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INTRODUCTION
33
might be soon united with her beloved. Pining with passionate love she retires to another part of the garden and holds a conference with her friends in an arbour. Every one of them is charming enough to entrap Madana in whose search they set out, and while moving about they meet Kandarpa and Makaranda. They mistake the former for Madana himself, capture him and bring him to the arbour of Līlāvati. xii The eyes of the lovers meet and mutually communicate their innermost desires. They almost swoon under the pressure of overwhelming emotional disturbances. They recover after a while and get mutually wedded according to the Gandharva form of marriage. xii The subsequent marriage festival is attended with various sports in the pleasure-garden. Lilăvati reaches the lake Hamsahāra for water-sports.
xiv Kandarpa and Lilāvati live happily for some time. One morning he takes the Kälāvalokini-phalaka from Makaranda, looks at it, and returns it to him. Being unable to understand what it was Lilavati is greatly enraged. As she insisted on seeing it, Makaranda requests her not to do so. She is very much upset with anger. At her suggestion her friends somehow manage to get it from Makaranda and hand it over to her. She looks at it and mistakes her own reflection in it for the portrait of another damsel with whom, she jealously suspects, her beloved is in love. She throws away that Phalaka in a pond and loses herself completely in a fit of anger. All the attempts of her friends to console her fail. Out of sheer anger Lilāvati becomes a creeper, and also transforms her friends similarly with the aid of her miraculous power of Vidya. Kandarpa and Makaranda set out in search of her. K is submerged in a sea of sorrow. Being consoled all along by M, he entreats every flora and fauna to show him the place where his beloved was concealing herself. Coming to a certain spot, he feels very much attracted by the beauty of a creeper which he embraces without any restraint, and he finds Lilavats within his arms. By mutual embrace her friends too resume their original forms. Kandarpa and Lilāvati spend their time happily.
. One day, when the earth was being bathed by the milky beams of the moon, a Vidyadhara named Vasantasekhara and his cansort Madanamañjari were sporting in the vicinity of Kusumapura. Madanamañjari came to know about Kandarpa and developed attachment for him; while he was moving alone in a park, she passionately embraced him and entreated him for return-love. Kandarpa was firm and would not yield to her temptations. She flared up with anger and cursed him with a
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