Note 24 — Chapter XVIII

Then, while Vidúshaka was living there, a certain friend of his beloved, named Yogeśvarí, came to Bhadrá, and said to her in secret—“My friend, the Vidyádharas are angry with you because you live with a man, and they seek to do you an injury, therefore leave this place. There is a city called Kárkoṭaka on the shore of the eastern sea, and beyond that there is a sanctifying stream named Śítodá, and after you cross that, there is a great mountain named Udaya,24 the land of the Siddhas,25 which the Vidyádharas may not invade; go there immediately, and do not be anxious about the beloved mortal whom you leave here, for before you start you can tell all this to him, so that he shall be able afterwards to journey there with speed.” When her friend said this to her, Bhadrá was overcome with fear, and though attached to Vidúshaka, she consented to do as her friend advised. So she told her scheme to Vidúshaka, and providently gave him her ring, and then disappeared at the close of the night. And Vidúshaka immediately found himself in the empty temple of the goddess, in which he had been before, and no Bhadrá and no palace. Remembering the delusion produced by Bhadrá’s magic skill, and beholding the ring, Vidúshaka was overpowered by a paroxysm of despair and wonder. And remembering her speech as if it were a dream, he reflected,—“Before she left, she assigned as a place of meeting the mountain of the sun-rising; so I must quickly go there to find her: but if I am seen by the people in this state, the king will not let me go: so I will employ a stratagem in this matter, in order that I may accomplish my object.” So reflecting, the wise man assumed another appearance, and went out from that temple with tattered clothes, begrimed with dust, exclaiming, “Ah Bhadrá! Ah Bhadrá!” And immediately the people, who lived in that place, beholding him, raised a shout; “Here is Vidúshaka found!” And the king hearing of it came out from his palace in person, and seeing Vidúshaka in such a state, conducting himself like a madman, he laid hold on him and took him back to his palace. When he was there, whatever his servants and connexions, who were full of affection, said to him, he answered only by exclaiming, “Ah Bhadrá! Ah Bhadrá!” And when he was anointed with unguents prescribed by the physicians, he immediately defiled his body with much cinder-dust; and the food which the princess out of love offered to him with her own hands, he instantly threw down and trampled under foot. And in this condition Vidúshaka remained there some days, without taking interest in anything, tearing his own clothes, and playing the madman. And Ádityasena thought to himself; “His condition is past cure, so what is the use of torturing him? He may perhaps die, and then I should be guilty of the death of a Bráhman, whereas if he roams about at his will, he may possibly recover in course of time.” So he let him go. Then the hero Vidúshaka, being allowed to roam where he liked, set out the next day at his leisure to find Bhadrá, taking with him the ring. And as he journeyed on day by day towards the East, he at last reached a city named Pauṇḍravardhana26, which lay in his way as he travelled on; there he entered the house of a certain aged Bráhman woman, saying to her—“Mother, I wish to stop here one night.” And she gave him a lodging and entertained him, and shortly after, she approached him, full of inward sorrow, and said to him—“My son, I hereby give thee all this house, therefore receive it, since I cannot now live any longer.” He, astonished, said to her—“Why do you speak thus?” Then she said—“Listen, I will tell you the whole story,” and so continued as follows—“My son, in this city there is a king named Devasena, and to him there was born one daughter, the ornament of the earth. The affectionate king said—‘I have with difficulty obtained this one daughter’,—so he gave her the name of Duḥkalabdhiká.27