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CHAPTER VII SANATKUMĀRACAKRICARITRA Previous incarnations of Sanatkumāra as King Vikramayaśas and of Asitākṣa as Nāgadatta (1-43)
There is here a city, Kāñcanapura, possessing golden splendor excelling Bhogāvati, Amarapurī, Lankā, et cetera. Its king was Vikramayasas, whose power was excellent, the lightning of whose splendor increased the rain of the tears of his enemies' wives. There were five hundred gazelle-eyed women in his household, objects of affection, like cow-elephants of an elephant who is lord of the herd.
At that time there was a very wealthy merchant, Nāgadatta, like a treasury of wealth, in the city. Of him there was a wife, like Śrī of Vişnu, possessing charm and grace, endowed with exceeding beauty, named Vişnuśrī. They, whose affection for each other was as constant as the color of indigo, passed the time like two sārasas 225 enamored of unhindered love-sport.
In the manner of the crow and the palm fruit,226 somehow she came one day into the range of vision of King Vikramayaśas. When he saw her, Vikramayaśas, whose wealth of discernment was stolen by Manobhū like a thief, reflected thus in his mind: .
“Oh, her eyes are charming like a deer's; her abundant hair beautiful like a peacock's tail, her lips soft and red like a ripe, bimba in two parts; her breasts full and arched like pleasure-peaks of Smara; her arms straight and soft like young creepers; her waist extremely small, that could be clasped with one hand, like the middle of a thunderbolt; a line of hair, like a row of duckweed; a navel like a whirl
225 6. See I, n. 130. The sārasa is the Ardea Sibirica, the blue Indian crane,
226 7. By chance.
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