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VASUDEVA'S MARRIAGE WITH KANAKAVATI 143 chose the best chariot and thoroughbred horses with all the good marks:
When Dadhiparņa had seen his skill in everything, he thought: 'He is no common man. He is a god or Khecara.' After he had yoked the horses to the chariot, the hunchback said to the king, 'Get into the chariot. I will have you in Vidarbhā at dawn.' The king, his betel-box-bearer, umbrellabearer, two chauri-bearers, and the hunchback—the six of them-got into the chariot which had been made ready. After tying the bel and the jewel-case on his hip with his garment and recalling the pañcanamaskāra, the hunchback started the horses. The chariot with its horses in good condition advanced by Nala's skill in horsemanship, like a god's aerial car by its master's thought.
Dadhiparņa's upper garment was blown off by the wind made from the speed of the chariot and it fell, as if used by it (the wind) to pay homage to Nala.156 Dadhiparņa said to the hunchback: 'Stop the chariot for a minute. I want to get my scarf that has gone like a bird by the wind blowing it off.' While King Dadhiparna was saying this to the hunchback, the chariot covered twenty-five yojanas. The hunchback said with a smile: Where is your scarf, king? Twenty-five yojanas have been left behind, since the scarf fell. Indeed, these horses must be only second rate. If they were first-class, they would have gone fifty yojanas in so much time.
King Dadhiparņa saw in the distance a tree named akşa157 filled with fruit and he said to the charioteer: 'I know without
156 1000. Waving of garments' is one of the recognized forms of homage. But I am not quite satisfied with this half-śloka. Avatāraṇa might be taken as making Nala get down from the chariot, in which case the wind would be a perverse fate to slow Nala and the king. Indian Sanskritists, whom I have consulted, do not agree.
157 1005. Akşa is usually the Eleocarpus ganitrus, whose seeds are used in rosaries, but it can also be the Terminalia belerica, the beleric myrobalan, whose most common name is vibhitaka. In the Kathākośa vibhitaka is used.
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