e
Shiwa, and the allusion is to his _Ardhanari_, or half
male, half female form.

There lived of old, on the edge of the desert, a raja of the race of the
sun. And like that sun reflected at midday in the glassy depths of the
Manasa lake, he had an image of himself in the form of a son[2], who
exactly resembled him in every particular, except age. And he gave him
the name of Aja, for he said: He is not another, but my very self that
has conquered death, and passed without birth straight over into another
body. Moreover, he will resemble his ancestor, and the god after whom I
have called him Aja[3]. So as this son grew up, his father's delight in
him grew greater also. For he was tall as a _shala_ tree, and very
strong, and yet like another God of Love: for his face was more
beautiful than the face of any woman, with large eyes like lapis-lazuli,
and lips like laughter incarnate: so that his father, as often as he
looked at him, said to himself: Surely the Creator has made a mistake,
and mixed up his male and female ingredients, and made him half and
half. For if only he had had a twin sister, it would have been difficult
to tell with certainty, which was which.

[2] This punning assonance is precisely in the vein of the
original.

[3] This name (pronounce Aj- to rhyme with _trudge_)
meaning both _unborn_ and _a goat_, is a name of the sun
(who was a goat in Assyria), the soul, Brahma, Wishnu,
Shiwa, the God of Love, and others. It was also the name of
Rama's grandfather.

And then, when Aja was eighteen, his father died. And immediately, his
relations conspired against him, led by his maternal uncle. And they
laid a plot, and seized him at night, and bound him when he was asleep:
for they dared not attack him when he was awake, for fear of his courage
and his prodigious strength. And they deliberated over him, as he lay
bound, what they should do with him: and some of them were for putting
him to death, then and there. But the prime minister, who was in the
plot, persuaded them to let him live: saying to himself: In this way I
shall make for myself a loophole of escape, in case he should ever
regain his throne.

Then in the early morning, his uncle and his other relations took him
away, and laid him bound on a swift camel. And mounting others, they
hurried him away into the desert, going at full speed for hours, till
they reached its very heart. And there they set him down. And they