HISTORY OF INDIA. PART III. Speed of the Thus the chariot flew along, like a bird in the air, through the deep forests, and over the rivers and mountains and broad lakes. And the Raja dropped his mantle and prayed Nala to halt a moment and pick it up; but Nala said:—“ The mantle is miles behind, and we cannot return to recover it." And they passed a certain tree, and the Raja said to Nala :"Mark now my skill in numbers, for I know the secrets of dice and the rules of calculation: On those two branches hang fifty millions of leaves, and two thousand and ninetyNala counts the five berries." And Nala descended the chariot to count the Skill of the calculation of leaves and berries on a tree. The Raja teaches Nala the secrets of dice in return horsemanship. leaves and berries; and whilst the Raja cried out that he could not wait, Nala persisted; and after a while Nala found that the numbering of the Raja was true to a single leaf. And Nala said:-"O Raja, teach me this skill of yours, and you shall learn from me all the secrets that I know in for the secrets of horsemanship." And the Raja did so, and when Nala knew Nala freed from the secret of the dice, the evil spirit Kali went forth out of him, and Kali vomited the poison of the serpent that was burning within him. And Nala would have cursed Kali, but he fled away and entered a tree, and men ever afterwards gave an evil name to that tree. Thus Nala was released from all his sufferings, but still he took not his own form of Nala, but remained in that of Váhuka the charioteer. Kali. Approach to the city of Vidarbha. Damayanti recognizes the driving. Now when it was near to the setting of the sun, the chariot approached the city of Vidarbha, and the heart of Nala beat faster and faster; and when they reached the city gates the watchmen on the walls proclaimed the coming of Raja Rituparna; and the rushing of the horses and rolling of the chariot-wheels were like the thunder which heralds in the coming rain; and the peacocks on the palace walls raised their necks and clamoured, and the elephants in the stables roared tumultuously. And the heart of Damayantí thrilled with delight as she heard the old familiar sound of her husband's driving; and she said :— "Unless Nala comes driving of Jehu. "The driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously." 2 Kings ix. 20. this day, and I feel the gentle pressure of his arms, I will no HISTORY OF longer live, but will perish by the fire." 10. Damayanti recovers her husband. INDIA. PART III. to recognize him Then Damayantí ascended to the terrace on the roof of Damayanti fails the palace, and looked down into the middle court; and she as Váhuka. saw Raja Rituparna, and her old charioteer Varshneya, and the dwarfish and deformed Váhuka; and she beheld her father Bhíma receive Rituparna with all courtesy, although amazed at the suddenness of his coming; and she remembered Varshneya, and thought that he had learned to drive furiously like Nala; for she knew not Váhuka because of his altered form. But still her heart thrilled and she pon- Sends her maid dered deeply, for she remembered what Váhuka had said to Vahuka. the Brahman; and she called her fair-haired handmaiden named Kesiní, and said to her :-" Go, my little maid, and speak to that chariot-driver who is short in stature, and find out who he is; and do you repeat to him the message which was brought to me by the Bráhman, and tell me what he says." So whilst Damayantí watched from the terrace, the blameless little maiden went into the middle court to speak to Nala. Kesini to between Kesini tions and Nala's Meantime, Nala had taken the chariot to the stall, and First interview after he had tended to his horses, he mounted the chariot and Nala. and sat there alone. And the fair-haired Kesiní went to Kesini's queshim and said:" I salute you, O charioteer, and pray you replies. to hear the message of my mistress Damayantí. She desires to know whence you came and wherefore you have come?" Nala answered:-"When my master, the Raja, heard that Damayantí would wed again, and would choose another husband on the morrow, he bade me drive him hither with all speed; and, lo, we have come this day all the way from the city of Ayodhya." Then Kesiní said:" And who is that other charioteer who came with you?" Nala answered:-"That is the renowned Várshneya, who was once the charioteer of Nala; and when his Raja went into exile he took service with Rituparna; and I INDIA. PART III. Kesini ques tions Nala reply he had given to the Bráhan. : HISTORY OF also serve Rituparna, for I am his charioteer, and the chief of all his cooks." And Kesiní said further :-" Does Varshneya know aught of Nala? And for yourself, how came you to know the story of Nala?" Nala answered:"It was Varshneya who brought the children of Nala to this city, and then he went his way and heard no more of his old master." And Kesiní said still further:-" The Brahman that lately went to the city of Ayodhya was comrespecting the manded by my mistress to cry aloud in every place:— 'Whither didst thou go, O gambler, who severed thy wife's garment, and left her in the lonely forest, where she still sits sorrowing for thee?' Now it was you who gave the Brahman his answer back; so I pray you to repeat that answer again, for my mistress desires to hear it." At these words of the blameless little maiden the heart of Nala was wrung with a deep sorrow, and his eyes overflowed with tears, and with a voice half choking from weeping, he thus Nala repeats his repeated his reply:-" Even in the extremity of misery a noble woman is mistress of herself; and even when abandoned by her