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PREVIOUS INCARNATIONS OF ARIŞTANEMI
admired him because of his strength and beauty. Jitaśatru entertained and dismissed all the kings; and Aparajita remained there, sporting with Pritimati. King Jitaśatru's minister gave his daughter Rupavati to Vimalabodha and he sported with her. One day a messenger from Sri Hariṇandin came there. The prince saw him and embraced him ardently. Questioned, "Is it well with my honored father and mother?" The messenger, his eyes filled with tears, said: 'It is well with them only in the mere preservation of the body. From the very day of your departure, their eyes have not been dry. Hearing repeatedly about your new adventures from popular report, they rejoice for a moment and they swoon from separation from you. Hearing this report about you, I was sent today to find out the facts. You should not distress your parents.
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His eyes filled with tears, the prince said in a choking voice: Shame on me, a base son, causing such pain to my parents. Then taking leave of Jitaśatru, Aparajita set out; and Bhuvanabhanu came with his two daughters, and other kings brought their daughters whom he had married before. Surakānta, who had acquired fearlessness, came there. Aparajita with Pritimati and his other wives also, attended by kings-earth-dwellers and sky-dwellers, covering the sky and earth with sky-dwelling and earth-dwelling soldierseager, arrived at Sinhapura in a few days.
Hariṇandin went to meet him and embraced him falling to the ground, set him on his lap, and kissed his head again and again. His mother, her eyes wet with tears, touched him on the back as he was bowing, and kissed the top of his head. The daughters-in-law, Pritimati and the others, introduced by Vimalabodha pronouncing their names, bowed at the feet of their father and mother-in-law. Then Aparājita dismissed the earth-dwellers and the sky-dwellers and he continued amusing himself as he liked, making a festival for his parents'
eyes.
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Manogati and Capalagati fell from Mahendra and became his younger brothers, Sura and Soma. Then one day
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