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NOVEMBER, 1894.]
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
341
Replied Ambika :-"My most roble lord. I have not till now known any person. It is very unkind of you to harbour such suspicions of me. I am as chaste as chastity itself."
Said the princo :-"You are chaste because I watch you so carefully. Who knows what you may be if you are left to yourself P."
Said Ambika :-"If this idea had been lingering in your mind, why did you not, my lord, mention it long ago to me? You may leave me here and disappear for any period of time you like. I shall never think of any being in this world but yourself. I shall ever continue to be your loyal wife, however hardly you may behave to me."
Said the prince :-"What guarantee is there to me that you will always continue chaste ? Give me some proof by which I may know, wherever I may be, that you are chaste.”
"Agreed," said the wife, and took out from her box & garland of lotuses. “This is the teet of my chastity. This was given to me by my mother as soon as I came to understand. The moment the flowers fade, you must know that my chastity is lost, and that as long as these fowers retain their freshness I am chaste. You can take it with you, and roam over the whole world with a calm mind, never harbouring any anxiety as to my conduct; for when you perceive the colour and freshness of these flowers to fade, you will know that I'have lost my reputation."
The husband took the garland, for had his wife told him an untruth and said that she was impure, he would easily have forgiven her. But her denial increased his suspicions and lae intended to try his best to test her : to regain her with increased love if she withstood the trial: tn banish her for all her assumed goodness if she was really bad. With these thoughts in his mind the prince said to her: -
“You seem to be a more and more curious woman every time I examine yon. Do you praetise magic to deceive people? What! These are merely ordinary lotuses, and if they are fresh now, they will fade tomorrow."
"Keep them, my lord, for some days before you judge of them. As for your statement, I swear by every thing that I hold sacred that I know of no magic, except the magic of being chaste and obedient to my husband, and I have confidence that that magic will one day remove all your doubts and make you love me all the more for your doubts now," said Ambika.
The husband knew not what to say; so he took the garland and locked it up in his box. He kept it with him for some days in Madura, and every morning when he left his bed he examined it, and to his surprise, which daily increased, he found it unchanged in color and freshness. He now resolved apon a plan to put his wife under the severest of conditions for testing her fidelity; and thus spoke to her: -
"My Ambika 1 you must leave this roof to-morrow. I intend sending you to the east end of this town to a ruined choultry, with your maid-servants to take care of you. They will bring you every morning from the palace two measures of rice with other necessaries to live apon. You must live there, while I go on a pilgrimage to BÂnÂras to wash away my sins for having married an unchaste wife. With your own money - and I do not know how yon will get it- you must build a 'Saiva temple opposite to the choultry, must become pregnant of a son, through me and unknown to myself, before my return to this city. I shall be absent for two years. Till you perform successfully all these condition, I shall never call you my wife, nor imagine you to be chaste."
"Agreed," said Ambik. “I am sure that my chastity will successfully help me in all these undertakings. With the talisman of my chastity in your hands you can go 1 Cf. Milton's Coin (420-437):
'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity; Sbe that has that is clad in complete steel. No goblin or swart faery of the mine Hath hartful power o'er true virginity,
