FRIENDSHIP OF THE RÁKSHASÍ.
Argument. The Rákshasí’s account of herself, and her reconciliation
with the Prince.
Vasishtha continued:—The apish Karkatí of the forest, having heard the
speech of the prince, pondered well in herself the sense of the words,
and forsook her levity and malice.
2. She found the coolness and tranquility of her heart after its
fervour was over; in the manner of the peacock at the setting in of the
rains, and the lotus bed at the rising of moonbeams.
3. The words of the prince delighted her heart in the same manner, as
the cries of cranes flying in the sky, gladden the passing clouds in the
air.
4. The Rákshasí said:—O how brightly shines the pure light of your
understanding, it glows as serenely by its inward effulgence, as it is
illuminated by the sun of intelligence.
5. Hearing the grains (words) of your reasoning, my heart is as
gladdened, as when the earth is cooled by the serene beams of the humid
moon-light.
6. Reasonable men like yourself are honoured and venerated in the world,
and I am as delighted in your company, as a lake of lotuses with her
full blown buds under the moon-beams.
7. The society of the virtuous, scatters its blessings, as a flower
garden spreads its fragrance all around; and as the brightness of
sun-beams, brings the lotus buds to bloom.
8. Society with the good and great, dispels all our woes; as a lamp in
the hand, disperses the surrounding darkness.
9. I have fortunately obtained you as two great lights in this forest;
you both are entitled to my reverence here, and deign now to acquaint
me, with the good intent which has brought you hither.
10. The prince answered:—O thou sprout of the savage race of Rákshas!
the people of this province are always afflicted in their hearts by a
certain evil.
11. It is the obdurate disease of Vishuchi or cholic pain, which
troubles the people of this part, I have therefore come out with my
guards to find her out in my nightly rounds.
12. This cholic pain is not removed from the hearts of men by any
medicine, so I have come out in search of the mantra revealed to her for
its cure.
13. It is my business and professed duty, to persecute such wicked
beings as thyself, that infest our ignorant subjects in this manner, and
this is all that I have to tell thee and do in this place.
14. Therefore, O good lady! do thou promise to me in thy own words, that
thou shalt never injure any living being in future.
15. The Rákshasí replied:—Well! I tell thee in truth, my lord! that I
shall hence forward never kill any body.
16. The prince replied:—If it be so O thou liver on animal flesh! tell
me how shalt thou support thy body by thy abstaining from animal food?
17. The Rákshasí replied:—It is now passed six months, O prince! that I
have risen from my entranced meditation, and fostered my desire for
food, which I wholly renounce today.
18. I will again repair to the mountain top, and betake myself to my
steadfast meditation, and sit there contented as long as I like, in the
posture of an unmoving statue.
19. I will restrain myself by unshaken meditation until my death, and
then I shall quit this body in its time with gladness. This is my
resolution.
20. I tell you now, O prince! that until the end of this life and body
of mine, I shall no more take away the life of any living being, and you
may rely assured upon my word.
21. There is the mount Himalaya by name, standing in the heart of the
northern region, and stretching in one sweep, from the eastern to
western main.
22. There had I dwelt at first in a cave of its golden peak, in the
shape of an iron statue, and also as the fragment of a cloud, and borne
the appellation of Karkatí the Rákshasí:—(the crablike crooked Sycorax).
23. There I obtained the sight of Brahmá by the austerity of my
devotion; and expressed my desire of killing mankind, in the shape of a
destructive needle.
24. I obtained the boon accordingly, and passed a great many years in
the act of afflicting living brings, and feeding upon their entrails in
the form of the cholic pain.
25. I was then prohibited by Brahmá to kill the learned, and was
instructed in the great mantra for my observance.
26. He then gave me the power of piercing the hearts of men, with some
other diseases which infest all mankind.
27. I spread myself far and wide in my malice, and sucked the heart
blood of men, which dried up their veins and arteries; and emaciated
their bodies.
28. Those whom I left alive after devouring their flesh and blood, they
begat a race as lean and veinless as they had become themselves.
29. You will be successful O happy prince in getting the _mantra_ or
charm for driving the Visúchiká pain; because there is nothing
impossible of attainment by the wise and strong.
