Note 7 — Chapter LXXV

The prince, for his part, when without her, was like a Vidyádhara who has lost his magic knowledge, and, returning to his own city, he fell into a miserable condition. And one day the minister’s son questioned him in private, speaking of that beauty as easy to obtain, whereupon he lost his self-command and exclaimed, “How is she to be obtained, when neither her name, nor her village, nor her origin is known? So why do you offer me false comfort?” When the prince said this to the minister’s son, he answered, “What! did you not see, what she told you by her signs? By placing the lotus in her ear, she meant to say this, ‘I live in the realm of king Karnotpala.’ By making it into the tooth-leaf ornament she meant to say, ‘Know that I am the daughter of a dentist7 there.’ By lifting up the lotus she let you know her name was Padmávatí; and by placing her hand on her heart she told you that it was yours. Now there is a king named Karnotpala in the country of Kalinga; he has a favourite courtier, a great dentist named Sangrámavardhana, and he has a daughter named Padmávatí, the pearl of the three worlds, whom he values more than his life. All this I knew from the talk of the people, and so I understood her signs, which were meant to tell her country and the other particulars about her.8