Indra spoketh:
For they have ceased from pressing the soma, and left off the worship of Indra as a god, in those places where my fellow Vṛṣākapi was gladdened with the stranger’s dainties.
Above all, Indra!
Yet Indrāṇī, swift with tongue and proud of place, reproached him:
Yet thou, O Indra, though thou flee far— even beyond Vṛṣākapi’s wild wanderings— canst find no other place fit for thy soma-draught.
Above all, Indra!
Then quoth Indra, his brow unwrinkled with care:
What harm hath this tawny brute, Vṛṣākapi, done thee— or to the stranger’s thriving store—that thou art wroth with him?
Above all, Indra!
But she, unyielding, gave back her scorn:
That dear Vṛṣākapi of thine, whom thou dost shield, O Indra— the boar-hound shall snap at his ear.
Above all, Indra!
With wrath unhidden, she cried further still:
The ape hath marred my comely, well-shaped, fair-trimmed privities.
I shall cleave his skull; I will not be gentle to a knavish clown.
Above all, Indra!
No woman boasts a fairer backside than I, nor more delight in the bed.
None thrusts back better, nor lifts her thighs more high.
Above all, Indra!
Now Vṛṣākapi, drunk with mirth, let fly his word:
Hark, good madam, thou easy romping sweet— I well ken how it shall go.
My rump, good madam, my thigh, my top—
all stir and leap for joy.
Above all, Indra!
Indra laughed, and said with mocking grace:
Why now, thou well-armed, deft-finger’d, broad-braided, broad-rump’d dame— why vexest thou our Vṛṣākapi so?
Above all, Indra!
She answered hotly, eyes ablaze:
This loathsome beast lays claim to me, as though I were without a man.
But I have a man, with Indra as my lord, and the storm-host as his band.
Above all, Indra!
Till now, the woman wouldst come humbly to the shared feast, or to the solemn throng; but now she is hallowed as Knower of Truth, as one who hath a hero, with Indra for her husband.
Above all, Indra!
I have heard of Indrāṇī as the most blessèd of wives— for never shall her husband fall to age or death.
Above all, Indra!
And Indra said, with love upon his tongue:
O Indrāṇī, I find no joy without my mate Vṛṣākapi, whose dear, wet gift goeth to the gods even now.
Above all, Indra!
He added then, full of promise:
O wife of Vṛṣākapi, rich in sons and fair daughters-in-law— Indra shall feast on thy kine and thy sweet gift which bringeth all things to pass.
Above all, Indra!
For they roast fifteen, yea, twenty kine at once for me, and I eat naught but the choicest fat— my cheeks they fill full.
Above all, Indra!
Like a bull with sharpen’d horn that ever belloweth in the herd, so the stirred soma—pressed by him who seeketh good— gladdeneth thy heart, O Indra.
Above all, Indra!
He is no master whose member hangeth limp between his thighs.
He is master, whose rod, once sat down,
maketh the hairy gate yawn wide.
Above all, Indra!
But Indrāṇī flung the words back with a sneer:
Nay, he is no master, whose rod so maketh the gate to yawn.
He is master whose shaft hangeth down unrisen.
Above all, Indra!
O Indra, thy Vṛṣākapi found a slain ass, a blade, a basket, a pot yet new, and a cart heap’d high with wood.
Above all, Indra!
He lifted his voice, keen-eyed and sharp of tongue:
Lo, I went forth with care, seeking and sundered between the Dāsa and the Ārya.
As I drank the draught of the guileless one, I sought out wisdom.
Above all, Indra!
How far off lie the wastes and clefts—
how many leagues away?
Vṛṣākapi, come back home, to the nearer stead.
Above all, Indra!
And Indrāṇī, now softened, called after him:
Come thou back again, Vṛṣākapi.
We twain shall smooth thy path, thou who goest as waker from sleep,
or as walker to thy doom.
Above all, Indra!
When thou, O Vṛṣākapi, O Indra, didst go up on high to thy home,
where was that beast of manifold sin?
To whom went the man-slayer?
Above all, Indra!
Manu’s own daughter, Parśu by name, was brought to bed of twenty sons at once— a happy fate, for she whose womb travailed sore.
Above all, Indra!