THE TALISMAN OF THE KING’S MARRIAGE WITH A
CHANDÁLA MAIDEN.
(_An Allegory of Human Depravity_).
Argument. The king borne on horse-back to the habitation of a huntsman
and was there married to his maiden daughter. (This adventure resembles
that of Tajul Maluk in Gule Bákavli.)
The king related:—This land of mine abounding in forests and rivulets,
and appearing as the miniature of this orb of the earth. Literally:—as
the younger twin sister of the earth:—
2. This land appearing as the paradise of Indra, of which I am the king,
and where I am now sitting in my court-hall, amidst my courtiers and all
these citizens.
3. There appeared here yonder sorcerer from a distant country, like a
demon rising from the infernal region on the surface of the ground.
4. He turned round his magic-wand emitting its radiance around, as the
tempest rends and scatters the rainbow of Indra in fragments in the air.
5. I was looking intently at the whirling wand, and the horse standing
before me, and then mounted on the back of the steed in the dizziness of
my mind.
6. I sat on the back of this unmoving horse and seemed to ride on a
fleet steed, with the swiftness of the Pushkara and Ávartaka clouds,
riding over the tops of immovable rocks.
7. I then went to a chase in full speed, a pass over an ownerless
desert, howling as the surges of the boundless ocean.
8. I was borne afterwards with the horse in the air, as if we were
wafted by the winds; and dashed onward like common people, who are
carried afar by the current of the insatiable desires of their minds.
9. Being then fatigued with my journey, and moving slowly with my
wearied horse, I reached to the skirt of the desert which was as vacant
as the mind of a pauper, and as empty as the heart of a woman. (Cares
hover over roofs of wealth, and secrets from female hearts fly by
stealth. _Curae laqueata circum Tecta volantes._ Hor. Cares that flutter
bat-like round fretted roofs. A woman is never so weak as in keeping her
secrets).
10. It was as the wilderness of the world burnt down by a conflagration,
and without even a bird flying over it. It was as a waste of sandy
frost, and without a tree or any water in it. (A vast desert displayed
its barren waste).
11. It appeared as another sky in its extent, and as the eighth ocean of
the world. It was as a sea on earth with its bed entirely dried up.
(There are in all only seven oceans in Indian Geography, the eighth is a
myth).
12. It was as expanded as the mind of a wise man, and as furious as the
rage of the ignorant. There was no trace of human feet, nor track with
any grass or herb in it. (Immeasurable and fathomless as the sapient
mind.)
13. My mind was bewildered in this boundless desert, like that of a
woman fallen into adversity, and having no friend or food or fruit for
her supportance. (Adversity is the canker of the woman’s breast:
_asaubhagyan jvarástrínám_).
14. The face of the sky was washed by the waters, appearing in the
mirage of the sandy desert; and I passed panting in that dreary spot
until it was sunset.
15. It was with great pain and sorrow, that I passed across that vast
desert; like the wise man who goes across this world, which is all
hollow and void within.
16. After passing this desert, I met a thick forest beyond it, when the
sun was setting in his setting mountain with his horse, and tired with
traversing through the hollow sphere of heaven.
17. Here the birds were warbling amidst the _jámb_ and _kadamba_ trees,
and were the only friends that the weary travellers could meet with, in
their weary and lonesome journey.
18. Here detached plots of long grass, were seen waving their tops; like
covetous men nodding their heads, on finding some riches to their
heart’s content. (The poor are pleased with a little, and bow down their
heads at petty pittances).
19. This shady forest afforded me a little joy, after my pains in the
dry and dreary desert; as a lingering disease seems more desirable to
men, than the pains attending on death.
20. I then got under the shade of _Jambíra_ tree, and felt myself as
pleased, as when the sage Markandeya got upon the top of the mountain at
the great deluge. (The Ararat of Noah?).
21. Then I took shelter under the creepers, descending from its
branches, as the scorching top of a mount, finds a temporary shadow
under the umbrage of a dark cloud.
22. As I was hanging down with holding the pendant roots in my hand, the
horse slided away from underneath me, as the sins of a man glide under
him, that puts his trust in the sacred Ganges streams. (The purificatory
power of Ganges water, resides even in the belief of its holiness, and
does not consist only in bathing in it).
