1852.] Analysis of the Uayhu Vans' a. 451 



father of his people should perish. The mountain also by the echo 

 from its hollow caverns responded to the same opinion, but the ruler 

 of earth moved by the wistful looks of the cow, answered her thus : 

 as a protector from death, the Khshatrya won his high name through 

 the world, what has he then to do with life when his soul is tarnished 

 by dishonour 1 if you wish not to slay me, yet have regard to my fame ; 

 so saying he presented his body as an offering to the lion ; at that 

 instant the Vidyddharas from the skies rained flowers on the 

 guardian of his subjects as with averted face he awaited the onset of 

 the lion, and a voice sweet as nectar said, Arise, my child ; he saw 

 only the cow before him who said, I have tried thy mercy and fidelity 

 by the spectral appearance of a lion, mention now thy wishes. "With 

 clasped hands the monarch replied : Grant me a son, the propagator of 

 my race and endowed with immortal fame. The cow assented, and 

 directed him to drink her milk from a leafy vessel. The king of kings 

 with face radiant as the moon returned to the hermit's cave and to 

 his spouse communicated all concerning the proferred favours. In 

 obedience to Vashishta's order he drank the milk left by the calf; 

 after the performance of the sacrifice to their own capital they re- 

 turned on the morrow's dawn, having previously paid reverential salu- 

 tation by an oblation to Agni and Arundhati, the calf and cow. As they 

 sped on their way, their ears were soothed by the sound of the chariot 

 as it proceeded in its course ; with waving banners the citizens joyfully 

 welcomed them, their eyes drinking eagerly of bliss in beholding the 

 king with body emaciated from desire of offspring, who appeared to his 

 subjects as the rising moon, the monarch of the herbs. The queen 

 soon conceived to the joy of her subjects. 



Sudakshind gave signs of pregnancy joyful to her husband as 

 the face of the rising moon to friends ; with features pale as the 

 lodhra tree, she appeared as night on the approach of morn, when 

 the moon gives a sickly ray and the stars can be numbered in the 

 sky ; all her longings were gratified by the monarch of Aude, who 

 regarded his wife in her pregnant state like the Sami tree charged 

 with hidden fire or the stream of Saraswati, which winds its way 

 beneath earth's surface ; she increased in size like the heaven charg- 

 ed with clouds ready to burst in fertilizing showers. On the birth 

 of a son the celestial quarters shone with auspicious light, the gales 