husband, she will not give her soul to anger.' Kesini returns And Nala wept afresh, and the maid went back to Damayantí, and told her all that Váhuka had said, and described to her the bitterness of his sorrow. Anguish of reply. to Damayanti. Damayanti sends Kesini to watch Nala. Then Damayantí was still heavy at heart, wondering whether the charioteer could possibly be Nala; and she said:" Go again, O Kesiní, and watch this man, and observe all that he does, and see that no fire or water be given to him; and whatsoever he does, be it human or Kesini perceives divine, come back and tell to me." And Kesiní went out returned and said : the divine powers of Nala. and watched Nala, and presently she Damayanti sends for a portion of the meat which Nala had cooked. “O Damayantí, never before did I behold a man so godlike; for if he approaches a low portal he never bows his head, but the portal rises above him; and when he prepared to dress the victuals for his master, the vessels were filled with water directly he looked at them; and when he had washed the meat he held some blades of grass towards the setting sun, and they blazed with fire of their own accord." And Damayantí remembered the gifts which the gods had INDIA. PART III. sends her Nala. Emotion of given to Nala on his marriage-day, and she said with a HISTORY OF gentle voice:-"Go again, Kesiní, and bring me some of the meat that the charioteer is cooking." So the little maiden went into the kitchen and brought some of the food to Damayantí; and Damayantí tasted it, and cried aloud :"The charioteer is Nala!" And her heart was stirred Damayanti with vehement emotion, and she directed her maid to carry children to her two children to the charioteer. And when Nala beheld his son and daughter, as beautiful as the children of the gods, he wound his arms around them, and pressed them to his bosom, and burst into a flood of tears; and he said to Kesiní: "O blameless maiden, the children are so like my own, that I have been compelled to weep: But go now, beautiful girl, for we are guests and strangers, and peradventure people will see that you are much with me, and may therefore suspect evil." Nala. permitted to charioteer in her When Damayantí heard from her handmaid of the deep Damayanti affliction of the charioteer, she was seized with a deep long- receive the ing to behold Nala, and she sent Kesiní to her mother, say- own room. ing:-"We have watched the charioteer most closely, and we suspect him to be Nala, only that his form is changed: I pray you, therefore, either to permit him to be brought to you, or give me leave to have him brought to me, with or without the knowledge of my father." So the mother of Damayantí told to Bhíma all the secret counsel of his daughter, and the Raja permitted Damayantí to summon the charioteer, and to receive him in her own chamber. receives Nala in widow. Then Damayantí sent for Nala, and as she saw him she Damayanti trembled greatly, and her hair was dishevelled about her the garb of a shoulders, and she was arrayed in a mantle of scarlet; and the eyes of both Nala and Damayantí overflowed with tears. And Damayantí was almost overcome by her strong emotion, Her question. and she said:"O Váhuka, did you ever know an upright and noble man who abandoned his sleeping wife in a wood? Who was he who thus forsook a beloved and blameless wife, who but Raja Nala? He who was chosen by me, and for whom I rejected the gods! He left me, who had borne him children; me, whose hand he had clasped in the presence of HISTORY OF the immortal gods; me, to whom he had plighted his faith before the nuptial fire;-where is that promise now ?" INDIA. PART III. Nala's reply. Damayanti's appeal to the three gods, Váyu, Súrya, and Soma. And Nala gazed upon his long-lost wife like one in a dream, and he said:"I lost my Raj by the dice, but the evil was wrought by Kali; I forsook you in the jungle, but the guilty deed was the work of Kali: Long time has Kali dwelt within me, but now he is subdued and gone, and for thy sake I made haste to come hither: But how may a high-born woman choose a second husband? Yet heralds are proclaiming throughout the world that the daughter of Bhíma will celebrate a second Swayamvara." 66 At these last words Damayantí trembled and said:Do not suspect me of such shameless guilt! The Bráhmans proclaimed a second Swayamvara only to find thee, and to bring thee here: I call on the all-seeing Wind, the Sun, the Moon, who are the three gods that govern the three Voice of Vayu. Worlds, to attest the truth of what I say." Then the voice of the Wind was heard in the air: "Nala! she hath neither done nor thought evil, but for three long years hath treasured up her virtue in all its fulness: The second Swayamvara was but a plot to recover thee: Thou hast met with the daughter of Bhíma, and the daughter of Bhíma has met with thee: Take thy own wife to thy bosom !" The reconciliation. Rejoicings in Even as the Wind was speaking the flowers fell in showers from heaven, and the gods sounded sweet music; and every doubt of the blameless Damayantí passed away from the mind of Nala, and he threw off his disguise and put on the garments that the Serpent had given to him, and at once resumed his proper form as Raja Nala. And Damayantí shrieked aloud and embraced her husband; and Nala, radiant as of old, clasped her to his heart, and the children were brought in, and the night passed away in the fulness of joy. 11. Nala recovers his Raj. And when the white-robed dawn was awakening a sleeping world, the sound of rejoicing ran through the city of Vidarbha. In every street the people exulted in the safe |