METAMORPHOSES OF KUMBHA TO A FEMALE FORM.
Argument:--Kumbha's relation of her transformation to a woman by right,
and her attachment to the prince.
Sikhidhwaja said:--If such is the case, sir, that destiny over rules
all events, why should you be sorry for aught that has befallen to you,
knowing that you are a godson and knowing the knowable also.
2. Kumbha replied:--Hear, O prince, the wonderful accident that has
befallen on me; and I will relate to you all that has happened to me in
body.
3. The heart becomes light when its griefs are imparted to a friend, as
the thickened gloominess of the cloudy atmosphere, is dissipated after
discharge of its waters in rains.
4. The troubled mind is restored to its serenity, by its communication
with a sincere friend, as the turbid waters of a jar is cleared by its
being filtered with _kata_ seeds.
5. Hear now that after I departed from here, by handing over the spike
of flowers to you; I traversed though the regions of air, till I
reached the heavenly abode of the God.
6. There I met my father, and accompanied him to the court of the great
Indra, where having sat a while, I got up with my father and then
parted from him at his abode.
7. Leaving the seat of the Gods in order to come down on earth, I
entered the region of air; and kept my pace with the fleet steeds of
the chariot of the sun, in the airy paths of the skies.
8. Thus wafted together with the sun, I reached the point of my
separation from him; and there took my path through the midway sky, as
if I were sailing in the sea.
9. I saw there in a track before me, a path stretching amidst the
watery clouds of air, and marked the indignant sage Durvása gliding
swiftly by it.
10. He was wrapt in the vest of clouds, and girt with girdles of
flashing lightnings; the sandal taints on his body were washed off by
showering rains, and he seemed as a maiden making her way in haste, to
meet her lover at the appointed place.
11. Or as a devotee he hastened to discharge in due time his fond
devotion, on the beach of the river (Ganges), flowing under the shade
of the beaching boughs of the rows of trees on the shore. (This refers
to the custom of hastening to perform the _sandhyá_ rites on the river
side in the evening, as it is customary with other nations to hasten
to the mosque or church at the call to prayers and the striking of the
church-bell).
12. I saluted the sage from my aerial seat, and said, you, wrapt as you
are in your blue vest of the cloud, seem to advance in haste, as an
amorous woman to meet her lover (by hiding herself in her black mantle
in the darkness of night).
13. Hearing this, the reverend sage was incensed and pronounced his
curse upon me; saying, "Be thou transformed to an amorous woman as thou
thinkest me to be."
14. "Go thy way, and bear my curse, that every night thou shall become
a woman, with thy protuberant breasts and long braids of hairs on thy
head, and fraught with all womanish grace and dalliance (and seek about
thy lover)".
15. As I was thunderstruck and deeply dejected at this imprecation, I
found the old _muni_ had already disappeared from before me; and then
I bent my course this way from the upper sky, being quite sick in my
heart (at this direful fulmination).
16. Thus I have related to you all, regarding my being changed to a
damsel at the approach of night; and my constant thought of the manner,
how I shall manage myself under my womanhood.
17. How shall I divulge to my father, the shame of my being a swollen
breasted maid at night; and can I reconcile myself to my dire fate,
throughout the course of my life. O how wonderful is the decree of
fate, that we are fated to bear in this world in the course of time!
18. I am now ill-fated to become a prey to young men, and the subject
of fighting among them, like a piece of flesh among ravenous vultures.
19. O what a fun have I become to the ludicrous boys of the Gods in
heaven, and ah! how shameful have I been before the sages, who must be
quite ashamed of me, and how shall I remain anywhere and before any
body in my female form at night.
20. Vasishtha said:--After saying so far, Chúdálá became as mute as a
silent _muni_; and remained as quiet as if she were in a swoon.
21. The pretended Kumbha then, seeming to recover his senses and his
patience also, thus spoke out to himself; ah! why do I wail like the
ignorant (for this change in my changeful body), when my soul suffers
no change by this?
22. Sikhidhwaja spoke:--Why sorrow you sir for the body, that art the
son of a God; let it become whatever may become of it, it can never
affect the intangible soul.
23. Whatever pain or pleasure betides us in this life, is all
concomitant with the changing body, and can never touch the unchanging
soul.
24. If you who are acquainted with the vedas, and fortified against all
events; should allow yourself to be so much moved by these accidents,
say what will be the case with others, at all the casualties of life,
to which they are incessantly subject.
