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THE YOUTH WHO BECAME A MAIDEN

An Indian Folktale retold by Christopher Leeson         

The vampire, whom King Trivikramasena had seized at his grave side, 
sought to distract his brave captor by telling him still another story:

And so the vampire said:

 ####

Once upon a time in the city of Sivapura there was a king named 
Yasahketu who placed the burdens of government on the shoulders of his 
councillor Prajnasagara and who, with his queen, lived a wasteful life 
of self-indulgence.  In the course of time, the king sired upon his 
consort a daughter whom they named Sasiprabha, which means Moon-Lustre, 
for she displayed to the pale beauty of the moon.  In due time the girl 
grew to womanhood.

One day the princess came out into the palace garden to watch the 
celebrations of the festival of spring.  As she was picking flowers, 
unknowingly bending in such a way as to reveal one charming breast, she 
was seen by the son of a rich brahmin, Manahsvamin.  This youth was 
smitten the instant he set eyes on her.  In spite of a name which means 
"Mind's Master," the young man was bewitched with passion and no longer 
master of his own mind at all.

"Is she the Goddess of Desire?  Or is she a sylph that has come from the 
deep forest?" he asked himself.  While the youth stood wondering, the 
princess turned his way .  As soon as she had seen the young man she was 
likewise so overcome with yearning that she dropped her flowers upon the 
earth.

While the pair stood staring at each other possessed by sudden love, 
there arose a loud clamor and they belatedly raised their heads to see 
what was happening.  Bearing down on them, uprooting the trees along the 
road, came a berserk elephant.  The companions of the princess fled in 
panic, abandoning the princess in the path of the enraged beast.  
Instantly, Manahsvamin dashed toward her, swept the maiden into his 
arms, and carried her out of the elephant's path.  Then the princess was 
again surrounded by her attendants, who, praising the brahmin's courage, 
escorted her back to her own quarters, not noticing that she kept 
stealing glances over her shoulder at her bold rescuer.  At home the 
princess could not stop thinking of the youth and every day thereafter 
she yearned to see him again.

Manahsvamin had followed the princess until he watched her vanish into 
her chambers, thinking: "I cannot hope to endure without her.  Ah, but 
who am I to ask for the hand of a royal princess?  My only salvation may 
be my teacher, Master Muladeva, the skillful sorcerer."

Somehow the young brahmin struggled through the remainder of the day and 
a long, sleepless night, and in the morning went off to visit Master 
Muladeva.  Manahsvamin bowed to the master mage and told him his burning 
desire which, with a smile, Muladeva promised to satisfy.  The magician 
took a magic bead, put it into his own mouth, and changed himself into 
an noble-looking old brahmin; then he pushed another bead into 
Manahsvamin's mouth which changed him instantly into a beautiful girl.

"What have you done!?" exclaimed the youth.

"Be patient, my pupil," the sorcerer admonished, and then explained his 
plan in detail.  It sounded so cunning that Manahsvamin was content to 
fall with it.

Thereupon the crafty Muladeva escorted the transformed Manahsvamin to 
the marketplace to buy him clothes suitable for a high-born maiden to 
wear, and from hence conducted him to the father of the boy's beloved, 
who was, as we have said. the idle king.  Securing an audience, the 
disguised wizard made of the king the following request:

"Your Majesty, I have one son, and for him I have asked this girl in 
marriage and brought her from afar.  But when I arrived home I found 
that my son had gone adventuring.  Until I locate the boy, would you 
not, I beg, keep this blameless girl under your protection?"

Wary of offending a powerful brahmin who might place a curse upon his 
house, King Yasahketu promised to do the favor asked and summoned his 
daughter Moon-Lustre into the hal, saying to her her: "Daughter, keep 
this girl with you in your chambers and treat her like your own sister!"

So the princess promised to do, conducting the transformed Manahsvamin 
to her own chambers.  And while the false old brahmin went his way, 
Manahsvamin remained near his beloved in the shape of a girl.

After a few days, the princess came to trust in her companion's 
friendship and affection.  The imposter questioned her one night why she 
was not eating well and always lay abed tossing and turning.

"Why are you so unhappy, my dear?  Every day you grow paler, more 
colorless and thin, as though you were separated from a lover. Tell me, 
what is the matter?  Is there any reason why you should not trust your 
loving friend?  If you do not tell me what is wrong, I shall refuse my 
meals also!"

The princess sighed.  "Why should I not trust you?  I will tell you all, 
my friend -- listen:  One day I went out to watch the flower festival of 
spring and there I saw a handsome brahmin youth.  He was as fine as snow 
or pearls or moonlight -- he was like a god.  But while my eyes feasted 
on his beauty there was sudden thunder like Doomsday and a monstrous 
bull elephant came down on us.  My attendants left me to fend for 
myself, but that young brahmin boy took me into his arms and swept me 
out of harm's way.  When I touched his body I felt. . .I don't know 
what.  Alas, before we could say a word, my companions returned and took 
me from his embrace.  I was beside myself.  It was as though I had been 
thrown from the bliss of Paradise down to the sordid earth!

