Tilakmanjarisara

SR No.: 002611
Original Sutra Author: Pallipal Dhanpal
Author: N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1969
Total Pages: 146
Language: Sanskrit, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 7 MB

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that Malayasundari also succumbed to the unbearable grief and threw herself after him into the waters, but as she opened her eyes she found herself lying in her bed inside the palace at Kanci.
Canto VI: The Tale of Malayasundari
Verses 1 to 62 narrate how on being closely cross-examined by her maid Bandhusundari, she confided to her the experiences of the previous night. The days now passed miserably, separated as she was from her lover. Then approached the spring season with her fresh gift of the enhanced pangs of separation, when one day there arrived her mother's maid Katyayani with the shocking news that it was the Madana Trayodasi day and she must worship the God-of-Love because the next day she was to be offered in marriage to Vajrayudha, a commander of the forces of king Meghavahana of Ayodhya. She further added that her father had been advised by the ministers that it was the only way to purchase the peace with the enemy, who had agreed to the proposal. It was a bolt from the blue for Malayasundari who at once made up her mind to hang herself and get rid of this unbearable situation. She went to see her father, stayed for a while with mother, returned to the palace and, under the pretext of feeling drowsy, sent her maid Bandhusundari away. But the latter smelt a rat and hid herself behind the door. Malayasundari, then, slipped off from the palace, went to the garden, bade adieu to her beloved trees and birds, offered her salutations to the God-of-Love from outside the temple, fastened the noose to a branch of her favourite Aśoka tree, addressed the deities of all the directions to bear witness to her life of chastity and, having begged the Lord to enable her to be born, in the next birth, as an unseparated wife of the same prince, she put her neck into the noose and threw herself down below into the jaws of death. But Bandhusundari quickly arrived there in time, commissioned the help of a prince who had stayed overnight at the temple of the Love-god, and saved her. On awakening Malaryasundari. found herself lying in the lap of a prince whom she recognised as her very lover.
Verses 63 to 80 again take up the thread of the tale of Samaraketu, who relates at the request of Malayasundari as to what happened after he fell into the ocean. The latter told her that he was saved mysteriously by some superhuman agency, and found himself safe on the shore among his companions. He also was sad in view of his separation from his beloved. Somehow the days dragged on. Once when he was being urged by his sailor-chief Taraka to proceed to Kañci to trace the princess, there came a messenger from his father Candraketu with an order to take over the command of his forces which were charged to