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46
LILAVAT
were sprinkled and turned into a genuine army with the aid of which the boy routed away the enemy. He conquered the territory in the North as far as Tāpi and started his era. 6) A Brähmaņa, Sadraka by name, trained himself as a Ksatriya against the wish of his father. Sätavahana appreciated his strength and appointed him a city guard who successfully carried out his duties with only a staff as his weapon. Mayasura assumed the form of only a Head and kidnapped the queen.. Passing through great ordeals, Sūdraka propitiated Mahālakṣmi at Kolläpura, but he died along with his two faithful dogs on the field while fighting against Kolläsura, the brother of Māyāsura. The goddess revived him and his dogs to life and gave him a sword and a boon of invincibility. He killed Mâyăsura and restored the chaste queen to Satavahana just in time to save him from immolating himself in fire out of disappointment. The king joyfully welcomed the queen and greeted Sūdraka by giving him half of his kingdom. 7) King Sātavāhana had a harem of five hundred queens. Queen Candralekhāl laughed at his ignorance of Sanskrit when he misunderstood modakaih as sweetmeats, the intended meaning being ma+udakaih. Being ashamed, he propitiated Sarasvati, and through her favour he collected ten crores of gāthas to constitute a Satavahanakaśāstra. 8) On account of the successful military achievements of his commander-in-chief Kharamukha, Hala was puffed with pride, but his minister managed to pacify his vanity by a false report of the death of Kharamukha and of his subsequent revival to life. 9) Hearing a remark of conventional meaning, Hala decided to marry, every four days, beautiful girls from the four classes of society. It was a social calamity that many youths had to go without marriage. Propitiated by a Dvija, a goddess assumed the form of a beautiful girl, but simply scared the king to death by developing terrific appearance on meeting him. 10) Sātavāhana was a contemporary of king Vikramārka who flourished 470 years after the Nirvāņa of Mahāvira; and it appears that he was different from another Sātavāhana who changed the date of paryūṣaṇa in the presence of Kālakācārya, otherwise an ancient gatha
1 It is interesting to note that a courtezan Candralekha by name figures in
the Līlāvati. 2 This episode is found in the Kathasaritsägara also; see Kathāpītha, Taranga
6, verses 114 ff., p. 18. 3 एकदा भारतीमभ्यार्थयत । सकलमपि पुरै आद्ययामा महः कविरूपं भवतु। तथैव कृतं देव्या । एकस्मिन् दिने
GETPUSTIT 2: #971: Frated Art Prabandhakośa, p. 72.
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