and sacred trees resplendent with fragrant flowers and sweet fruits.  And the whole forest was maddened by the sweet notes of the kokila and echoed with the hum of maddened bees.  And the king became possessed with desire, and he saw not his wife before him.  Maddened by desire he was roaming hither and thither, when he saw a beautiful Asoka decked with dense foliage, its branches covered with flowers.  And the king sat at his ease in the shade of that tree.  And excited by the fragrance of the season and the charming odours of the flowers around, and excited also by the delicious breeze, the king could not keep his mind away from the thought of the beautiful Girika.  And beholding that a swift hawk was resting very near to him, the king, acquainted with the subtle truths of Dharma and Artha, went unto him and said, ’Amiable one, carry thou this seed (semen) for my wife Girika and give it unto her.  Her season hath arrived.’

“The hawk, swift of speed, took it from the king and rapidly coursed through the air.  While thus passing, the hawk was seen by another of his species.  Thinking that the first one was carrying meat, the second one flew at him.  The two fought with each other in the sky with their beaks.  While they were fighting, the seed fell into the waters of the Yamuna.  And in those waters dwelt an Apsara of the higher rank, known by the name of Adrika, transformed by a Brahmana’s curse into a fish.  As soon as Vasu’s seed fell into the water from the claws of the hawk, Adrika rapidly approached and swallowed it at once.  That fish was, some time after, caught by the fishermen.  And it was the tenth month of the fish’s having swallowed the seed.  From the stomach of that fish came out a male and a female child of human form.  The fishermen wondered much, and wending unto king Uparichara (for they were his subjects) told him all.  They said, ’O king, these two beings of human shape have been found in the body of a fish!’ The male child amongst the two was taken by Uparichara.  That child afterwards became the virtuous and truthful monarch Matsya.

“After the birth of the twins, the Apsara herself became freed from her curse.  For she had been told before by the illustrious one (who had cursed her) that she would, while living in her piscatorial form, give birth to two children of human shape and then would be freed from the curse.  Then, according to these words, having given birth to the two children, and been killed by the fishermen, she left her fish-form and assumed her own celestial shape.  The Apsara then rose up on the path trodden by the Siddhas, the Rishis and the Charanas.

“The fish-smelling daughter of the Apsara in her piscatorial form was then given by the king unto the fishermen, saying, ’Let this one be thy daughter.’  That girl was known by the name of Satyavati.  And gifted with great beauty and possessed of every virtue, she of agreeable smiles, owing to contact with fishermen, was for some time of the fishy smell.  Wishing to serve her (foster) father she plied a boat on the waters of the Yamuna.