23. Fatigued with my travel of the live-long day in the dreary waste, I
took my refuge under this tree; as a traveller rests under the shelter
of a kalpa tree at the setting of the sun.
24. All this business of the world was stopped, as the sun went down to
rest in the western hills. (The Hindu ritual prescribing no duty for the
night consisting of three watches—_triyama rajaní_).
25. As the shade of night overspread the bosom of the universe, the
whole forest below betook itself to its nightly rest and silence. (The
vegetable creation was known to sleep at night by the Hindu sages).
26. I reposed myself in the grassy hollow of a branch of that tree, and
rested my head on the mossy bed like a bird in its nest. (Primeval men
slept in the hollow of trees like birds, for fear of rapacious animals
in the caves of the earth below, as also in the caverns of upland hills
and mountains).
27. I remained there as insensible as one bitten by a snake, and as a
dead body that has lost its past remembrance. (Sleep and death are akin
to each other—_hypnos kai thanatos didumo adelpho_). I was as impotent
as a sold slave; and as helpless as one fallen in a dark ditch or blind
pit. Bought slaves _krita-dásas_ and their loss of liberty, were in
vogue from the earliest times in India. (अन्ध कुप-अन्ध-कुया = a blind pit).
28. I passed that one night as a long Kalpa in my senselessness; and I
thought I was buffeting in the waves like the seer—Markandeya at the
great deluge. (_i.e._ The body was insensible in the state of sleep; but
the mind was active as in a dream, which makes an age of a moment).
29. I passed the night under a train of dangers and difficulties, that
invaded me as in the state of dreaming; and I had no thought about my
bathing or eating or worshipping my Maker (the mind being wholly
occupied by the objects of the dream).
30. I passed the night in restlessness and disquiet, shaking like the
branch of a tree; and this single night of trouble was as long as it was
tedious to me (like the time of a lingering disease).
31. A melancholy overspread my countenance, as darkness had veiled the
face of the night, and my waking eyes kept watching for the day, like
blue-lotuses expecting with their watchful eyes the rising moon.
32. The demoniac noise of wild beasts being hushed in the forest at the
end of the night, there fell a shivering fit on me with the clattering
of my teeth through excessive cold.
33. I then beheld the east, red with the flush of intoxication; as if it
was laughing at seeing me drowned in my difficulties.
34. I saw the sun advancing afterwards towards the earth, and to mount
on his Airávata the regent elephant of that quarter. He seemed to be so
full of glee, as the ignorant man has in his folly, and the poor man in
obtaining a treasure.
35. Having got up from my mossy bed, I shook off my bed cloth, like the
god Siva tossing about his elephantine hide at his giddy dance in the
evening. (See Magh. Book I).
36. I then began to wander in the wide forestland, as the god Rudra
roves about the wide world, after its desolation by his demons at the
end of kalpas.
37. There was no animal of any kind to be seen in the desolate desert,
as the good qualities of good breeding, are never to be found in the
persons of the illiterate.
38. I saw only the lively birds, perching and chirping all about the
woods without intermission.
39. It was then at mid-day, when the sun had run his eighth hour, and the
plants had dried up the dews of their morning baths.
40. That I beheld a damsel carrying some food and a goblet of water, on
the way as Hari bore the poisonous liquor to the demons in his disguise
in the shape of Mádhaví.
41. She was of a swarthy complexion, and dressed in sable black attire;
and looked askance at me; when I advanced towards her as the bright moon
appears towards the dark and sable night.
42. I asked her to give me some of her food in my great distress,
because, I told her, one is enriched by relieving the distress of the
needy.
43. O good maid; said I, increasing hunger is consuming my bowels and I
would take any food, even as the female serpent devours her own brood
and young, in the excess of her hunger. (Hunger beats down the stony
wall, and impure food is pure to the hungry).
44. I begged of thee and yet thou gavest me nothing, but dost remain as
inexorable as the goddess of fortune, who declines to favour the
wretched, however they implore her aid. (Fortune turns a deaf ear to the
supplications of the poor).
45. Then I kept a long time, following her closely from one wood to
another, and clinging to her as her shadow, moving behind her in the
afternoon.
46. She then turned to me and said:—Know me, to be a Chandála girl and
bearing the name of Harakeyuri; we are as cruel as Rákshasas, and
feeders on human flesh as on those of horses and elephants.
