Part 3: Padmaprabha’s parents

Its king was Dhara, who excelled the clouds and mountains in removing heat (pain) from the earth and in supporting it. The kings on earth did not break his commands, but rather placed them on their heads like unbroken flower wreaths. Though having rods in the form of arms formidable with the bow, he did not show cruelty in punishment, but was gentle as a bhadra-elephant.^[1] For a long time he anointed all the sky with glory and love spread out simultaneously, like a half-and-half mixture of sandal and saffron. A heap of virtues, like a household divinity, was innate in this king, a pleasure-house of the goddess Lakṣmī.

He had a wife, the crest of good wives, Susīmā by name, rivaling a celestial maiden. She, with visible buds in the form of hands, feet, and lips, with flowers in the form of teeth, with branches in the form of arms, looked like a kalpa tree shoot. She walked slowly, her face covered with a veil, looking only at the ground as if devoted to carefulness in walking.^[2] Her body was adorned with beauty as well as her conduct with modesty, her mind with sincerity as well as her speech with pleasant truth. When she was speaking, because of the very white rays from her teeth she looked like night with streams of moonlight from the moon.