The Prince and Princess and Two Dēvatāwās

Thereupon the Dēvatāwī said, “I saw a Princess. As there is not in this world a beautiful Princess who is equal to the Princess, having stayed looking at the Princess I was delayed.”

Then the Dēvatāwā [said], “Not like the Princess whom thou sawest, I saw a Prince possessing beauty to the degree which is not in this world. Because of it, having stayed looking at the Prince, I delayed so much.” Well then, the Dēvatāwā says, “The Prince whom I saw is more beautiful than the Princess whom thou sawest.” The Dēvatāwī says, “The Princess whom I saw is more beautiful than the Prince whom thou sawest.” Having said [this], the two had a quarrel there.

The Dēvatāwā said, “When it is the time the Princess whom thou sawest is sleeping, for the purpose of looking if the Princess’s beauty is more or the Prince’s beauty is more, taking her together with even her bed while she is asleep, come thou to the place where this Prince is.”

Accepting the word, the Dēvatāwī having brought the Princess, deposited her together with even the bed, near the place where the Prince has gone to sleep.

After that, the Dēvatāwā and Dēvatāwī say, “We will now test the beauty of these two thus,” that is, it was [settled] that when they have awakened these two from sleep, the beauty is the less of the person who first salutes, honours, and pays respects [to the other].

Well then, by the Dēvatāwā the Prince was awakened. But the Prince [having seen the Princess] thinks, “It will be a thing that these parents of mine have done for the purpose of getting to know my motives in not marrying.” Having put on the Princess’s finger the jewelled ring that was on the Prince’s hand, and putting the jewelled ring that was on the Princess’s hand on the Prince’s finger, not looking on that side, having looked on the other side (i.e., in another direction) he went to sleep.

Thereafter awaking the Princess, she saluted and paid honours and respects to the Prince. Still the quarrel of the Dēvatāwī and Dēvatāwā not being allayed, for the purpose of looking which of their two words is right and which wrong, they summoned another Dēvatāwā.

The Dēvatāwā having come, says, “Do not ye allow this quarrel to occur; the two persons are of equal beauty.”

Afterwards the Dēvatāwā tells the Dēvatāwī, “Please bring the Princess to her city, and place her [as before],” he said. The Dēvatāwī did so.

Afterwards, in the morning the Prince having arisen, not knowing this wonder that had happened, with the thought that it was done by his father the King, not eating, not drinking, he began to beg his father the King, and the Ministers, to give him the Princess.

Thereupon, his father the King and the other persons, having thought, “Whence did we [bring and] place [there] this Princess of whom we are told! Through a malady’s causing this to this Prince, he is babbling,” began to apply medical treatment.

The Princess, just like that, not eating, not drinking, began to beg for the Prince whom the Princess saw. Therefore her parents, just like that, to her also began to apply medical treatment. Vedarālas (doctors) having come, say, “We are unable to cure this malady.” But one Vedarāla said, “I can cure this malady.”

When he asked the Prince about the malady, the Prince [said], “I have no malady at all; but not obtaining the Princess whom I saw on the night of such and such a day is my malady.”

When he asked, “What mark of it have you, Sir?” the Prince said, “The ring that was on her hand,—look here, it is on my hand; the ring that was on my hand is on her hand.”

Well then, the Vedā says, “In whatever country the Princess is I will bring her. You, Sir, without troubling [yourself], eat and drink, and be good enough to remain in pleasure.” Thereupon a very great delight was produced for the Prince; the malady disappeared.

Afterwards the Vedā, taking the ring that was on the Prince’s hand, and having gone from city to city successively, entered into the very city at which she alighted. At that time, the inhabitants of the city [said], “Our King’s daughter has a malady.”

The Vedarāla having heard it, when he asked, “What manner of illness is that malady?” the inhabitants say, “ ‘Should I not obtain the Prince who was seen at night by me, my life will be lost,’ the Princess says.”

Thereupon the Vedarāla says, “I am able to cure the malady.” [They informed the King accordingly.]

Thereupon the King having given (promised) him several great offices, went summoning the Vedarāla to the palace. Then the Vedarāla asks the Princess, “What is the malady which has come to you?”

When he said it, “Not obtaining the Prince whom I saw at night, indeed, is my malady,” she replied. Then when the Vedatema (doctor) showed the ring that he took, with the quickness with which she saw the ring the malady became cured.

Afterwards the Vedatema says [to the King], “Even should this malady be [apparently] cured in this manner, yet afterwards she may behave arrogantly. Because of it, there is my Preceptor [whom I must call in]. Having come with him, I must still apply medical treatment for this malady.”

