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VASUDEVA'S MARRIAGE WITH KANAKAVATI 81 of gambling; she was skilled in the art of the charioteer. She was competent in massage; she knew how to cook; she acquired dexterity in exhibiting magic, sorcery, et cetera. She was qualified to be a teacher in comprehension of the three divisions of music.88 Indeed, there was no art which she did not know thoroughly.
With a form beyond criticism, immersed in the water of grace, she arrived at youth which makes all the arts bear fruit. Observing that, her parents engaged in the search for a husband for her and, not finding a suitable bridegroom, planned a svayamvara.
Episode of the swan (33–61) One day as the gazelle-eyed maiden was sitting comfortably in her house, she saw a rājahansa89 that had come suddenly. She noticed that his bill, feet, and eyes were red as the shoots of the aśoka; that he was white as balls of new sea-foam; that his neck was wreathed with little golden bells; that his voice was beautiful and that he danced, as it were, in his gait. She reflected:
“Surely he is the source of amusement for some one of much merit. Why is this ornament of birds outside his master's jurisdiction? Let the swan belong to any master whatever, he shall be for my amusement. My soul longs for him intensely.”
Then the maiden with a swanlike gait herself seized the swan that was clinging to the window, resembling an auspicious chauri of Sri. The lotus-eyed maiden caressed the swan slowly with her lotus-hand with a gentle touch, as if he were a toy-lotus. With her hand soft as a sirişa she stroked his spotless tail like a child's bunch of hair.
Kanakavati said to her companion: “ Bring me a wooden cage that I may put him in it. Birds do not remain in one place.” When the companion had gone to get a wooden
88 30. Song, dance, and instrumental music. Abhi. 2.193.
89 33. A kind of hansa with red bill and feet, Abhi. 4. 392, 11N
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