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A. CHAKRAVARTI :
His queen was Candramatī. Yaśödhara was their son. It is this prince Yaśödhara that is the hero of this story. This Yaśodhara married a beautiful princess by name of Amstamatī. This beautiful queen gave birth to a son Yaśāmati. The old king Asöka abdicated the kingdom in favour of his son Yaśödhara and instructed him to observe the principles of righteous rule according to rājanīti. He instructed his son on how he should safeguard dharma, artha and kāma, the three puruṣārthas. He should maintain religion and religious worship at a high level of purity based upon the ahimsā doctrine. Having given all this advice and after establishing his son as the king of the land, the old king adopted the life of an ascetic and spent his time in an asrama. While the king Yaśādhara and his queen Amstamati were living happily, one early morning the queen heard the sweet music of the elephant-keeper singing in malapañcama-rāga. The queen was attracted by the music and sent her attendant Guņavatī to procure the person who was responsible for such sweet music. This information created a surprise in that attendant who advised the queen to remember her status and prestige; but as she insisted on having the person with whom she fell in love, the attendant had to bring the keeper of the elephant who was a detestable leper. Even in spite of this deformity, the foolish queen entered into an intimacy with that wretch. The king was at first ignorant of the whole affair. But soon the king came to know of this disgusting behaviour of the queen. Noticing the peculiar estrangement in her behaviour, he himself
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