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DECEMBER, 1894.]
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA; No. 38.
385
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
BY PANDIT NATESA SASTRI, B. A., M.F.L.S. No. 38. The Talisman of Chastity.
(Continued from p. 344.)
M
EANWHILE the fair name of Ambika had been spoiled by the minister of Vijayanagara. But she had no idea of how great the mischief was that had been done. All she had wanted were funds for the 'Saiva temple, which her lord had ordered her to acquire for herself. The funds had been acquired in the manner directed. So when the merchant, after giving away all that he had to Devi, left Madura for the north, and when all this property was safely and secretly collected and kept in the choultry, Ambika said to Dêvî:
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"My dear friend, I mean to entrust the building of the Saiva temple to you, for I must leave this place soon, if I am to execute the last hard condition of my lord. Meanwhile, you must daily go to the palace to receive the dole for our maintenance. Everything must go on, as if I remained here. Not a word, not a syllable, must escape from your lips about my absence. The building of the Saiva temple, opposite to our choultry, must commence from to-morrow, and slowly must the work go on. You must keep a regular account of all the money that you spend upon it, and it must be built strictly from the funds that we have acquired from the merchant."
Dêvi listened eagerly to what all Ambikâ said, and put her a thousand questions, and promised to do all that a maid-servant could do in helping Ambika.
Now, as her lord left her for Banaras, the princess had determined to follow him there in disguise, for successfully accomplishing the last and the most severe of his conditions that But she now saw she should, through him and without his knowledge, give birth to a son. that unless she had strong help the successful execution of her project would be an extremely difficult, nay, an impossible, task. So she wrote to her father secretly about her hard life, and why she had to go to Banâras, and saying that for this journey she wanted a good retinue composed of men and women quite foreign to India, a very confidential man for superintending her affairs at Madura, and ample funds for her journey and stay at Banâras. Her father had the greatest regard for his daughter, and so he at once sent men and money, and, as desired by his daughter, made the whole retinue wait at a day's journey from Madura. The men and women that composed this retinue were all persons from the Simhaladvipa, and the king made two of his confidential ministers assume the guise of common men of that island, and ordered them to obey the princess's orders.
One of these men was to superintend the work that Dêvi was to undertake for the 'Saiva temple; and great was Ambika's delight when she saw him near her, disguised as a beggar. She came to know through him that a retinue of a hundred men and a hundred women, with another person, disguised like himself, was waiting for her at a day's journey from Madura. Her joy knew no bounds when she heard of this. She called Dêvî to her side, recommended her to the confidential friend in disguise, and made arrangements that the 'Saiva temple should be built by him with funds supplied by Dêvi. She then took a box from the hands of the disguised friend, which contained something for her from her father, and went in to her own room. After a ghatika she returned, and the persons found a strange prince standing before them, and no longer the princess Ambikâ, for the box that the princess received from her father contained a complete set of a male dress. The confidential friend accompanied the disguised Ambikâ to the spot where the retinue was waiting, and returned to Madura to attend to his duty. Thus did Ambika, disguised as a prince, begin her long, troublesome and rapid pilgrimage to Banaras. She reached the sacred city a day after her lord's arrival there, and took up her abode opposite to his house, calling herself, in her disguise, the prince of Simhaladvipa.
The several festivities, the music and the nautch parties were purposely held in the house of the Simhaladvipa prince to attract the attention of the Pândiyan prince. But the latter never for a moment had any reason to suspect that these things were wholly done for his sake,
