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Indra heard that, he went, in order to please him, with the king and
his son to the city of Devasabha, after taking leave of the hermit. And there the king, who was sovereign of two worlds, entertained Indra so sumptuously, that he forgot his happiness in heaven. Then Indra too, being gratified, took the king and his sons in his own heavenly chariot to his celestial abode, and in that place which was charming with the pleasures of a concert in which Nárada, Rambhá and others performed, he made Merudhvaja, with Muktáphaladhvaja and Malayadhvaja, forget their toils, and gave them garlands from the Párijáta-tree, and celestial diadems, and after honouring them, sent them home.
And they, when they returned, kept going to and fro between the earth and Pátála, and though kings of men, bare sway in two worlds. Then Merudhvaja said to Muktáphaladhvaja, " Our enemies are conquered; you two brothers are young men, and I have various princesses who are subject to my sway, and I have sent for some of them: the fitting time has come ; so take to yourselves wives." When Muktáphaladhvaja's father said this to him, he answered, " Father, my mind is not inclined to marriage at present. I will now perform a course of austerities to propitiate*[1] Śiva; but let this Malayadhvaja my dear younger brother, be married." When his younger brother Malayadhvaja heard this, he said, " Noble brother, is it fitting that I should be married, before you have taken a wife, or that I should hold sway while you are without a kingdom? I follow in your footsteps."
When Malayadhvaja said this, king Merudhvaja said to his eldest son Muktáphaladhvaja, " Your younger brother here has spoken rightly, but what you have just said is not right; it is no time for asceticism in this fresh youth of yours; the present should be to you a time of enjoyment; so abandon, my son, this perverse crotchet of yours, which is most inopportune." Though the king addressed these admonitions to his eldest son, that prince resolutely refused to take a wife: so the king remained silent, to wait for a more favourable time.
In the meanwhile, in Pátála, the two daughters of Trailokyamálin's wife, Svayamprabhá, who were engaged in austerities, said to their mother, " Mother, when one of us was seven and the other eight years old, owing to our want of merits.†[2] our father was imprisoned, and we were hurled from the royal rank. It is now the eighth year, that we have been engaged in austerities, and yet Śiva is not pleased with us, and our father has not
