वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

INTRODUCTION 29 Vindhya mountains, and there, in the watches of the night, the sleepless prince overheard the conversation of two birds perched on a branch of the tree beneath which he lay. To the story of the husband-bird, trying to explain his late hours to his suspicious wife, Kandarpakētu listened, and was richly rewarded by what he heard. In the city of Pāṭaliputra on the Ganges, so the maina recounted, reigned the mighty monarch Śṛṅgāraśē- khara, who had an only daughter named Vāsavadattā. In the spring she, too, had met her fate in a dream—a youth of matchless beauty, whose name was Kandarpakētu. The con- fidante of the princess at this juncture was her maid, Tamālikā, who had volunteered to seek Kandarpakētu and bear to him a missive from the princess telling of her love. The lovers were now soon united at Pāṭaliputra, where Kandarpakētu was informed that Śṛṅgāraśēkhara, dismayed at his daughter’s unwedded state, had determined to marry her the very next day to the Vidyādhara prince Puṣpakētu. Kandarpakētu and Vāsavadattā accordingly returned almost immediately, by means of a magic steed, to the Vindhyas; but when the prince awoke in the morning, his beloved was no longer in the bower. Mad with sorrow, he was restrained from suicide only by a voice from heaven which promised him reunion with the princess. After many months of weary searching and waiting, he found Vāsavadattā turned to stone. His touch gave the statue life again, and she told him how, while two armies destroyed each other to gain her for their leaders, she had unwittingly intruded in the garden of a hermit, who laid upon her the curse of petrification until her lover should come. Thus, at last, the woes of the lovers were over, and returning to Kandarpakētu’s capital, delight was theirs ever afterward (for other summaries see Hall, Introd., pp. 29–43; Stréhly, Revue politique et littéraire, 44. 305–308; Krishnama- chariar, Introd., pp. 9–14; and the references given in the bibliography, below, pp. 197–199). From this brief outline of the plot of the Vāsavadattā it will be seen that Subandhu alludes to several incidents widely found in literature and folk-tales, such as talking birds, magic steeds,