The ocean of story, being C.H. Tawney's translation of Somadeva's ...

THE ACT OF TRUTH 189
had set over Patala, Sangramasimha and the others, said
"
to him : Great King, Svayamprabha, the wife of Trailo-
kyamalin, is engaged in austerities here with her daughters,
the princesses. Without doubt they are now performing here
some sacrificial rite in honour of the fire, or possibly they are
wearied out with excessive asceticism, and are immolating
themselves by entering it."
When the king heard that, he went to see what was going
on, with his sons, and his wife, and those governors of Patala,
ordering
the rest of his suite to remain behind. And con-
cealing himself there, he beheld those Daitya maidens, with
their mother, worshipping the fire of the pyres, which was
burning brightly. 1
They seemed, with the effulgence of the
great beauty of their faces which shone out in all directions,
to be creating in the lower world a hundred discs of the moon,
and to be installing the God of Love as king after the conquest
of the three worlds, with their swiftly moving necklaces, that
looked like liquid streams poured down from the golden
pitchers of their breasts. Their broad hips, surrounded with
the girdles which they wore, looked like the head of the
elephant of love adorned with a girdle of constellations. The
long wavy masses of hair which they bore seemed like snakes
made by the Creator to guard the treasure of their beauty.
When the king saw them he was astonished, and he said :
"
The creation of the Maker of All is surprising for the novelty
2
that is ever being manifested in it, for neither Rambha
nor Urvasi nor Tilottama is equal in beauty to these two
daughters of the Asura king."
While the king was making these reflections to himself,
Trailokyaprabha, the elder of the two Daitya maidens, after
worshipping the god present in the fire, addressed this prayer
"
to him : Since, from the time that my mother told me of
the revelation of Siva received by her in a dream, my
mind has been fixed upon Prince Muktaphaladhvaja, that
1 The three India Office MSS. give susamiddham 3 which is perhaps
preferable to the reading of Brockhaus' text. The Sanskrit College MS. gives
susamitam.
2 MSS. Nos. 1882 and 2166 and the Sanskrit College MS. give lasanna-
vanavadbhuta "is ever displaying new marvels." No. 3003 gives lasanna-
vatavddbhutd. The t is, no doubt, a mere slip of the pen for n.