Note 10 — V. SUDHANA AVADĀNA.1

Although his mother tried to console him, he still remained sad; but as he wandered hither and thither, looking for Manoharā and seeking for information as to her abode, a bright idea occurred to him. “Where I obtained her,” he thought, “there will I go again and make inquiries.” So he went to the hunter Phalaka, and asked him where it was that he had got possession of Manoharā. The hunter replied, “On the slope of such and such a mountain dwells a Rishi, in whose hermitage there is a pool, Brahmasabhā by name. Going there to bathe, I captured her according to the Rishi’s directions.” Sudhana said to himself, “I will go to the Rishi’s abode, and there obtain information.” Hearing that the youth was greatly depressed by his separation from Manoharā, the king said, “O youth, wherefore are you so depressed? I will now give you a much more beautiful wife.” The prince replied, “Father, as she is not here, I shall certainly betake me to her tarrying-place.” The king could not dissuade him from this, though he repeatedly attempted to do so. Then the king ordered watchers to be set at the gates and outlets from the walls, in order to prevent the youth from going forth. Thereupon the youth could not sleep the whole night long. Five are there who on their nightly couch are sleepless all night long, namely, the man whose mind is enchained by love for his wife, the wife who loves her husband, the red duck, the robber chieftain, the Bhikshu who studies zealously. The youth said to himself, “If I go to the gate, the king’s gatekeepers are harsh. As they would punish me, or even deprive me of life, I would rather depart by a road which has no watchers.” So he went forth by night to a spot where no watcher was, having attached to a standard such blue lotus garlands as men bind around their heads. Just then the moon rose. When he saw the moon, he uttered this lament for his separation from Manoharā, “O full moon, king of the stars and illuminer of the night, thou who art dear to the eye of Rohiṇī,10 excellent caravan-leader, hast thou seen the abiding-place of my loved one, the lotus-eyed Manoharā?”