BRAHMINS VERSUS KSHATRIYAS 403
anticipation: “If I have given gifts, and offered sacrifices an gratified my religious teachers, then may I be reunited with my son and with thee (my wife) in another world.” The queen determines to die in the same manner. When Harishchandra, after placing his son’s body on the funeral pile, is meditating on the Lord Shri Narayan krishna, the supreme spirit, all the gods arrive, headed by Dharma (righteousness), and accompanied by Vishvamitra. Dharma entreats the king to desist from his rash intention; and Indra announces to him that he, his wife, and son have conquered heaven by their good works. Amrosia, the antidote of death, and flowers are rained by the god from the sky; and the king’s son is restored to life and the bloom of youth. The king, adorend with celestial clothing and garlands, and the queen, embrace their son. Harishchandra, however declares that he cannot go to heaven till he has received his master the Chandala’s permission, and has paid him a ransom. Dharma then reveals to the king that it was he himself who had miraculously assumed the form of a Chandala. The king next objects that he cannot depart unless his faithful subjects, who are shares in his merits, are allowed to acompany him to heaven, at least for one day. This request is granted by Indra; and after Vishvamitra has inaugurated Rohitasva the king’s son to be his successor, Harishchandra, his friends and followers, all ascend in company to heaven. Even after this great consummation, however, Vashishtha, the family-priest of Harishchandra, hearing, at the end of a twelve years’ abode in the waters of the Ganges, an account of all that has occured, becomes vehementaly incensed at the humiliation inflicted on the excellent monarch, whose virtues and devotion to the gods and Brahmans he celebrates, declares that his indignation had not been so great roused even when his own hundred sons had been slain by Vishvamitra, and in the following words dooms the latter to be transformed into crane. Wherefore that wicked man, enemy of the Brahmans, smitten by my curse, shall be expelled from the society of intelligent beings, and losing his understanding shall be transformed into a Vaka.” Vishvamitra reciprocates the curse, and changes Vashishtha into a bird of the species called Ari. In their new shapes the two have a furious fight, the Ari being of the portentous height of two thousand yojanas = 18,000 miles, and the Vaka of 3090 yojanas. The first assail each other with their wings; then the Vaka smites his antagonist in the same manner, while the Ari strikes with his talons. Falling mountains, overturned by the blasts of wind raised by the flapping of their wings, shake the whole earth, the waters of the ocean