The Seduction of Shiva: Tales of Life and Love (8 page)

‘But our purpose has been served, sire,’ the priest told him, ‘your sins have been cleansed.’

Flying back to her home, Manohara stopped at the hermitage of a sage to salute him. ‘If Prince Sudhana comes searching for me at any time,’ she told him, ‘please give him this signet ring and tell him to turn back as the paths are
hard and dangerous. But if he persists, please show him the way. To the north there are many mountain ranges to scale and rivers to cross while overcoming ogres, poisonous snakes and other obstacles before he can reach the kinnara king’s palace.’

In due course Prince Sudhana returned to Hastinapura after subduing the hill town and accepting its tribute. The king was very pleased to get this news. Shaking off the fatigue of travel, the prince went to his father, paid homage and took his seat before him.

‘Prince, you have returned with glory,’ said the king with great satisfaction.

‘It was by your grace, sir, that the hill town was subdued, its leaders apprehended and a caretaker appointed. Here are the tributes for the treasury.’

‘Son, it was well done,’ the king said, and as the former got up to leave after saluting his father, added, ‘Stay, prince. Let us enjoy these gifts together.’

‘I must go, sire. It has been a long time since I saw Manohara.’

‘No need to go today, prince. Stay and go tomorrow.’

‘Father, I
must
go right now.’

The reply left the king speechless. The prince went straightaway to his own palace, where he saw only a desolate harem door. He entered anxiously, but did not see Manohara anywhere. His heart sank as he rushed hither and thither, calling for her by name as the harem women came out. With stricken heart he questioned them at length, and was smitten by grief when they told him what had happened.

‘Why do you grieve, sir?’ they asked. ‘There are women much better than her in this harem.’

But, after learning from them about his father’s indifference and ingratitude, Sudhana rushed to his mother and dropped down at her feet. ‘Mother!’ he cried, ‘I cannot find Manohara! She of great beauty who has all the qualities my heart desires. Where has my Manohara gone? I
have searched everywhere within my reasoning, but my mind is at a loss and my heart is on fire. She is my delight, my comfort and pleasure. Without her, my body burns. This is a calamity! How has it befallen me?’

‘My son,’ she replied, ‘Manohara was in a painful and difficult situation. So I let her go.’

‘How did this happen, mother?’ he asked, and she told him everything at length. He spoke about his father’s lack of concern, but then asked, ‘Where has she gone, mother? By what path?’

She replied:

It is a pathway long, my son,

on which Manohara did set out,

by sages and wild beasts frequented,

and on it dwells the god of death.

The prince was miserable. Pitifully did he lament, suffering the sorrow of separation from Manohara.

‘There are far better women than her in this palace, son,’ said his mother, ‘why need you grieve so much?’

But he cried, ‘Where is my pleasure without her?’ and remained immersed in grief despite his mother’s efforts to comfort him.

Then the thought came to him, ‘I will go and seek at the very place where I got her,’ and he went to the hunter who had presented her to him. ‘Where did you catch Manohara?’ he asked.

‘A sage lives on the side of that hill,’ said the hunter, pointing the way. ‘Along his hermitage is a pool with lotus flowers. She had gone into it for a bath when I caught her, as that sage knows.’

‘I must now go to that sage,’ thought Sudhana. ‘He will have her news.’

Meanwhile, the king had heard about the prince’s distress at his separation from Manohara. ‘Why are you so troubled?’ he asked his son. ‘I will get you a far better woman.’

‘Father, it is impossible for me to stay in the palace without getting Manohara back,’
Sudhana said, and would not relent even though the king spoke to him at length. The monarch then stationed guards at the city gates and crossroads to prevent the prince from leaving.

Sudhana stayed awake the whole night. It is said that there are five who sleep little and keep awake long: the man in love awaiting his beloved; the woman in love, awaiting her man; the leader of a robber gang; the night watchman; and the monk undertaking a vigil. ‘If I go out by the gate,’ the prince considered, ‘the royal guards and gatekeepers will be annoyed and may beat or arrest me. So I should leave by some unguarded exit.’ He got up, wrapped a blue lily garland around his head, and went to an unwatched place where he tied the garland to a flag pole and climbed down the city wall.

