Jímútaketu has a splendour like the ocean, wearing as he does two linen garments, with ripples tremulous as waves and white as the ocean's foam, and adorned by his queen, as the ocean is by the Ganges, each alike possessed of great holiness, and abundant in maternal streams; and at their side shines Malayavatí, like the ocean’s shore. I will go up to them.
Then enters King Jímútaketu, with his wife and
daughter-in-law.
King.
I have enjoyed all the pleasures of youth, and held sway in a kingdom full of glory; I have steadily exercised devotion; my son is of great renown, and my daughter-in-law here is of fitting parentage; now that all my desires are fulfilled, should I not contemplate death?
Doorkeeper (coming up suddenly).
—Of Jímútaváhana—
King (stopping his ears).
Cease! An ill-omen![1]
Queen.
May this ill-omen be averted!
Malayavatí.
This bad omen causes my heart to palpitate.
- ↑ The utterance by the doorkeeper of the genitive case of Jímútaváhana, immediately succeeding, as it does, the word "death," ttered by the king, forms an inauspicious omen.
