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VASUDEVA'S MARRIAGE WITH KANAKAVATİ
tears without restraint.
Asked by the Brahman, Why do you weep?' the hunchback said, 'I weep at hearing your charming song with the emotion of compassion.' Asked by the hunchback the meaning of the slokas, the Brahman told the story from the time of the gambling up to the coming of Vaidarbhi to Kundinapura. He said further: " Hunchback, a messenger from the lord of Susumāra described you to King Bhima as a cook because of the sun-cooked pudding. Bhaimi, persuading her father with the words, "Nala and no one else has such a custom," sent me to look at you. When I had seen you, I reflected: "On the one hand, you are an ugly hunchback; on the other hand, Nala with divine beauty; on the one hand, a firefly; on the other, the sun." As I came, all the omens were favorable. All of them were false, since you are not Nala.'
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Meditating on Davadanti, the hunchback, weeping more and more, importuned the Brahman, took him to his house, and said, 'What welcome can be given to you reciting the story of the virtuous Davadanti and the hero Nala?' Saying this, he prepared a suitable welcome with bath, food, et cetera and gave him all the ornaments given by Dadhiparṇa.
Kuśala went duly to Kundina and described to Bhaimi's father the hunchback just as he was. The Brahman told how the hunchback tamed and mounted the elephant and about the sun-cooked pudding which he had seen. He told about the gold necklace, the lac of coins, the clothes, and ornaments given (him) by the hunchback and about his own singing of the ślokas. Bhaimi said:
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'Father, Nala has been found. Such a change in figure is the result of some defect in food or some fault of karma, surely. Such skill in elephant-training, such a wonderful gift, the sun-cooked pudding-these belong to no one except Nala. Father, by some means bring the hunchback here, that I may test him by observing gestures, et cetera.'
King Bhima said: 'Daughter, a man should be sent to Dadhiparņa with the invitation to a fictitious svayamvara.
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