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CHAPTER TWO
A spy arrived and was admitted by the door-keepers. He bowed, sat down, and related slowly:
"You know, Your Majesty, that here in the southern half of Bharata there is a city Sāketa, the depository of Lakşmi. Its king, named Parvata, is long-armed, with the wealth of a large army, like a general of Arsabhi (Bharata). He has a courtesan, Guñamañjarī, the wealth of Ratipati, a source of humiliation to Ürvaśī and Rambhā by her own beauty. I think the full moon was made by the Creator from particles left from the creation of her face. Her eyes approach her ears as if to ask, 'Pray, has any beauty excelling ours ever been heard of?' The breasts on her chest are so full that they are unique. There is nothing else with which to compare them. Her waist is extremely slender, just as if its width had been handed over to the breasts from friendship arising from dwelling together. Her hands and feet, soft as lotuses, shine, causing fatigue to shoots of the aśoka by their wealth of red color. She is like a cuckoo in song, like Urvaśī herself in the dance and a full sister of Tumburu 108 on the sweet lute. She, who has become a jewel among women, is suitable for Your Majesty alone. Let the union of you two, which is suitable like that of gold and a gem, take place. What is the use of your kingdom without her, like food without salt, like a face without eyes, like the night without a moon?"
After hearing this speech, the king sent a minister on messenger's business to Parvataka to ask for Guñamañjari. He went quickly to Sāketapura with swift steeds floating through the sky, as it were, and said to King Parvata:
“Vindhyasakti is the same as you; you are the same as he. The complete unity of you two is like the mass of ocean waves. There is only one soul of you two, though in separate bodies. What is yours is his; what is his is yours. A courtesan of yours, Guñamañjarī, is praised.
108 147. The general of the Gandharvas. K. p. 305. See App. I.
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