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28 AVANTISUNDARĪ KATHĀ SĀRA
 
'He saw princess Vinayavatī 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 Mālava ruler. Śūdraka wandered help-
less in the forest and was captured by robbers and imprisoned.
In the prison, he won the love of Āryadāsi, the daughter of
the robber chief, and with her aid he made his escape. He
roamed about in search of Vinayavatī 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 Vinayavatī a fit companion
for his daughter in Mathurā and had sent her to that city.
Śūdraka went to Mathurā 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 Vinayavatī 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 Vinayavatī, and who was
none else than his maternal uncle. He set his affection on
Śūrasenā the princess of Mathurā 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)
 
 
Story of Arthapaāla
 
Once Kāmapāla chanced to see Kāntimatī (princess of
Vārāṇasī), playing ball with her friends; they fell in love with
each other and exchanged love letters. Indrasenā, 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-