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Story of Sundara and Madanavallabhā
63
Story of the chaste royal pair Sundara and Madana
vallabhā The text turns to the fourth of the five light vows (aņuvrata), namely chastity (verse 46): one should see, and yet not see others' wives; even the gods extol the glories of the chaste. The theme is illustrated by the following story: Good King Sundara of Dhārāpura had but a single wife, Madanavallabhā, crest-jewel of good women. The pair had two exemplary sons, Kirtipāla and Mahāpāla. The king regarded all other women as sisters (sodaryavrata),42 wherefore his reputation reached to heaven. Once, in the middle of the night, the house divinity of the king told him, sad-faced, that his would be a rude fate, but that she herself might be able to postpone his troubles until after his youth had passed. The king, however, realizing that his trials must be due to his karma, chose to shoulder them, without delay (740). He placed his kingdom in charge of his minister Subuddhi, took his wife and children, and, in garb suitable to his prospective humble life, went forth, appraising his past grandeur at the value of a blade of grass. A thief promptly robbed him, while he was asleep on the road, of the provisions he had taken with him, and also took his signet-ring. Plagued by hunger and thirst, guarding his daintily reared wife, and cajoling his crying boys, he arrived at the city of Prthvipura (750).
Outside the walls of that city camped a merchant, named Crīsāgara. He allowed the exiles a place in his camp to live. The king was unaccustomed to work, his two boys too small. But the queen, by feminine instinct (strīsvabhāva), showed skill in house-work, and earned
"See the note on 6. 773 ff.
