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when Malyavan shall hear this talc from Kanabhuti, then Kanabhuti shall be released, and thou, Malyavan, when thou hast published it abroad, shalt be free also." Having thus spoken the daughter of the mountain ceased, and immediately those Ganas disappeared instantaneously like flashes of lightning. Then it came to pass in the course of time that Gauri full of pity asked Siva, "My lord, where on the earth have those excellent Pramathas*[1] whom I cursed, been born?" And the moon-diademed god answered : "My beloved, Pushpadanta has been born under the name of Vararuchi in that great city which is called Kausarnbi.†[2] Moreover Malyavan also has been born in the splendid city called Supratishthita under the name of Gunadhya. This, goddess, is what has befallen them." Having given her this information with grief caused by recalling to mind the degradation of the servants that had always been obedient to him, that lord continued to dwell with his beloved in pleasure-arbours on the slopes of mount Kailasa, which were made of the branches of the Kalpa tree.‡[3]
CHAPTER II.
Then Pushpadanta wandering on the earth in the form of a man, was known by the name of Vararuchi and Katyayana. Having attained perfection in the sciences, and having served Nanda as minister, being wearied out he went once on a time to visit the shrine of Durga.§[4] And that goddess, being pleased with his austerities, ordered him in a dream to repair to the wilds of the Vindhya to behold Kanabhuti. And as he wandered about there in a waterless and savage vood,||[5] full of tigers and apes, he beheld a lofty Nyagrodha tree.¶[6] And near it he saw, surrounded by hundreds of Pisachas, that Pisacha Kanabhuti, in stature like a Sala tree.
- ↑ * Pramatha, an attendant on Siva.
- ↑ † Kausambi succeeded Hastinapur as the capital of the emperors of India. Its precise site has not been ascertained, but it was probably somewhere in the Doaba, or at any rate not far from the west bank of the Yamuna, as it bordered upon Magadha and was not far from the Vindhya hills. It is said that there are ruins at Karali or Karari about 14 miles from Allahabad on the western road, which may indicate the site of Kausambi. It is possible also that the mounds of rubbish about Karrah may c<>: some vestiges of the ancient capital a circumstance rendered more probable by tho inscription found there, which specifies Kata as comprised within Kausiimba mandala or the district of Kausambf. [Note in Wilson's Essays, p. 163.]
- ↑ ‡ A tree of Indra's Paradise that grants all desires.
- ↑ § More literally, tho goddess that dwells in tho Vindhya hills. Her shrine is near Mirzapur.
- ↑ || Dr. Brockhaus makes parusha a proper name.
- ↑ ¶ Ficus Indica.
