114
making the chamberlains wait round it. There she saw her brother Gopálaka, who shewed her great attention, and she embraced his neck weeping, while his eyes filled with tears; and at that moment arrived Yaugandharáyana, true to his previous agreement, together with Rumanvat, and the queen shewed him all due courtesy. And while he was engaged in dispelling the queen's grief caused by the great effort she had made, and her separation from her husband, those chamberlains repaired to Padmávati, and said, " Queen, Ávantiká has arrived, but she has in a strange way dismissed us, and gone to the house of prince Gopálaka." When Padmávatí heard that representation from her chamberlains, she was alarmed and in the presence of the king of Vatsa answered them, " Go and say to Ávantiká, 'The queen says— You are a deposit in my hands, so what business have you where you are ? Come where I am.' " When they heard that, they departed and the king asked Padmávatí in private who made for her the unfading garlands and forehead-streaks. Then she said, " It is all the product of the great artistic skill of the lady named Ávantiká who was deposited in my house by a certain Bráhman." No sooner did the king hear that, then he went off to the house of Gopálaka, thinking that surely Vásavadattá would be there. And he entered the house, at the door of which eunuchs were standing,*[1] and within which were the queen, Gopálaka, the two ministers, and Vasantaka. There he saw Vásavadattá returned from banishment, like the orb of the moon freed from its eclipse. Then he fell on the earth delirious with the poison of grief, and trembling was produced in the heart of Vásavadattá. Then she too fell on the earth with limbs pale from separation, and lamented aloud, blaming her own conduct. And that couple, afflicted with grief, lamented so that even the face of Yaugandharáyana was washed with tears. And then Padmávatí too heard that wailing, which seemed so little suited to the occasion, and came in a state of bewilderment to the place whence it proceeded. And gradually finding out the truth with respect to the king and Vásavadattá, she was reduced to the same state, for good women are affectionate and tender-hearted. And Vásavadattá frequently exclaimed with tears, " What profit is there in my life that causes only sorrow to my husband?" Then the calm Yaugandharáyana said to the king of Vatsa: " King, I have done all this in order to make you universal emperor, by marrying you to the daughter of the sovereign of Magadha. and the queen is not in the slightest degree to blame; moreover this, her rival wife, is witness to her good behaviour during her'absence from you." Thereupon Padmávatí, whose mind was free from jealousy, said, " I am ready to enter the fire on the spot to prove her innocence." And the king said, " I am in fault, as it was for my sake that the queen endured this great affliction." And Vásuvadattá having firmly resolv-
- ↑ * Reading taddvárasthitamahattaram as one word.