25. To be sorry in sorrow; is very sorrowful in the wise; and therefore
you who have yourself spoken these precepts before, should now be
overwhelmed in sorrow, but remain as unmoved, as you are wont to be
unshaken all along.
26. Vasishtha related:--In this did the two hearty friends, continue to
condole with one another; and console themselves by turns, under the
cooling shade of the grove where they sat together.
27. At last the bright sun who is the light of the world, set down in
darkness like an oilless lamp, by involving Kumbha under despondency of
her female form.
28. The full blown lotuses closed their folia, like the closing
eyelids of the busy worldlings; and the footpaths became as deserted
by their passengers, as the hearts of loving wives are forlorn in the
absence of their husbands, devoted to travelling and staying in distant
countries.
29. The upper sky borrowed the semblance of the lower earth, by its
spreading the curtain of darkness over the groups of its twinkling
stars, like the outstretched nets of fishermen enfolding the finny
tribe. (The similarity of the dark curtain of the sky overspreading
its shining stars, to the black nets of fishers enveloping the silvery
fishes under them).
30. The black vault of the sky, was smiling above with its train of
shining stars, as the blue bed of lakes was rejoicing with its chain of
blooming lilies below; and the sounding black bees and beetles on the
land, resounded to the cries of the ruddy geese in the water.
31. The two friends then rose and offered their evening prayers at
the rising of the moon, and chanted their hymns and muttered their
_mantras_, and took their shelter under the sylvan retreat.
32. Afterwards Kumbha, changed as he was in the female form, and
sitting before Sikhidhwaja, lisped his faltering speech to him in the
following manner.
33. Sir, I seem to fall down and cry out and melt away in my tears, to
see myself even now changed to my feminine figure in your presence.
34. See Sir, how quickly are the hairs on my head lengthened to curling
locks, and to how they sparkle with strings of pearls fastened to them,
like the brilliant clusters of stars in the azure sky.
35. Look here at these two snowy balls bulging out of my bosom, like
two white lotus-buds rising on the surface of waters in the vernal
season.
36. Look how my long robe is stretched down to the heels, and how it
mantles my whole body, like the person of a female.
37. Look at these gemming ornaments and wreathes of flowers decorating
my person, like the blooming blossoms of spring ornamenting the forest
tree.
38. Lo! the moon-bright vest covering the crown of my head (like the
disk of the moon resting on the hairy crest of Siva); and the necklaces
hanging about my body (like the flowery wreathes of Káma).
39. Look at my features, how they are converted to their effeminate
comeliness, and see how my whole frame, graced all over with feminine
loveliness.
40. O! how very great is my sorrow, at this sudden change of mine to a
woman; and ah! tell me friend, what am I to do, and where to go with
this my female form.
41. I perceive also the change to take place in my inner parts, and in
my thighs and posteriors; Kumbha said so far to her friend, and then
remained quite mute and silent.
42. The prince also, seeing him thus, remained in his mute gaze and
silence, and then after a while, he oped his mouth and spoke as
follows:--
43. It is of course very sorrowful and pitiable, to see you thus
transformed to a female; but you, sir, who know the truth, know also
that there is no contending with fate.
44. Whatever is destined, must come to pass; and wise men must not be
startled at or feel sorry for the same; because all those events betake
the body only, and cannot affect the inward soul.
45. Kumbha replied--So it is, and I must bear with my feminine form,
with an unfeminine soul. (So it is no disgrace to be an effeminate
female, combined with the grace of a manly soul).
46. I will no more sorrow for, what is never to be averted; but must
endure with patience what I cannot abjure. Relying on this principle,
they alleviated their sorrow for what was impossible to avoid.
47. They passed their nights in peace, and slept in the same bed
without touching one another; and Kumbha rose in the morning in his
masculine form again, without any trace of his female features and
feminine beauty or grace.
48. Kumbha was Kumbha again, by being shorn of his female form; and
thus he passed as bisexual and biform being of the Bráhman boy Kumbha
by day, and of Chúdálá the princess by night.
49. In his male form, Kumbha continued as a friend to the prince in the
day time; and in female form of Chúdálá, he lived as a virgin maid with
him at night.
50. Thus did Chúdálá cling to her husband, as a string of necklace
hangs upon the neck and breast of a person. They then continued to
wander in the company of one another, to different countries and over
distant hills, to satisfy their curiosity.