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VASUDEVA'S MARRIAGE WITH KANAKAVATI Birth as Dhūsari, wife of Dhanya (244–274).
Mammaņa's jiva fell and became the son, named Dhanya, -the receptacle of much merit-of a cowherd Dhammilāsa by Reņukā in the town Potana in the district Bahali in Bhārata in this Jambūdvipa. Vīramati's jīva fell from heaven and became the wife, named Dhūsarī, of this same Dhanya. . Every day Dhanya grazed the cow-buffaloes in the forest. For the grazing of the cow-buffaloes is the most important household business of cowherds. One day the rainy season, which is the enemy of people away from home, started, making nights of the new moon appear, 106 as it were, by the ill-fated rainy days, with the sky turned into a bath-room with showers by the violent downpours, with resounding flutes and drums, as it were, in the rising croaks of the frogs, making the earth seem to have a mass of hair with the green vegetation, with the ground slippery with the thick duckweed pushed up by the rain, with the knee-deep mud creaking from the feet of moving travelers, making the sky appear to have firebrands by the whirls of lightning. Even during the rainy season Dhanya went to graze his cow-buffaloes lowing from the joy of rolling in mud. Carrying an umbrella over his head to keep off the heavy rain, Dhanya wandered over the forest, following the herd of buffaloes.
As he wandered, Dhanya saw an ascetic standing on one foot in pratimā, motionless, emaciated by fasting, enduring the rain like a forest-elephant, his body trembling from cold like a tree shaken by the wind. When he saw the best of munis enduring trials 107 in this way, he felt compassionate and held his umbrella over his head. The umbrella being held by Dhanya with unequaled devotion, the discomfort from the rain being eliminated, the sage was in a house, as it were.
The cloud did not cease from raining, like a drunkard from drinking wine, but neither did Dhanya stop holding the
106 248. Amăvāsya, which is entirely dark. 107 256. Parişaha. See I, n. 55.
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