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14
JAINA ANTIQUARY.
[Vol. I.
Vidyag and a great fortune from the Asura settlements. He then went to Girisi hhara and married the daughter of the chief called Vanaraja. He restored the latter to his parental throne of Pundravardhana from where his anscestors had been ousted by the coparcenars. Proceeding to the Urjayanta mountain he contracted the friendship of the king of Antarapura with whom he then went to Girinagara to help the king against the attack of Candapradyota, king of Sindhu. He exhibited extraordinary valour in the battle that followed and the king of Girinagara, recognising in him his sister's son, married his daughter to him, He then worshipped the Jina on the Urjayanta mountain.'
At this stage, his help was solicited by Abhicandra, king of Gajapura against Vidyadhara Sukantha who had killed his elder brother Subhachndra of Kausambi and captured his seven daughters. Chivalrously responding to the call, Nayakumara immediately went to Alamghanagara and rescued the princesses by slaying the Vidygdhara. He then went to Gajapura where he married the seven princesses as well as the daughter of Abhicandra. While staying here, Mahavyala, the elder brother of Vyala brought to him the news that the princess of Ujjaini did not like any man. He proceeded to Ujjaini and won the heart and the hand of the princess. He then went to Kiskhinda-Malaya and won the hand of the Meghapura princess by exhibiting his skill in the art of playing upon the Mirdanga. He then heard about some wonders in the Toyávali island where Vidyadhara Pavanavega had murdered the king of Bhūmitilaka and had captured his five hundred daughters whom he was harrassing because they would not marry their father's murderer. Nagakumara went to the island along with his comrades by the help of the Vidya and slew Pavanavega, rescued the princesses and married them all.
He then came to the Pandya capital, thence to Dantipura in the
country where he married the daughter of king Candragupta, and then to Tribhuvanatilaka where he married Lakshmimati the daughter of the chief Vijayandhara. His latest bride won his affections 80 deeply that he inquired of sage Pihitāśrava as to its cause. The latter narrated the events of his past life when he was the son of a merchant in Vitasokapura and died in the observance of the fast of Sri-Panchmi. All his personal charms and prowess in the present life were pointed out by the sage to be due to that religious fast and that his wife Lakshamimati was no other than his wife of the former birth.
At this stage minister Nayandhara arrived from home and Nāgakumãra returned to Kanakapura where he was crowned king by his own father.
