Kathakoca or Treasury of Stories

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

Page 63

37
There never was, and there never will be, a female messenger equal to meditation,
For she brings about a union between men and immortal nymphs.
In this very land of Bharata
is a city named Ratnapura, and in it a king named SuraSTORY OF PRINCE AMARACHANDRA. Ssundara ruled his people
justly.
In this city sticks were connected only with umbrellas, imprisonings with hair, and slaying of men was heard of only in chess; Holes were picked in necklaces only; and hands paid the tribute of pressure only in marriage.*
So may the policy be described that prevailed in that city. The king had a wife named Vilásavatí, and a son named Prince Amarachandra, foretold by auspicious dreams. When he was twelve years old he was versed in the seventy-two accomplishments. One night, when Prince Amarachandra was reposing in his bed, he heard a plaintive sound of lamentation: 'Is there on the earth a man of Kshatriya lineage endowed with great courage? Is the earth bereft of heroes, that no one rescues me, though hearing such loud lamentation?' Prince Amarachandra, though nodding in drowsy sleep, when he heard the sound, like a bold Kshatriya, took his sword in his hand, and with a lightning-like bound sprang out of the castle and reached the open forest. Proceeding onward in the direction from which the sound came, he saw a man holding a woman by her braided lock and threatening her with a drawn sword. The prince called out to the man: 'You wicked and infamous ruffian! place yourself in front of me. think to escape while thus attempting to kill this woman now that I have come? Let the helpless woman go, and fight with me.' The Vidyadhara said: 'You boy prince, white and tender, with mouth full of milk, do not presume to brave me. You will get no sweetmeats here. Go back; you are exceeding presumptuous.' The prince answered
Do you
The whole passage is an elaborate pun. 'Stick' is also 'punishment and the pressure of hands means also oppressive taxes.' The other puns are obvious from the translation.
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