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Introduction
43
a plank, reached the shore and passed through a forest where he saw a Jina temple. He worshipped the Lord. At night there artived two Vidya. dhara youths to offer worship. From their conversation Såsin learnt about the mount Priyamelaka, a visit to which could unite separated relatives They also described its location. Next day Saśin reached the mountain. He met here two persons one of whom was his brother Candra, separated at the time of ship-wreck. He related his aecount as follows: He somehow reached the shore and started for his native place. On his way he came across two persons, one of whom was an alchemist aod was going to mount Priyamelaka. He joined them. The alchemist was going there to acquire the magic liquid which could turn any metal into gold They reached the mountain and he was asked by the two persons to hold the end of a long rope at the entrance of a cave. He stood there for a whole day and night at the end of which the alchemist returned with the magic liquid. The other man he had offered as sacrifice in the process. As they reached there, Candra was reunited with his brother and the alcben ist went his way.
Surasundari listened to this tale of the two brothers, and decided to go to the mountain. The chief ascetic ordered some inmates of the hermitage to lead her. Thus she arrived at the mount and met Kusumasekhara. She then asked the prince how he reached there. The prince related bis own account. (The sub-story ends here).
Both Ramanarati and Surasundari were happy with their husband. But the prince was all the while worried about his anxious parents. The parrot volurteered and a message was sent to them through it. Meanwhilo King Ramadeva arrived there, honoured the ascetics, and all of them went to his city named Apratipathả and lived there happily.
The parrot reached Börgukaccha and delivered the message. He was received affectionately by the king and was detained for a few days. Meanwhile there arrived two Jaina monks, and as the king introduced to them the wonderful parrot, one of the monks narrated the earlier lives of the parrot as follows:
(The Sub-story of the Parrot and its Past Births) (377-407)
Formerly Vijayasena, Ramadeva and his friends, in all ten persons, were initiated by Sudharmasvāmin, who went along with the new monks to the
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