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MARRIAGES OF VASUDEVA WITH MAIDĖNS 53 The holy man pulled the rope and, when I had come near the top (of the well), asked me for the vessel of liquid and did not lift me up and put me down (outside the well). As I had found out that he was greedy and threatening, I threw the liquid into the well; and he threw me down with the chair and I fell on the wall. The merchant, a brother for no reason, said to me: 'Do not despair. You have not fallen into the liquid. You are comfortably placed on the wall. When the iguana comes here, hang on to its tail. You must go to the door. Watch for its coming.' I remained for some time, comforted by his words, repeating the namaskāra again and again. The man died.
One day I heard a terrifying noise, but, trembling, I remembered what he said and knew that an iguana was certainly coming. It came to drink the liquid and when it, very powerful, had turned around, I held to its tail with both hands. Clinging to its tail I left the well, like a cowherd getting out of a river by holding to a cow's tail. Outside, I turned loose the tail. I fell to the ground in a faint and, when I became conscious, I wandered on and reached a forest and had to climb up on a rock because of a buffalo. As the buffalo was striking the rock with a long horn, he was seized quickly by a python like an arm of Kināśa (Yama). While they were busy fighting, I climbed down and fled. Speedily I came to a village on the edge of a forest. There I was seen by Rudradatta, a friend of my uncle, and, cared for by him, I became rejuvenated, as it were.
Then I took a small amount of mercandise worth a lac and started quickly for Svarṇabhūmi with him. After crossing a river, named Işuvegavati, on the road, we came to a mountain and then in turn to a cane-plantation. We reached the country of the Țankaņas and got two goats. Mounted on them, then we went by a goat-path. Then Rudra said: 'From now on this is no country for pedestrians. We shall kill the goats and make skins with the hair inside and the flesh outside. We shall put them on here and we shall go to Svarṇamedini, carried by bhāraņdas with the idea that we are meat.'
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| SR No. | 001005 |
| Book Title | Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 5 |
| Original Sutra Author | Hemchandracharya |
| Author | Helen M Johnson |
| Publisher | Oriental Research Institute Vadodra |
| Publication Year | 1962 |
| Total Pages | 507 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English, Mythology, & Story |
| File Size | 11 MB |