As Raja Vikram and his son stood gazing upon the hideous spectacle, the devotee stooped down to place his skull-lamp upon the ground, and drew from out his ochre-coloured cloth a sharp sword which he hid behind his back.
“Prosperity to thine and thy son’s forever and ever, O mighty Vikram!” exclaimed Shanta Shil, after he had muttered a prayer before the image. “Verily thou hast right royally redeemed thy pledge, and by the virtue of thy presence all my wishes shall presently be accomplished. Behold! the Sun is about to drive his car over the eastern hills, and our task now ends. Do thou reverence before this my deity, worshipping the earth through thy nose, and so prostrating thyself that thy eight limbs may touch the ground.194 Thus shall thy glory and splendour be great; the Eight Powers195 and the Nine Treasures shall be thine, and prosperity shall ever remain under thy rooftree.”
Raja Vikram, hearing these words, recalled suddenly to mind all that the Vampire had whispered to him. He brought his joined hands open up to his forehead, caused his two thumbs to touch his brow several times, and replied with the greatest humility,
“O pious person! I am a king ignorant of the way to do such obeisance. Thou art a spiritual preceptor: be pleased to teach me and I will do even as thou desirest.”
Then the Yogi, being a cunning man, fell into his own net. As he bent him down to salute the goddess, Vikram drawing his sword struck him upon the neck so violent a blow, that his head rolled from his body upon the ground. At the same moment Dharma Dhwaj, seizing his father’s arm, pulled him out of the way in time to escape being crushed by the image, which fell with the sound of thunder upon the floor of the temple.
A small thin voice in the upper air was heard to cry, “A man is justified in killing one who has the desire to kill him.” Then glad shouts of triumph and victory were heard in all directions. They proceeded from the celestial choristers, the heavenly dancers, the mistresses of the gods, and the nymphs of Indra’s Paradise, who left their beds of gold and precious stones, their seats glorious as the meridian sun, their canals of crystal water, their perfumed groves, and their gardens where the wind ever blows in softest breezes, to applaud the valour and good fortune of the warrior king.
At last the brilliant god, Indra himself, with the thousand eyes, rising from the shade of the Parigat tree, the fragrance of whose flowers fills the heavens, appeared in his car drawn by yellow steeds and cleaving the thick vapours which surround the earth—whilst his attendants sounded the heavenly drums and rained a shower of blossoms and perfumes—bade the king Vikramajit the Brave ask a boon.
The Raja joined his hands and respectfully replied,
“O mighty ruler of the lower firmament, let this my history become famous throughout the world!”
“It is well,” rejoined the god. “As long as the sun and moon endure, and the sky looks down upon the ground, so long shall this thy adventure be remembered over all the earth. Meanwhile rule thou mankind.”
Thus saying Indra retired to the delicious Amrawati.196 Vikram took up the corpses and threw them into the cauldron which Shanta Shil had been tending. At once two heroes started into life, and Vikram said to them, “When I call you, come!”
With these mysterious words the king, followed by his son, returned to the palace unmolested. As the Vampire had predicted, everything was prosperous to him, and he presently obtained the remarkable titles, Sakaro, or foe of the Sakas, and Sakadhipati-Vikramaditya.
And when, after a long and happy life spent in bringing the world under the shadow of one umbrella, and in ruling it free from care, the warrior king Vikram entered the gloomy realms of Yama, from whom for mortals there is no escape, he left behind him a name that endured amongst men like the odour of the flower whose memory remains long after its form has mingled with the dust.197
Endnotes
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Metamorphoseon, seu de Asino Aureo, libri XI. The well known and beautiful episode is in the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth books. ↩
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This ceremony will be explained in a future page. ↩
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A common exclamation of sorrow, surprise, fear, and other emotions. It is especially used by women. ↩
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Quoted from View of the Hindoos, by William Ward, of Serampore (vol. I p. 25). ↩
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In Sanskrit, Vétála-pancha-Vinshatí. “Baital” is the modern form of “Vétála.” ↩
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In Arabic, Bidpai el Hakim. ↩
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Dictionnaire philosophique, sub V. “Apocryphes.” ↩
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I do not mean that rhymes were not known before the days of al-Islam, but that the Arabs popularised assonance and consonance in Southern Europe. ↩
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“Vikrama” means “valour” or “prowess.” ↩
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Mr. Ward of Serampore is unable to quote the names of more than nine out of the eighteen, namely: Sanskrit, Prakrit, Naga, Paisacha, Gandharba, Rakshasa, Ardhamágadi, Apa, and Guhyaka—most of them being the languages of different orders of fabulous beings. He tells us, however, that an account of these dialects may be found in the work called Pingala. ↩
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Translated by Sir Wm. Jones, 1789; and by Professor Williams, 1856. ↩
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Translated by Professor H. H. Wilson. ↩
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The time was propitious to savans. Whilst Vikramaditya lived, Mágha, another king, caused to be written
