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CHAPTER VII.
Then, having taken a vow of silence, I came into the presence of the sovereign, and there a certain Brahman recited a sloka he had composed, and the king himself addressed him correctly in the Sanskrit language; and the people who were present in court were delighted when they witnessed that. Then the king said deferentially to S'arvavarman—"Tell me thyself after what fashion the god shewed thee favour." Hearing that, S'arvavarman proceeded to relate to the king the whole story of Kartikeya's favourable acceptance of him.
"I went, O king, on that occasion fasting and silent from this place, so when the journey came to an end, being very despondent, and emaciated with my severe austerities, worn out I fell senseless on the ground. Then, I remember, a man with a spear in his hand came and said to me in distinct accents, 'Rise up, my son, everything shall turn out favourably for thee.' By that speech I was, as it were, immediately bedewed with a shower of nectar, and I woke up, and seemed free from hunger and thirst and in good case. Then I approached the neighbourhood of the god's temple, over-powered with the weight of my devotion, and after bathing I entered the inner shrine of the god in a state of agitated suspense. Then that Lord Skanda[1] gave me a sight of himself within, and thereupon Sarasvati in visible shape entered my mouth. So that holy god, manifested before me, recited the sutra beginning ' the traditional doctrine of letters.' On hearing that, I, with the levity which is so natural to mankind, guessed the next sutra and uttered it myself. Then that god said to me, 'if thou hadst not uttered it thyself, this grammatical treatise would have supplanted that of Panini. As it is, on account of its conciseness, it shall be called Katantra, and Kahipaka, from the tail (kalapa) of the peacock on which I ride.' Having said this, that god himself in visible form revealed to me that new and short grammar,</ref>This grammar is extensively in use in the eastern parts of Bengal. The rules are attributed to Sarvavarma, by the inspiration of Kartikeya, as narrated in the text. The vritti or gloss is the work of Durga Singh and that again is commented on by Trilochana Dasa and Kaviraja. Vararuchi is the supposed author of an illustration of the Conjugations and Sripati Varma of a Supplement. Other Commentaries are attributed to Gopi Natha, Kula Chandra and Visvevara. (Note in Wilson's Essays, Vol. I I. p. 183.) </ref> and then added this besides; 'That king of thine in a former birth was himself a holy sage, a pupil of the hermit Bharadvaja, named Krishna, great in austerity: and he, having beheld a
- ↑ Skanda is another name of Kartikeya.
