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point him out to me among them, in order that I may bring him," Thus spoke Chitralekhá, and when Ushá answered " By all means !" she painted for her with coloured pencils the whole world in order. Thereupon Ushá exclaimed joyfully, " There he is," and pointed out with trembling finger Aniruddha in Dváravatí of the race of Yadu. Then Chitralekhá said— " My friend, you are fortunate, in that you have obtained for a husband Aniruddha the grandson of the adorable Vishnu. But he lives sixty thousand yojanas from here." When Usha heard that, she said to her, overpowered by excessive longing, " Friend, if I cannot to-day repair to his bosom cool as sandal wood, know that I am already dead, being burnt up with the uncontrollable fire of love." When Chitralekhá heard this, she consoled her dear friend, and immediately flew up and went through the air to the city of Dváravatí; and she beheld it in the middle of the sea, producing with its vast and lofty palaces an appearance as if the peaks of the churning mountain*[1] had again been flung into the ocean She found Aniruddha asleep in that city at night, and woke him up, and told him that Ushá had fallen in love with him on account of having seen him in a dream. And she took the prince, who was eager for the interview, looking exactly as he had before appeared in Ushá's dream, and returned from Dváravatí in a moment by the might of her magic. And flying with him through the air, she introduced that lover secretly into the private apartments of Ushá, who was awaiting him. When Ushá beheld that Aniruddha arrived in bodily form, resembling the moon, there was a movement in her limbs resembling the tide of the sea.†[2] Then she remained there with that sweet-heart who had been given her by her friend, in perfect happiness, as if with Life embodied in visible form. But her father Bána, when he heard it, was angry; however Aniruddha conquered him by his own valour and the might of his grandfather. Then Ushá and Aniruddha returned to Dváravatí and became inseparable like Siva and Párvatí. ‡[3]

" Thus Chitralekhá united Usha with her lover in one day, but I consider you, my friend, far more powerful than her. So bring me the king of Vatsa here, do not delay." When Somaprabhá heard this from Kalingasená, she said— " Chitralekhá, a nymph of heaven, might take up a strange man and bring him, but what can one like myself do in the matter, who never touch any man but my husband? So I will take you, my friend, to the place where the king of Vatsa is, having first shewn you your suitor

  1. * The mountain Mandara which served as a churning-stick at the churning of the ocean of milk.
  2. Velátá is evidently corrupt.
  3. ‡ This is to be understood literally of Śiva and Párvatí, but metaphorically of Ushá and Aniruddha.