Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/575

 waiting, " True, my friends, it is really my beloved, but how can I approach him, before he has entered his former body? In this matter Siddhísvara' is my only hope. He sent me the dream, and he will provide for me a way out of my difficulties." When she had formed this resolution, she went back to Siddhíśvara. And she worshipped that manifestation of Śiva, and offered this prayer to him, " Unite me with my beloved in his former body, or bestow death on me. I see no third way of escape from my woe." And then she remained with her friends in the court of the god's temple.

In the meanwhile Muktáphaladhvaja searched for the princess in the temple of Gaurí, and not finding her was despondent, and said to that friend, " I have not found her here ; let us go back to that temple of Śiva; if I cannot find her there, I will enter the fire."

When that friend heard it, he said, " Good luck will befall you ! The word of the hermit and diva's promise in your dream cannot be falsified." With those words did Muktáphaladhvaja's friend try to comfort him; and then Muktáphaladhvaja ascended the chariot, and went with him to Siddhíśvara. When Padmávatí saw him arrive, she still remained there invisible, and she said to her ladies-in-waiting, " Look ! he has come to this very place." He too entered, and seeing that offerings had been recently placed in front of the god, prince Muktáphaladhvaja said to that companion of his, " Look, my friend, some one has been quite recently worshipping this symbol of the god; surely, that beloved of mine must be somewhere here, and she must have done this worship." When he had said this, he looked for her, but could not find her; and then in the anguish of separation he cried out again and again, "Ah ! my beloved Padmávatí !"

Then, thinking that the cry of the cuckoo was her voice, and that the tail of the peacock was her hair, and that the lotus was her face, the prince ran wildly about, overpowered with an attack of the fever of love, and with difficulty did his friend console him; and coaxing him, he said to him, " What is this that you have taken up, being weak with much fasting? Why do you disregard your own welfare, though you have conquered the earth and Pátála? Your father Merudhvaja, and king Trailokyamálin, the king of the Dánavas, your future father-in-law, and his daughter Trailokjaprabhá, who wishes to marry you, and your mother Vinayavati, and your younger brother Malayadhvaja will, if you do not go to them, suspect that some misfortune has happened, and fasting as they are, will give up their breath. So come along ! Let us go and save their lives, for the day is at an end."

When Muktáphaladhvaja's friend said this to him, he answered him, " Then go yourself in my chariot and comfort them." Then his friend