Kathakoca or Treasury of Stories

Author(s): C H Tawney
Publisher: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation New Delhi

Page 58

recognised the prince. Mahendrasimha made a profound bow, and went to meet the prince. There was great joy on both sides, and Mahendrasimha was feasted with the utmost attention. The prince said: 'How are my father and mother?' His friend said: They are very unhappy, but tell me your own adventures.' The prince said: 'My wife, by name Vakulamatí, is coming; she knows the whole story by means of the Prajnapti science, and she will relate to you all my adventures.' When the prince had said this, he went to sleep.* Vakulamatí said: 'Listen, Mahendrasimha. When the prince was run away with by his horse, he was carried into a great forest; on the second day the horse was still galloping as fast as when he started; on the third day the horse was exhausted with hunger and thirst, and, lolling out its tongue, fell down. The prince got off. Then the horse died. Sanatkumára, for his part, with his eyes wildly rolling for want of water, fell senseless on the ground. Then a certain Yaksha that lived in the wood sprinkled him with water, so that. he recovered consciousness. When the prince came to himself, he said: "Yaksha, where is such cold water to be found?" The Yaksha said: "It is found in the Mánasa lake." The prince said: "If I can bathe there, all the heat of my body will depart." The Yaksha took him to the Mánasa lake, and there he bathed and drank water; but while he was sitting on the shore of the lake he was seen by the Yaksha Asita, who was his enemy in a former birth. So a fight took place between the prince and the Yaksha.' At this point Mahendrasimha asked: 'What was the cause of the enmity between the prince and the Yaksha ?' Vakulamatí said: 'I will tell you the cause of the enmity.
32
'In a former period there was a king of the name of Vikramayaças in the city of Kanchanapura; he had five hundred wives. In the same
THE PREVIOUS BIRTHS OF SANATKUMÁRA AND THE YAKSHA.
In the story as edited by Dr. Jacobi it is explained that the prince thought it unbecoming to be the narrator of his own exploits.