa birds, that came out of the Garuḍa weapon. Then Muktāphaladhvaja repelled with ease every weapon that the king of the Daityas and his son sent forth.

Then that enemy of the gods and his son and the other Dānavas were enraged, and they all at once launched at him their fiery weapons. But those weapons, seeing the weapon of Paśupati blazing in front of him, were immediately terrified, and fled.

Then the Daityas were terrified and tried to escape, but the hero Muktāphaladhvaja perceived their intention, and immediately constructed above them, on all sides of them, an impenetrable net of arrows, like a cage of adamant. And while the Dānavas were circling within this, like birds, Muktāphaladhvaja, with the help of his father and brother, smote them with sharp arrows. And the several hands, feet, bodies and heads of those Daityas fell on the ground, and streams of blood^[7] flowed. Then the gods exclaimed “Bravo!” and followed up their acclamation with a rain of flowers, and Muktāphaladhvaja used the bewildering weapon against those enemies. That made the Asuras and their king fall senseless on the earth, and then by means of the weapon of Varuṇa the prince bound them all with nooses.

Then the hermit Tapodhana said to King Merudhvaja:

“You must by no means kill those Asura warriors that have escaped the slaughter; but you must win them over, and win Rasātala with them. As for this king of the Daityas, and his son, and his ministers, you must take them with the great Asuras, and the malignant Nāgas, and the principal Rākṣasas, and imprison them in the cave of Śvetaśaila in Devasabha.”^[8]

When the hermit had said this to Merudhvaja he said to the Daitya warriors:

“Do not be afraid! We must not slay you, but you must henceforth be subject to the sway of this Muktāphaladhvaja and his brother.”

When the king said this to the Dānavas, they joyfully consented to his proposal. Then the king had Trailokyamālin, the sovereign of the Daityas, with his son and the others, conveyed to Śvetaśaila. And he placed them in confinement in that cave, and had them guarded by his principal minister, who was backed by a force of many brave warriors.

Then, the battle having come to an end, and the gods, who were present in their chariots, having departed, after showering mandāra flowers, a universal rejoicing took place over the whole world, and the victorious King Merudhvaja said to his two sons:

“I will remain here for the present to guard the sacrifice, and do you march to Pātāla with these soldiers of ours, who have possessed themselves of many chariots belonging to the Daityas, and with those soldiers of the Asura army who have escaped destruction. And conciliate and win over to our allegiance the inhabitants of Pātāla, and appoint chief governors throughout the territory; and having thus taken possession of it, you must return here.”

When the heroic Muktāphaladhvaja, who was mounted on his heavenly steed, that went with a wish, and Malayadhvaja heard this, the two brothers, with their forces, entered Rasātala, together with that portion of the army of the Dānavas that had made submission, which marched in front of them. And they killed the guards that opposed them in various places, and proclaimed an amnesty to the others by beat of drum. And as the people showed confidence, and were submissive, they took possession of the seven Rasātalas, adorned with splendid palaces^[9] built of various jewels, and they enjoyed those palaces, which were rendered delightful by gardens that gratified every wish, and had in them lakes of heavenly wine, with many ladders of precious stones. And there they beheld Dānava ladies of wonderful beauty, and their daughters, who by means of magic concealed their forms within trees.

And then Svayaṃprabhā, the wife of Trailokyamālin, began austerities in order to bring about the welfare of her imprisoned husband, and in the same way her daughters, Trailokyaprabhā and Tribhuvanaprabhā, began austerities for the welfare of their father.

And those princes honoured with various favours all the inhabitants of Pātāla, who were happy now that they had obtained repose; and they appointed Saṅgrāmasiṃha and other 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 ṛṣis prepared to go to their own abodes.^[10]

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 sons 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 Nārada, Rambhā and others performed, he made Merudhvaja, with Muktāphaladhvaja and Malayadhvaja, forget their toils, and gave them garlands from the pārijāta 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 Pātāla, and, though kings of men, held sway in two worlds.

Then Merudhvaja said to Muktāphaladhvaja:

“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 Muktāphaladhvaja’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^[11] 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 elder son, Muktāphaladhvaja:

“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 elder 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 Pātāla, the two daughters of Trailokyamālin’s wife, Svayaṃprabhā, 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,^[12] 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 Svayaṃprabhā’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 Muktāphaladhvaja 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 Vidyādhara, 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 Queen Svayaṃprabhā had in these words comforted her daughters, she said to Indumatī, 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 Indumatī; and she left Pātāla and reached the well-guarded entrance of that mountain cave. She entreated the guards and entered, and seeing Trailokyamālin 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!”

