Simhasanadvatrimshika 25.p5

25.p5

Hearing this astrologer's statement, the king asked: 'O astrologer, is there no remedy to avert this lack of rain?' The astrologer answered: 'There is none besides this: if an observance such as an oblation to the planets is performed, rain will fall.' Then the king, having summoned learned Vedic brahmins and told them the preceding account, undertook to have them perform the oblation. Then all the materials for the oblation were gathered, the brahmins performed the sacrifice to the nine planets in the manner prescribed by the ritual manuals, and the final oblation was offered to ensure the efficacy of the sacrifice; the king gratified the brahmins with wealth, food, garments, and so on, and gave the ten gifts; then the poor, blind, deaf, hunchbacked, and others were gratified with lavish gifts; yet rain did not fall. In the absence of it, everyone was starved and fell into extreme misery. The king too, distressed by their sorrow, once sat in the sacrificial hall and was pondering this, when a disembodied voice spoke: 'O king, if an offering of a man endowed with the thirty-two marks is given before the wish-fulfilling goddess residing in the temple standing ahead, rain will surely fall.' Hearing that, the king went to the temple, bowed to the goddess, and as he was applying the sword to his neck, he was seized by the goddess and told: 'O king, I am pleased with your fortitude; choose a boon.'