Note 4 — Chapter LXXIV

And in the middle of the river the current carried his friend to a distance from him, and he himself was swept away by the waves, and reached the bank with difficulty. When he reached the other side, he could not see his friend Śankhadatta, and while he was looking for him along the bank, the sun set. Then he began to despair, and he exclaimed in bitter grief, “Alas my friend!” and it being now the beginning of the night, he prepared to drown himself in the waters of the Ganges. He said, “Goddess Jáhnaví, you have taken from me my life in the form of my friend, so now receive also this empty vessel of my body,” and he was on the point of plunging in, when Gangá appeared to him from the middle of the flood. And pleased with his violent agitation she said to him then and there, “Do not act rashly, my son! your friend is alive, and in a short time you shall be reunited with him. Now receive from me this charm called, ‘Forwards and Backwards.’ If a man repeats it forwards, he will become invisible to his neighbour, but if he repeats it backwards, he will assume whatever shape he desires.4 Such is the force of this charm only seven syllables long, and by its help you shall become a king on this earth.” When the goddess Gangá had said this, and given him the charm, she disappeared from his eyes, and he gave up the idea of suicide, now that he had got a hope of regaining his friend and of other successes. And being anxious to regain his friend, he passed the night in impatience, like the lotus-flower, and the next morning he set out in search of him.