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CVI
Kavyanusasana 696: The city of Panchāsara was beseiged by the attacking army. The siege continued for fifty-two days. When Jayasekhara saw that he could no longer hold against the enemy, he sent away his queen Rūpasundari who was pregnant, to a forest near by with her brother Surapala who was his general. Jayasekhara met with a heroic death in Open battle. In the forest Rūpasundari gave birth to a son who was later on known as Vanarāja.
This account of Jayaşekhara is not given by any other work. The Purātanaprabandhasamgraha tells a different tale about the parentage of Vanarāja. It says “In the village of Ambāsara, there lived two brothers named Chanda and Chămunda of the Chapotkata clan. An astrologer informed them that the child which the wife of Chămunda was carrying when born would kill Chanda. So she was abandoned. She went to Panchāsara where she made her living by gathering fuel and other things. Sri Şilaguņasīri who had gone out, saw the shade of Vaņa tree bending over the boy who revealed auspicious marks. The mother was given shelter in a Chaitya or temple where he resided” (p. 12 Vanarājavșttam). The name of the mother is not mentioned by the P. P. S. The P. C. makes no mention about the parentage of Vanarāja. Its account begins thus : “ Gurjaradharitrī, i. e. Gurjarland was a part of Kānyakubja. In the village of Panchāsara in the district of Vadhra in that Gurjarland, a mother placing her boy in a cloth-swing under Vanatree was gathering fuel. Silaguņasūri observed that the shade of the tree even though it was afternoon was bending over the child. Thinking that this was due
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