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VASUDEVA'S MARRIAGE WITH KANAKAVATI 103 family, worshipped the shrine in the house. The kings Bhima and Nişadha had their ribbons untied with a great ceremony. Then Bhima entertained Nişadha and his son devotedly and dismissed them; and followed some distance. For that is the custom.
When Davadanti was leaving to follow her husband, her mother instructed her: 'Do not abandon your husband even in calamity, as if you were his shadow, daughter.' When Davadanti had taken leave of her parents and had come, Nala had her get into the chariot and seated her in his lap. Then as the Lord of Kośalā travels to Kośalā, the earth is sprinkled with the elephants' ichor like oily musk. The earth, trampled by the horses and donkeys, sounded like a cymbal; and the roads were streaked everywhere by the tracks of the carts. The earth was made invisible by the foot-saldiers marching in a solid array; and the trees on the roads were stripped of their leaves by the camels. The ponds became nothing but mud, their water drunk by the soldiers; and a second earth, as it were, was made in the air by the dust stirred up by the army.
While Nişadha was going along, the sun set and the universe was filled with darkness like an ant-hill with water. Nişadha did not stop, eager for a sight of his city. Who does not have a very strong desire to go to his own place? Neither dry land nor water, neither hollow nor tree, nor anything could be seen in the darkness which was like one umbrella.
"When Nala had seen the army reduced to a state of having four senses, their vision obstructed by darkness, he said to Davadanti who was lying in his lap: 'Wake up for a moment, queen. The army is oppressed by darkness. Display the son of your tilaka, glorious lady.' Davadanti arose and uncovered her forehead and her tilaka shone very bright, a garuda to the serpent of darkness. Then the whole army began to advance unhindered. Verily people, though alive, are 'like corpses, if they are without vision.
Nala saw ahead a muni standing in pratimā, sipped by bees like a lotus-bed. He said to his father: 'Master, let us
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