Cūḍālā
Contents1 of 14
  1. The King and the Princess of Surāṣṭra
  2. What Am I?
  3. You Speak like a Child
  4. The Powers She Did Not Show
  5. The King Goes to the Forest
  6. Eighteen Years
  7. The Boy from the Sky
  8. Kumbha's Teaching
  9. The Fire in the Hermitage
  10. Still as a Rock
  11. A Woman by Night
  12. Heaven Refused, and the Lover
  13. I Am Cūḍālā
  14. The Return

The King and the Princess of Surāṣṭra

Long ago there was a king named Śikhidhvaja, of the line of the Kurus, who ruled in the city of the Mālavas, not far from the Vindhya mountains. He was steadfast and generous, calm and self-controlled, brave and pure, a man of few words, who performed every sacrifice and surpassed every archer. His father died when he was a boy, and at sixteen, by his own strength, he conquered the quarters of the earth and ruled by dharma, the law of what is right.

One spring, as the flowers opened and the bees sang in the groves, his mind turned to love, and he wandered in the gardens by the lotus pools. His ministers understood their king's wish, and with due rite they sought for him the daughter of the lord of Surāṣṭra, a maiden just come to womanhood. Her name was Cūḍālā, and she was so like him that she seemed his own image.

They loved each other more each day. He left the business of the kingdom to good ministers, and the two of them delighted in each other in the palace and the gardens, by the lakes and at the edge of the forest. Each learned from the other. From her husband she learned the meaning of every śāstra, and painting and more; from her he learned dance and music and the rest. The two of them, though two, became one, like the god Śiva and his wife Śivā on the earth.