महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

ACT II [Voice,] behind the curtain—Welcome unto [you] the store of holiness! Enters a female ascetic in a traveller's habit. Female Ascetic—O, I see: This is a sylvan deity approaching me respect- fully with an offering¹ of leaves and fruits and flowers. Sylvan Deity, entering, and making the offering— Open unto your unhindered enjoyment is this forest here; this is for me a day of bliss. For, the meeting of the good with the good happens but rarely [and then, only] by [reason of some special] merit. Sheltering arbours, water, and whatsoever of food for [your] penance be suited—fruit or root—all alike is entirely at your command here. 1 Female Ascetic—Needs this to be said? A habitual complaisance of manners; a temperance in speech agreeable by its modesty; a disposition naturally benevolent: a friendship [absolutely] irreproachable—thus first and last [and ever] invariable in its sweetness, may this secret of a sage's [life] —free from stains and hindrances—[may it ever] prosper! 2 Both sit down. Sylvan Deity—By what name, now, may I know your ladyship? Female Ascetic—I am Ātreyī. Sylvan Deity—Honoured Ātreyī, and from where is it that you have come, and what may be your purpose in coming to this Daṇḍakā forest? Ātreyī—Here in this region are dwelling—with Agastya² at their head—many [scholars] learned in the Sāma-Veda. To acquire from them the Upanishad (nigamānta) lore, hither have I come journeying from Vālmīki's place. 3 Sylvan Deity—If now even other [distant] students (muni), to realize Brahma, sit at the feet of that same venerable discourser of Brahma [Vālmīki], that son of [God] Varuṇa, what means then this your ladyship's journey? ¹ It is usual to honour a guest with such an    Southern India. His hermitage was in   offering.                  Pañchavaṭī, near Rāma's own. ² Believed to be the earliest explorer of