The moon had risen. Calling out to it for his beloved, and equally so to the trees and the animals of the forest, the prince reached the sage’s hermitage. ‘I salute you with bowed head, holy one,’ he said respectfully. ‘Tell me, have you
seen my Manohara?’

The sage greeted Prince Sudhana with words of welcome, a seat and other offerings. ‘I have seen her,’ he said. ‘She was lovely to look at, with a beautiful face like the full moon, blue lotus eyes and dark, arched eyebrows. Be comfortable, sir, and sample these various roots and fruit. I have no doubt that you will be successful. These were her words to you: “Prince, I am tormented by my longing for you. It is terrible to be in the forest. But I had to flee and it is certain that you will find me.” She gave me this signet ring, saying, “Prince, the paths are difficult and hard to traverse. Turn back!” To me, she then said, “But if he does not, show him the way.” And this is how she explained it.

‘“To the north there are three dark mountains. Cross them, and there will be three more and then three again. Thereafter will be Himalaya, the king of the mountains. It is there that you will find the medicinal herb Sudha. Cook it in ghee and drink the mixture; you will then
have no hunger or thirst and your strength and memory will increase. Next, you must catch a monkey, learn an incantation, acquire a bow with arrows and a luminous gemstone as well as an antidote and a deadly poison, three iron spikes and a lute. To the north of Himalaya are other mountains which too you must cross. There you will need to surmount other obstacles: a goat-faced ram and a pale, demon-like man who must be slain. You must also valiantly slay in its burrow a great python which is swift to strike with its foaming mouth.

When half of it is in the burrow,

you must slay it, for my sake,

with an arrow loosened from your bow.

When you see two fighting rams,

break off a horn from each, and go.

Then, having seen two men of iron,

armed with weapons, terrifying,

smite one of them, and carry on.

Next an ogress you will see

gape and clench her iron mouth,

a spike into her forehead thrust.

Then leap across a mighty whirlpool,

some sixty hands its diameter,

and strike down with your bow full-bent

demons with pale eyes and hair,

cruel, dangerous to approach.

You must then cross rivers filled

with crocodiles and alligators.

‘“Having crossed the rivers, you will enter a wooded area with five hundred demigods who must firmly be driven away. Beyond lies the palace of Druma, the king of the kinnaras.”’

Prince Sudhana saluted the sage and set out as instructed to obtain the antidote, the incantation and the other things. Having gathered them all, he went once more to that holy man, who said, ‘Enough, prince! What is the point of all this effort? Indeed, of seeking Manohara? You are alone and without any help. You are risking your life.’

‘Great sage,’ the prince replied, ‘for certain will I go. The moon has no help in its journey through the sky. The lion’s strength lies in its own teeth, it has no help, nor does the forest fire. What need of a helper has one like me? Should one never dive into the mighty ocean? Is there a snake bite which cannot be cured? One must nurture one’s courage so that great ones may also see. And if the effort does not succeed, is that a fault?’

He then set out on the route instructed by Manohara. He passed through the mountains and the rivers, the caves and the precipices in due order, making use of the incantations and the antidotes, and eventually neared the palace of the kinnara king. Close to it he saw a city dotted with beautiful parks, full of all kinds of fruit and flowers and frequented by numerous birds. They also had lakes, tanks and wells used by the locals, and there he saw some kinnara women who had come to draw water.

‘What will you do with so much water?’
Sudhana asked some of those women.

‘King Druma of the kinnaras has a daughter called Manohara,’ they told him. ‘She had fallen into human hands and that odour has still to be washed off.’

‘Will these pitchers be poured over her all together,’ he asked further, ‘or one after the other?’

‘One after the other,’ he was told.

‘Here is a good method,’ he then reflected, ‘I will drop the signet ring into one of them,’ and did so into one maid’s jar, unnoticed by her. ‘You should be the first to bathe Manohara with your water,’ he told her.

‘There is certainly something behind this,’ the young maiden thought, but her pitcher was nevertheless the first to be poured over the princess who recognized the ring as it rolled into her lap.

