NARRATIVE OF CHÚDÁLÁ AND SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument:--Story of the _Princess Chúdálá and her marriage_ with
Sikhidhwaja and their youthful sports.
Vasishtha related:--Ráma! do you keep your view fixed to one object, as
it was kept in the mind of Bhagíratha; and do you pursue your calling
with a calm and quiet understanding, as it was done by that steady
minded prince in the accomplishment of his purpose! (For he that runs
many ways, stands in the middle and gets to the end of none).
2. Give up your thoughts of this and that (shilly-shallying), and
confine the flying bird of your mind within your bosom, and remain in
full possession of yourself after the example of the resolute prince
Sikhidhwaja of old.
3. Ráma asked:--Who was this Sikhidhwaja, sir, and how did he maintain
the firmness of his purpose? Please explain this fully to me for the
edification of my understanding.
4. Vasishtha replied:--It was in a former _Dwápara age_, that there
lived a loving pair of consorts who are again to be born in a future
period, in the same manner and at the same place.
5. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me, O great preacher! how the past could be the
same as at present, and how can these again be alike in future also.
(Since there can be no cause of the likeness of past ages and their
productions with those of the present or future. It is reasonable to
believe the recurrence of such other things, but not of the same and
very things as of yore).
6. Vasishtha replied:--Such is the irreversible law of destiny and the
irreversible course of nature, that the creation of the world must
continue in the same manner by the invariable will of the creative
Brahmá and others. (_i.e._ The repeated creation of worlds must go on
in the same rotation by the inevitable will (Satya Sankalpa) of the
creative power; wherefore bygone things are to return and be re-born
over and over again).
7. As those which had been plentiful before come to be as plenteous
again, so the past appears at present and in future also. Again many
things come to being that had not been before, and so many others
become extinct in course of time (_e. g._ as past crops return again
and again and vegetables grow where there were none, and as a lopped
off branch grows no more).
8. Some reappear in their former forms and some in their resemblance
also; others are changed in their forms, and many more disappear
altogether (see, for example, the different shapes of the waves of the
ocean).
9. These and many other things are seen in the course of the world; and
therefore the character of the subject of the present narrative will
be found to bear exact resemblance to that of the bygone prince of the
same name.
10. Hear me tell you, also, that there is yet to be born such another
prince, as valiant as the one that had been in the former _dwápara age_
of the past seventh manvantara period.
11. It will be after the four _yugas_ of the fourth creation, past and
gone, that he will be born again of the Kuru family in the vicinity of
the Vindhyan mountains in the Jambudwípa continent. (This extravagant
sloka is omitted in other editions of this work).
12. There lived a prince by name of Sikhidhwaja in the country of
Malava, who was handsome in his person, and endowed with firmness and
magnanimity in his nature, and the virtues of patience and self control
in his character.
13. He was brave but silent, and even inclined to good acts with all
his great virtues; he was engaged in the performance of the religious
sacrifices, as also in defeating bowyers in archery.
14. He did many acts (of public endowments), and supported the poor
people of the land; he was of a graceful appearance and complacent
in his countenance, and loved all men with his great learning in the
sástras.
15. He was handsome, quiet and fortunate, and equally as valiant as
he was virtuous. He was a preacher of morality and bestower of all
benefits to his suitors.
16. He enjoyed all luxuries in the company of good people, and listened
to the lessons of the Srutis. He knew all knowledge without any boast
on his part, and he hated to touch women as straws.
17. His father departed to the next world, leaving him a lad of sixteen
years in age; and yet he was able at that tender age to govern his
realm, by defeating his adversaries on all sides.
18. He conquered all other provinces of the country by means of the
resources of his empire; and he remained free from all apprehension by
ruling his subjects with justice and keeping them in peace.
19. He brightened all sides by his intelligence and the wisdom of his
ministers, till in the course of years he came to his youth, as in the
gaudy spring of the year.
20. It was the vernal season, and he beheld the blooming flowers
glistening brightly under the bright moon-beams; and he saw the budding
blossoms, hanging down the arbours in the inner apartments.
21. The door ways of the bowers were overhung with twining branches,
decorated with florets scattering their fragrant dust like the hoary
powder of camphor; and the rows of the _guluncha_ flowers wafted their
odours all around.
22. There was the loud hum of bees, buzzing with their mates upon the
flowery bushes; and the gentle zephyrs were wafting the sweet scent
amidst the cooling showers of moonbeams.
23. He saw the banks decorated with the _kadalí_ shrubbery glistening
with their gemming blossoms under the sable shade of _kadalí_
(plantain) leaves; which excited his yearning after the dear one that
was seated in his heart.
24. Giddy with the intoxication of the honey draughts of fragrant
flowers, his mind was fixed on his beloved object, and did not depart
from it, as the spring is unwilling to quit the flowery garden (so says
Hapiz,--no pleasant sight is gladsome to the mind without the face of
the fair possessor of the heart: see Sir Wm. Jones' version of it).
25. When shall I in this swinging cradles of my pleasure garden,
and when will I in my sports in this lake of lotuses, play with my
love-smitten maid with her budding breasts resembling the two unblown
blossoms of golden lotuses?
