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8. THE STORY OF KOMĀRI RĀŅĀ
In the city of Kidi-ma i kodi ruled king Küm ári Rånå ka, who was habituated to go to sleep while 16 ladies massaged his legs with bells tied to their hands and to wake while they sang and played upon such musical instruments as lutes and flutes.
Once he woke up in the last watch of the night on hearing repeated sounds of conch-blowing and on enquiry he learnt that certain persons were going for pilgrimage to Soma nātha, Pasu patinātha, Anantaśaya na and Ráme s vara.
Immediately he decided to go for pilgrimage and set out, on an auspicious day, towards Sau răstra. When he passed through Pattana and reached the outskirts of Cāņdas a mā (mod. Cåņas mã in North Gujarata), he met a merchant who was constructing a lake there. He confidentially deposited with the merchant 19 jewels enwrapped in a piece of black cloth. When, however, the king returned from his pilgrimage, the deceiptful trader refused to return the deposit. A strife arose out of this, which led them both to king Jayasimha, who gave an ordeal, accepting which the trader declared: “The water shall not remain enclosed in this lake, if I have accepted the deposit of jewels." Instantly the banks of the lake broke forth and the water gushed out. Thence is the lake known as Phutelâu the broken one'.
King Ja ya simhadeva was pleased at this, the curse to the pond was duly nullified and with royal permission a special cottage was constructed on the bank of the tank, which was known as Desanlarakuți 'the cottage of the foreigner', where resided Kumāri Rāņā practising penance till death.
9. THE STORY OF ŚRIMĀTĀ
In the city of Lakh a ņā vati ruled king Lakhan a sena. Once when he entered his harem, minister U māpati Sridhara, who was an excellent astrologer, calculated the position of the heavenly luminaries and found out that a son would be born to the queen but that at the age of 32 he would fall in love with a girl of the lowest class. Consequently he stopped going to the royal court and on learning the real cause of his absence the king sent the queen to a distant village where she delivered a son.
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