Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 6

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

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CHAPTER ELEVEN The minister said: “ King Udayana, who is a veritable reincarnation of Tumbaru, is now the crest-jewel of the best musicians. He is reported to have a surpassing skill in music and he captures elephants in the forest, after lulling them by singing. He goes to the forest and sings and the elephants, as lulled by his singing as if they had drunk liquor are entirely unconscious of being captured. Just as he captures elephants in the forest by the device of singing, even so there is a means of capturing him and bringing him here. An elephant must be made from wood, just like a real one, in the forest there, which will make motions, walking, sitting down, et cetera, by mechanical means. Armed soldiers will stand within the wooden elephant. They will make the elephant move and they too will capture him (Udayana). After they have captured him in this way and brought him here, at your order the king of the Vatsas will teach music to your daughter Vāsavadattā.”
The minister, approved by the king saying, “ Very good,” kad such an elephant made that it was superior to a real elephant in its qualities. Foresters took it to be a real eleftant that could bite, toss up its trunk, trumpet, walk, et cetera. Foresters described the elephant to Udayana and Ui ayana went to the forest to capture it. He dismissed his attendants at a distance and entered the forest, walking about very slowly as if looking for birds. When he approached the trick elephant, Udayana sang aloud, surpassing the Kinnaras;213 and while Udayana sang a nectar-sweet song, the men inside kept the elephant motionless. The lord of Kauśāmbi thought it was lulled by his song and approached it very slowly, as if he were walking in the dark. “ He has been hypnotized by my song.” With this thought, the king approached, jumped up, and mounted the elephant like a bird lighting on a tree. The soldiers, who were Pradyota's agents, descended from the interior of the elephant,
213 201. Heavenly musicians,