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Story of Madanarekhā and her son Nami
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Mithila, who had been run away with by his horse.87 He had taken the boy, and given him to his wife Puşpamālā, who was cherishing him as her son. All that he had learned from the Science called Prajipti (* Prescience ').88 Now she should kindly adorn his throne (879).
The queen, anxious to preserve her vows to her dead husband, 39 sparred for time. She asked the Vidyādhara to allow her to make a pilgrimage to Nandiçvara, after which she would comply with his desire. Together they worshiped there the images of the eternal Arbats, Rşabha, Candrānana, Vārişeņa, and Vardhamāna. They then paid reverence to the Sage Manicūda,40 who instructed them in religion to such purpose, that Maņi. prabha declared himself thenceforth the brother and servant of Madanarekhā. Madanarekhā asked the hermit for tidings of her son. He related that, ' long ago there were two princes who died and became gods. One of them fell and became king Padmaratha; the other became your son. Padmaratha, when run away with by his horse, found your son, and gave him to his wife Puşpamālā, on account of his love for him in his former existence. He is living happily in Mithilā' (897).
While the hermit was telling this there arrived a god in great state. He first circumambulated Madanarekhā to the right three times, 41 and bowed down before her;
* See additional note 26, on p. 204.
See the author in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. vol. lvi. pp. 4 ff. * As sati, or devoted wife. " Maniprabha's father.
This ethnic practice, Latin dextratio, Celtic desiul, famous in Hindu ritual, is also & standard mode of showing honor in fiction; see this text, 6. 997; Kathås. 14. 30; 15. 137; 43. 214; 63. 83; 100. 54; 106. 84; 107. 126; Dacakumăracarita i, p. 37; ii, p. 1; Jatakas 193, 251, 276, 457; Kathakoca, pp. 23, 27; Jacobi, Ausgewählte Erzählungen aus dem Mahāråstri, pp. 14,
