The story of a statue of sable stone among the ruins of
Tirouvicaray, which are in the Land of Golconda that was....
When the body shall have mouldered even as the trunk of a
dead tree, shall have crumbled to dust even as a clod of
earth, the lovers of the dead will turn away their faces and
depart; but Virtue, remaining faithful, will lead the soul
beyond the darknesses....
The yellow jungle-grasses are in the streets of the city; the hooded
serpents are coiled about the marble legs of the gods. Bats suckle
their young within the ears of the granite elephants; and the hairy
spider spins her web for ruby-throated humming-birds within the
chambers of longs. The pythons breed within the sanctuaries, once
ornate as the love-songs of Indian poets; the diamond eyes of the
gods have been plucked out; lizards nestle in the lips of Siva; the
centipedes writhe among the friezes; the droppings of birds whiten the
altars.... But the sacred gateway of a temple still stands, as though
preserved by the holiness of its inscriptions:
The Self-existent is not of the universe.... Man may not
take with him aught of his possessions beyond the grave;
let him increase the greatness of his good deeds, even as
the white ants do increase the height of their habitation.
For neither father nor mother, neither sister nor brother,
neither son nor wife, may accompany him to the other world;
but Virtue only may be his comrade...
And these words, graven upon the stone, have survived the wreck of a
thousand years.
Now, among the broken limbs of the gods, and the jungle grasses, and
the monstrous creeping plants that seem striving to strangle the
elephants of stone, a learned traveler wandering in recent years came
upon the statue of a maiden, in black granite, marvelously wrought. Her
figure was nude and supple as those of the women of Krishna; on her
head was the tiara of a princess, and from her joined hands escaped a
cascade of flowers to fall upon the tablet supporting her exquisite
feet. And on the tablet was the name NATALIKA; and above it a verse
from the holy Ramayana, which signifies, in our tongue, these words:
...For I have been witness of this marvel, that by crushing
the flowers in her hands, she made them to exhale a sweeter
perfume.
And this is the story of Natalika, as it is told in the chronicle of
the Moslem historian Ferista:
More than a thousand years ago there was war between the Khalif Oualed
and Dir-Rajah, of the Kingdom of Sindh. The Arab horsemen swept over
the land like a typhoon; and their eagle-visaged hordes reddened the
rivers with blood, and made the nights crimson with the burning of
cities. Brahman ab ad they consumed with fire, and Alan and Dinal,
making captives of the women, and putting all males to the edge of the
scimitar. The Rajah fought stoutly for his people and for his gods;
but the Arabs prevailed, fearing nothing, remembering the words of the
Prophet, that "Paradise may be found in the shadow of the crossing of
swords." And at Brahmanabad, Kassim, the zealous lieutenant of the
Khalif, captured the daughter of the Rajah, and slew the Rajah and all
his people.
Her name was Natalika. When Kassim saw her, fairer than that
Love-goddess born from a lotus-flower, her eyes softer than dew, her
figure lithe as reeds, her blue-black tresses rippling to the gold
rings upon her ankles---he swore by the Prophet's beard that she was
the comeliest ever born of woman, and that none should have her save
the Khalif Oualed. So he commanded that a troop of picked horsemen
should take her to Bagdad, with much costly booty--jewelry, delicate
and light as feathers, ivory carving miraculously wrought (sculptured
balls within sculptured balls), emeralds and turquoises, diamonds
and rubies, woofs of cashmere, and elephants, and dromedaries. And
whosoever might do hurt to Natalika by the way, would have to pay for
it with his head, as surely as the words of the Koran were the words of
God's Prophet.
When Natalika came into the presence of the Khalif of Bagdad, the
Commander of the Faithful could at first scarcely believe his eyes,
seeing so beautiful a maiden; and starting from his throne without so
much as looking at the elephants and the jewels and the slaves and the
other gifts of Kassim, he raised the girl from her knees and kissed her
in the presence of all the people, vowing that it rather behooved him
to kneel before her than her to kneel before him. But she only wept,
and answered not....
And before many days the Khalif bade her know that he desired to make
her his favorite wife; for since his eyes had first beheld her he could
neither eat nor sleep for thinking of her. Therefore he prayed that she
would cease her weeping, inasmuch as he would do more to make her happy
than any other might do, save only the Prophet in his paradise.
Then Natalika wept more bitterly than before, and vowed herself
unworthy to be the bride of the Khalif, although herself a king's
daughter; for Kassim had done her a grievous wrong ere sending her to
Bagdad....
Oualed heard the tale, and his mustaches curled with wrath. He sent
his swiftest messengers to India with a sealed parchment containing
orders that Kassim should leave the land of Sindh forthwith and hasten
to Bassora, there to await further commands. Natalika shut herself up
alone in her chamber to weep; and the Khalif wondered that he could not
comfort her. But Kassim, leaving Sindh, wondered much more why the
Commander of the Faithful should have recalled him, notwithstanding the
beauty of the gifts, the loveliness of the captives, the splendor of
the elephants. Still marveling, he rode into Bassora, and sought the
governor of that place. Even while he was complaining there came forth
mutes with bow-strings, and they strangled Kassim at the governor's
feet.
Days went and came; and at last there rode into Bagdad a troop of
fierce horsemen, to the Khalif s palace. Their leader, advancing into
Oualed's presence, saluted him, and laid at his feet a ghastly head
with blood-bedabbled beard, the head of the great captain, Kassim.
"Lo!" cried Oualed to Natalika, "I have avenged thy wrong; and now, I
trust, thou wilt believe that I love thee, and truly desire to set thee
over my household as my wife, my queen, my sweetly beloved!"
But Natalika commenced to laugh with a wild and terrible laugh. "Know,
O deluded one," she cried, "that Kassim was wholly innocent in that
whereof I accused him, and that I sought only to avenge the death of
my people, the murder of my brothers and sisters, the pillage of our
homes, the sacrilegious destruction of the holy city Brahmanabad.
Never shall I, the daughter of a Kshatrya king, ally myself with one
of thy blood and creed. I have lived so long only that I might be
avenged; and now that I am doubly avenged, by the death of our enemy,
by thy hopeless dream of love for me, I die!" Piercing her bosom with a
poniard, she fell at the Khalif s feet.
But Natalika's betrothed lover, Udayah-Rajah, avenged her even more,
driving the circumcised conquerors from the land, and slaughtering all
who fell into his hands. And the cruelties they had wrought he repaid
them a hundred-fold.
Yet, growing weary of life by reason of Natalika's death, he would not
reign upon the throne to which he had hoped to lift her in the embrace
of love; but, retiring from the world, he became a holy mendicant of
the temple of Tirouvicaray....
And at last, feeling his end near, he dug himself a little grave under
the walls of the temple; and ordered the most skilful sculptors to make
the marble statue of his beloved, and that the statue should be placed
upon his grave. Thus they wrought Natalika's statue as the statues of
goddesses are wrought, but always according to his command, so that
she seemeth to be crushing roses in her fingers. And when Udayah-Rajah
passed away, they placed the statue of Natalika above him, so that her
feet rest upon his heart.
I have been witness of this marvel, that by crushing the
flowers within her hands she made them to exhale a sweeter
perfume!
Were not those flowers the blossoming of her beautiful youth, made
lovelier by its own sacrifice?
The temple and its ten thousand priests are gone. But even after the
lapse of a thousand years a perfume still exhales from those roses of
stone!