‘Has some man come here?’ she asked the maid who said it was so. ‘Go, bring him here in secret,’ she ordered, and the girl brought the
prince in, taking him to a hidden spot.

Manohara then went to her father and touched his feet. ‘Father,’ she asked, ‘what would you do if that Prince Sudhana were to come here, the one by whom I was carried off?’

‘I would have him chopped into a hundred pieces and have them thrown in the four directions,’ said the king. ‘He is just a human, of no value.’

‘But how could one who is
just a human
come here, father? That is what I say.’

At this the king’s temper cooled. ‘If that prince comes here,’ he said, ‘I will give you to him to be his wife, adorned with jewellery, endowed with great wealth and attended by a thousand kinnara maids.’

Manohara was happy and content. With great joy she brought Sudhana, wearing heavenly ornaments, before King Druma who was utterly amazed to see the prince—charming, handsome and gracious, with a glowing complexion and an imposing presence.
Wishing to test him, the king set up seven each of golden pillars, palm trees, kettledrums and wild boars, saying, ‘While you surpass our youths in splendour, only a display of power can make you deserving of a connection with our divine race. Let fly this forest of arrows, and get one back immediately. Collect and return this scattered host of sesame seeds. Show your skill in archery by hitting both fixed and moving targets. Then will you have won the celebrated Manohara.’

Well, the Bodhisattvas are adept in every kind of art and skill, and the gods too are keen to remove any obstacles before them. And Prince Sudhana was a Bodhisattva. As he stood surrounded by thousands of kinnaras, and their astonished king looked on, the gods provided celestial music on lutes and drums, strings and cymbals. On the direction of Indra, the king of heaven, demigods in the form of boars recovered the right arrow, and ants created by Indra collected the sesame seeds. The prince then
approached the golden pillars with a sword that shone like blue lilies and cut them into pieces as if slicing bananas. Scattering them like so many seeds, he then shot an arrow through the seven palm trees, kettledrums and wild boars, after which he stood back as firmly as Mount Sumeru while the gods in the sky and the kinnara thousands let out loud cries of astonishment.

King Druma then placed Manohara amid many who looked just like her, and addressed Prince Sudhana. ‘Come, prince!’ he exclaimed, ‘do you recognize Manohara?’

At this the prince replied:

As you are Druma’s daughter,

my love and chosen one,

by this truth, step forward

swiftly, O Manohara.

And as she took a quick step forward, the kinnaras cried out, ‘Your Majesty, Prince Sudhana is endowed with strength, courage
and heroism. He and Manohara are one. Why deceive him? Give him his Manohara!’

As desired by his subjects, the king then rendered all honours with great respect on Sudhana. Taking Manohara in her heavenly jewellery with his left hand and a golden urn in his right, he said, ‘Prince, I give you this Manohara to be your wife. We are not familiar with humans, but never forsake her.’

‘Never, father,’ Sudhana told the king in reply. And returning to their palace amidst the sound of music played by its women, he sported and dallied and made love to Manohara.

After some time, the memories of his own land and the pain of seaparation from his parents made Sudhana sad. He spoke to Manohara who explained it in detail to her father. ‘Go with the prince,’ he told her, ‘but be careful as humans are prone to deceit.’ Giving her jewels, pearls, gold and such objects, he then sent them on their journey.

Sudhana and Manohara flew out to Hastinapura by the aerial path of birds and
kinnaras. Learning of this, King Mahadhana beat the drums of joy. The whole city was swept clean of stones, pebbles and gravel, sprinkled with sandalwood water and adorned with silken banners strung with pearls. It was scented with incense and strewn with flowers. Accompanied by many eminent personalities, the prince then entered Hastinapura with Manohara. After some rest, he took a gift of jewels and went to his father who embraced him. Seated beside the royal throne, he recounted in detail his journey to and from the kinnara city.

Realizing the great strength, courage and heroism of his son, Mahadhana anointed him as king. ‘My reunion with Manohara and coronation as king is the result of merits earned in the past,’ Sudhana reflected, ‘so, now I will do charity, make donations and perform other good deeds.’ And for twelve years he carried out fire sacrifices ceaselessly in Hastinapura.