Chapter CXXIII.
Then, once on a time, in the course of conversation, one of Vikramáditya’s queens, called Kalingasená, said to her rival queens, “What the king did for the sake of Malayavatí was not wonderful, for this king Vishamaśíla has ever been famous on the earth for such like acts. Was not I swooped down on by him and married by force, after he had seen a carved likeness of me and been overcome by love? On this account the kárpaṭika[1] Devasena told me a story: that story I will proceed to tell you; listen.”
“I was very much vexed, and exclaimed ‘How can the king be said to have married me lawfully?’ Then the kárpaṭika said to me, ‘Do not be angry, queen, for the king married you in eager haste out of a violent passion for you; hear the whole story from the beginning.’”