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minister has cut off the hair of Ratnavatí, and is escaping." Then the king was angry, and sent a body of troops to kill the minister's son. Thereupon the minister, being in his house, said to the commander of the force : “Wait until I have an interview with the king, to whom I am willing to go surrounded by your servants.” He agreed. The minister went to the king, and said to him: “My lord, wait until I open that chest." The king consented. The chest was opened, and in it he saw the minister's son with scissors and a braid of hair in his hand. The minister said: “ King, this is the doing of some demon, who was my enemy in a former birth.” When the king and the minister had seen that occurrence, they both of them became disgusted with the world, and after placing their respective sons in their places, they both took a vow. In the same way I also will overcome this obstacle by some device, and will deliver my friend Mitránanda.'*
Mitránanda said: "Then let us leave this place.' When they had thus deliberated together, they went out on the pretence of sleeping in their rooms, and immediately departed. One day they reached a garden in the suburbs of Pataliputra. There they saw a great temple. In that temple Prince Amaradatta beheld a statue. Seeing that it was very beautiful, he was afflicted with the arrows of Cupid, and was not able to move a step from the spot. + When Amaradatta beheld the statue thus beautiful, he said to himself : 'Is this some heavenly nymph turned to marble by someone's curse ? While the prince was thus deliberating, Mitránanda said to him : *My friend, shall we enter the city?' Amaradatta answered : 'Mitránanda, wait a moment, that I may behold the beauty of the statue.' When he said this, Mitránanda waited. After a moment or two he said again : “My friend, rise up, let us go into the city.' Then Amaradatta threw aside his bashfulness, and
* This translation is conjectural. The passage seems to be corrupt. - In the . Kathá Sarit Ságara' (vol. ii. of my translation, p. 600), Vikramaditya falls in love with a statue, which turns out to be that of Kalingasena, the daughter of the King of Kalinga.
I See vol. ii. of my translation of the Katha Sarit Ságara,' p. 578.
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