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VASUDEVA'S MARRIAGE WITH KANAKAVATI 225 shall I go?' She, knowing consideration, began to go to that same cave carefully. She was seen on the road by a Rākşasi whose cavernous mouth was wide open, like a goat by a wolf, and was addressed by the words, ' I shall eat you.' Bhaimi said: 'If my husband Nala, and no one else, is in my mind, by the power of that virtue, be hopeless, Rākşasi. If the omniscient, the Blessed One, free from the eighteen faults, 139 the Arhat alone is my god, be hopeless, Rākşasi. If the sādhus devoted to the eighteen kinds of chastity,140 free from desire, devoted to compassion, are my gurus, be hopeless, Rākşasi. If the dharma of the Arhats is clinging to my heart from birth, like cement, be hopeless, Rākşasī.' :. Hearing that, the Rākşasa-woman gave up her intention to eat her. For the words of virtuous wives are unerring like those of the very powerful. Thinking, 'She is no ordinary person, as her power is not deficient,' the Rākşasi bowed to her and disappeared instantly like one that has come in a dream. . Going ahead, Nala's wife saw a mountain-stream without water, full of sand in waves resembling water. As this was waterless like an empty garden-canal, and Davadanti was very thirsty, her palate dry, she said: “If my mind is filled with right-belief, let pure water with high waves be in this (stream) like the Gangā.' With these words she struck the surface of the ground with her heel and at once the river was provided with water, like a magic river. Bhaimi drank the water white as milk and sweet, as if it had come from a vein of the Ocean of Milk, as she liked, like a cow-elephant.
Then Vaidarbhi became wearied, walking, and sat down under a banyan, like a female Yakşa.141 Travelers from a caravan saw her seated thus, approached, and said, 'Who are you, lady? You look like a goddess to us.' She replied: 'I am a mortal and I live in the forest, lost from a caravan, I wish to go to Tāpasapura. Direct me on the road to it.'
139 710. See IV. n. 12; Abhi. 1.72-73 and com. 140 711. See I, p. 206 and n. 266. 141 720. The banyap is especially favored by the Yakşas as a dwelling.
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