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Book Review
SAMBODHI
has brought after marrying with her, is definitely a female demon, and this is her act. O Lord ! Please, do not defet the hypocrites. O King ! If you have no trust in my words, then you see the act during the night today itself. The king asked the prince to sleep with him. The prince thought that surely the fault of the wife shall manifest during the night. On one side was the order of the father to disobeye, while, on the other side the pain of the wife. It was indeed the difficult dilemma of choosing between a tiger on one side and a steep river bank on the other side (ito vyāghra itastatī), a sort of the devil and the ditch situation.
On the other hand, Sulasā did the same at night. The spies saw it and informed the king in the morning. The angry king scolded the prince, and said: “Also ! O the one who has brought disgrace to the family ! O the one having evil conduct ! O the sinner! Why do you maintain this devilish woman, although you know her ? Come on, and see. You have stigmatized the family that was clean like the Moon.” The Prince folded his palms and said : “O Lord ! All this is false. Please, do not be angry.” The king said : “If you have no trust in our words, you go and see. By the order of the king, the prince went and saw that Rsidattā, having her mouth with blood, was sitting with her hand supporting her cheek, and was weeping. The Prince said to her : "O the Fortunate One ! What should I do? Yesterday the Yoginī has declared you to be a 'female devil. In the morning the spies, too, saw you like this, and have reported it to the king. I do not know what will happen now.”
The king caught her by the mass of her hair and handed her over to the murderous fellows and ordered them to take her around and moved her the city, and drag her to the cemetery and kill her. They made her ugly, around the city in the midst of the wide-spread lamentation of the citydwellers, and took her to the cemetery. Unable to see her painful condition, the Sun set down. In the cemetery, when a merciless murderous fellow raised his sword to kill her, and asked her to remember her favorite deity, she fell down unconscious. The killers thought she was dead, and, so, without actually killing her, they returned to the city. (4th Ul., 191-258)
Due to the wind, Rsidattā regained the consciousness, and taking advantage of loneliness began to run away. Being helpless and alone, she proceeded further weeping. On way she passed by the trees planted by her. On the strength of that sign, she arrived in the hermitage of her father, and remembering the father she lamented unendingly. While lamenting Rșidattā was saying: O Father ! If I could have seen you alive, the pain would have
