Rishyas'ring.

CANTO IX.: RISHYAS'RING.

The wise Sumantra, thus addressed,
Unfolded at the king's behest
The plan the lords in council laid
To draw the hermit from the shade:
'The priest, amid the lordly crowd,
To Lomapád thus spoke aloud:
'Hear, King, the plot our thoughts have framed,
A harmless trick by all unblamed.
Far from the world that hermit's child
Lives lonely in the distant wild:
A stranger to the joys of sense,
His bliss is pain and abstinence;
And all unknown are women yet
To him, a holy anchoret.
The gentle passions we will wake
That with resistless influence shake
   The hearts of men; and he
Drawn by enchantment strong and sweet
Shall follow from his lone retreat,
   And come and visit thee.
Let ships be formed with utmost care
That artificial trees may bear,
   And sweet fruit deftly made;
Let goodly raiment, rich and rare,
And flowers, and many a bird be there
   Beneath the leafy shade.
Upon the ships thus decked a band
Of young and lovely girls shall stand,
Rich in each charm that wakes desire,
And eyes that burn with amorous fire;
Well skilled to sing, and play, and dance
And ply their trade with smile and glance
Let these, attired in hermits' dress,
Betake them to the wilderness,
And bring the boy of life austere
A voluntary captive here.'

He ended; and the king agreed,
   By the priest's counsel won.
And all the ministers took heed
   To see his bidding done.
In ships with wondrous art prepared
Away the lovely women fared,
And soon beneath the shade they stood
Of the wild, lonely, dreary wood.
And there the leafy cot they found
   Where dwelt the devotee,
And looked with eager eyes around
   The hermit's son to see.
Still, of Vibhándak sore afraid,
They hid behind the creepers' shade.
But when by careful watch they knew
The elder saint was far from view,
With bolder steps they ventured nigh
To catch the youthful hermit's eye.
Then all the damsels, blithe and gay,
At various games began to play.
They tossed the flying ball about
With dance and song and merry shout,
And moved, their scented tresses bound
With wreaths, in mazy motion round.
Some girls as if by love possessed,
Sank to the earth in feigned unrest,
Up starting quickly to pursue
Their intermitted game anew.
It was a lovely sight to see
   Those fair ones, as they played,
While fragrant robes were floating free,
And bracelets clashing in their glee
   A pleasant tinkling made.
The anklet's chime, the Koïl's  ¹ cry
   With music filled the place
As 'twere some city in the sky
   Which heavenly minstrels grace.
With each voluptuous art they strove
To win the tenant of the grove,
And with their graceful forms inspire
His modest soul with soft desire.
With arch of brow, with beck and smile,
With every passion-waking wile

p. 17

   Of glance and lotus hand,
With all enticements that excite
The longing for unknown delight
   Which boys in vain withstand.
Forth came the hermit's son to view
The wondrous sight to him so new,
   And gazed in rapt surprise,
For from his natal hour till then
On woman or the sons of men
   He ne'er had cast his eyes.
He saw them with their waists so slim,
With fairest shape and faultless limb,
In variegated robes arrayed,
And sweetly singing as they played.
Near and more near the hermit drew,
   And watched them at their game,
And stronger still the impulse grew
   To question whence they came.
They marked the young ascetic gaze
With curious eye and wild amaze,
And sweet the long-eyed damsels sang,
And shrill their merry laughter rang,
Then came they nearer to his side,
And languishing with passion cried:
'Whose son, O youth, and who art thou,
Come suddenly to join us now?
And why dost thou all lonely dwell
In the wild wood? We pray thee, tell,
We wish to know thee, gentle youth;
Come, tell us, if thou wilt, the truth.'

He gazed upon that sight he ne'er
Had seen before, of girls so fair,
And out of love a longing rose
His sire and lineage to disclose:
'My father,' thus he made reply,
'Is Kas'yap's son, a saint most high,
Vibhándak styled; from him I came,
And Rishyaœring he calls my name,
Our hermit cot is near this place:
Come thither, O ye fair of face;
There be it mine, with honour due,
Ye gentle youths, to welcome you.'

