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Vikram and Vaitaal Stories-2
- Story 1-2 (Keral
Version)
"Captain
Sir Richard R Burton's Vikram and the
Vampire: classic Hindu tales of
adventure, magic and romance" / edited by his wife Isabel Burton. [etext
Conversion Project, Nalanda Digital Library, NIT Calicut, Kerala State,
India]
1-A Man
Deceives a Woman-2
Vajramukut
Arrives in Karnaatak
They
arrived in Karnaatak Pradesh. They had disguised themselves as a traveler.
They pitched their tents in a clear place and looked for a wise woman who
could tell their fortune. The prince asked "what it meant", the
minister's son said, "these type of women are good to be
consulted."
Vikram
asked - "Is this the treatise upon the subject of immorality?"
"No, It is not, but I must tell my story. A person pointed towards an
old woman wjo was sitting in front of her hut and was spinning her wheel.
The minister's son went to her and said - "We are travelers and are
in need of a place to stay. If you give us a house we will pay you
highly." She liked them, so she took them inside and said -
"This hut is yours, you may live here as long as you may wish." While
talking she said - "I am a wet-nurse of Padmaavatee and my son is a favorite
servant of the king. Everyday I go to see her once. I live here but the
king gives me money for my food."
In a
few days time, Vajramukut had impressed her with his sweet behavior. One
day he asked her to give a paper to the princess when she went next.
"Sure." The prince ran to his friend to write the letter. The
minister's son took out a pink flowery paper and wrote a few lines, sealed
it, drew a lotus flower on it and gave it to the prince to give it to the
woman - Lakshmee. Lakshmee took it to the princess and said to her -
"I have seen you growing till now, now I wish that you should be
happily married soon. Please do read this paper which has been given to me by a
most handsome boy I have ever seen."
The
princess read the letter, tore off the first word of the last stanza, and
said to her - "Get you gone, O Mother of Yam, and take back this
answer" Giving her that scrap of paper she further said - "to
the fool who write such bad verses. Where he has learned his humanities?
Never he should write such verses again." Lakshmee came back and told
him everything. The prince got confused and went to his friend. His friend
consoled him - "Do not worry. The princess is just asking where did
you learn your humanities, means who are you?"
Then
the prince disclosed his identity on Lakshmee, to which she told that she
already knew it. The prince pursued her to take his message again. When
she went there again, she told her that whoever prince she met at the pond
on the 5th night of the bright fortnight, the same prince was staying with
her. Hearing this the princess rubbed sandal on her hands, slapped the
woman's face and told her not to talk such foolish things in front of her.
Both
Lakshmee and the prince were again confused with this behavior of the
princess, but the minister's son said - "When she smeared her 10
fingers with sandal, she meant that let the remaining 10 bright nights should
pass, then she will meet you in the dark. And be warned that she is far
too clever to make a comfortable wife." The minister's son hated such
talented intellectual and strong-minded women. He admired small, plump,
laughing, chattering, un-intellectual, and material-minded women. That is
why he had married an old maid, tall, thin, yellow, cold-mannered, ands a
conversationist woman. But more wonderful still, when he had married her, he
started loving her. But the prince rejected his advice.
After
10 days had passed, Lakshmee again went to the princess with prince's
message. This time she made the mark of three fingers smeared with saffron.
The minister's son told that this meant the delay of three days more and
then she would see him. After three days, the woman was taken to the
western gate, called her "the mother of elephant's trunk" and
drove her out to never come back. The minister's son told the prince that
he was invited to see her in the night at the western gate.
Vajramukut
Meets the Princess
On
that day, half
the day prince spent in adorning himself." Vikram interrupted -
"Are you talking about a silly girl or a prince?" Vitaal
continued - "After he got dressed, he asked his friend, how he
looked, "Admirable", he got satisfied. Then he asked him how
should he behave there? The friend said - "If you want to win her,
you should show as if you are her master. Tell her that she loves you,
tell her that you care nothing in comparison to her, so that she thinks
about you only. Remember, in love, a lost opportunity is seldom, if ever,
recovered. I fear that Padmaavatee is too clever for you."
After
two hours had passed of the night, both arrived at the western gate, the
gate was open, the watchmen was dozing, and behind him was standing a
veiled woman as if waiting for somebody. Vajramukut went inside, and his
friend returned home. That figure took him to the apartment. He got
astonished to see the apartment. It was so beautiful. Then came
Padmaavatee, took him to a room where she made him sit down, rubbed sandal
powder on his body, hung a jasmine flower garland around his neck and
started fanning him. Then
they talked at length.
In the
daytime she hid him, and in the night they talked and enjoyed. A few days
passed like this. Padmaavatee, the woman of a superior mind, was more
smitten by her lover's dullness, he was such a contrast to herself. At
first she did what many clever women do. She tried to please him at her
best. She would smile upon him with fondness, when after wasting hours on
a few lines of poetry, he would misplace all the adjectives and
barbarously entreat the meter. Before long she had made out that
Vajramukut had told her everything and there was a third person in the
secret who had warned him that his wife would play a foul trick over her
husband. And she had made up her mind that she would take revenge to him.
Thus
taking a vow, she praised his friend a lot and became ready to become his
slave. In the end she assured him that she will only love him. After a
month of eating and drinking, Vajramukut's face had gone pale, he complained
occasionally of headaches, and became restless and anxious. One day he
thought, "I have not seen my friend for 30 days, I don't know how is he?"
At the
same time the princess came and quoted a sage - "A barren wife must
be superceded by another in the 8th year; whose all children die in her
10th year; who gives birth only to daughters in her 11th year; and she who
scolds should be superceded by another immediately. How can you be happy
here when your mind is wandering at some other place. Why did you conceal
it from me? Think better of your wife."
After
this Padmaavatee ordered him to go that night and not to return until his
mind was at ease. She begged him to take some sweets as a little token
from his beloved. Then she brought some additional sweets for her lover and she
gave an extra parcel of sugar-plums, which she made herself, for his friend.
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