The Princess No Man Could Look At

In the village of Shambhala, in the house of the brahmin Vishnuyasha and his wife Sumati, a fourth son was born. His three elder brothers were ordinary, clever boys. This one was Vishnu himself, come down to end the age of Kali, and he was called Kalki.

When he was old enough, his father sent him to a teacher. The teacher was Parashurama, the brahmin with the axe, who had once cleared the earth of tyrant kings and had been living on a mountain ever since, waiting.

"I have been waiting for you," said Parashurama. "Sit down."

He taught Kalki the Vedas and everything that came with them, and then he taught him the bow, which was the thing he knew best of all.

"When you have learned it," he said, "go to Shiva. He has something for you."

So Kalki went and worshipped Shiva, and Shiva was pleased. He gave the boy a white horse called Devadatta, which was Garuda himself in another form, and a sword with jewels in its hilt. And he gave him a parrot.

"This is Shuka," said Shiva. "He knows everything there is to know. Listen to him."

The parrot sat on Kalki's shoulder, and one day he began to talk about a princess.

"Across the sea, in Simhala," said Shuka, "there is a king called Brihadratha, and he has a daughter, Padmavati. She is the most beautiful woman on earth. She worshipped Shiva when she was a girl, and he gave her a boon. Any man who looks at her with desire will become a woman."

"Did she ask for that?" said Kalki.

"No," said the parrot. "She asked for a husband. Shiva told her that her husband would be Vishnu, and to keep her safe until then, he gave her this. She thinks of it as a curse."

Her father had held a bride-choice for her, the parrot said. All the kings of the earth had come, dressed in their finest. They had looked at her, and every one of them had turned into a woman on the spot. Now they all lived in the palace as her companions, and she was very lonely.

"Go and tell her," said Kalki, "that I am coming."

Shuka flew across the sea to Simhala, found the princess in her garden, and told her about the young man in Shambhala. Padmavati listened, and for the first time in a long while she smiled.

Kalki rode Devadatta to Simhala. By a lake near the city of Karumati, under the trees, he met Padmavati. He looked at her, and nothing happened to him at all.

Her father gave her to him in marriage with great joy. Then Kalki turned to the women in the palace, who had once been kings.

"Go and bathe in the river Reva," he said.

They went, and came up out of the water as men again, and went home to their kingdoms. Kalki took his bride back to Shambhala, and the divine craftsman Vishvakarma built the village into a shining city for them, and she bore him two sons, Jaya and Vijaya.

There was much fighting still to come. But for now there was a wedding.