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111
Alas! here is that very forest in which I married that fair-eyed one.
Here are all the very same trees; here is that same lake; The whole landscape is the same, and in front of me is the temple
of the Jina. What formerly gave me pleasure has now become a source of
affliction to me! O Fate, what hast thou done to me, though I am innocent and alive
to the vanity of the world ?'
Being occupied with melancholy thoughts of this kind, the prince went with a few foot soldiers into the temple of the Jina. At this very moment his right eye throbbed violently;* then the prince said to himself: 'My eye throbs as if indicating a meeting with the beloved ; but Fate has taken her away. Can this omen be ineffectual ?
While the prince was going through these reflections, Rishidattá came to him as a hermit, and offered him flowers. The prince took the garland of flowers from her hand, and looked again and again at the hermit with a look that indicated his perception of the resemblance to his beloved. Rishidattá the hermit said to herself: 'I wonder if my beloved has set out to marry Rukmiņí.' The prince worshipped the Jina, and then went to his tent after summoning the hermit Rishidattá. He made the supposed hermit sit on a seat of honour, and feasted him, and after requesting him with great vehemence to accept the present, he clothed him in a suit of raiment. Then the prince said to that hermit: When did you come to this forest ?' Then the hermit said : “Royal sir, in this hermitage there was a hermit named Harishena; he had a daughter, named Rishidattá, who was exceedingly virtuous. Some prince or other married her, and took her away to his own city; as for her father, Harishena, he attained the condition of a divinity by entering the fire. At that time I came here, after wandering over the earth, and from that day forth I worship Rishabha in this temple. While I have been dwelling here, five years have been completed, but to-day all my
• Compare · Katha Sarit Ságara,' ii. 128.
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