ABSTRACT
A man named Sa§in, a friend of the great trickster and magIcIan MUladeva, was in love with a princess who was closely guarded in a harim. MUladeva gave Sa§in a pill to put into his mouth (not to swallow), which turned him into a woman so that he could gain access to the harim. MUladeva himself took another pill that transformed him into an old Brahmin. Once inside the harim, Sa§in took the pill out of his mouth, became a man, and made love to his princess. After a while, a prince saw Sa§in when he was in his form as a woman and insisted on taking 'her' as his wife; Sa§in insisted that the marriage not be consummated for six months, during which she lived in the harim with the prince's first wife, the queen. One night she told the queen the story of Ila and the forest of PlirvatI, took the pill out of his mouth, and made love to her, too. Eventually, MUladeva married the princess secretly, while Sa§in married her officially. 19
Sa§in, like Sa§abindu, is a name of the moon, appropriate for someone who periodically changes form. Since he remains male inside even when his body becomes female, the text can imagine him making love only to women, never to men.