30. Receive of me immediately, O raja! the _mantra_ which has been
uttered by Brahmá for removal of the cholic pain, from the cells of
arteries vitiated by _Visúchiká_.
31. Now advance towards me, and let us go to the neighbouring river; and
there initiate you with the mantra, after you both are prepared to
receive it by your ablution and purification.
32. Vasishtha said:—Then the Rákshasí proceeded to the river side that
very night, accompanied by the prince and his minister, and all joining
together as friends.
33. These being sure of the amity of the Rákshasí both by affirmative
and negative proofs, made their ablutions and stood on the bank on the
river.
34. The Rákshasí then communicated to them with tenderness, the
effective _mantra_ which was revealed to her by Brahmá, for the removal
of Visúchiká pain, and which was always successful.
35. Afterwards as the nocturnal fiend was about to depart by leaving her
friendly companions behind, the prince stopped her course with his
speech.
36. The prince said:—O thou of gigantic stature! thou hast become our
preceptor by thy teaching us the _mantra_, we invite thee with
affection, to take thy repast with us at ours tonight.
37. It does not become thee to break off our friendship, which has grown
like the acquaintance of good people, at our very first meeting.
38. Give thy illfavoured feature a little more graceful figure, and
walk along with us to our abode, and there reside at thy own pleasure.
39. The Rákshasí replied:—You can well provide a female of your own kind
with her proper food; but what entertainment can you give to my
satisfaction, who am a cannibal by my nature!
40. It is the food of a giant (Rákshasa) alone, that can yield me
satisfaction, and not the little morsel of petty mortals; this is the
innate nature of our being, and can not be done away with as long as we
carry with us our present bodies.
41. The prince answered:—Ornamented with necklaces of gold, you shall be
at liberty to remain with the ladies in my house, for as many days as
you may like to abide.
42. I will then manage to produce for your food, the robbers and felons
that I will seize in my territories; and you will have them supplied to
you by hundreds and thousands at all times.
43. You can then forsake your comely form, and assume thy hideous figure
of the Rákshasí, and kill and take to your food hundreds of those
lawless men.
44. Take them to the top of the snowy mountain and devour them at thy
pleasure; as great men always like to take their meals in privacy.
45. After your recreation by that food and a short nap, you can join
your meditation; and when you are tired with your devotion, you can come
back to this place.
46. You can then take the other offenders for your slaughter; because
the killing of culprits is not only justifiable by law, but it amounts
to an act of mercy, to rid them (of their punishment in the next world).
47. You must return to me when you are tired of your devotion; because
the friendship which is formed even with the wicked, is not easily done
away.
48. The Rákshasí replied:—You have well said prince! and we will do as
you say; for who is there that will slight the words of the wise that
are spoken to him in the way of friendship?
49. Vasishtha said:—Saying so, the Rákshasí assumed a graceful form, and
wore on her person necklaces and bracelets, and silken robes and laces.
50. She said, “Well raja, let us go together” and then followed the
footsteps of the prince and his counsellor, who walked before her and
led the way.
51. Then having arrived at the royal abode, they passed that night in
their agreeable repast and discourse together.
52. As it became morning, the Rákshasí went inside the house, and there
remained with the women; while the prince and the minister attended to
their business.
53. Then in the course of six days, the prince collected together all
the offenders whom he had seized in his territory, and brought from
other parts.
54. These amounted to three thousand heads which he gave up to her; when
she resumed her fiercely dark form of the black fiend of night.
55. She laid hold of thousands of men in her extended grasp, in the
manner of a fragment of cloud retaining the drops of rain water in its
wide spread bosom.
56. She took leave of the prince and went to the top of the mountain
with her prey, as a poor man takes the gold, that he happens to get in
some hidden place.
57. There she refreshed herself with her food and rest for three days
and nights; and then regaining the firmness of her under-standing, she
was employed in her devotion.
58. She used to rise from her devotion once after the lapse of four or
five and sometimes seven years, when she repaired to the habitation of
men and to the court of the prince.
59. There passing sometime in their confidential conversation, she
returned to her retired seat in the mountain, with her prey of the
offenders.
60. Thus freed from cares even in her lifetime, she continued to remain
as a liberated being in that mountain &c. &c.