Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.118

v2.c11.118

up.’ Having been thus addressed by Varuṇa, Nārada now came to the Muni Utathya, and spoke with heart not at all gladdened : ‘Varuṇa took me by the neck and threw me out, O great Muni. He will not give thee thy wife. Do what thou must do!’ When the Aṅgiras had heard Nārada’s words he was angered, and drank, as a great penitent, the water through his sublime strength, holding it up.¹ Although now all the water was drunk up, and the lord of water was besought by his friends, yet he did not give her up. Then spoke Utathya, the best of the Brahmans, hot with anger, to the earth : ‘My dear friend, do thou make the place of the six thousand lakes to come forth as dry land.’ Then did it become a salt desert, as the sea flowed away from that place. And to the river² also spoke this most excellent Brahman : ‘Thou timid one, flow unseen towards the sand-waste (marūn prati), O Sarasvatī; unhallowed be this place when thou hast left it, thou kindly one.’ When this land was now dried up, the warden of the waters came with Bhadrā, and gave the scion of the Angiras his wife, taking refuge with him. Utathya welcomed his wife, and was very glad, and he set the world and Varuṇa free from affliction. What he with the knowledge of the law, the very mighty Utathya, spoke to Varuṇa, when he had received his wife, do thou now hear, O herdsman of men : ‘I have won her through the might of my asceticism, while thou art moaning, O water king.’” After these words he took her and went to his abode (xiii, 154.10 ff. : cp. 153.3-5).