Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 4

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 203

168
CHAPTER THREE
Vasantatilakā, her eyes vacant, her mind vague, as if she were made of wood.
“Who has come here suddenly like a Vyantara ?” she said to him, relying on her courage, though terrified. "Say! Who are you who have come here? Or rather, it is enough to know that you are a strange man. Do not remain here in the house of another man's wife. Vasantatilakā, take him by the arm and put him outside. I am as pure as the moon. I can not even look at him. No one, except Pavanañjaya, has authority to enter this house of mine. Why do you hesitate?"
Prahasita bowed and said: "Mistress, by good fortune you have occasion to rejoice from meeting Pavanañjaya who has come eagerly after a long time. I am Prahasita, his friend, like Madhava of Manmatha. I have come in advance. Know that your husband has followed.”
Añjanā said: "Do not ridicule me who have been ridiculed by Fate indeed. This is no time for joking, Prahasita. And yet this is not your fault, but the fault of my past actions that such a well-born husband should abandon me. How can it be otherwise? Twenty-two years have passed since the wedding when I was deserted by my husband. I, wicked, am alive even yet.”
Then Pavanañjaya, to whom the former load of her sorrow had been transferred, went inside and said, his voice choked with tears:
“From the time of our marriage you, though faultless, have been burdened with faults. You have been scorned by me, wretch that I am, ignorant, thinking myself wise. You have reached such an evil condition hard to bear from my fault, my dear. Though having been driven to death, by my good fortune you have barely escaped death.”
Embarrassed when she had seen her husband saying this, she rose up to honor him, leaning on the rail of the couch, her face downcast. Taking hold of her with his arm encircling her, like an elephant taking a vine with