They heard his speech, and gave consent,
And gladly to his cottage went.
Vibhándak's son received them well
Beneath the shelter of his cell
With guest-gift, water for their feet,
And woodland fruit and roots to eat,
They smiled, and spoke sweet words like these,
Delighted with his courtesies:
'We too have goodly fruit in store,
Grown on the trees that shade our door;
Come, if thou wilt, kind Hermit, haste
The produce of our grove to taste;
And let, O good Ascetic, first
This holy water quench thy thirst.'
They spoke, and gave him comfits sweet
Prepared ripe fruits to counterfeit;
And many a dainty cake beside
And luscious mead their stores supplied.
The seeming fruits, in taste and look,
The unsuspecting hermit took,
For, strange to him, their form beguiled
The dweller in the lonely wild.
Then round his neck fair arms were flung,
And there the laughing damsels clung,
And pressing nearer and more near
With sweet lips whispered at his ear;
While rounded limb and swelling breast
The youthful hermit softly pressed.
The pleasing charm of that strange bowl,
   The touch of a tender limb,
Over his yielding spirit stole
   And sweetly vanquished him.
But vows, they said, must now be paid;
   They bade the boy farewell,
And, of the aged saint afraid,
   Prepared to leave the dell.
With ready guile they told him where
   Their hermit dwelling lay:
Then, lest the sire should find them there,
   Sped by wild paths away.
They fled and left him there alone
   By longing love possessed;
And with a heart no more his own
   He roamed about distressed.
The aged saint came home, to find
   The hermit boy distraught,
Revolving in his troubled mind
   One solitary thought.
'Why dost thou not, my son,' he cried,
   'Thy due obeisance pay?
Why do I see thee in the tide
   Of whelming thought to-day?
A devotee should never wear
   A mien so sad and strange.
Come, quickly, dearest child, declare
   The reason of the change.'
And Rishyas'ring, when questioned thus,
   Made answer in this wise:
'O sire, there came to visit us
   Some men with lovely eyes.
About my neck soft arms they wound
   And kept me tightly held
To tender breasts so soft and round,
   That strangely heaved and swelled.
They sing more sweetly as they dance
   Than e'er I heard till now,
And play with many a sidelong glance
   And arching of the brow.'
'My son,' said he, 'thus giants roam
   Where holy hermits are,
And wander round their peaceful home
   Their rites austere to mar.
I charge thee, thou must never lay
   Thy trust in them, dear boy:
They seek thee only to betray,
   And woo but to destroy.'
Thus having warned him of his foes
   That night at home he spent.
And when the morrow's sun arose

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   Forth to the forest went.

But Rishyas'ring with eager pace
Sped forth and hurried to the place
Where he those visitants had seen
Of daintly waist and charming mien.
When from afar they saw the son
Of Saint Vibhándak toward them run,
To meet the hermit boy they hied,
And hailed him with a smile, and cried:
'O come, we pray, dear lord, behold
Our lovely home of which we told
Due honour there to thee we'll pay,
And speed thee on thy homeward way.'
Pleased with the gracious words they said
He followed where the damsels led.
As with his guides his steps he bent,
   That Bráhman high of worth,
A flood of rain from heaven was sent
   That gladdened all the earth.

Vibhándak took his homeward road,
And wearied by the heavy load
Of roots and woodland fruit he bore
Entered at last his cottage door.
Fain for his son he looked around,
But desolate the cell he found.
He stayed not then to bathe his feet,
Though fainting with the toil and heat,
But hurried forth and roamed about
Calling the boy with cry and shout,
He searched the wood, but all in vain;
Nor tidings of his son could gain.

One day beyond the forest's bound
The wandering saint a village found,
And asked the swains and neatherds there
Who owned the land so rich and fair,
With all the hamlets of the plain,
And herds of kine and fields of grain.
They listened to the hermit's words,
And all the guardians of the herds,
With suppliant hands together pressed,
This answer to the saint addressed:
The Angas' lord who bears the name
Of Lomapád, renowned by fame,
Bestowed these hamlets with their kine
And all their riches, as a sign
Of grace, on Rishyas'ring: and he
Vibhándak's son is said to be.'
The hermit with exulting breast
The mighty will of fate confessed,
By meditation's eye discerned;
And cheerful to his home returned.

A stately ship, at early morn,
The hermit's son away had borne.
Loud roared the clouds, as on he sped,
The sky grew blacker overhead;
Till, as he reached the royal town,
A mighty flood of rain came down.
By the great rain the monarch's mind
The coming of his guest divined.
To meet the honoured youth he went,
And low to earth his head he bent.
With his own priest to lead the train,
He gave the gift high guests obtain.
And sought, with all who dwelt within
The city walls, his grace to win.
He fed him with the daintiest fare,
He served him with unceasing care,
And ministered with anxious eyes
Lest anger in his breast should rise;
And gave to be the Bráhman's bride
His own fair daughter, lotus-eyed.

Thus loved and honoured by the king,
The glorious Bráhman Rishyas'ring
Passed in that royal town his life
With S'ántá his beloved wife.'

Footnotes

16:1 The Koïl or kokila (Cuculus Indicus) as the harbinger of spring and love is a universal favourite with Indian poets. His voice when first heard in a glorious spring morning is not unpleasant, but becomes in the hot season intolerably wearisome to European ears.