_May that triumphant Lord protect us, who as he stands in
mysterious meditation, bathed in twilight, motionless, and
ashy pale[1], with the crystal moon in his yellow hair,
appears to the host of worshippers on his left, a woman,
and to those on his right, a man._
[1] Being actually smeared with ashes. The god is of course
Shiwa, and the allusion is to his _Ardhanári_, or half
male, half female form.
There lived of old, on the edge of the desert, a rájá of the race of the
sun. And like that sun reflected at midday in the glassy depths of the
Mánasa lake, he had an image of himself in the form of a son[2], who
exactly resembled him in every particular, except age. And he gave him
the name of Aja, for he said: He is not another, but my very self that
has conquered death, and passed without birth straight over into another
body. Moreover, he will resemble his ancestor, and the god after whom I
have called him Aja[3]. So as this son grew up, his father's delight in
him grew greater also. For he was tall as a _shála_ tree, and very
strong, and yet like another God of Love: for his face was more
beautiful than the face of any woman, with large eyes like lapis-lazuli,
and lips like laughter incarnate: so that his father, as often as he
looked at him, said to himself: Surely the Creator has made a mistake,
and mixed up his male and female ingredients, and made him half and
half. For if only he had had a twin sister, it would have been difficult
to tell with certainty, which was which.
[2] This punning assonance is precisely in the vein of the
original.
[3] This name (pronounce Aj- to rhyme with _trudge_)
meaning both _unborn_ and _a goat_, is a name of the sun
(who was a goat in Assyria), the soul, Brahma, Wishnu,
Shiwa, the God of Love, and others. It was also the name of
Rama's grandfather.
And then, when Aja was eighteen, his father died. And immediately, his
relations conspired against him, led by his maternal uncle. And they
laid a plot, and seized him at night, and bound him when he was asleep:
for they dared not attack him when he was awake, for fear of his courage
and his prodigious strength. And they deliberated over him, as he lay
bound, what they should do with him: and some of them were for putting
him to death, then and there. But the prime minister, who was in the
plot, persuaded them to let him live: saying to himself: In this way I
shall make for myself a loophole of escape, in case he should ever
regain his throne.
Then in the early morning, his uncle and his other relations took him
away, and laid him bound on a swift camel. And mounting others, they
hurried him away into the desert, going at full speed for hours, till
they reached its very heart. And there they set him down. And they
placed beside him a little water in a small skin, and a little bag of
corn. And his uncle said: Now, O nephew, we will leave thee, alone with
thy shadow and thy life in the sand. And if thou canst save thyself, by
going away to the western quarter, lo! it is open before thee. But
beware of attempting to return home, towards the rising sun. For I will
set guards to watch thy coming, and I will not spare thee a second time.
And then, he set his left arm free, and laid beside him a little knife.
And they mounted their camels, and taking his, they flew away from him
over the sand, like the shadow of a cloud driven by the western wind.
So when they were gone, Aja took the knife, and cut his bonds. And he
stood up, and watched them going, till they became specks on the edge
of the desert, and vanished out of his sight.