The Seduction of Shiva: Tales of Life and Love by Haskar, A.N.D. Read Free Book Online Page B

where they had started. Then Sagaradatta had a discussion with Buddhavarma. ‘To consolidate our friendship,’ he said, ‘let us do the following. My wife was pregnant when I left home and would have delivered during this time. If it is a daughter, sir, I betroth her to your son. If it is a boy, you too should betroth your daughter to him.’
    ‘This is most amazing!’ Buddhavarma cried. ‘I had the very same thought! Obviously you and I are one!’
    And with this agreement, the two embraced each other before departing at the head of great buffalo caravans to their respective lands. There they paid homage to their kings, the rulers of Avanti and Magadha, and then went home to spend time being greeted by their families and extending courtesies to brahmans and others.
    As Sagaradatta sat on his couch, a baby girl with a gleaming jasmine garland was put in hislap. ‘Whose is this girl with the garland?’ he asked his wife.
    ‘Who else but yours?’ she whispered shyly.
    ‘Blessed would be the parents of a son like this lovely child,’ he said. ‘But, my dear, do not fret at having borne a girl. One goddess is now the mother of another.’ He then reassured her with an account of his meeting and friendship with Buddhavarma on the sea. As for the child, because the father had asked about the girl in a jasmine garland, she came to be known by that name—Kundamalika.
    Buddhavarma too questioned his wife on return, but she remained silent. ‘Tell us what you delivered,’ he asked again, and she then showed him his son—a dirty dwarf, one-eyed and buck-toothed, with pendulous lips and a hunched back. ‘Why did you carry this ugliness?’ he exclaimed. ‘There was no need for it. Why didn’t you consult soothsayers and have an abortion? This ill-formed imp has ruined my agreement with Sagaradatta. If he informs me that he hashad a daughter, how can I tell him that I have a son?’ He then told his wife that if any messenger came from Avanti, no one should mention this ugly creature to him. As the father had used this word for the child, the town people also came to call him Ugly.
    After some time a private letter was received from Sagaradatta.
Greetings to the respected Buddhavarma in Rajagriha
, it read.
Sagara from Ujjayini embraces you and conveys that a daughter has been born to your friend. She is embellished with auspicious signs and no girl will match her in beauty. It is good if your wife has borne a son. But if it is a daughter, we have been cheated by an adverse fate, for just as prosperity needs the protection of power to endure, friendship too remains precarious unless strengthened by an alliance.
    The merchant Buddhavarma consulted his wife after welcoming the messenger bearing theletter. ‘Tell me,’ he asked her, ‘what should be done now that the matter has come to this pass?’
    ‘What do women know?’ she responded. ‘They have just two fingers’ worth of mind. But you have asked and I will answer. A person like me is emboldened at being questioned. There is both truth and untruth in the merchant’s profession, and neither can be set aside. To do that with one’s natural vocation is both unprofessional and condemnable. You have a son and there is no falsehood in saying so, but his defects you should describe as merits. All things can be mentioned with contrived names. A lethal poison has been called a sweetmeat. Given the importance of the job, falsehood is indeed the truth. Didn’t the Pandavas say that Ashvatthama had been killed? 3 Consumed by greed for wealth, people like you even go out on the salty sea with its deadly waves as if in sport to a lotus pond. That man is a master sea trader. His daughter will not come to your house without great wealth from the sea in her train.Don’t spurn such riches, difficult for poor folk to acquire. Tremendous efforts are needed to obtain them, but it is coming to you without any at all.’
    ‘Well said!’ Buddhavarma complimented his wife, as he