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,