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28 AVANTISUNDARIĪ KATHAĀ SĀRA
 
"
 

 
'
He saw princess Vinayavatiī in a garden and became

enamoured of her. She was also smitten with love and then

bitten by a snake. He relieved her from the effects of poison

and also from the pangs of love. He stole into the princess'

apartments at night and was arrested by the guards. With

the connivance of a nurse, he extricated himself from their

grip and eloped with the princess. On the way she was

carried away by the Mäālava ruler. Śūdraka wandered help-

less in the forest and was captured by robbers and imprisoned.

In the prison, he won the love of AĀryadāsi, the daughter of

the robber chief, and with her aid he made his escape. He

roamed about in search of Vinayavati and learnt from a hunter
ī and learnt from a hunter
of the Vindhya forest that she had taken shelter in the house

of a certain Brahman and he hurried thither. There he heard

that the Brahman had found in Vinayavati a fit companion
ī a fit companion
for his daughter in Mathurãā and had sent her to that city.

Śūdraka went to Mathuraā and was bathing in a tank. Some

policemen who had been bringing out some stolen property

from within the tank took him for the thief and arrested him.

When Vinayavatiī saw her husband branded as a thief, she

prevailed upon the minister of the kingdom whose daughter's

companion she was and rescued her husband from the hands

of death. Once he was to be slaughtered like an animal as an

offering to a deity, but he survived the calamity and returned

to his beloved. He also married Yajñadã, the daughter of

the minister who had given shelter to Vinayavatiī, and who was

none else than his maternal uncle. He set his affection on

Śūrasenãā the princess of Mathura which involved him in
ā which involved him in
several dangers. After escaping many more mishaps, he waged

war against Svāti, the friend of his boyhood; he made him

captive (and then reinstated him in his father's kingdom).

Then in the happy company of his devoted friends and wives,

he ruled over the earth for one hundred years. He died in a

hand to hand fight with a Brahmarakṣas and was born as

Kāmapāla, son of Dharmapāla.
 

 
(Av. Sāra IV. 186-202; Av. p. 201)
 
28
 

 
 
Story of Arthapala
 

 
Once Kāmapāla chanced to see Käāntimatī (princess of

Vārāṇasī), playing ball with her friends; they fell in love with

each other and exchanged love letters. Indrasenaā, a female

friend of the princess, made an image of the god of Love and

under the pretext of presenting it to the princess, she took Kāma-