Part 37: Marriage with Prabhāvatī

Now, on Mt. Vaitāḍhya in the city Gandhasamṛddhaka Gandhārapiṅgala was king and he had a daughter Prabhāvatī. She went in her wandering to the town Suvarṇābha and saw Somaśrī^[1] and at once a friendship started. Knowing her separation from her husband, Prabhāvatī said: “Do not grieve, friend. I will bring your husband now.” Somaśrī sighed and said, “You will bring my husband, Manmatha in beauty, in the same way that Vegavatī brought him.” Prabhāvatī said, “I am not Vegavatī,” and went to Śrāvastī, seized Vārṣṇeya, and brought him there.

Śauri, assuming another appearance, stayed there with Somaśrī. One day he was recognized and captured by Mānasavega, who had come there. An uproar arose and Śauri was freed by the elder Khecaras and dissension with Mānasavega continued. Then in the city Vaijayantī in the presence of King Balasiṃha the two engaged in a dispute and Sūrpaka and others came there. Mānasavega said: “First Somaśrī was intended for me. He married her by a trick and my sister^[2] without my permission.” Śauri said, “I married Somaśrī by her father’s plan. He kidnaped her. The people know all that from Vegavatī.”

Being refuted thus, Mānasavega got up to fight and Nīlakaṇṭha, Aṅgāraka, Sūrpaka, and other Khecaras. Vegavatī’s mother, Aṅgāravatī, gave Śauri a divine bow and quivers and Prabhāvatī gave him Prajṭapti. Yādava, his strength increased by the magic art and divine weapons, like Biḍaujas, alone defeated all the Khecaras easily. Capturing Mānasavega, Śauri threw him down before Somaśrī, but released him at the word of his mother-in-law, Aṅgāravatī. Attended by Mānasavega and other Khecaras who had become servants, accompanied by Somaśrī, he went to Mahāpura in an aerial car. There the scion of the Yadus amused himself with Somaśrī.

One day he was kidnaped by the magician Sūrpaka, who had turned into a horse. Perceiving that, Śauri beat Sūrpaka with his fist and, dropped by Sūrpaka, fell into Jāhnavī’s water. He swam out of the Gaṅgā and went to a hermitage. There he saw a woman with a necklace of bones on her neck.

The ascetics whom he questioned, related:

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See above, p. 65.

[2]:

Vegavatī. See above, p. 65.