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JAIN RAMAYAN
and went forward a couple of paces. Jayanad entered the chamber.
"Have you been able to secure any vital information ?"
“Yes my lord ! I have secured the information we wanted. I went straight to the palace of queen Anjana. All the maids and attendants in the palace were in great grief and anxiety. Their eyes had swollen on account of incessant weepi
aversation, I could gather that everyone of them had the highest regard for Anjana's chastity and nobility and that their hearts were full of compassion for her. The order of Queen Ketumati that Anjana must leave the palace has made everyone of them angry and unhappy Dear lord ! What shall I say? It is not at all an exaggeration to say that all the people of the city have enshrined Anjana in their hearts as a goddess and have been adoring her with unshakable devotion."
“What was the most important point that they mentioned in their conversation ?”
“When I asked a certain maid about it she said that she had been following and staying with Anjana like her shadow and that she had not seen any man enter her palace. Just then another maid said with a little anger, "Even if we assume that she wanted to commit such an enormity why should she have been suffering this anguish all these days ? If she had any such evil passions or desires in her mind or heart would she not have shown them at any time these twenty-two years through her actions and gestures". A third maid said, “We cannot say when a man's mind changes. It is absolutely likely that Pavananjay who went to the battle-field saw something that changed his mind. He might have come here in the night and might have returned in the morning."
"Moreover, Vasanta Tilaka has always been with her mistress. She saw on that night with her own eyes Pavananjay and Prahasit... Would she also utter a lie ?" A fourth maid said
this in all seriousness supporting what the third one had said. - Jayanad continued; "Then I went to the backyard of the palace
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