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 of a hermit, and thou shalt be delivered from it by the touch of the hand of this female ascetic, and then thou shalt quickly marry this Mrigánkalekhá. Do not be anxious about it, for she was thy wife in a former state." Having said this, the goddess disappeared from his sight. And in the morning the prince woke and rose up, and performed the auspicious ceremonies of bathing and so on. Then he went and adored Amareśa and stood in his presence, since it was there that the female ascetic had appointed him a rendezvous. In the meanwhile Mrigánkalekhá fell asleep with difficulty in her own palace, and Párvatí said to her in a dream, " Do not grieve, the curse of Hiranyáksha is at an end, and he will again become a Vidyádhara by the touch of the hand of the female ascetic, and thou shalt have him once more for a husband." When the goddess had said this, she disappeared, and in the morning Mrigánkalekhá woke up and told the female ascetic her dream. And the holy ascetic returned to the earth, and said to Hiranyáksha, who was in the temenos of Amareśa, " Come to the world of Vidyádharas." When she said this, he bent before her, and she took him up in her arms, and flew up with him to heaven. Then Hiranyásha's curse came to an end, and he became a prince of the Vidyádharas, and he remembered his former birth, and said to the female ascetic. Know that I was a king of the Vidyádharas named Amritatejas in a city named Vajrakúta. And long ago I was cursed by a hermit, angry because I had treated him with neglect, and I was doomed to live in the world of mortals until touched by your hand. And my wife, who then abandoned the body because I had been cursed, has now been born again as Mrigánkalekhá, and so has before been loved by me. And now I will go with you and obtain her once more, for 1 have been purified by the touch of your hand, and my curse is at an end." So said Amritatejas, the Vidyádhara prince, as he travelled through the air with that female ascetic to the Himalayas. There he saw Mrigánkalekhá in a garden, and she saw him coming, as he had been described by the female ascetic. Wonderful to say, these lovers first entered one another's minds by the ears, and now they entered them by the eyes, without ever having gone out again.

Then that outspoken female ascetic said to Mrigánkalekhá, " Tell this to your father with a view to your marriage." She instantly went, with a face downcast from modesty, and informed her father of all through her confidante. And it happened that her father also had been told how to act by Párvatí in a dream, so he received Amritatejas into his palace with all due honour. And he bestowed Mrigánkalekhá on him with the prescribed ceremonies, and after he was married, he went to the city of Vajrakúta. There he got back his kingdom as well as his wife, and he had his father Kanakáksha brought there, by means of the holy female ascetic, as he was