________________
The Faithful Parrot Couple
155
It came to pass that Rati asked the house divinity for a son, promising in return to offer to her as a bali-offering Jayasundari's son. Thereupon, when each queen begot a promising boy, Rati considered how she might fulfil her promise to the house divinity. She remembered the gift she had in reserve with the king, and asked him for control of the kingdom during five days 25 (427). The king granted her wish. Then she had Jayasundari's boy taken away from her, put into a chest which was placed on the head of a slave girl, and deposited in the grove of the temple of the divinity. There the Vidyādhara king of Kāñcanapūḥ saw the boy, substituted a dead child in his place, and placed him before his wife, pretending that she had born him during sleep. She, being sterile, asked him why he was mocking her. He then told the truth, but induced her, that was childless, to accept the boy as her son, whereupon they raised and educated him (438). Rati, triumfant, then had the substituted dead child returned to Jayasundari, who henceforth passed her days in grief (441).
The Vidyādhara couple named their adopted boy Madanāñkura, and had him instructed in the magic arts (vidyā) of their race. Madanāñkura, while roaming in the heavens, once perceived his mother, Jayasundari, standing sadly at a window of the palace. Falling in love with her, he put her upon his chariot. She, in turn, was taken with love for him. The people and the king observed the rape of the queen, and the king was grieved.
The young parrot pair, children of the faithful parrots, that had gone with them to heaven (verse 375), knew by superior insight that their brother 26 (Madanāñkura) had
* See note on p. 122. *In a later birth.
