A merchant who had married in Vārāṇasī determined to go to sea again
with merchandise. His wife refused to stay behind. While they were on
the voyage their ship was upset by a sea-monster. The husband perished,
but the wife escaped on a plank, and was driven by the wind to
Kaśerudvīpa, where dwelt the bird-king Suparṇa, who made her his wife.
She bare him first a very beautiful boy, and then a young bird Suparṇa,
who, after his father’s death, was installed king of the birds. His
mother insisted on his installing his elder brother as king in
Vārāṇasī, so he carried off King Brahmadatta in his claws, and flung
him into the sea; then he set on the throne in his place his own
brother, arrayed in all splendour, and he warned the ministers that he
would treat exactly like Brahmadatta any one of them who did the least
thing wrong. The name of Brahmadatta was given likewise to the new
king, who begged his brother to assist him from time to time.
After some time it happened that the king’s elephant, which was
parturient, was unable to bring forth its young. The ministers advised
that it should be led into the zenana, in order that it might be
relieved of its pains by the asseverations of the king’s wives. But
although the elephant was introduced there, and the wives pronounced
their asseverations, the pains did not come to an end, and the elephant
uttered the most fearful cries. They were heard by a woman who was
looking after some oxen near the palace, and who declared that by means
of her asseveration the pains would be brought to an end. When the
ministers had told this to the king, and he had ordered her to be
brought into the zenana, she said, “If it is true that one husband is
sufficient for me, and I have not two husbands, then as the result of
this truth let the elephant be eased of its pains.” Immediately after
this utterance the elephant brought forth. When the king was informed
of this, he declared that all his wives were of vicious habits, and
ordered the herdswoman to be summoned. When she had replied in the
affirmative to his question as to whether the elephant had been
relieved of its pains in consequence of her asseveration, the king came
to the conclusion that she must have a daughter like unto herself. This
daughter, named Suśroṇī, he took as his wife; but fearing that, if he
left her in the company of the other women of his court, she would
undoubtedly contract bad habits, he begged the bird-king Suparṇa to
convey her every day to Kaśerudvīpa, but to bring her back to him every
night. Suparṇa agreed to this, and sent him every day wreaths of the
odorous flower Timira, which grew at Kaśerudvīpa.
A Brahman youth who had gone into the forest for fuel was seen there by
a Kinnarī, who hid him away in a rocky grot, where she used to enjoy
his company. Whenever he left the cave, in order to fetch flowers and
fruits, she closed its entrance with a great block of stone, which the
Brahman youth was unable to remove. She bore him a son, who was called
Āśuga (Swiftfoot), because he ran everywhere so swiftly.
As the father was always praising the merits of Vārāṇasī in his son’s
presence, the boy, when he learnt that it was his father’s birthplace,
asked him why he did not make his way thither. The father pointed out
that there was a difficulty, the entrance of the cave being closed by
the block of stone. Thereupon the son began to lift masses of stone, a
larger one every day, until he had rendered himself capable of moving
the block of stone. In order that his mother, who was in the habit of
fetching fruits and flowers from the immediate neighbourhood, should be
prevented from coming home too soon, he one day spat out all the fruits
as soon as he had put them into his mouth, and declared that she must
look for better fruits further away from the cave, for that those which
had been plucked in its neighbourhood were uneatable. Next day the
mother betook herself to a great distance, and Āśuga called upon his
father to escape, for he had sent his mother far away. Then he pushed
the rock on one side, and they two reached Vārāṇasī.
When the mother returned and found the cave empty she sat down and
wept. Her friends consoled her, saying that, as her son was a man, he
would not be in distress among men. The mother declared that, to
prevent his being in distress while parted from her, she would give him
something by means of which he could prolong his life. So she besought
her friends, so soon as they should set eyes on him, to give him a
lute, in order that he might support himself by means of it. Only he
must be careful not to touch its uppermost string; for doing so would
entail on him a great misfortune.
The Brahman had sent his son Āśuga to a Brahman as his pupil. One day
when Āśuga had gone into the forest with the other young Brahmans to
collect firewood he wandered far away, and was seen by his mother’s
friends, who asked him what news he had to give. When he had complained
of hunger and thirst they asked him if he would not go to his mother,
for she was weeping and wailing. He said that he could not hold
converse with his mother, for she was so hot-tempered. Thereupon they
gave him the lute, by means of which he would be able to keep himself
alive. But they told him that, in order that no misfortune might arise,
he was not to touch its uppermost string. Āśuga took the lute to where
the Brahman youths were. When he had played and sung to them there,
always without touching the top string, they asked him why he did not
touch it. When he had told them the reason, and in spite of that they
touched the top string, they all began to skip and dance. As this
dancing made them late, it was only in the evening that they returned
to their Paṇḍit, who asked them why they had remained out so long. When
the youths had told the whole story the Paṇḍit asked the young Āśuga if
he really understood how to play the lute and to sing. When he said
that he did, he was thereupon obliged to play. And when at the
instigation of the Paṇḍit he touched the top string, the Brahman and
his wife began to skip and dance; moreover, the whole house skipped
with a crash, and all the pots and crockery were broken to pieces. The
Brahman in a rage seized the youth Āśuga by the neck and turned him out
of the house.
After that Āśuga got his living by lute-playing and singing. Five
hundred merchants who were putting to sea took him on board with them
as a musician. When he was playing on board ship one day he touched the
top string at the request of the merchants, whereupon the ship began to
bound in the air and capsized, whereby the whole of the merchants lost
their lives. But Āśuga, who got hold of a plank, was driven by a storm
to Kaśerudvīpa.
There he took up his abode in a park where there were no other men. And
there, having seen Suśroṇī, he held dalliance with her. In this fashion
she was at the disposal of Āśuga by day and of King Brahmadatta by
night. Now Āśuga besought her to take him with her to Vārāṇasī. She
acceded to his request, asked him his name, and told him her own. Every
day after that she carried with her, when mounted upon Suparṇa, more
and more stones, until she had brought their weight to that of a man’s
body. Then she and Āśuga got on Suparṇa’s back together. She told Āśuga
to shut his eyes, saying that if he opened them a misfortune would
occur. But when they drew near to Vārāṇasī, and Āśuga heard the voices
and clamour of many people, he thought that he had reached the
journey’s end. So he opened his eyes; whereupon he immediately became
blind. Suśroṇī left him in the park, and betook herself to King
Brahmadatta’s zenana.
Now when the king had come, and the trees were putting forth their
leaves in the thick forest, and the voices were heard of geese, cranes,
peacocks, parrots, mainas, kokilas, and pheasants, King Brahmadatta,
surrounded by his women, betook himself with Suśroṇī to the park. There
the Brahman youth Āśuga, scenting the odour of the Timira flower, was
chanting a song after this fashion—
“Set in movement by the wind the odour of the Timira is perceptible.
This is Kaśerudvīpa, where Suśroṇī dwells.”
Hearing these words the king ordered his women to find out who had sung
them. After Āśuga had been discovered and brought before the king, and
had been obliged to repeat his song, the king asked him how far off
Kaśerudvīpa was. He replied in a śloka—
“The waters of the ocean stretch well nigh a hundred yojanas from here
to where lies Kaśerudvīpa, wherein Suśroṇī dwells.”