अवन्तिसुन्दरीकथासारः /9

INTRODUCTION
 
vii
 

 
vii
 
and offers worship. In due course she conceives and gives

birth to another son, Raājavāhana. Sons are also born to the

four ministers and the Purohit who accompanied the queen.

Five stray infants who prove to be the sons of the lost minis-

ters and ally of the king are also brought to the hermitage, to

be companions to the prince; and all grow up in amity.
 

 
Vāmadeva asks the prince to go out for the conquest of

regions and recover the lost kingdom of his father. The

prince starts with his ten companions and meets a Brahman

Matanātaṅga in the Vindhya. The Brahman seeks the aid of the

prince to obtain lordship over the Asura world which is

promised to him by God ŠŚiva. When the companions are

asleep, he takes the prince through a cave to the regions of

Asuras, marries the princess Mandaākini and rules over the
ī and rules over the
realm.
 

 
The companions who miss the prince station one among

them, Devarakṣita, to watch at the gate of the cave, and the

others search for him in different directions, where he might

emerge by other exits. Mandaākini presents the prince with a
ī presents the prince with a
wonderful jem that gives the wearer freedom from hunger and

thirst; and he takes leave of the happy couple and proceeds to

Ujjain. There he meets Pusṣpodbhava his companion who

recounts his story; he falls in love with the princess Avanti-

sundarī, the daughter of Mānasāra. In the temple of Ujjain,

he comes across the Brahman, Vidyeśvara, a magician of

Cidambaram, and then Somadatta another companion who tells

his story. Through the contrivance of the magician, he marries

the princess; and after reverses for two months, meets the other

companions at Campā; they all severally narrate their

adventures.
 

 
Dandṇḍin mentions Potas[^¹] in the place of Hauņṇas or Maunas,

the last of the local dynasties mentioned by the Purāṇas. A few

particulars furnished by the work which are reminiscent of

certain facts of the history of the Pallavas may be set forth

here. After a long exile, says Daṇḍin, Ripuñjaya returns to

Magadha and renounces his kingdom in favour of his son
 

 
[^1]. Pota seems to be an abbreviated form of Potarāja (lord of

ships) a title by which the Pallavas of Kanchi were known, and

it is possible that in view of the prominence given to their maritime

activities the Pallavas called themselves Potarājas. It may be

noted here that Dandṇḍin calls the merchant-prince who earned

large wealth by overseas trade by the name Potapa.