47. You cannot, O King! get your food by merely your craving it of me;
as it is hard to have the favour of men, without first meeting with
their desires.
48. Saying so, she went on trippingly at every step, and then entered
into an arbour on the wayside and spoke merrily unto me saying:—
49. Well, I will give you of this food, if you will consent to be my
husband; for it is not the business of base and common people to do good
to others, before securing their own good.
50. My Chandála father is here ploughing in the field, with his sturdy
yoke of bulls, and has the figure of a demon, standing in the cemetery
with his haggardly hungry and dusky stature.
51. This food is for him, and may be given to you, if you will agree to
espouse me; because the husband deserves to be served even at the peril
of one’s life.
52. To this I replied, I agree to take thee to my wife, for what fool is
there that will abide by the usage of his family, when his life is in
danger?
53. She then gave me half of the food she had with her, as Mádhaví
parted with half of her ambrosia to the hungry Indra of old.
54. I ate the Chandál’s food, and drank the beverage of _Jambu_ fruits
which she gave me; and then rested at that place, and fell to a sleep
caused by my fatigue and long walking.
55. Then she approached to me, as a black cloud advances before the sun;
she held me in her arms, and led me onward with her guiding hand, and as
fondly as her second self.
56. She took me to her father, a fat and ugly fellow of a repulsive
appearance; as the tormenting agony of death, leads a person to the
hideous cell of the devil.
57. My companion whispered to his ears the tidings of our case, as the
black bee hums her tale softly to the ear of an elephant (in order to
sip his frontal juice or ichor of _mada-bárí_).
58. This man, said she, is to be my husband, if you, my father, will
give your consent. To this he expressed his approval by saying—“Vádham
be it so” by the end of this day (when marriage rites usually take place
and is called godhuli, or the dusty dusk of returning herds from their
pasture grounds).
59. He loosened the bulls from their yoke, as the regent of death
releases his hell hounds. And it was in the dusk of the day, when the
sky was obscured by the evening mist, and rising dust of _godhuli_, that
we were dismissed from the demons’ presence, to take our own way.
60. We passed the great jungle in a short time, and reached the
Chandála’s abode in the evening; as the demons pass amidst the funeral
ground, to rest in their charnel vaults at night.
61. The dwelling had on one side, the slaughtered monkeys, cocks and
crows; and swarms of flies flying over them, and sucking the blood
sprinkled over the ground.
62. The moist entrails and arteries of the slaughtered beasts, that were
hung up to be dried in the sun; were chased by the ravenous birds of the
air, that kept hovering over them; while flocks of birds fluttered over
the _Jambira_ trees (to pick up the fruits for their food).
63. There were heaps of fat laid up to be dried in the portico, and
ravenous birds flying over them; and the skins of the slain animals,
which were besmeared with blood, lay in piles before their sight.
64. Little children had bits of flesh in their hands, beset by buzzing
flies; and there were the veteran Chandálas, sitting by and rebuking the
boys.
65. We then entered the house scattered with disgusting entrails and
intestines about, and I thought myself as the ghost of a dead man
standing beside the regent of death.
66. I had then a seat of a big plantain leaf, given to me with due
respect, in order to be seated as a welcome guest, in the abominable
abode of my new-earned father-in-law.
67. My squint eyed mother-in-law then eyed at me, with her blood-red
eyeballs; and muttered with gladness in her look, “is this our would-be
son-in-law?”
68. Afterwards we sat on some seats of skin, and I partook of the repast
which was served before me, as the reward of my sins. (_i.e._ This fare
was as unpalatable, as the requital of one’s crimes).
69. I heard there many of those endearing words, which were the seeds of
endless misery; as also many such speeches that were unpleasant to my
mind, for their being of no benefit to me.
70. Afterwards, it came to pass on one day, when the sky was cloudless
and the stars were shining; that they presented a dowry of cloths and
other articles before me (as dánadravya).
71. With these they made over that frightful maiden to me, and we were
joined together as black and white, and as sin and its torment together
(_i.e._ she was given to torment me for my past sins).
72. The flesh-eating Chandálas, festivated the marriage ceremony with
profusion of wine and loud shouts of joy; they beat their sounding
tomtoms with merriment, as wicked men delight in carrying on the acts of
their vileness. (The giddy mirth of the rabble, is compared with the
revelry of the riotous).