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MARRIAGE OF KRŞŅA WITH RUKMIŅI AND OTHERS 201 house-son-in-law of Sāgaradatta.
Sāgara was married to the girl by the parents and went to the bed-chamber with her and rested on a couch. Because of the power of past actions, burned severely instantly by her touch like a coal, Sāgara remained there with difficulty. Leaving her asleep, he escaped and went home. At the end of her sleep, not seeing her husband, she wept very loud. A slave-girl, who had been sent at dawn by Subhadrā to clean. the teeth of the bride and bridegroom, saw her weeping, deserted by her husband. She went and told Subhadrā and Subhadrā told the sheth. The sheth himself repreached Jinadatta.
Jinadatta summoned his son and said to him privately: You did not behave fittingly in deserting the daughter of a good family. Now go, son, to Sukumārikā. For I made such a promise before at that time to respectable people.” Sāgara declared: 'Father, I will enter the fire rather than go. again to Sukumārikā. Sāgaradatta heard that from inside the house and, hopeless, went home and told Sukumārikā: * Sāgara does not like you. So I shall find another husband for you, daughter. Do not worry.'
One day, standing at a window, he saw a man carrying a beggar's bowl, wearing tattered clothes, seeking alms, surrounded by flies. The sheth called him, had him abandon the beggar's bowl, had him bathed, fed, and anointed with sandal. He said to him: 'I give you my daughter Sukumārikā. Stay comfortably with her without anxiety about food, et cetera.' Talked to in this way, he went to the bed-chamber with her and, asleep, was touched by fire, as it were, from the touch of her body. Getting up, he put on his own clothes and fled. She, depressed, remained just as she was and was seen by her father. He said: 'Daughter, this is the maturing of past actions. There is no other reason. Remain contented in my house, dispensing charity. Just so she gave gifts, tranquil, devoted to dharma, virtuous.
One day Aryā Gopālikā came to her house. She presented 26 N
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