"Ever since, even when I am wide-awake, I imagine that the lord of my 
dreams lies beside me.  I fancy that he has used some clever ruse to win 
his way into my chamber and each night I seem to hear him urge me to 
love him.  But I know nothing about him, neither his name nor his family 
-- and I have no way of communicating with him.  And so the agony of 
separation burns my soul with fire."

Her words intoxicated Manahsvamin and the boy in the body of a maiden 
blissfully saw his end achieved.  Judging that the moment was ripe to 
reveal himself, he took the bead from his mouth and showed himself in 
his natural form.

"Goddess with the dazzling eyes," he addressed her, "I am the one whom 
you have won with your glances in that garden!"

"But how is it that you take the shape of a maiden?" the princess asked 
in amazement.

The cunning youth was ready with a lie.  "When my meeting with you was 
cut short, I fell to such immoderate lamentations that the gods deemed I 
had grown unmanly.  Thus it was that they gave me the form of a girl.  
It is your declaration of true love for me which has broken the spell."

When the princess was overwhelmed by passion and they married each other 
in the informal manner that the Gandharvas practice in Heaven.  
Henceforth Manahsvamin contentedly lived in two different forms: by day 
a girl, by night a youth.

Several days passed in this manner.  Then King Yasahketu's brother-in-
law, Lord Mrigankadatta, sent his daughter Mrigankavati with a very 
large dowry in marriage to Councillor Prajnasagara's son.  Moon-Lustre 
was invited to the wedding and took with her brahmin youth Manahsvamin 
among her retinue as a maiden-in-waiting.

But what Fortune gives, he oft will endanger!  When the bridegroom saw 
the supposed girl, he was utterly smitten with her beauty and, robbed of 
reason, he went with his new bride to a home without the love or joy 
that a new husband should know.  Once there, he totally immersed himself 
in longing the false girl and, before long, he fell into a swoon, a 
victim of the poisonous snake of immoderate desire.  His father 
Prajnasagara came hurrying to his son's house as soon as he heard of his 
illness.  Comforted by his father, the bridegroom raved deliriously of 
his desire for the nameless girl in Moon-Lustre's retinue..  

The good councillor notified the king himself of the cause of his son's 
distress and the gracious monarch soon appeared at the bridegroom's 
house.  After having seen the boy suffering from the seventh degree of 
love-sickness, the king conferred with his ministers.

"The girl has been entrusted to me by a brahmin," he told them.  "Her 
hand is spoken for.  How can I marry her to another?  Alack, unless I 
permit it the boy will certainly die of love's cruel wounds.  When he 
has died, his father, my councillor, must surely perishof grief, and at 
the councillor's death the kingdom shall be ill-run and fall into ruin!  
Advise me, Wise Ones, what can we do?"

The ministers debated and decided that regardless of circumstances, the 
maid must marry the councillor's son, lest disaster befall. The brahmin 
will be enraged, they owned, but he could be mollified by generous gifts 
when he returned.

The monarch agreed despite his misgivings and consented to give the 
supposed girl to the councillor's son.  When an propitious hour for the 
nuptials had been calculated, Manahsvamin was brought from the princess' 
chambers to meet the king.  He had overcome his earlier dismay at his 
forced marriage and now addressed the king courageously: "Your Majesty, 
if deem yourself free to invalidate the pledge made to my father-in-law, 
that is for the gods, not myself, to avenge.  I have no choice but to 
consent to the nuptials for you are mighty in power, but I will do so on 
this condition only:  I shall not be forced to sleep with my husband 
until he has returned from a pilgrimage of six months to the holy 
places.  If this condition is not granted, I swear that I shall kill 
myself by biting off my tongue!"

The king conveyed Manahsvamin's condition to the councillor's son, a man 
too much in love to gainsay his beloved's lightest whim.  Thus it came 
to pass that the false girl and the youth were married before all the 
mighty of the kingdom and, as soon as the wedding was over, the twice-
married groom lodged his first bride Mrigankavati along with Manahsvamin 
in a well-guarded wing of his house.  Thereafter, he faithfully departed 
upon the agreed-to pilgrimage. Manahsvamin, meanwhile, lived with house 
with Mrigankavati and shared her chambers and even her bed, just as he 
had done with Moon-Lustre.

To his surprise, he found himself as much in love with Mrigankavati as 
with the princess, so the time he spent in her chambers was by no means 
arduous.  At last there came a night when the servants were asleep and 
Mrigankavati, filled with ennui, whispered to Manahsvamin: "Tell me a 
story, sister bride, for I cannot sleep."

