his back, untwisted the portion which he held, threw open the cloth,
and exposed to Shanta Shil’s glittering eyes the corpse, which had
now recovered its proper form—that of a young child. Seeing it, the
devotee was highly pleased, and thanked Vikram the Brave, extolling
his courage and daring above any monarch that had yet lived. After
which he repeated certain charms facing towards the south, awakened
the dead body, and placed it in a sitting position. He then in its
presence sacrificed to his goddess, the White One,[190] all that
he had ready by his side—betel leaf and flowers, sandal wood and
unbroken rice, fruits, perfumes, and the flesh of man untouched by
steel. Lastly, he half filled his skull with burning embers, blew
upon them till they shot forth tongues of crimson light, serving as a
lamp, and motioning the Raja and his son to follow him, led the way
to a little fane of the Destroying Deity, erected in a dark clump of
wood, outside and close to the burning-ground.
[190] Shiva is always painted white, no one knows why. His wife
Gauri has also a European complexion. Hence it is generally said
that the sect popularly called ‘Thugs,’ who were worshippers
of these murderous gods, spared Englishmen, the latter being
supposed to have some _rapport_ with their deities.
They passed through the quadrangular outer court of the temple whose
piazza was hung with deep shade.[191] In silence they circumambulated
the small central shrine, and whenever Shanta Shil directed, Raja
Vikram entered the Sabha, or vestibule, and struck three times upon
the gong, which gave forth a loud and warning sound.
[191] The Hindu shrine is mostly a small building, with two inner
compartments, the vestibule and the Garbagriha, or adytum, in
which stands the image.
They then passed over the threshold, and looked into the gloomy inner
depths. There stood Smashana-Kali,[192] the goddess, in her most
horrid form. She was a naked and very black woman, with half-severed
head, partly cut and partly painted, resting on her shoulder; and
her tongue lolled out from her wide yawning mouth;[193] her eyes
were red like those of a drunkard; and her eyebrows were of the same
colour: her thick coarse hair hung like a mantle to her heels. She
was robed in an elephant’s hide, dried and withered, confined at the
waist with a belt composed of the hands of the giants whom she had
slain in war: two dead bodies formed her earrings, and her necklace
was of bleached skulls. Her four arms supported a scimitar, a noose,
a trident, and a ponderous mace. She stood with one leg on the
breast of her husband, Shiva, and she rested the other on his thigh.
Before the idol lay the utensils of worship, namely, dishes for the
offerings, lamps, jugs, incense, copper cups, conchs and gongs; and
all of them smelt of blood.
[192] Meaning Kali of the cemetery (Smashana); another form of
Durga.
[193] Not being able to find victims, this pleasant deity, to
satisfy her thirst for the curious juice, cut her own throat that
the blood might spout up into her mouth. She once found herself
dancing on her husband, and was so shocked that in surprise she
put out her tongue to a great length, and remained motionless.
She is often represented in this form.
As Raja Vikram and his son stood gazing upon the hideous spectacle,
the devotee stooped down to place his skull-lamp upon the ground, and
drew from out his ochre-coloured cloth a sharp sword which he hid
behind his back.
‘Prosperity to thine and thy son’s for ever and ever, O mighty
Vikram!’ exclaimed Shanta Shil, after he had muttered a prayer before
the image. ‘Verily thou hast right royally redeemed thy pledge,
and by the virtue of thy presence all my wishes shall presently be
accomplished. Behold! the Sun is about to drive his car over the
eastern hills, and our task now ends. Do thou reverence before this
my deity, worshipping the earth through thy nose, and so prostrating
thyself that thy eight limbs may touch the ground.[194] Thus shall
thy glory and splendour be great; the Eight Powers[195] and the Nine
Treasures shall be thine, and prosperity shall ever remain under thy
roof-tree.’
[194] This ashtanga, the most ceremonious of the five forms of
Hindu salutation, consists of prostrating and of making the eight
parts of the body—namely, the temples, nose and chin, knees and
hands—touch the ground.
[195] ‘Sidhis,’ the personified Powers of Nature. At least, so we
explain them; but people do not worship abstract powers.
Raja Vikram, hearing these words, recalled suddenly to mind all that
the Vampire had whispered to him. He brought his joined hands open
up to his forehead, caused his two thumbs to touch his brow several
times, and replied with the greatest humility,
‘O pious person! I am a king ignorant of the way to do such
obeisance. Thou art a spiritual preceptor: be pleased to teach me and
I will do even as thou desirest.’
Then the Jogi, being a cunning man, fell into his own net. As he
bent him down to salute the goddess, Vikram drawing his sword struck
him upon the neck so violent a blow, that his head rolled from his
body upon the ground. At the same moment Dharma Dhwaj, seizing his
father’s arm, pulled him out of the way in time to escape being
crushed by the image, which fell with the sound of thunder upon the
floor of the temple.
A small thin voice in the upper air was heard to cry, ‘A man is
justified in killing one who has the desire to kill him.’ Then glad
shouts of triumph and victory were heard in all directions. They
proceeded from the celestial choristers, the heavenly dancers, the
mistresses of the gods, and the nymphs of Indra’s Paradise, who left
their beds of gold and precious stones, their seats glorious as the
meridian sun, their canals of crystal water, their perfumed groves,
and their gardens where the wind ever blows in softest breezes, to
applaud the valour and good fortune of the warrior king.
[Illustration: As he bent him down to salute the goddess.]
At last the brilliant god, Indra himself, with the thousand eyes,
rising from the shade of the Parigat tree, the fragrance of whose
flowers fills the heavens, appeared in his car drawn by yellow steeds
and cleaving the thick vapours which surround the earth—whilst his
attendants sounded the heavenly drums and rained a shower of blossoms
and perfumes—bade the king Vikramajit the Brave ask a boon.
The Raja joined his hands and respectfully replied,
‘O mighty ruler of the lower firmament, let this my history become
famous throughout the world!’
‘It is well,’ rejoined the god. ‘As long as the sun and moon endure,
and the sky looks down upon the ground, so long shall this thy
adventure be remembered over all the earth. Meanwhile rule thou
mankind.’
Thus saying Indra retired to the delicious Amrawati.[196] Vikram took
up the corpses and threw them into the cauldron which Shanta Shil had
been tending. At once two heroes started into life, and Vikram said
to them, ‘When I call you, come!’
[196] The residence of Indra, king of heaven, built by
Wishwa-Karma, the architect of the gods.
With these mysterious words the king, followed by his son, returned
to the palace unmolested. As the Vampire had predicted, everything
was prosperous to him, and he presently obtained the remarkable
titles, Sakaro, or foe of the Sakas, and Sakadhipati-Vikramaditya.
And when, after a long and happy life spent in bringing the world
under the shadow of one umbrella, and in ruling it free from care,
the warrior king Vikram entered the gloomy realms of Yama, from
whom for mortals there is no escape, he left behind him a name that
endured amongst men like the odour of the flower whose memory remains
long after its form has mingled with the dust.[197]
[197] In other words, to the present day, whenever a Hindu
novelist, romancer, or tale writer seeks a peg upon which to
suspend the texture of his story, he invariably pitches upon the
glorious, pious, and immortal memory of that Eastern King Arthur,
Vikramaditya, shortly called Vikram.
[Illustration]
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