SANSKRIT STUDIES
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difficulty revived. After he was a little calmed, he was taken away from there with a veiw to turn his thoughts as far as possible from Vasavadatta.
Now Y augan dhar ay ana, who had entrusted the burden of ad- ministration as well as the care of his master to his colleague, donned the garb of the ascetic, and set out eastwards towards Magadha with Vasavadatta, also in disguise, feigning that he was a pilgrim from Ujjain and representing the young lady accompanying him as his sister whom her husband had deserted. On their journey they had to pass through dense and lonely forests and Vasavadatta was subjected to much fatigue and many vexations, neither of which she as princess or as queen had ever known. Yaugandharayana had to comfort her often by pointing out how the wheel of Fortune turns and, in turning, lowers even the good, and by reassuring her of coming prosperity. As they approached Raiagrha they saw, in the woods that skirted the capital, a great many people — rather an unusual sight in a place which bore on it all the signs of an abode of ascetic men and women. The fact was that after the death of the old king, his widowed queen, Darsaka’s mother, had retired from the world and was in a hermit- age there, practising penance. That was the day on which Padmavatl, the princess of Rajagrha, had come to pay her respects to her mother and receive her blessings. Naturally all the royal paraphernalia had followed her which accounted for the presence of so large a crowd in a place which one would expect to be lonely and secluded. To mark her visit to the forest, the princess had ordered it to be proclaimed that she would confer on any person staying there whatsoever he might ask for. ‘O Ye ascetic dwellers of the forest! Listen, Listen, revered sirs! Her Royal Highness, the princess of Magadha, returning your love by hers, offers you as presents whatever you may choose. Who needs vessels? Who, clothes? And who that has duly completed his religious study seeks to pay the preceptor’s fee? The princess in her devotion to virtue begs this favour of you — to tell her what she should give. Whoever wants anything may ask for it. To whom should she give? And what?’ Yaugandharayana who had just arrived there with Vasavadatta, when he heard this proclamation, thought he should seize the opportunity. He went up straight to the royal officer and desired to know if the princess would graciously take under her protection