After that, the King having said, “It is good,” and having given him presents and distinctions, allowed him to go. The Vedarāla having returned, went [back] with that Prince. After that, the two persons saw and married each other.

As the Princess was afraid to go to seek the quarter to which the Prince went, putting on the Prince’s clothes she went to another city. Having gone to the city, when she went near the King, the King asked what was the work she could do. This Princess says, “I can teach the arts and sciences.”

Thereupon the King appointed the [apparent] Prince to teach the Princesses, and when ships came from foreign countries to take charge of them [and examine their cargoes],—all these things. And the King, thinking this person is a Prince, married [to her] and gave her a Princess of the King’s. Afterwards, not concealing from the Princess that she is a Princess, and the manner in which she is seeking her husband the Prince, she told her not to make it known; and she also concealed it in that very way.

The Prince, on the journey on which he went to seek the ornament, having joined a man of another city, remained doing work for wages. While he was in that condition, when two birds were fighting, one having split open the stomach of the other threw it down. When the Prince looked at it, the ornament that he sought having been [in it], he met with it.

At that time the ships went to the other city. Afterwards, at the time when [the Princess] was examining the goods of the ships she met with this ornament. When she asked, “Whose are these goods?” on their saying they were those of such and such a gardener’s labourer, she confiscated the goods until they brought him.

Afterwards the sailors, having gone back, brought him. After that, having caused him to bathe in scented sandal water, and [the King] having appointed him to the sovereignty, marrying both the Princesses he remained [there].

P B. Madahapola, Raṭēmahatmayā, North-western Province.

This story is evidently that found in the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. 2, p. 307), and termed there “Tale of Kamar al-Zaman,” although in some details it adheres more closely to a story given in the Kathā Sarit Sāgara. In the Arabian Nights, the father of the Prince was King of the Khālidān Islands—(stated to be the Canaries)—and the Princess’s father was the King of “the Islands of the Inland Sea in the parts of China.” A Jinn Princess saw and admired the Prince, who had been imprisoned for refusing to marry; and an Ifrit saw the Princess, and by the order of the Jinn Princess brought her while asleep (without the bed) and laid her beside the sleeping Prince. At the suggestion of an Ifrit whom they summoned to decide their dispute as to which was the more beautiful, they awoke first the Prince and then, when he was asleep, the Princess, each of whom took the other’s finger ring. The Princess was then carried back. Next day the two were thought to be insane, and they were kept in prison for three years. The Princess’s foster-brother found the Prince, cured him by telling him about the Princess, and returned with him. He visited the Princess disguised as an astrologer; she at once recovered, and her father gave her in marriage to the Prince, as well as the rule over half the kingdom. The rest of the story agrees closely with that given above.

The Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 209, contains a story which seems to be the Indian original of the first part of the tale. The second part relating to the loss and recovery of the talisman, appears to be an evident addition, since the first part is a complete tale by itself. The Indian story is as follows:—

At the orders of the God Gaṇēśa, the Gaṇas his attendants transported Prince Śrīdarśana of Mālava (without his bed), while asleep, to Hansadwīpa, an island in the Western Sea, and placed him on the bed on which the King’s daughter lay asleep. He awoke, thought it a dream, nudged her shoulder, and she awoke. When they had exchanged ornaments, the Gaṇas stupefied them and carried back the Prince. Next day the Prince’s father, after hearing his story, issued a proclamation, but could not discover where Hansadwīpa was. The Princess’s father ascertained the facts by means of the power of contemplation possessed by an ascetic, who went “in a moment” by his mystical power to Mālava, cured a madman by the touch of his hand, and was requested to restore the Prince to happiness. He carried him back to Hansadwīpa, and after the two lovers were married conveyed them both to Mālava, where the Prince eventually succeeded to the throne.

In The Story of Madana Kāma Rāja (Naṭēśa Sāstrī), p. 29, a Prince by means of a magic ring caused a Princess to be transported to him while asleep on her bed. They agreed to be married, and he then sent her back to her own room in the same way. On the following day she told her father that she had dreamt of this Prince and had determined to marry him. A few days afterwards the Prince’s Ministers arrived to ask her hand in marriage, and when the Prince went there they were married.

In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (Rev. Dr. Bodding), p. 299, a Prince who refused to marry was imprisoned by his father. Three Bongas (deities) saw him, the wife of the Bonga chief proposed to give him a bride, and during the next night he found a Bonga maiden sitting beside him when he awoke. They exchanged rings, were seen by the warders, who informed the Rāja, and they were married.