🧚 A Sleep and a Dream., part 1 · page 2

And when the King heard this, he was astonished, and sat silent, looking at Shrí.65 And he said to himself: This is a strange story, and the conduct of this mysterious daughter of mine is inscrutable.66 What is this Land of the Lotus of the Sun?67 Is it a fancy, the capricious dream of a girl?68 Or does the dream really point to a previous existence?69 And he thought for a while, and then he said again: Perhaps it is better to do as she says, and endeavour to discover a man who has seen that Land.70 For where is the harm?71 For even if he is found, there will always be time to consider.72 And, moreover, in this way it may be that she will obtain a husband, whereas she will certainly not get married in any other.73 Better that she should get a husband, no matter how, no matter who, than remain a maiden to destroy us all.74

Then he dismissed his daughter, and summoned his chamberlains, and said to them: Get criers, and send them through the city, and let them proclaim by beat of drum: That any high caste man, who has seen the Land of the Lotus of the Sun, shall share my kingdom, and marry my daughter.75 And his chamberlains wondered at hearing the order.76 But they went immediately, and told the criers the order of the King.77

[1] That is, her soul, as distinguished from her body: that part of her which, according to Plato and the Bhagwad-Gitá (more logical than modern theologians) _is never born and never dies_.78

[2] _The home of Shrí_, i.e. a blue lotus, which is so called because the goddess Shrí appeared floating in one at the creation.79

[3] _shánta_: one who has quelled the passions and attained peace.80 Of such, Shiwa is the chief.81 But the minister drew his bow at a venture, and knew not how he hit the mark.82

[4] Hence the name of the city, above.83

[5] Beauty and salt, in the original, are denoted by the same word.84

[6] That is, 'a woman with sweet seductive eyes.'85

[7] A pretty term employed by ladies in addressing their lords: 'son of an _arya_, a gentleman.'86 It has no English equivalent.87

[8] The old Hindoos had a special admiration and a special term (_hansagaminí_) for a woman who walked like a swan.88

[9] There is here an untranslateable play on the word kamalahása, which means both _the opening of a lotus bud_, and an _irresistible smile_.89

[10] _wyatikara_, a word expressive of the _varying_ lustre or _wavering_ coruscation of jewels.90

[11] cf.91 Callimachus: dós moi partheníen aión ion, appa, phylássein.92

[12] This touch arises from the beautiful word for a daughter, átmajá, i.e. _she that is born from yourself_.93

[13] A case, perhaps, not absolutely unknown in the west: though beauty, like a fortress, must always like to be flattered by a siege.94 But in the land of the Hindoos, marriage is like being born or dying, a matter of course, a thing necessary, inevitable, essential, _quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus_.95

[14] There is, in the original here, a _nuance_ not susceptible of direct translation.96 According to the Hindoos, lotuses are divided into those of the Day and Night, whose lovers are the Sun and Moon.97 The Lotus in question is a Sun-lotus '_between the Twilights_,' i.e., buried in night, and deprived of the presence of the Sun. An allusion to the title of the story is thus introduced.98 But all this cannot be expressed in English, as it can in Sanskrit, by a single word.99

II.100

By Beat of Drum101

So the criers went through the streets of the capital, beating drums and crying aloud: _Whatsoever high-caste man has been to the Land of the Lotus of the Sun, let him come to the King: he shall share the King's kingdom, and marry the King's daughter_.102 And hearing the proclamation, all the citizens and strangers in the city marvelled as they listened.103 For the fame of the beauty of the King's daughter had gone out into the three worlds.104 And buzzing like bees, they thronged around the criers, and ran up and down, everybody asking everybody else: What is this Land of the Lotus of the Sun?105 Where is it, or who has seen it?106 And a great uproar arose in the streets of the city, and they were full of noise and shouting: and the news was carried into the neighbouring kingdoms, and immediately crowds of people poured into Indirálaya from every part of Málwá and the Deckan and the North, and every quarter of the world, and together with the merchants and the working castes, who all abandoned their ordinary business, gathered in knots and stood about, asking eagerly for news of that Lotus Land, and its nature, and its locality, and its peculiarities.107 But no one could be found who had ever even heard of it, much less seen it.108 So day by day the proclamation sounded in the streets: and all day long the city was full of the din of shouting criers and beaten drums, and all night long sleep fled from the eyes of the citizens, as if in disgust at the noise that they made by day.109 But all was in vain: for not a man could they find, nor did anyone come forward to say: I have seen that Lotus Country: give me the reward.110

And at last the citizens became enraged, alike with the King, and his daughter, and the Land of the Lotus, and themselves.111 And seeing this, the old King fell sick with anxiety: and he said to himself: My pretty daughter is as cunning as she is beautiful, and beyond a doubt this is some trick devised by her, to appease me, and avoid her bugbear of a husband, and befool us all.112 And now I fear that in their fury my subjects may break out into revolt, and refuse to pay taxes, or depose me.113 Out on my daughter and her blue eyes, and the cunning of women and their crooked hearts!114 Is there any such land in the world, as this Land of the Lotus of the Sun, of which in all my dominions, haunted by merchants and strangers from every quarter of the earth, no one has ever even so much as heard?115