Canto CXXVI - Avīkṣita’s exploits (continued)

^[1]

Avīkṣit while hunting found a Daitya had seized a maiden who called herself his (Avīkṣit’s) wife—He killed the Daitya—The gods appeared and offered him a boon—He asked for a son, and they said he should have a son, who would be a universal monarch, by her —She then explained to him she was king Viśālās daughter, and told him her history.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

The prince went hunting in the forest one day, piercing deer and wild boars and tigers and other beasts and elephants. Suddenly he heard the cry, “Save me! Save me!” from woman who was screaming aloud very often in a voice inarticulate through terror. The prince exclaiming, “Fear not! fear not!” urged his horse in haste thither whence the sound proceeded. And the maiden then cried out, for seized by Danu’s son Dṛḍhakeśa in the lonely forest was she, a high-spirited lady: —

“I belong to Karandhama’s son and I am Avīkṣit’s wife; a villain is carrying off into a thicket me, the wife of the wise king. I, wife of him, before whom all the kings with the Gandharvas and Guhyakas could not stand, am carried off! I here, wife of him, Karandhama’s son, whose wrath is like that of Death, whose prowess is like Indra’s, am carried off!”

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

On hearing this, the king’s son, bearer of the bow, reflected,—

“What is this? Have I a wife here in the forest? She is surely an illusion produced by the wicked ītakṣasas who inhabit the forest. However^[2] I have certainly come; I will ascertain the whole cause.”

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Hastening on then he beheld a surpassingly fascinating maiden alone in the forest, adorned with every hind of ornament, seized by Danu’s son Dṛḍhakeśa who bore a staff, and screaming out pitifully “Save me ! save me !” again and again. “Fear not!” said he to her, and exclaiming “Thou art slain!” to him, he said—

“What wicked man exercises rule over this earth while Karandhama is king here,^[3] before whose majesty all kings bow down to the earth?”

Seeing him at hand then, grasping his choice bow, the slender-limbed maiden exclaimed more than once—“Save me!” and—

“Here I am carried off! I am king Karandhama’s daughter-in-law and Avīkṣit’s wife. I am carried off by this wicked demon in the forest,— I who belong to a master—as if I belong to no master.”'

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Thereupon Avīkṣit considered the speech so uttered,— “How in truth is she my wife? or how is she my dear father’s^[4] daughter-in-law? However I will set her free, the slender maiden; I will find that out afterwards. Kṣatriyas bear arms for the sake of delivering the afflicted.”

Then the angry hero addressed that most evil-minded Dānava,—“Release her and depart while alive; otherwise thou shaft not live!” Quitting her then the Dānava raised his staff aloft and rushed at him; and he also, the prince, poured a shower of arrows on him. The Dānava, filled with exceeding frenzy, warded them off with a multitude of arrows, and hurled his staff that was studded with a hundred spikes at the prince. The prince split it then, as it was rushing onwards, with arrows. And he, the Dānava, grasping aloft a tree that was near, stood firmly in the battle and then hurled that tree at the prince who was discharging clouds of arrows. And he shattered it into small fragments with crescent-headed arrows shot from his bow.^[5] And the Danava next flung a piece of rock at the prince, and it fell vainly on the ground, for he avoided^[6] it by agility. Whatever the enraged Dānava flung at the prince, each thing the king’s son playfully split with multitudes of arrows. Then, his staff being shattered and all his weapons shattered, he raised his fist in anger and rushed upon the prince. Karandhama’s son struck off his head with a two-edged sword,^[7] as he was in the act of falling upon him, and felled him to the very ground.

When that Dānava, the evil doer, was slain, all the gods exclaimed to Karandhama’s son, “Well done, well done!” The gods said to the prince then, “Choose thee a boon!” and he replied by reason of his desire to benefit his father, “I choose a son, great in valour.”

The gods spoke:

Verily thou shalt have a son, who shall be a universal monarch great in valour, by this very maiden in sooth whom thou, O sinless one, hast delivered!

The prince spoke:

Being bound to my father by a bond of truthfulness I wish for a son, but having been vanquished by the kings in fight I have discarded wedlock. And I have abandoned king Viśāla’s daughter, who wanted^[8] me, and she has for my sake abandoned union with any man but me. How then after discarding her, Viśāla’s daughter, shall I with cruel soul^[9] marry another woman now?

The gods spoke:

This very maiden is indeed thy wife, whom thou dost always extol, even Viśāla’s beautiful-browed daughter, who has devoted herself to austerities for thy sake. Of her shall be born to thee a son who shall he a hero, an embellisher of the seven continents,^[10] a sacrificer of a thousand sacrifices, a universal monarch.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

After announcing this to Karandhama’s son the gods departed, O brahman; and he then addressed her who was his wife—“Say, timid one, what now is this?” And she told him this story:—

“When thou, sir, didst forsake me, I forsook my kinsfolk and came away to the forest in despair. There I wished to quit this body which became almost wasted away with austerities, O hero, hut a messenger of the gods came to me and prevented me, saying —‘Thou shalt also have a son, a universal monarch great in valour, who shall please the gods and slay the demons.’ By this command from the gods that messenger of the gods prevented me. I did not abandon my body, having my thoughts fixed on union with thee. And the day before yesterday, O illustrious one, I went to Gaṅgā-hrada^[11] to bathe, and as I went down into the water, I was dragged away by a certain old Nāga. He took me then to Rasātala, and there in front^[12] of me stood Nāgas and Nāga wives and youths in thousands; they approached and offered me praise, and some others paid me worship; and the Nāga women besought me respectfully,—‘Do thou shew favour to us all; thou must turn aside thy son,^[13] who will seek to slay us who shall have incurred offence. The Nāgas will commit offence against thy son; for that reason thou must turn him aside; let this favour be done!’ And when I said, ‘Be it so,’ they decorated me with divine ornaments from Pātala and with choicest flowers odorous and fragrant. And that Nāga brought me back to this world, as lovely as I was before, as beautiful in form as before. Seeing me so beautiful and adorned with every kind of ornament, this most evil-minded Dṛḍhakeśa seized me in the desire to carry me off. By the strength of thy arm, O prince, I have been rescued; therefore be gracious, O mighty-armed one; receive me! Equal to thee lives no other prince in the world; I speak the truth.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Canto cxxvii in the Calcutta edition.

[2]:

Atha-vā.

[3]:

Or, “ho is this wicked man, while Karandhama rules this earth as king here, &c.”

[4]:

The Calcutta edition numbers this verse 15 also, and numbers all the following verses incorrectly.

[5]:

For kārmukam vjjhitaiḥ read kārmuka-mocitaiḥ as in the Bombay edition.

[6]:

For uñcitā read ujjhitā with the Bombay edition.

[7]:

Vetasa-patra, a “reed-leaf” on “cane-leaf.” It is not in the dictionary, but appears to denote a weapon shaped like the leaf of a reed or of a cane, and would seem to mean something like a narrow double-edged sword.

[8]:

For yāvatī read yācatī ns in the Poona edition.

[9]:

For nṛśaṃsāhāṃ read nṛśaṃsātmā as in the Poona edition.

[10]:

Or “islands” or “do-abs,” dvīpa.

[11]:

This is also mentioned as a sacred place of pilgrimage in the MahāBhārata, Vana-p. lxxxiii. 7046-49, and Anuśās.-p. xxv. 1720-21.

[12]:

For puram read puraḥ, as in the Poona edition.

[13]:

The son which should be born to her in the future, named Marutta. See canto cxxx, verses 11-14.