When Indumatī had been sent away by the king with this message, she went and delivered it to his wife, Svayaṃprabhā.

And when Trailokyaprabhā and Tribhuvanaprabhā, the daughters of the Daitya sovereign, heard it, they said to their mother, Svayaṃprabhā:

“Anxiety lest our youthful purity should be outraged makes the fire seem our only place of safety, so we will enter it, mother, on the fourteenth day, that is now approaching.”

When they had thus resolved, their mother and her suite also made up their minds to die. And when the fourteenth day arrived, they all worshipped Hāṭakeśvara, and made pyres in a holy bathing-place called Pāparipu.

Now it happened that on that very day King Merudhvaja, with his sons and his wife, was coming there to worship Hāṭakeśvara. And as he was going to the holy water of Pāparipu, with his suite, to bathe, he saw smoke arising from the midst of a grove on its bank.

And when the king asked, “How comes smoke to be rising here?” those governors he had set over Pātāla, Saṅgrāmasiṃha and the others, said to him:

“Great King, Svayaṃprabhā, the wife of Trailokyamālin, is engaged in austerities here with her daughters, the princesses. Without doubt they are now performing here some sacrificial rite in honour of the fire, or possibly they are wearied out with excessive asceticism, and are immolating themselves by entering it.”

When the king heard that, he went to see what was going on, with his sons, and his wife, and those governors of Pātāla, ordering the rest of his suite to remain behind. And concealing himself there, he beheld those Daitya maidens, with their mother, worshipping the fire of the pyres, which was burning brightly.^[13] They seemed, with the effulgence of the great beauty of their faces which shone out in all directions, to be creating in the lower world a hundred discs of the moon, and to be installing the God of Love as king after the conquest of the three worlds, with their swiftly moving necklaces, that looked like liquid streams poured down from the golden pitchers of their breasts. Their broad hips, surrounded with the girdles which they wore, looked like the head of the elephant of love adorned with a girdle of constellations. The long wavy masses of hair which they bore seemed like snakes made by the Creator to guard the treasure of their beauty.

When the king saw them he was astonished, and he said:

“The creation of the Maker of All is surprising for the novelty that is ever being manifested in it,^[14] for neither Rambhā nor Urvaśī nor Tilottamā is equal in beauty to these two daughters of the Asura king.”

While the king was making these reflections to himself, Trailokyaprabhā, the elder of the two Daitya maidens, after worshipping the god present in the fire, addressed this prayer to him:

“Since, from the time that my mother told me of the revelation of Śiva received by her in a dream, my mind has been fixed upon Prince Muktāphaladhvaja, that treasure-house of virtue, as my chosen husband, I pray, holy one, that he may be my husband in a future birth, inasmuch as, though in this birth my mother wishes to give me to him, my haughty father, being a captive, will not consent to it.”^[15]

When Tribhuvanaprabhā heard that, she, in the same way, prayed to the Fire God that Malayadhvaja might be her husband in a future life.

Then King Merudhvaja, who was delighted at hearing that, and the queen, his wife, said to one another:

“If our two sons could obtain these two maidens for their wives, they would reap fruit from their conquest of the two worlds. So let us go to them and their mother, before they have cast themselves into the fire, as they intend to do in a moment, and dissuade them from doing so.”

When the king, in consultation with the queen, had made up his mind to this, he went up to them, and said:

“Do not act rashly; for I will put a stop to your sorrow.”

When all the Asura ladies heard this speech of the king’s, that seemed like a rain of nectar to their ears, and afterwards saw him, they all bowed before him.

And Svayaṃprabhā said to him:

“Before, we were concealed by magic, and you did not see us, though we saw you; but now we have been seen here by you, the sovereign of the two worlds. And now that we have been seen by you, our sorrow will soon come to an end—much more since you have bestowed on us by your own mouth a boon we never craved. So take a seat, and receive the arghya and water for the feet.^[16] For you deserve to be honoured by the three worlds; and this is our hermitage.”

When she said this, the king answered, laughing:

“Give the arghya and water for the feet to these your sons-in-law.”

Then Svayaṃprabhā said:

“To them the god Śiva will give the arghya, and soon, but do you receive it to-day.”

Then Merudhvaja said:

“I have already received it all; but do you, ladies, immediately give up your intention of committing suicide, and go and dwell in one of your cities, where every wish can be gratified; then I will take steps to ensure your welfare.”

