Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.52.1

v1.c5.52.1

thyself with care? And how hast thou fallen into this plant-and grass-covered well? And whose daughter art thou? Speak the truth, maiden with the lovely waist!” Devayānī spoke: “I am that Çukra’s daughter, he who brings back to life again the Daityas slain by the gods. He knows of a surety nothing about me. Here is my right hand with its red-nailed fingers. Take me, and draw me out. For I know thou art of noble birth. I can see in thee a man of calm soul, of bravery, and of renown. Therefore mayest thou draw me, who have fallen in here, out of this well.” When the king, Nahuṣa’s son, had learned she was a Brahman’s daughter, he took her by the right hand and pulled her out of that pit. And when the prince Yayāti had pulled her quickly out of this well, he took his leave of the fair-hipped one, and went off to his town. When Nahuṣa’s son had gone, Devayānī, the spotless one, spoke, torn with grief, to her handmaid, Ghūrṇikā, who had come from the town: “Ghūrṇikā, go quickly and tell my father: ‘I shall not set foot now any more in the town of Vṛṣaparvan.’” Ghūrṇikā went quickly into the Asura’s castle, and when she saw Çukra she spoke to him with a soul filled with emotion, told the very wise one that Devayānī had been slain in the forest by Çarmisṭhā, the daughter of Vṛṣaparvan. When Çukra heard that his daughter had been slain there in the forest by Çarmisṭhā, he hastened out filled with woe, looking for his child.