This king had a son, who was the delight of all who sought his protection, his sagacity always securing him from deception. His religious feeling was shown by marked devotion to cows, and to Brahmans; and being comely as the god of love, (who by the way is furnished with his bow and arrows, showing that the idea may have been borrowed by the ancient Greeks,) he was admired by all maidens, far and near. The extraordinary fact, was however, that the maiden with whom alone he fell in love, was one that appeared to him in a dream.
He longed to dream again, but the fervour of his emotion prevented sleep.
He shut himself up in solitude, and refused nourishment. Then a faithful friend persuaded him that travelling might bring relief. They pursued their way to the Vindhya Hills; the sun was about to set as they entered a wilderness.
The friend collected roots and fruits, and the young prince fell asleep on a couch, made up of branches from the trees; but not for long. For he was awakened by the conversation of two birds who nestled in the jambu tree above him.
The female bird was reproaching the male for coming home so late, fearing that he must have been dangling after some other sarikâ. The male bird replies solemnly that he has been attending to a transaction most unprecedented.
He then relates that in the city of Kusumapura, (probably Patna) there is a lovely princess, named, Vasavadattâ. Being of full age, the king, her father, invited ‘the high-born heirs of many principalities,’ that she might choose a husband.
The suitors came, and the damsel took her place upon a daïs to survey them; but no one pleased her, and she and they withdrew in disappointment.
At night, the young prince who had fallen in love with her in a dream, appeared to her in a vision; and she felt at once that he was her destined husband.
The vision made known his name, which was Kandarpaketu; but she suffers torments of love and grief from not knowing how to meet with him.
Under these circumstances her confidante volunteers to go in search for him, and says the bird, she arrived here when I did, and is at this moment beneath our tree.