380 



Essay on Telugu Literature. 



[Oct. 



THE STORY NOW CONTINUES AS FOLLOWS. 



Saranga' s mother now approaches the king weeping, and touching 

 her lord's feet, and praying that her son may be delivered to her that 

 they may depart from the country. The king not relenting she entreats 

 the intercession of the spectators, praying a sight of her son. This 

 is granted. The interview is very finely delineated. The arguments 

 used by her friends to console her. Evening now coming on, the ex- 

 ecutioners separate him from his mother, and convey him to the fatal 

 spot in the wilderness. Description of the forest. He prays their mer- 

 cy in vain, and at last they cut off his hands and feet. 41 1-472. 



He is left to die : but his senses return : his lamentations : followed 

 by reflections that these evils must be the result of sins committed in 

 a former birth.* He hears a voice from heaven confirming this idea : 

 stating that in a former stage of existence there was a king who had 

 two ministers named Jayanta and Sumanta. To the latter the king en- 

 trusted supreme power, and the former wishing to be avenged, bribed 

 one of the queen's handmaids to place his rival's slippers under the 

 royal bed. The troubles that result from this fraud. The blameless 

 Sumanta is put to death. His son was in a succeeding birth thy father 

 and Jayantiis thyself: hence result these torments. This Chitrangi 

 was the treacherous handmaid. Thus spoke the heavenly voice. 



It now fell night. The horrible plight of the maimed wretch. His 

 groans were heard by a (Siva-yogi) hermit, who lived on the mountain. 

 He put on his {\jogavd(ja \ ) shoes of swiftness, and was transported to 

 where the victim lay. He accosted him, enquiring who he was. He 

 relates all that had happened, and a long conversation terminates in the 

 lopped limbs being miraculously restored. 



It now dawned. The executioners returned to the king, and related 

 regarding the voice heard in the sky : the king's anguish — he sends for 

 Chitrangi who persists in her assertions, and requests that their tale may 

 be proved by producing the amputated limbs. At this moment the 

 heavenly voice was again heard, revealing the truth, andestablishing the 

 innocence of Saranga Dhara. Chitrangi is put to death with universal 

 execrations. Afier sundry miraculous occurrences Saranga Dhara 

 is restored to his father, and at his prayer Chitrangi is likewise 

 raised to life. The poem concludes with a description of general 

 rejoicings. Saranga Dhara renounces the worldly state, and retires 

 to the wilderness as a hermit, where he acquires supernatural powers. 

 The poet concludes by stating that he wrote this poem as an -improve- 

 ment on the version written in stanzas by an older bard. 



* .Here again we meet with a principle that pervades all the waitings of the Hindus: 

 *' the result of acts committed in a former birth" being referred to as the one solution of 

 all evil or good which we meet in this life. It implies a vague reference to the equity of 

 providential dispensations. 



t These are described as seven-league boots worn by hermits on active ser vice, 



