[6] Dr. Kern corrects kavachanam to kavacham. The latter word is found in the three India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS.
[7] I read mauktika for maulika. The three India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS have mauktika.
[8] One of the seven hells, (not places of torment).
[9] A title of Brahmá.
[10] But the three India Office MSS. read ghúrṇad for purṇa. It could, I suppose, mean, “reeling with joy.” The Sanskrit College MS. has púruva.
[11] The Lokapálas are the guardians of the four cardinal and four intermediate points of the compass. They appear to be usually reckoned as Indra, guardian of the East, Agni of the South-East, Varuṇa of the West, Yama of the South, Súrya of the South-West, Pavana or Váyu of the North-West, Kuvera of the North, Soma or Chandra of the North-East. Some substitute Nirṛiti for Súrya and Iśání or Pṛithiví for Soma.
Chapter CXVII.
In the meanwhile, that king of the Gandharvas, Padmaśekhara, re-entered his city, celebrating a splendid triumph; and hearing from his wife that his daughter Padmávatí had performed asceticism in the temple of Gaurí, to procure for him victory, he summoned her. And when his daughter came, emaciated with asceticism and separation from her lover, and fell at his feet, he gave her his blessing, and said to her, “Dear girl, for my sake you have endured great hardship in the form of penance, so obtain quickly for a husband the noble Muktáphalaketu, the son of the king of the Vidyádharas, the slayer of Vidyuddhvaja, the victorious protector of the world, who has been appointed to marry you by Śiva himself.”
When her father said this to her, she remained with face fixed on the ground, and then her mother Kuvalayávali said to him, “How, my husband, was so terrible an Asura, that filled the three worlds with consternation, slain by that prince in fight?” When the king heard that, he described to her the valour of that prince, and the battle between the gods and Asuras. Then Padmávatí’s companion, whose name was Manoháriká, described the easy manner in which he slew the two Rákshasís. Then the king and queen, finding out that he and their daughter had met and fallen in love, were pleased, and said, “What could those Rákshasís do against one, who swallowed the whole army of the Asuras, as Agastya swallowed the sea?” Then the fire of Padmávatí’s love blazed up more violently, being fanned by this description of her lover’s surpassing courage, as by a breeze.