Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 5

SR No.: 001005
Original Sutra Author: Hemchandracharya
Author: Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra
Publication Year: 1962
Total Pages: 507
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Mythology, & Story
File Size: 11 MB

Page 64

PREVIOUS INCARNATIONS OF ARISTANEMI
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At night he stopped on the road and made camp. In the middle of the night while he was on his couch, he heard a pitiful sound and went to follow that same sound, with his sword as a companion. He saw before him a middle-aged woman crying and he said, "Do not cry. Tell me the cause of your sorrow." Her confidence won by his appearance and speech, she said: There is a king, Jitāri, in Campā in Aǹgadeśa. A daughter, Yaśomati, the crest-jewel of women, was borne by his wife, Kirtimati, after many sons. As she, very fastidious, did not see any one at all who was a suitable husband, her eye did not take pleasure in any man. Sankha, son of Śrīṣeņa, fell in her range of hearing once and Manmatha took an abode in her heart at the same time.
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Yaśomati declared, Sankha alone shall marry me,' and her father was delighted, thinking, She has fallen in love suitably. When the king had sent messengers to Śrīṣeņa on her account, a Vidyadhara-king, Maniśekhara, asked for her. King Jitari replied, 'She wishes no one except Sankha.' Then one day the basest of Vidyādharas kidnaped her. I am her nurse and, clinging to her arm, I came with her, and was forcibly abandoned here by the villain of a Khecara. He took the girl, the cream of worldly existence, away somewhere. Therefore I lament in this way. How will she keep alive?"
The prince said, "Be of good courage. I shall defeat him and bring the princess here," and he began to search, roaming through the great forest. Just as the sun rose on the eastern mountain, the prince reached Mt. Viśālaśṛnga. In a wood on it he saw Yaśomati talking to the Khecara who was begging her to marry him.
Sankha, whose merits are as brilliant as a conch, shall be my husband and no one else. Villain, why do you trouble me uselessly, seeker of the unsought?"
The prince was seen by them and the Khecara, delighted, said: "Your friend has come into my power, drawn by death, silly woman. Destroying him at the same time with your hope, girl, I shall marry you by force and take you to my house,"
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