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bouquet should be suspended from the canopy. She also said the fragrance of the bouquet should fill the entire place.
All the streets of Saketa were cleaned and sprinkled with scented water. Padmavati ordered a carriage for herself and her retinue. She first went to a lake for a holy bath and with wet clothes on her body, she plucked a few lotuses there and went towards the Näga temple. With a brush made of peacock feathers, she cleaned the idol and waited for king Pratibuddhi. He too came after a bath in the company of his own body guards and friends. He was quite impressed by the large variety of flowers and the different patterns in which they were arranged. He was particularly struck by the bouquet that was hanging at the central place. He asked his minister whether during his different visits to many other parts of Bharatavarṣa and to the courts of many kings he had seen anything as breath-takingly beautiful as the flower arrangements and decorations they had at the Näga temple that day. The minister replied that once as his king's ambassador, he was on a visit to the capital city Mithila of king Kumbhaka, he had the opportunity to be the king's guest at the birthday festival of the Mithila princess Malli. The flower arrangements and bouquets that he saw then were so fantastic that the present display at the Naga temple could not be considered to be even a hundred-thousandth part of that one at Mithila. King Pratibuddhi was taken aback by this reply, however he asked his minister about the princess Malli and the minister gave such a glowing account of the beauty, grace and charm of the fantastic princess that the king instantaneously fell in love with her. After the Naga worship was over, he rushed back to the palace and despatched a special emissary to Mithila with a proposal of marriage with princess Malli.
In another part of the country, in the city of Campa, of the Anga region, king Candracchaya ruled. In the same city, there lived many sea-faring merchants amongst whom the richest and most respected was Arahannaka. He was a lay devotee who had already learnt the fourteen purvas and the eleven Ari gas and was sincerely devoted to his faith. Once Arahannaka and a group of merchants decided that they should load their ships with a large variety of
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