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182
CHAPTER SEVEN like the wind, howling disagreeably like a pig about to die. Goddesses and Vidyādhara-women, who had been watching the spectacle of the fight, rained flowers on your friend, like Śrīs of the seasons themselves.
. : Sanatkumāra's marriages (215–256)
Then in the afternoon Aryaputra left Mānasa with a firm mind and went a short distance like a rutting elephant. He saw Khecara-maidens who had come there from Nandana, resembling embodied life-giving herbs for Smara. Your friend was regarded by them casting slow glances, which were like svayamvara-wreaths, in a way delightful with emotion and feeling. 240 Wishing to ascertain the true state of affairs, Āryaputra, lord of the eloquent, approached them with a nectar-sweet voice:
Of what noble men are you the daughters, ornaments of the family? And why do you adorn this forest?' They replied: 'Noble sir, we are the eight daughters of a king of the Vidyadharas, distinguished Bhānuvega. Our father's excellent city is not far from here. Adorn it by reposing there like a rājahansa on a lotus.'
So answered by them politely, your friend went to their city as if to perform the evening rites, and the sun sank into the ocean. They had your friend, who was an herb for curing the wound of anxiety for a husband, conducted by the harem-guards to their father's presence. Bhānuvega rose to greet him and spoke to him:
"By good fortune, our house is pure since you, a heap of merit, have come. By your appearance alone you are known to be well-born and powerful. For the birth of the moon from the Ocean of Milk is inferred from appearance alone. Since you are a suitable husband for the maidens, I ask you to marry them, the eight of them. For a jewel is joined with gold.'
240 217. For hāva and bhāva, see above, n. 212.
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