When the king said this, Svayaṃprabhā said to him:

“In accordance with your Majesty’s order we have given up our intention of abandoning the body; but while our lord is in prison, how would it be becoming for us to live in our palace? So we will remain here, King, for the present, until your Highness shall perform the promise which you spontaneously made to us, and shall cause our lord to be set free, with his servants and ministers. And he will hold sway as your Majesty’s zealous officer, and will make over his realm to you if you desire it. Indeed he will make a strict agreement with you to this effect. And for this we and all the inhabitants of Pātāla will be your sureties; so take our jewels from the regions of Pātāla and make them your own.”

When she said this, King Merudhvaja said to her:

“I will see about that, but you must remember your promise.”

When the king had said this, he bathed, and worshipped Hāṭakeśvara. And those Daitya princesses, having now seen his sons with their own eyes, had their minds entirely fixed on them. Then all the inhabitants of Rasātala^[17] fell at the feet of the virtuous King Merudhvaja and asked that Trailokyamālin should be set at liberty. And then King Merudhvaja, with his wife, sons and servants, left the world of the Asuras and returned to his own city, covering the regions with his umbrellas white^[18] as his own glory. There his son Malayadhvaja spent the night in thinking on the younger daughter of the king of the Dānavas, being tortured with the fever of love, and though he closed his eyes he never slept. But that sea of self-control, Muktāphaladhvaja, though he thought upon the elder daughter of the Asura monarch, who was deeply in love with him, and though he was young, and she was fair enough to shake with love the saintly minds of anchorites, still, in virtue of the boon he had craved from the hermit, he was no whit disturbed in mind. But Merudhvaja, finding that his elder son was determined not to take a wife, while Malayadhvaja was desperately in love, and that on the other hand that great Asura was averse to giving him his daughters, remained with his mind bewildered as to how to devise an expedient.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

MS. No. 1882 reads garbhavāse kleśo; and this seems to give a sense more clearly in accordance with the sequel of the story.

[2]:

Literally, “too careful guarding of his dīnāras.” Dīnāra is the Latin denarius.

[3]:

Of course we must read avilambitaṃ, which is found in two out of the three India Office MSS., and in the Sanskrit College MS. No. 1882 has vilambitaṃ.

[4]:

For a note on the sacred thread see Vol. VII, pp. 26 - 28.—n.m.p.

[5]:

Vinīyate is a misprint for viniyete.

[6]:

To my references to the Garuḍa and other legendary birds in Vol. I, pp. 103-105, I must now add Bolte and Polívka, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 134, 135.—N.M.P.

[7]:

We should probably read asranimnagāḥ, with two India Office MSS. No. 3003 has asrunimnagāḥ.

[8]:

The three India Office MSS. give Devasabhāsanne— “near Devasabha.”

[9]:

The three India Office MSS. read puraśatair, “hundreds of cities”? In any case varais should be varairi.

[10]:

Böhtlingk and Roth would read svadhiṣṇyāni for svādhiṣṭhāni in Taraṅga 120, 25. Here Brockhaus reads svādhiṣṭhān ṛṣayas, which I find in MS. No. 1882; No. 3003 has what, judging from the way ṣṇ is written in this MS., I take to be svadhiṣṇyānyaṣayas. No. 2166 has what for similar reasons I take to be svadhiṣṇānṛṣayas. The Sanskrit College MS. has svadhiṣṭānyṛṣayas.

[11]:

For ārādhayituṃ Nos. 1882 and 2166 give ārādhayan, which satisfies the metre. The Sanskrit College MS. has ārādhituṃ.

[12]:

I read akṛtapuṇyayoḥ —“not having done meritorious actions.” This is the reading of all the India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS.

[13]:

The three India Office MSS. give sasamiddhaṃ, which is perhaps preferable to the reading of Brockhaus’ text. The Sanskrit College MS. gives susamitaṃ.

[14]:

MSS. Nos. 1882 and 2166 and the Sanskrit College MS. give lasannavanavādbhutā —“is ever displaying new marvels.” No. 3003 gives lasannavatavādbhutā. The t is, no doubt, a mere slip of the pen for n.

[15]:

An act of truth. See Vol. II, pp. 31-33; Vol. III, pp. 179-182.—n.m.p.

[16]:

I read arghyapādyādi in śl. 180, 6; as in śl. 181, 6. The y is found in the three India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS. I also read, in śl. 179, svagirā datte devenānarthite vare, which I find in the three India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS.

[17]:

Pātāla and Rasātala seem to be used indiscriminately to denote “the nether world” in this passage. Strictly speaking, Rasātala is one of the seven Pātālas. The words in śl. 189 which I have translated “regions of Pātāla” mean, literally, “the Pātālas.” In śl. 192 the three India Office MSS. read sudṛṣṭayoḥ —“having had a good look at them.”

[18]:

For the significance of the white umbrella see Vol. II, pp. 264-265. —N.M.P.