Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.3046.3

c9.3046.3

Rājavattā who heard his story, was irresistibly attracted by him and she embraced him. Just then the King arrived on the scene. Consoling himself by thinking that this was also the will of fate, he let off the Vaiśya youth. The King returned to his palace and decided to spend the rest of his life by doing tapas in the forest, after giving away all his wealth and property to the poor. When he was about to mount Śvetaraśmi, the animal suddenly transformed itself into a man of divine glory, dressed in gorgeous clothes and jewels. He spoke to the King as follows:—"I am a Gandharva. My name is Somaprabha. There is my elder brother Devaprabha who lives on the Malaya mountain. My brother had a wife named Rājavattā. Once all the three of us went to worship in a Viṣṇu temple at a place called Siddhāvāsa. At that time my sister-in-law sang a devotional song. A Siddha who was enchanted by her song was looking fixedly at her. Enraged at it, my brother asked the Siddha why he was staring at his wife with lustful eyes. The innocent Siddha was naturally provoked by the question and pronounced a curse that my brother and his wife would be born in human wombs and in that birth, he would see his wife having sexual union with a stranger. When I heard my brother being cursed I became very angry. I hurled a toy elephant which was in my hand at the time, at the Siddha. He then cursed me also to become a white elephant just like the toy with which I hit him.