In the city of Viśālā there once reigned a king named Nanda. A mighty warrior, he had reduced all his rival kings to vassalage by the force of arms, and ruled the land as its sole sovereign lord. His son Jayapāla was versed in the thirty-six weapons of war, and Bahuśruta was the name of his minister.
The king’s great love was his wife Bhānumati. He was in fact infatuated with her, and spent all his time in her company. Smitten by her beauty, he gave no thought to state affairs. She would sit by his side even when he came to the assembly. Once the minister said to him: ‘Sire,
The king whose physician, preceptor, and minister
speak only sweet words will before long
lose his health, his morals, and his wealth.
‘Therefore even the unpalatable needs to be said. Your Majesty, it is not proper for the queen to come to the assembly. Jurists and lawgivers have said that the royal consort should not be exposed, even to the sun. But all kinds of people can come here and look at her.’
‘What you say is right, minister,’ the king replied. ‘But what can I do? I cannot stay without her, even for a moment.’
‘Do this, then,’ said the minister. ‘Do what?’ the king interjected. ‘Explain it.’
‘Call a portrait painter,’ said the minister, ‘and have him make the likeness of Bhānumati on canvas. This can be hung on the wall before you so that you may look at her all the time.’
The king was impressed by this advice. He summoned an artist and told him to paint the portrait of Bhānumati. ‘Sire,’ said the artist, ‘I must see her beauty with my own eyes before I can depict it limb for limb.’ Bhānumati was then adorned and ornamented and displayed to the artist. He observed that she was a padmini, a lotus woman, and portrayed her with the features of this category. The attributes of the lotus woman are:1
She is delicate like the lotus bud;
her sexual fluid has the aroma
of a full blown lotus;
and a divine fragrance pervades
her limbs. Her eyes are
like that of a startled doe,
and tinged with red at the corners.
Her faultless pair of breasts
surpass the beauty of the bilva fruit.
Her nose is like the sesame blossom.
Her faith and devotion in the gods,
the elders and the brahmins
is constant. Fair as the champa flower,
she has the glow of a lily petal,
and her whole form, like the sheath
of a blooming lotus, covers
an inner incandescence.
The lotus woman is slender, and moves
gently and gracefully like the royal swan.
Her waist is adorned with a triple fold,
and her voice is sweet and swan-like.
gracefully, cleanly and daintily.
She is proud and very bashful,
and looks lovely in garments bright as flowers.
The painter depicted the queen accordingly, and submitted the portrait to the king. The latter was delighted to see his beloved thus portrayed, and rewarded the artist appropriately. Thereafter the portrait of Bhānumati was seen by Śāradā Nandana, the king’s spiritual preceptor. ‘You have delineated all the queen’s features,’ he told the painter, ‘but you have overlooked one.’
‘Tell me, master,’ the painter asked, ‘what have I overlooked?’ Śāradā Nandana said: ‘On her left hip there is a mole like a sesame seed, which you have not portrayed.’
The king overheard what Śāradā Nandana had said. To ascertain the reality, when he looked at Bhanumati’s left hip while they were making love, he observed that it indeed bore a mole like a sesame seed. ‘How could Śāradā Nandana have seen this mole which is on a secret part of her body?’ he wondered. ‘He has definitely had an affair with her. Otherwise how could he know this? Besides, with women such a situation is not to be doubted. Thus,
They jest with one, make eyes
at another, and think of someone else.
For women one man is never enough.
Fire is never sated with fuelwood,
the sea with the flow of rivers,
and death with living creatures;
nor are bright-eyed women ever sated with men.
There is no privacy, no opportunity, and no
man around as a. suitor—thus alone, Nārada,
is the chastity of women assured.
The fool who is deluded enough
to think that a lovely woman is devoted
to him, merely passes into
her control to dance like a pet parrot.
One who acts according to women’s words
or fancies, frivolous or even serious,
is bound to be looked down on in the world.
The man in love is squeezed by women
and trodden under foot like the seeds
of red lac, used for tinting the skin.’
Blinded by rage born of consternation, the king decided that the innocent Śāradā Nandana was guilty. Without further thought, he ordered Bahuśruta to put the brahmin to death. ‘Great men of course are able to know everything,’ the famous minister replied with all politeness, ‘but one should not take decisions about believing this or that without thought. It is better to use one’s discrimination and judgement.’ The king’s lip trembled at this response. ‘If you wish me well,’ he told the minister, ‘just kill this villain.’
Commanded by the king, Bahuśruta had the brahmin Śāradā Nandana seized from his dwelling and publicly handcuffed. ‘But what is his crime?’ the minister worried. ‘It will only harm the king’s reputation if the preceptor is executed without reason. Who knows if his conduct was right or wrong, and how can anyone know? And why should the king be troubled for no cause? For the time being, therefore, I will continue to investigate this. In due course it will become clear if he is guilty or not.’
With these considerations in mind, Bahuśruta placed Śāradā Nandana in a dungeon and kept him concealed there. ‘My lord,’ he reported to the king, ‘in accordance with your command, Your Majesty’s instructions were carried out immediately.’ As for King Nanda, he said nothing, and continued to repel his enemies and protect the kingdom.