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JANUARY, 1893.]
FOLKTALES OF HINDUSTAN.
23
When night fell the Raja went to the wicket. When he arrived there he found a silken string hanging from the roof of the palace. The Gadariyê said: "Ascend by this cord and visit the Rani."
He went up, found the Râni there, and sat down beside her; but through modesty he chanced to sit by the end of her couch, and the Râni, believing him to be a fool, gave him some pán and dismissed him. On his return he told the Gadariya what had happened, and he replied: “Well, as you did not obey my orders, you will not see her again."
Then the Gadariyâ purchased a small tent and he and the Rajâ got themselves up as ascetics (sádhu) and stayed outside the town. He told the Rajâ to personate an image of Siva, and if anyone came to sit motionless and silent. He himself took a rice pounder (músal) and went about the city saying, "I have worshipped Mâhâdêva for 12 years and in answer to my austerities he has appeared on earth." All the people came to worship the deity. Finally the Raja of the land and his daughter the Rani came to worship. The Gudariya stopped him outside and said: "If you want to do worship, you must dismount and enter on foot." So he worshipped, and after him the Ranf, -she who had gone in the boat, ---came to worship. The Gadasiyá made her too come in on foot. As she came in the Raja, suspecting who she was, opened his eyes. The Gadariyê said, "All my trouble is wasted." Thus the Rani was alarmed at seeing that the god had come to life, and went and told her father, the old Râjâ, who came and offered the Gadariyê a handsome reward to take the deity out of his land, lest he should incur his curse. Finally the Gadariya obtained a karor of rupees from the old Raja. When he got the money he and the young Råja left the place.
They went on to a neighbouring city, and then the Gadariyê sent for a goldsmith (sunár) and had a quantity of splendid jewellery made. Then he dressed the young Raja in women's attire and adorned hit with the jewellery, and promised to bring him back to the old Raja's city and again introduce him to the young Râni, but that he was not to come until the Rani gave him leave. The Gadariya then purchased a fine horse and a litter (palli). He mounted the horse himself, and took the young Raja in women's dress in the litter. When the old Rajà beard that this equipage was approaching he went out to meet them and escorted them to his palace. The Gadariyê said to the old Raja : “I am a Råjå myself and this lady is the wife of my younger brother who has gone on his travels. I am going to search for him: meanwhile I request that you will allow this lady, my sister-in-law, to stay in the female apartments." The Râjâ said, "I agree. She can remain with my daughter." So the young Raja went into the female apartments, and the Gadariya went away on pretence of searching for his missing brother.
Then the young Raja in women's attire stayed with the Rani. Sore time after, one of the handmaidens suspected that he was a man in disguise and told the Rani's brother. So he went to the Râni and said, “I must see the person that is with you, as I suspect he is a man, not a woman." The Râni said, “If you see her it must be in private, and you can come after four days and investigate the matter." When he had gone away the Rani said to the young Râjâ, “There is an inner room in the palace and in it is a well. Stand inside with a drawn sword, and when my brother comes in cut off his head." So on the day her brother was expected she shut up the Rajâ in the inner room, and told her brother to go in and make his inquiries. As he came in the Rajâ cut off his head and fung his body into the well. Then the Rânî advised him to go back to the Gadariya and let him out by the secret wicket of the palace.
The Rani then raised an outcry and said that her brother had eloped with the lady who was in her private apartments. Hearing this news her father, the old Raja, was much distressed in mind : and the Gadafiya dressed the young Bajâ in his own clothes and sent him back to the palace with instructions to demand the return of his wife, to listen to no excuses, and only to withdraw his claim when the old Raja agreed to marry him to his daughter. This all happened as the Gadariya instructed him. The old king was deeply ashamed that his son had eloped with the lady. So he was obliged to assent to the Gadariya's terms. So in the end the Raja married the Pâni and they lived happily ever after -- and the Gadariyê was suitably rewarded.
