Chaupannamahapurischariyam

Author(s): Shilankacharya, Amrutlal Bhojak, Dalsukh Malvania, Vasudev S Agarwal
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 45

THE SILAVATI-STORY
[ § 24
At nightfall Sumitrā leads V. to his wife. She has to be soothed by Sumitra before she can receive Varunavarman. Eventually V. enters; his wife embraces him and offers him a seat on the sofa. Suddenly the pallipati arrives, summoned (as it later appears) by the wicked Silavati. She feigns utter confusion ond asks V. to conceal himself under the sofa. When the pallipati has entered, both take their seats on that very sofa. Simha asks her in a submissive voice why she had suddenly called him back from the yatra. She replies that she could not control her yearning for him any longer. Then she asks him what he would do if by chance her former husband turned up. He retorts ironically that he would hand her over to him. Silavati is enraged. Although the pallipati hastens to assure her that he would protect her from every danger, she does not grow calm but doubts whether Simha would be a match for Varunavarman. The result of her words is an outburst of wrath on the part of the pallipati. Next she tells him that his enemy lies under the sofa. The pallipati at once draws his sword and seizes Varunavarman. Silavati saves him from instantaneous death as she wants him to be tortured before being put to death. So Simha's men tie him to a post with stripes prepared from his own skin. The couple make love before V.'s eyes and eventually fall asleep.
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Meanwhile V. is tortured by mental agonies which even surpass his physical pain. While he is engrossed in his thoughts a mouse comes and eats away his fetters. Released, he seizes Simba's sword, challenges him and as soon as he has risen chops off his head. He compells Silavati, who is trembling with fear, to accompany him as he sets out for the homeward journey, keeping clear of the usual path. Unfortunately he does not notice that Silavati, walking behind him, is marking the road with pieces of cloth. This enables Simha's son Vyaghra who has set out in pursuit of them to trace the couple in a thicket where they have taken shelter after sunrise. He nails V. down with pegs of Khadira-wood and carries Silavati back. While V. is wondering how he could be so inattentive, a monkey-chief appears with his herd. Seeing V. in a helpless condition, he hurries onto a mountain, preventing the herd from accompanying him. After a short time he returns and puts on each peg a morsel bitten off from a magical root that he has brought with him. Thereupon the pegs come out. With the help of a second herb he heals V.'s wounds.
V. refreshes himself with fruit. Thinking over his position he comes to the conclusion that it would bring disgrace upon him to return home unsuccessfully. Meanwhile the monkey-chief comes again, lays down a cudgel before V.'s feet, and beckons to him with a glance to follow. On reaching the summit of a mountain, the monkey sends forth a thundering roar which fills all the animals of the forest with terror. Thereupon a second monkey-chief appears, utters a similar roar, and rushes upon the first monkey, his rival. Threatened by his enemy the latter once again glances at his companion Varunavarman. V. hits the aggressor on the head with the thorny cudgel so that he falls to the ground and gasps out his life. The first monkey throws the dead body in a pit and expresses by looks his readiness to repay V. his service. V. gently refuses, and the monkey shows him the way to the palli. There in the night he breaks into the house of the pallipati (the preceding phrase jäniuna ya sayalavultantam Sumitta-sayasão does not make any sense), kills his son Vyaghra, catches Silavati and sets out with her on the homeward journey.
On the way he is attacked by another pallipati called Viraka, but single-handed he routs his whole gang. Thereupon Viraka remarks that the victory over his gang is no fair test of V.'s courage and challenges him to a hand-to-hand fight. But then he observes that a victory over V. will not add to his (i. e. Viraka's) credit, because V. is alone and from a foreign country (so that there is no proper witness of the fight). The first sentences of V.'s reply are not clear, but they are followed by a eulogy of courage and bravery shown in battle. V. concludes by asking the pallipati to fight or to retreat. Viraka is deeply impressed by these words, asks V. his name and the purpose of his journey,