26. When shall I embrace my beloved one to my bosom on my bed daubed
with the dust of powdered frankincense, and when shall we on cradles of
lotus stalks, like a pair of bees sucking the honey from flower cups?
27. When shall I see that maiden lying relaxed in my arms, with her
slender body resembling a tender stalk, and as fair as a string of
milk-white _kunda_ flowers, or as a plant formed of moon-beams?
28. When will that moonlike beauty be inflamed with her love to me?
With these and the like thoughts and ravings he roved about the garden
looking at the variety of flowers.
29. He then went on rambling in the flowery groves and skirts of
forests, and thence strayed onward from one forest to another, and by
the side of purling lakes blooming with the full blown lotuses. (The
lotus is the emblem of beauty in the east, as the rose is in the west).
30. He entered in the alcoves formed by the twining creepers, and
walked over the avenues of many garden grounds and forest lands,
seeing and hearing the descriptions of woodland sceneries (from his
associates).
31. He was distracted in his mind, and took much delight in hearing
discourses on erotic subjects, and the bright form of his necklaced and
painted beloved was the sole idol in his breast.
32. He adored the maiden in his heart, with her breasts resembling
two golden pots on her person; and this ween was soon found by the
sagacious ministers of the state.
33. As it is the business of ministership to dive into matters by their
signs and prognosis, so these officers met together to deliberate on
his marriage.
34. They proposed the youthful daughter of the king of Syrastra (Surat)
for his marriage, and thought her as a proper match for him, on account
of her coming to the full age of puberty (_lit._ to the prime of her
youth).
35. The prince was married to her who was a worthy image (or like
co-partner) of himself; and this fair princess was known by the name of
_Chúdálá_ all over the land.
36. She was as joyous in having him, as the new blown lotus at the
rising sun; and he made the black-eyed maid to bloom, as the moon opens
the bud of the blue lotus. (Lotuses are known as helio-solenus, the
white ones opening at sun rise and the blue kind blooming with the
rising moon).
37. He delighted her with his love, as gives the white lotus to bloom;
and they both inflamed their mutual passions by their abiding in the
heart of one another.
38. She flourished with her youthful wiles and dalliance, like a new
grown creeper blooming with its flowers, and he was happy, and careless
in her company by leaving the state affairs to the management of the
ministers. (The words háv Chavavilasa, implying amorous dalliance, are
all comprised in the couplet "quips and cranks and wanton wiles, nods
and becks and wreathed smiles".--Pope).
39. He disported in the company of his lady love, as the swan sports
over a bed of lotuses in a large lake; and indulged his frolics in his
swinging cradles and pleasure ponds in the inner apartments.
40. They reveled in the gardens and groves, and in the bowers of
creepers and flowering plants; and amused themselves in the woods and
in walks under the sandalwood and a _gulancha_ shades.
41. They sported by the rows of _mandára_ trees, and beside the lines
of plantain and kadalí plants; and regaled themselves wandering in the
harem, and by the sides of the woods and lakes in the skirts of the
town.
42. He roved afar in distant forests and deserts, and in jungles of
_Jám_ and _Jám bira_ trees; they passed by paths bordered by Játí or
jasmine plants, and, in short they took delight in everything in the
company of one another.
43. The mutual attachment to one another was as delightsome to the
people as the union of the raining sky with the cultivated ground; both
tending to the welfare of mankind by the productiveness of the general
weal. (This far-fetched simile and the mazy construction of the passage
is incapable of a literal version).
44. They were both skilled in the arts of love and music, and were
so united together by their mutual attachment, that the one was a
counterpart of the other.
45. Being seated in each others heart, they were as two bodies with one
soul; so that the learning of the sástras of the one, and the skill in
painting and fine arts of the other, were orally communicated to and
learnt by one another.
46. She from her childhood was trained in every branch of learning, and
he learned the arts of dancing and playing on musical instruments, from
the oral instructions of _Chúdálá_.
47. They learned and became learned in the respective arts and parts of
one another; as the sun and moon being set in conjunction (amavasyá),
impart to and partake of the qualities of each other.
48. Being mutually situated in the heart of one another, they became
the one and the same person and both being in the same inclination and
pursuit, were the more endeared to one another (as a river running
to the milky ocean is assimilated to the ocean of milk, so all souls
mixing with the supreme soul form one universal and only soul).
49. They were joined in one person, as the _androgyne_ body of Umá and
Siva on earth; and were united in one soul, as the different fragrances
of flowers are mixed up with the common air. Their clearness of
understanding and learning of the sástras led them both in the one and
same way.
50. They were born on earth to perform their parts, like the God
_Vishnu_ and his consort Lakshmí; they were equally frank and sweet by
their mutual affection, and were as informed as communicative of their
learning to others.
51. They followed the course of the laws and customs, and attended to
the affairs of the people; they delighted in the arts and sciences, and
enjoyed their sweet pleasures also. They appeared as the two moons,
shining with their beams.
52. They tasted all their sweet enjoyments of life, in the quiet and
solitary recesses of their private apartments, as a couple of giddy
swans sporting merrily in the lake of the azure sky.