The Horse That Fell from the Sky

One day the wise brahmin Gālava came to King Śatrujit's court leading a fine horse. A wicked daitya, a demon, he said, was ruining his hermitage day and night for no reason at all. It came in the shapes of lions and elephants and other beasts of the forest, and as small creatures too, and it broke his samādhi, the deep stillness of his meditation, and his vow of silence. He could have burned it with the fire of his anger, but he would not spend on it the austerity he had won with such pain. At last, worn out, he had looked at the demon and sighed.

At that moment a horse fell from the sky, and a voice without a body spoke. This horse can go round the whole earth with the sun and never tire, it said. Its way is open through Pātāla, through the sky and the waters, and over the mountains. Because it will roam the whole round of the earth unwearied, it will be called Kuvalaya, the Round of the Earth. Mounted on it, Ṛtadhvaja, the son of King Śatrujit, will kill the daitya and win fame.

Send your son, Gālava told the king, for a king has a share in the austerity of the sages he protects. Śatrujit had the auspicious rites performed, set Ṛtadhvaja on the horse, and sent him back with Gālava to the hermitage.