Indian Antiquary Vol 22

SR No.: 032514
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 442
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1893.
was so struck with the force of her strange words, that he was seized with an eager desire to win her in marriage, and thus to share her destiny of bringing the Sun and the Moon in human shape upon earth!
So, when the girl separated from her companions, he followed her up to her house, an. noticed, and found that she belonged to a very respectable Brahman family!
This proved, however, no bar to his wishes, for he sent messengers to her father to ask him, or rather to bid him, give his daughter in marriage to him, and where was a subject that had the courage to refuse what royalty marked for his own! So, despite the difference in their castes, the Brahman lady was married to the Kshatriya Raja amid great pomp and rejoicings on both sides.
Now this RAJA had three other wives, but his Brahman bride was placed above them all on account of the strange and interesting destiny she was reputed to be the means of fulfilling. Consequently, the others grow jealous of her, and now and then devised plans for bringing her into disfavoar with the Râjâ, but, for some time, without success.
Things went on like this for some time till it was whispered in the household that the Rani was enciente, and soon the news got wind, and there were great rejoicings throughout the kingdom, for the Sun and the Moon were soon to be born upon earth! Bat the Raja knew how much he had to fear from the jealousy of his other Raņis, and had constantly to be on guard lest they should find means to harm his favoured wife or her expected progeny in some way.
Now, unfortunately, it happened that war broke out with a neighbouring power just when the time of the lady's delivery came near, and the Rajá had to go out himself at the head of his large army to fight the enemy. So he cautioned his Brâ himaņ wife against the wiles of her Co-wives, and giving her a large drum, told her to beat it with all her might as soon as she was seized with the pangs of maternity, assuring her that the sound of that miraculous instrument would reach him wherever be was, and soon bring him back to her!
As soon, however, as the RAJA's back was turned, the three crafty and jealous women set to work, and by their wiles and flattery succeeded in inducing the simple Brahman girl to tell them all about the drum, and the wicked Raņis lost no time in cutting it right through! When the time came for the poor lady to make use of it, sbe beat it with all her strength, but it would give ont no sound! She was too simple, however, to suspect her co-wives of having tampered with it, for she thought all along that they were her well-wishers, as they kept constantly near her and made much of her! She was moreover indiscreet enough to ask them to be near her when her expected twins were born, the Sun represented by a divinely handsome boy, the Moon by a bewitchingly lovely girl! And now the crafty women had their opportunity. As soon as the little twins came into the world, they covered up the mother's eyes on some pretext or other, and taking away the dear little babes, deposited them side by side, in a little wooden box, and set it afloat in the sea! In the meantime the midwife, whom they had completely bonght over to their interests, put in the twins' place, by the mother's side, & log of wood and a broom, and, then calling in the ladies and the officers of the court, told them to see what the lady had given birth to ! The poor lady herself, however, refused to believe the bag's story, and suspected foul play, but had not the courage to speak while the Râjâ was absent.
The Raja, on his part, had been counting the days as they passed by, and expecting every moment to hear the sound of the drum; but as several days passed and he heard it not, he could no longer control his impatience; so throwing up the chances of war, he at once bent his steps homewards. But what was his surprise on arriving there to see that the courtiers and others who had come forward to meet him, wore long faces, and while some sympathized with him, others langhed at him for being duped by a canning woman, who had devised that plan of