Ratnadhipathi and his Elephant - Part Three

Ratnadhipathi and his Elephant - Part Three

After this, Ratnadhipathi went to Silavati and asked her whether she had any

sisters. 

Silavati had a sister called Rajadatta who was very beautiful. As soon as Ratnadhipathi

saw Rajadatta he decided that he had to marry her.

He consulted his court astrologers for the right time to marry Rajadatta.

However, the astrologers advised the king to wait for three more months. 

But the impatient Ratnadhipathi wanted to get married to Rajadatta immediately

and he did so too.

After his marriage, Ratnadhipathi took Rajadatta back to Ratnakuta.

However, this time, after his experience with his previous wives, Ratnadhipathi

did not want his latest wife to see other men at all. So he took Rajadatta to a

solitary island in the middle of the ocean. He had a beautiful palace made there

and had many women attend his wife there.

So every evening and night, Ratnadhipathi went to the island and the other times

he was in his kingdom handling his kingship duties.

The elephant Svetarasmi was the only other creature which could meet

Rajadatta on the island.

Things remained this way for many years.

As things went on like this, the king was with his queen when he had a very

bad dream.

It was to ward off the effects of the dream that the king and the queen

performed some rites in the island and after that, the royal couple partook

some sweet flower wine after the ritual.

The queen was a little intoxicated and it was at this time that the king

had to leave the queen alone on the island and go back to his kingdom.

Adapted from the Katha Sarith Sagara