Kathakoca or Treasury of Stories

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

Page 65

89
you must construct & pavilion for the Svayamvara; the man who pleases her when she sees him must be her husband." Then I was sent here by the king. Now, send Prince Amarachandra.' Accordingly the prince was sent, and was conducted into the middle of the city with great pomp. Then, on the day of the Svayamvara all the princes, splendidly arrayed, sat down on elevated platforms; Jayaçrí entered, having adorned herself magnificently, accompanied by the female warder. She passed by all the other princes, and threw the garland of selection upon the neck of Amarachandra. The princes said :
Prince Amarachandra, you must meet us before you celebrate your marriage. When the prince heard this, he said to himself: 'I will first test the love or aversion of the charmer for whom all this effort is being made, for
*A loving lady gives life, but one full of hate takes it away; Whether there be love or hate, a lover is apt to move anger in &
woman. Moreover, it has been said:
His own queen* killed Vidúratha with a weapon concealed in her
braid, And an alienated wife killed the King of Benares with an anklet
dipped in poison.' The prince accordingly deliberated with his friend the minister, and spread the false rumour that he had a headache; then he employed his power of entering another body; the story went about that the prince was dead. When the princess heard this report she demanded firewood for her funeral-pyre; and did not desist, though her father and all the people and the princes did their best to dissuade her. The princes asserted that Prince Amarachandra died of the fear which their threat had produced.
* Dr. Fitzedward Hall, in his introduction to the Vásavadattá of Subandhu,' informs us that this queen's name was Bindumatí. It is referred to in the Nitisára of Kámandaki,' vii. 54, and by ‘Kullúka on Manu,' vii. 153, but no further details are given.
† For a similar test see my translation of the Kathá Sarit Ságara,' vol. ii., p. 12.