le accompanied by his (newly)
wedded wife. And having arrived at his capital he began to live with her
in privacy. And persons that were even near enough to the king could not
obtain any interview with him and the minister-in-chief enquired of those
females that waited upon the king, asking, 'What do ye do here?' And
those women replied, 'We behold here a female of unrivalled beauty. And
the king sporteth with her, having married her with a pledge that he
would never show her water.' And hearing those words, the
minister-in-chief caused an artificial forest to be created, consisting
of many trees with abundant flowers and fruits, and he caused to be
excavated within that forest and towards one of its sides a large tank,
placed in a secluded spot and full of water that was sweet as Amrita. The
tank was well covered with a net of pearls. Approaching the king one day
in private, he addressed the king saying, 'This is a fine forest without
water. Sport thou here joyfully!' And the king at those words of his
minister entered that forest with that adorable wife of his, and the king
sported with her in that delightful forest, and afflicted with hunger and
thirst and fatigued and spent, the king beheld a bower of Madhavi
creepers[48] and entering that bower with his dear one, the king beheld a
tank full of water that was transparent and bright as nectar, and
beholding that tank, the king sat on its bank with her and the king told
his adorable wife, 'Cheerfully do thou plunge into this water!' And she,
hearing those words plunged into the tank. But having plunged into the
water she appeared not above the surface, and as the king searched, he
failed to discover any trace of her. And the king ordered the waters of
the tank to be baled out, and thereupon he beheld a frog sitting at the
mouth of a hole, and the king was enraged at this and promulgated an
order saying, 'Let frogs be slaughtered everywhere in my dominions!
Whoever wishes to have an interview with me must come before me with a
tribute of dead frogs.' And accordingly when frogs began to be terribly
slaughtered, the affrighted frogs represented all that had happened unto
their king, and the king of the frogs assuming the garb of an ascetic
came before the king Parikshit, and having approached the monarch, he
said, 'O king, give not thyself up to wrath! Be inclined to grace. It
behoveth thee not to slay the innocent frogs.' Here occurs a couple of
Slokas. (They are these):-