The young man, still in the shape of a maiden, cunningly told her the 
legend of King Ila -- how that hero, the scion of the Solar Dynasty, had 
been cursed by the White Goddess to become a woman who bewitched all the 
world, and how he and King Budha met, fell in love, and wed, and how the 
hero Pururavas was born from their passion.  When he had finished his 
story, the false maiden concluded slyly: "So it may happen that once in 
a while, either at divine command or by the power of magical tokens, a 
man becomes a woman and a woman a man.  And in their new state even the 
Great Ones enjoy carnal experiences which spring from their passion."

	When the naive Mrigankavati, whose bridegroom had not been with 
her at all thus far, heard this story, she admitted to her companion: 
"While I was listening to your story, Sister, my body began tingling and 
my heart missed beating.  Why should that be so?  Tell me, friend, do 
you know?"

	"Those are the signs of love, my dear!" said the brahmin.  "Is 
this the first time you have felt them?"

	Softly Mrigankavati nodded.  "Darling, I love and trust you.  What 
I am asking you is forbidden, but I must ask it nonetheless: Can you 
think of some stratagem by which a handsome young man may be smuggled 
into our rooms?"

Manahsvamin replied: "If that is what you want, I shall tell you 
something wonderful.  God Vishnu has granted me a special talent by 
which I am empowere to change myself at will into a man by night.  And 
for thy sake, and because I love you, I shall now become a man."  He 
took the bead from his mouth and showed himself in his natural guise -- 
a handsome and virile a young man more alluring than any male the bride 
had ever hoped to meet.  With her inhibitions dispelled by the intimacy 
already established between the pair, a feast of love was consummated 
with a zest that well-suited the midnight hour.

So from that night on, the young brahmin lived happily with a new 
mistress, the bride of the councillor's son.  When he learned that the 
councillor's son was due to return in a few days, Manahsvamin escaped 
the house by darkness to elope with his new bride.  When the bridegroom 
returned, he was thunderstruck to find both his wives gone.

At this point Manahsvamin's teacher Muladeva, who knew all that had 
happened by his cunning arts, decided that he would play still another 
joke upon all and sundry.  Once again he assumed the form of the ancient 
brahmin, but this time he was accompanied by another pupil, Sasin, whom 
had been changed to resemble a young brahmin.

The wizard betook himself to King Yasahketu and said, "Your Majesty, I 
have located my son, who stands beside me now.  I beg you restore me my 
daughter-in-law so that the marriage may be celebrated will all 
dispatch."

The king, fearing that the brahmin would curse him, took counsel with 
his wise men and brought back this reply:  "Venerable One, your 
daughter-in-law was wed to the councilor's son to save his life, but she 
has since run away!  Forgive me, please!  To make up for my lack of 
honor, I shall give you my own daughter, a princess of the blood royal, 
for your son to wed."

Muladeva, the crafty wizard, feigned indignation at first, but finally 
permitted himself to be mollified.  True to his word, the king bestowed 
his daughter Moon-Lustre upon Muladeva's pupil, Sasin, the magician's 
pretended son.  Thereupon Muladeva took the pair, who were now bride and 
groom, back to his own home.  But in that place they met an angry 
Manahsvamin, who had heard the news of the wedding.  A contentious  
argument arose between him and Sasin while Muladeva looked on amused.

Manahsvamin declared: "Moon-Lustre should be mine, for I have already 
married her as a virgin -- which was the intent of both myself and 
Muladeva when this folly began!"

Sasin gainsaid him: "What has Moon-Lustre to do with you any longer, 
fool?  She is my lawful wife; her own father has married her off to me 
in the presence of the sacred rites!"

"But you wed under false pretenses!" declared Manahsvamin.

"Your pretenses were even more false -- and you are greedy besides, 
craving two wives while I have none of my own!"

And they clamored over the whole sordid imbroglio without reaching a 
solution.

						####

"So the story is all but ended," said the vampire to his captor.  "Tell 
me therefore, Your Majesty, when the elders of their clans took council 
together, to whom did they decide the princess Moon-Luster truly 
belonged?  Was it to whom she loved and chose for herself, or to that 
one whom she had married with the consent of the father, who is 
rightfully empowered to his children away in marriage as it pleases 
him?"

"In my opinion," replied the king, "she belongs fairly to Sasin, for it 
was to Sasin that the king had married his daughter lawfully and 
publicly.  Manahsvamin had taken her by stealth and married her without 
ceremony.  It has never been the law that the thief must be considered 
the owner of the property which he has stolen."

While the vampire was listening to the answer, he noted that the king's 
grip had grown slack with distraction and he suddenly slipped like mist 
from the hero's grasp.  Fleetly did he return to his grave with King 
Trivikramasena in close pursuit.  When the brave king had the demon once 
again in hand, the crafty vampire spoke to him in beguiling words:

	"Sire, listen, and I will tell you yet another story to make you 
forget your toils."

	And so the vampire told the king story after story, throughout the 
long night.


THE END

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