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THE NÁGÁNANDA.
17

Jímútaváhana.

You are right.

[Both sit down.

Malayavatí (addressing the servant girl).

O laughter-loving one, act not thus. Perhaps some Ascetic is looking, and he will set me down as a giddy one.


Then enters an Ascetic.

Ascetic.

I am thus bidden by Kauśika, the head of the family: "My child, Śándilya, the young king of the Siddhas, Mitrávasu, is gone to-day, at his father’s request, to seek Prince Jímútaváhana, the future monarch of the Vidyádharas, who is somewhere here on the Malaya Mount, as a husband for his sister Malayavatí, and perhaps the limit of the time for the mid-day oblation will pass by while Malayavatí awaits his return. Go, therefore, and fetch her with you." I am going, therefore, to the temple of Gaurí in the sacred grove.

(Walking about, looking down on the ground, with surprise.)

Ah! Whose footsteps have we here on the dusty ground, having the sign of the chakra manifest? (Looking forward and seeing Jímútaváhana.) Assuredly it will be the footstep of this mighty man. For there is the turban-like mass of hair visible on the scalp; there shines a woolly tuft between the eyebrows;[1] his eyes resemble a lotus; his chest vies with Hari; and since

  1. Compare the signs of Buddha in Lalita-Vistara, ch. vii.