Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/452

 immediately said to himself, " Long ago, when the Daitya Átápin was impeding the creation of Brahmá, that god employed the artifice of sending him to Nandana, saying to him, 'Go there and see a very curious sight; and when he got there, he saw only the foot of a woman, which was of wonderful beauty; and so he died from an insane desire to see the rest of her body.* In the same way it may be that the Disposer has produced this lady's face only to bring about my destruction." While he was making this momentary surmise, the lady displayed her shoot-like finger at the window, and beckoned to him to come towards her. Then he deliberately went out of the chamber in which his beloved was sleeping, and with eager impatience approached that heavenly lady : and when he came near, she exclaimed, " Madanamanchuká, they say that your husband is in love with another woman: alas ! you are undone." When Naraváhanadatta heard this, he called to mind his beloved, and the fire of separation flamed up in his bosom, and he said to that fair one, "Who are you? Where did you see my beloved Manadamanchuká? And why have you come to me? Tell me!" Then the bold lady took the prince away to a distance in the night, and saying to him, " Hear the whole story," she thus began to speak. " There is in the city of Puskharávatí a prince of the Vidyádharas named Pingalagándhára, who has become yellow with continually adoring the fire. Know that I am his unmarried daughter, named Prabhávati, for he obtained me by the special favour of the god of fire, who was pleased with his adoration. I went to the city of Ashádhapura to visit my friend Vegavatí, and I did not find her there, as she had gone somewhere to perform asceticism. But hearing from her mother Prithívídeví that your beloved Madanamanchuká was there, I went to her. I beheld her emaciated with fasting, pale and squalid, with only one lock, weeping, talking only of your virtues, surrounded by tearful bands of Vidyádhara princesses, who were divided between grief produced by seeing her, and joy produced by hearing of you. She told me what you were like, and I comforted her by promising to bring you, for my mind was overpowered by pity for her, and attracted by your excellences. And finding out by means of my magic skill that you were here at present, I came to you, to inserve her interests and my own also. But when I found that you had forgotten your first love and were talking here of other persons, I bewailed the lot of that wife of yours, and exclaimed ' Ah ! how sad !' "

When the prince had been thus addressed by her, he became impatient and said, " Take me where she is, and impose on me whatever command