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CHAPTER III
EIGHTH INCARNATION AS VAJRĀYUDHA
In this very Jambūdvīpa in the East Videhas the province Mangalavati is located on the south bank of the Sītā. In it is the broad city Ratnasañcayā, like a bride of the ocean (ratnākara), because of its resemblance to heaps of jewels. Its king was Ksemankara, causing the acquisition and security of wealth, powerful as the wind. His wife was Ratnamālā, spotless as a wreath of jewels, delicate as a wreath of flowers.
Aparājita's soul, the Indra of Acyuta, fell from Acyuta and developed in her womb, like a pearl in a pearl-oyster. The queen, comfortably asleep, saw during the last part of the night fourteen great dreams and also a fifteenth, a thunderbolt. When she awakened she related the dreams to her husband and he explained, “You will have a hero-son, a cakrin, like Vajrin (Indra)."
At the right time she bore a son, pure, with a pleasing form, with superior strength like a sixth Lokapāla.816 Because the queen had seen a thunderbolt in a dream, while he was in embryo, his father gave him the name Vajrāyudha. He, having an extraordinary body, grew up gradually, protected every day from people's evil-eye by a blooming garland. He, a traveler across the ocean of all the arts, attained youth alone confusing the heart of gods, asuras, men, and women. With the ribbon placed around his wrist, he married a princess, Lakşmivatî, like Lakşmi embodied.
Anantavīrya's soul fell from the heaven Acyuta and entered Lakşmiyati's womb like rain from the sky entering
816 8. There is a reference in the Kādambari to 5 lokapālas, which the commentator (p. 625) explains as Indra, Yama, Varuņa, Soma, and Kubera. Of course, 4 or 8 is the more usual number. It is possible that here the king himself makes the fifth lokapāla.
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