The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of StorySomadeva Bhatta, active 11th century
General
The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
Somadeva Bhatta, active 11th century
Folk literature -- Themes, motives; Hindu mythology; India -- Social life and customs; Tales -- India
rejoicings, and summoning Asokadatta gave that daughter to him. And
the union of those two, the daughter of the king, and the son of the
great Bráhman, was such that each enhanced the other's glory, like
the union of prosperity and modesty. And once upon a time the queen
said to the king, with reference to the anklet brought by Asokadatta:
"My husband, this anklet by itself does not look well, so let another
be made like it." When the king heard that, he gave an order to the
goldsmiths and other craftsmen of the kind, to make a second anklet
like that. But they, after examining it said;--"It is impossible,
O king, to make another like it, for the work is heavenly, not
human. There are not many jewels of this kind upon the earth, so let
another be sought for where this was obtained." When the king and the
queen heard this, they were despondent, and Asokadatta who was there,
on seeing that, immediately said, "I myself will bring you a fellow
to that anklet." And having made this promise he could not give up
the project on which he was resolved, although the king, terrified
at his temerity, endeavoured to dissuade him out of affection. And
taking the anklet he went again on the fourteenth night of the black
fortnight to the cemetery where he had first obtained it; and after
he had entered that cemetery which was full of Rákshasas as it was
of trees, besmirched with the copious smoke of the funeral pyres, and
with men hanging from their trunks [402] which were weighed down and
surrounded with nooses, he did not at first see that woman that he had
seen before, but he thought of an admirable device for obtaining that
bracelet, which was nothing else than the selling of human flesh. [403]
So he pulled down a corpse from the noose by which it was suspended on
the tree, and he wandered about in the cemetery, crying aloud--"Human
flesh for sale, buy, buy!" And immediately a woman called to him from
a distance, saying, "Courageous man, bring the human flesh and come
along with me." When he heard that, he advanced following that woman,
and beheld at no great distance under a tree a lady of heavenly
appearance, surrounded with women, sitting on a throne, glittering
with jewelled ornaments, whom he would never have expected to find in
such a place, any more than to find a lotus in a desert. And having
been led up by that woman, he approached the lady seated as has been
described, and said, "Here I am, I sell human flesh, buy, buy!" And
then the lady of heavenly appearance said to him, "Courageous hero,
for what price will you sell the flesh?" Then the hero, with the
corpse hanging over his shoulder and back, said to her, shewing her
at the same time that single jewelled anklet which was in his hand,
"I will give this flesh to whoever will give me a second anklet like
this one; if you have got a second like it, take the flesh." When
she heard that, she said to him, "I have a second like it, for this
very single anklet was taken by you from me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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