While now Vikramâditja reigned over all his people in justice and
equity complaint was brought before him against one of his ministers,
that he oppressed the people and dealt fraudulently with them; and
Vikramâditja, having tried his cause, judged him worthy of death. But
when he was brought before him to receive sentence he pleaded for life
so earnestly that the magnanimous King answered him, "Why should the
life of the most abject be taken? Let him but be driven forth from
the habitation of men."
So they drove him forth from the habitation of men. Now it had been the
minister's custom, in pursuance of a vow, to observe three fast-days
every month (1). And so it happened, that one day after they had
driven him forth from the habitations of men, on the day succeeding
one of his fasts, he found himself quite without any thing to eat;
nor could he discover any fruit or any herb which could serve as a
means of subsistence. Recollecting, then, that one day he had made
four little offering-tapers out of wax and bread crumbs, he went and
searched out the shrine where he had offered them, that he might take
them to eat. But see! when he stretched forth his hand to take one
of them it glided away from before him and hid itself behind another
of the offering-tapers; and when he would have taken that one, they
both hid themselves behind the third. And when he stretched forth his
hand to have taken the third, the three together, in like manner,
glided behind the fourth. And when he stretched forth his hand to
have taken the four together, they all glided away together from
off the altar and out of the shrine altogether, and so swiftly that
it was as much as he could do to follow after them and keep them in
sight. Going on steadily behind them he came at last to a cave of a
rock, and brushwood growing over it. Herein they disappeared. Then
when he would have crept in after them into the cave of the rock, two
he-goats, standing over the portal of the cave, sculptured in stone,
spoke to him, saying, "Beware, and enter not! for this is a place of
bad omen. Within this cave sits the beauteous Dâkinî (2) Tegrijin Nâran
(3) sunk in deep contemplation and speaketh never. Whoso can make
her open her lips twice to speak to man, to him is the joy given to
bear her home for his own. But let it not occur to thee to make the
bold attempt of inducing her to open her lips to speak, for already
five hundred sons of kings have tried and failed; and behold they all
languish in interminable prison at the feet of the Silent Haughty One,
sunk in deep contemplation."
And as they spoke they bent low their heads, and pointed their horns
at him, to forbid him the entrance.
The minister, however, had no mind to try the issue, but rather
seized with a great panic he turned him and fled without so much as
heeding whither his steps led him. Thus running he chanced to come
with his head at full butt against the magnanimous King Vikramâditja,
just then taking his walk abroad.
"How now, evil man?" exclaimed the magnanimous King. "Whence comest
thou, fleeing as from an evil conscience?"
Then the minister prostrated himself before him, and told him all
he had learnt from the two he-goats sculptured in stone, concerning
Naran-Dâkinî.
When Vikramâditja had heard the story, he commanded that the evil
minister should be guarded, to see whether the event proved that he
had spoken the truth; but, taking with him Schalû and three far-sighted
and experienced ministers, he went on till he came to the cave and saw
the two he-goats sculptured in stone standing over the portal. The
he-goats would have made the same discourse to him as to the evil
minister, but he commanded them silence. Then he transformed Schalû
into an aramâlâ (4) in his hand, but the three ministers into the
altar that stood before the Dâkinî, and the lamp that burned thereon,
and the granite vessel for burning incense placed at the foot of the
same (5); laying this charge upon them: "I will come in," said he,
"as though a wayfarer who knew you not, and sitting down I will tell
a saga of olden time. Then all of you four give an interpretation of
my saga quite perverse from the real meaning, and if the Dâkinî be
prudent and full of understanding she will open her lips to speak to
vindicate the right meaning of the story."
Presently, therefore, after he had completed the transformation of
Schalû and the three far-seeing and experienced ministers, and having
himself assumed the appearance of a king on his travels, he entered
the cave and sat down over against the altar which stood before the
Dâkinî Naran, the Silent Haughty One, sunk in deep contemplation. Then
said he, "In that it was told me in this place dwells the all-fair
Tegrijin Naran-Dâkinî, I, who am King of Gambudvîpa, am come hither to
visit her;" and as he spoke he looked furtively up towards the Dâkinî,
to see whether he had moved her to open her lips to speak.
But the all-beauteous Naran-Dâkinî, the Silent Haughty One, sat still
and gave forth no sign.
Then spoke the King again, saying, "On occasion of this my coming,
O Naran-Dâkinî, tell thou me one of the sagas of old; or else, if
thou prefer to hold thy peace, then will I tell one to thee!"
Again he looked up, but Naran-Dâkinî Tegrijin, the Silent Haughty One,
sat sunk in deep contemplation and gave forth no sign.
As the King paused, one of the far-seeing and experienced ministers,
even the one whom he had transformed into the altar that stood before
the Dâkinî, spoke, saying,--
"While from the lips of the all-beauteous Naran-Chatun (6) no word
of answer proceeds, how should it beseem me, the Altar, a non-souled
object, to speak. Nevertheless, seeing that so great and magnanimous a
King has come hither and has propounded a question, I will yet dare,
even I, to answer him. For, seeing that Naran-Chatun is so immersed
in her own contemplations, she cannot give ear to the words of the
King, I who, standing all the day before her in silence, and hearing
no word of wisdom in any of the sagas of old, even I would fain be
instructed by the words of the King."
And as the altar thus spoke, Naran Tegrijin Dâkinî cast a glance
of scorn upon it, but the Silent Haughty One opened never her lips
to speak.
Then the King took up his parable and poured forth one of the sagas
of old after this manner, saying,--