DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.638#0440
3S6 INDIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
the forest. Ah ! she deserved not such a fate. Thirsting
and anhungered she wanders alone because her lord for-
sook her and fled; wild beasts are about her, seeking to
devour; the wood is full of perils. ... It may be that she
is not now alive. . . ."
Thus did Nala sorrow in his secret heart over Dama-
yanti during his long sojourn at Ayodhya, while he served
the renowned Rajah Rituparna.
Meanwhile King Bhima was causing search to be made
for his lost daughter and her royal husband. Abundant
rewards were offered to Brahmans, who went through every
kingdom and every city in quest of the missing pair. It
chanced that a Brahman, named Sudeva, entered Chedi
when a royal holiday was being celebrated, and he beheld
Damayanti standing beside the Princess Sunanda and the
queen mother at the royal palace.
Sudeva perceived that her loveliness had been dimmed
by sorrow, and to himself he said as he gazed upon her:
" Ah ! the lady with lotus eyes is like to the moon, darkly
beautiful; her splendour hath shrunken like the crescent
moon veiled in cloud—she who aforetime was beheld in
the full moonlight of her glory. Pining for her lost
husband, she is like to a darksome night when the moon
is swallowed; her sorrow hath stricken her like to a river
which has become dry, like to a shrunken pool in which
lotus blooms shrivel and fade; she is, indeed, like to
withered lotus. . . . Doth Nala live now without the
bride who thus mourns for him ? . . . When, oh when
shall Damayanti be restored once again unto her lord as
the moon bride is restored unto the peerless moon?1
Methinks I will speak. . . ."
1 The moon is masculine, and the marriage occurs at a certain phase. In Egypt
moon is male, but was identified with imported female deities. In Norse mythology
Mani is moon god; there was, however, an earlier moon goddess, Nana. In Irelan
and Scotland the moon was not individualized—that is, not in the Gaelic language-
as
t the
the forest. Ah ! she deserved not such a fate. Thirsting
and anhungered she wanders alone because her lord for-
sook her and fled; wild beasts are about her, seeking to
devour; the wood is full of perils. ... It may be that she
is not now alive. . . ."
Thus did Nala sorrow in his secret heart over Dama-
yanti during his long sojourn at Ayodhya, while he served
the renowned Rajah Rituparna.
Meanwhile King Bhima was causing search to be made
for his lost daughter and her royal husband. Abundant
rewards were offered to Brahmans, who went through every
kingdom and every city in quest of the missing pair. It
chanced that a Brahman, named Sudeva, entered Chedi
when a royal holiday was being celebrated, and he beheld
Damayanti standing beside the Princess Sunanda and the
queen mother at the royal palace.
Sudeva perceived that her loveliness had been dimmed
by sorrow, and to himself he said as he gazed upon her:
" Ah ! the lady with lotus eyes is like to the moon, darkly
beautiful; her splendour hath shrunken like the crescent
moon veiled in cloud—she who aforetime was beheld in
the full moonlight of her glory. Pining for her lost
husband, she is like to a darksome night when the moon
is swallowed; her sorrow hath stricken her like to a river
which has become dry, like to a shrunken pool in which
lotus blooms shrivel and fade; she is, indeed, like to
withered lotus. . . . Doth Nala live now without the
bride who thus mourns for him ? . . . When, oh when
shall Damayanti be restored once again unto her lord as
the moon bride is restored unto the peerless moon?1
Methinks I will speak. . . ."
1 The moon is masculine, and the marriage occurs at a certain phase. In Egypt
moon is male, but was identified with imported female deities. In Norse mythology
Mani is moon god; there was, however, an earlier moon goddess, Nana. In Irelan
and Scotland the moon was not individualized—that is, not in the Gaelic language-
as
t the