Indian Antiquary Vol 04

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 66

56
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
upcountry man. He then went to the king's palace, taking his sword and shield, and seeing the iemadâr in the courtyard he told him he was an upcountry man seeking for service, and that he would undertake whatever no one else could do. The jemadâr iaformed the king, and the latter ordered him to be brought before him. Śiva Dâs came very respectfully, and the king, being pleased with his appearance, ordered him to be appointed to keep guard in the courtyard.
So Siva Dâs continued to eat and live there. Now the king had for a long time been subject to a disease which came on once or twice a month, and it attacked him just at this time and he became senseless. A great many doctors and physicians had formerly attended him, but none of them could cure the disease; so the prime minister, remembering that the new servant had undertaken to do what no one else could, sent for him to the king's presence and told him about the king's illness. Siva Dâs inquired the nature of the disease, and the king told him that a sound of weeping was heard to the north, and when it reached his ears he was instantly attacked by the disease and became senseless. Siva Dâs, on hearing this, waited till midnight, and then, taking his sword and shield, went twenty kos along the north road till he reached a high mountain, which he ascended, and on the top found a beautiful girl who was screaming and crying, but she was really a Rakshasa who had assumed the form of a woman, and when her crying reached the king's cars he became ill. Siva Das asked why she was crying, and told her she must leave that place, and when she refused to go away he threatened to cut her in pieces; she grew angry at that, and assumed her own shape and came towards him, and they fought for a long time, but at last he cut off one of her arms, which was fifty cubits in length.
She ran away as soon as her arm was cut off, and the king's disease was stayed. Śiva Dâs thought he had better take the arm with him and show it in the palace, or no one would believe him: so he took it, and seating himself on his sword said, "Sword given by Siva, take me and the arm of the Rakshasa to the king's palace." He was instantly lifted up and deposited in the king's courtyard. The next morning every one was astonished at the sight of the arm of the Rakshasa, and the king was very much pleased
[FEBRUARY, 1875.
with Siva Dâs, and, wishing to know more about him, inquired whose son he was and where he lived. Siva Dâs gave a true account of himself, and the king gave him his daughter in marriage. Siva Dâs remained there for a few days after his marriage, and then determined that he would proceed in search of the dream, so he took leave of the king and travelled along the road for a month, and then mounted his sword and flew over the sea to the country or the Rakshasas.
As he was approaching, two Râkshasas were bathing in the sea, and one of them said, "I smell the scent of a wondrous man." At that moment Siva Dâs descended beside thera, and they seized him and began to smell and lick his body. One of them said, "I shall eat man's flesh," the other said, "No, brother; what is the use of eating one man? he will not fill your belly; we will hold him to ransom and take him to the king, who will be pleased with us." So they agreed on this plan, and held him to ransom and took him to the king, and said, "See, we have brought this man from a long distance for you: be pleased to accept him." The Rakshasa king was excessively pleased to obtain Siva Dâs, but, liking his appearance very much, he refrained from eating him, and said to his prime minister, "I do not wish to eat this son of man; he is very good-looking and must be some king's son, so I will not kill him, but will marry him to my daughter." The minister told the king to do as he pleased, and the matter was settled, and in a few days Siva Dâs married the Rakshasa's daughter. Some time before the marriage, Śiva Dâs said to the king, "You have promised to marry me to your daughter, but suppose she should kill and eat me?" The king replied, "We are Rakshasas, it is true, but we do not kill our husbands and suffer the torture of widowhood; we could not commit such a sin." Siva Dâs was reassured at hearing this, and spent some time happily with his Rakshasa wife, and as he was really fond of her he constantly remained with her.
One day he told the king about the dream which his father had seen, and how he had come to search for it, and asked if he knew where it was to be found. The king said he had heard that the dream really existed, but he did not know where it was to be found; he heard of it from an ascetic who lived in the forest three