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bridegroom said to the merchant: "I will go once more to the land of Gauda." The merchant said: "Then take your wife with you." Then Nandana set out with his wife. As he was going along he came in due course to the city of Ujjayiní, and there they both of them entered a refuge for travellers at the time of evening. Nandana said to himself: "By thus travelling with my wife by short stages, I have already consumed a great portion of my provision for the journey. If the whole of my provision for the journey is consumed, I shall have to live by begging." So Nandana left his wife asleep, and, taking the provision for the journey with him, went off. In the morning she woke up, and said to herself: "Where is my husband gone ? What can I do alone? If I go to my father's house I shall not be treated with respect." Then she lamented profusely, and at last, calming herself, she went into the house of a merchant named Manibhadra, in that very Ujjayiní, in order to preserve her chastity. The merchant said: "Who are you? Whose daughter are you? Who is your husband ?" She said: "I am the daughter of the merchant Kulandhara; my husband is a man of the name of Nandana. As
was going with him to the land of Gauda, I was separated from the caravan." When Manibhadra heard this, he said: "My dear, I regard you as a daughter; remain in comfort in my house." Then she remained in his house, and performed household duties. Then Manibhadra went so far as to send out his own men to search for that caravan, but he did not succeed in clearing up the mystery. Then he sent a man to her father's house to interview the merchant Kulandhara. He went and said to the merchant: "Merchant, how many daughters have you? How many are married, and how many are unmarried? Tell me the facts of this matter, as I have been sent by Manibhadra with a proposal for the hand of an unmarried one." Then Kulandhara said: "I have eight daughters: seven of them are married in Champá, and the eighth has gone with her husband to the land of Gauda." Then the messenger returned to Ujjayini and
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