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VASUDEVA'S MARRIAGE WITH KANAKAVATI 135 When King Bhima heard that Davadanti was coming, he went to meet her, drawn by a very strong affection like a horse hard to control. As soon as she had seen her father, Vaidarbhi, going on foot, her lotus-face blooming, ran and fell at his lotus-feet. The ground became very muddy from tears falling from father and daughter who had met longingly after a long time. Learning that Puşpadanti had come along, her daughter embraced her closely, like Yamunā embracing Jāhnavi. Clinging to her neck, Nala's wife cried at the top of her voice. New pain of people, as it were, takes place at the sight of a loved one.
After a moment, having washed their lotus-faces with water (of tears), they talked together and recited their troubles. Puşpadanti took Vaidarbhi on her lap and said: ‘By good fortune you have been seen alive. Certainly good fortune watches over us. Passing the time comfortably in our house, after a long time you will see your husband. For a living person sees fair things.'
. The king, delighted, gave Harimitra five hundred villages and said, 'I shall give you half the kingdom when Nala comes.' The king went to the city and held a festival because of Davadanti's arrival and for seven days worshipped gods and gurus especially. On the eighth day the king of Vidarbha, said to Vaidarbhi, . It will be arranged so that you will soon join Nala.'
Resumption of Nala's story (877-1075) At the time when he left Vaidarbhi, wandering in the forest, Nala saw smoke rising up in one place from forest-undergrowth. The mass of smoke, black as collyrium, covered the sky, giving the impression—some mountain goes through the air with unclipped wings.149 The smoke, terrible with a wreath of flame, became visible from the earth in a twinkling, resembling a cloud joined with lightning. Naișadhi heard the noise of the burning bamboos, trațat, trațiti, and cries of wild animals,
149 878. Cf. Maitrāyaṇi Saṁhitā, 1.10.13.
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