Note 20 — Chapter CXXIII

Then Kandarpa left Páṭaliputra20 without telling Keśaṭa, as he knew he would not like it, in order to roam about in search of Sumanas. And after he had gone, Keśaṭa, feeling unhappy without Rúpavatí, left his house without his parents’ knowledge, and went to roam about hither and thither. And Kandarpa, in the course of his wanderings, happened to visit that very city, where Keśaṭa, married Rúpavatí. And hearing a great noise of people, he asked what it meant, and a certain man said to him, “Here is Rúpavatí preparing to die, as she cannot find her husband Keśaṭa,; the tumult is on that account; listen to the story connected with her.” Then that man related the strange story of Rúpavatí’s marriage with Keśaṭa and of her adventure with the Rákshasa, and then continued as follows: