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MARRIAGE OF KRŞŅA WITH RUKMIŅI AND OTHERS 209 a head-oblation to the family-deities,204 a goddess said: 'Daughter, do not show impatience. Whenever your mango blooms out of season, then your son will come.' It has bloomed today, but my son does not come. So, sādhu, look at the horoscope. When will the reunion with my son take place ?” He said, " The horoscope does not give results to the empty-handed.”
Rukmiņi asked, “What shall I give you? Tell me.” He said, “ Offer gruel to me emaciated from penance.” She occupied herself with a search for the materials for a gruel. Again the sādhu said to her: “I am extremely hungry. Make a gruel from any substance whatever and give me.” She began to make a gruel with the sweetmeats prepared earlier, but the fire did not burn from the power of his magic art. Seeing
her distressed, he said, “ If the gruel does not materialize, satisfy · me with just the sweetmeats, as I am very hungry."..
She said: “ Indeed, these sweetmeats of Kțşna's are very indigestible for others. I will not cause the death of a sage by giving them to you, muni.” He asserted, “Nothing is hard for me to digest because of my penance.” She then gave him a single sweetmeat at a time, fearful. Smiling and astonished, she said to him as he ate very quickly the sweetmeats given one at a time, “ You are very strong, sage.”
Now, men came and said to Bhāmā who was muttering the charm: “Mistress, some man has made the garden stripped of fruit, et cetera. Some one has made the grass-shops empty of grass. Some one has made the wells waterless. Some one attacked your son Bhānu with a horse.” Hearing that, Bhāmā asked, “Where, pray, is the Brāhman, friends ?” Her slave-girls described his conduct in detail.
Then depressed and angry, she sent slave-girls with baskets to Rukmiņī to get her hair. They said to Rukmiņi: “Give us your hair quickly. The mistress, Śrī Bhāmā, a proud lady,
ZA
204 456. I.e., she was about to decapitate herself and make a 'headoffering,' literally. 27 N
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