Then Svayamprabhá their mother quickly sent off Indumatí once more to Merudhvaja’s queen consort, to tell her how matters were going. She went and told that queen the trouble in her master’s house, and so Merudhvaja also came to hear of it. Then that couple abandoned food out of regard for the other royal couple, and their sons did so as well, out of regard for their parents.
Thus in two worlds the royal families were in trouble. And Muktáphaladhvaja remained without eating, and meditated on Śiva as his refuge. And, after six nights had passed, in the morning the prince woke up, and said to his friend Mahábuddhi, who had formerly been Saṃyataka, “My friend, I remember that last night in a dream I mounted my steed given me by the hermit Tapodhana, that changes its shape at will, and goes where the mind directs, and had become a flying chariot, and, in my despondency I went to a heavenly temple of Śiva, very far from here, on the slope of Meru. There I saw a certain celestial maiden emaciated with austerities; and a certain man with matted hair, pointing to her, said to me laughing, ‘You have come here in this way to escape from one maiden, and lo! here is another waiting for you.’ When I heard this speech of his, I remained gazing at the beauty of that maiden, but found it impossible to gaze my fill, and so at the end of the night I suddenly woke up.
“So I will go there to obtain that heavenly maiden, and if I do not find her there, I will enter the fire. What can Destiny mean, by causing my mind to become attached to this maiden seen in a dream, after rejecting, in the way I did, the Daitya maiden, offered to me a short time ago? At any rate, I am persuaded that, if I go there, good fortune will certainly befall me.”
Having said this, he called to mind that vehicle given to him by the hermit, which would carry him to any place conceived in the mind, and assume any desired form. It turned into an air-going chariot, and he mounted it, and set out for that heavenly temple of Śiva, and when he reached it, he saw that it was just as it had seemed in his dream, and he rejoiced. Then he proceeded to perform religious ablution with all the attendant rites, in the holy water there, named Siddhodaka, with no one to wait on him but his friend.
Then his father king Merudhvaja, who was in his own city, emaciated with fasting, accompanied by his wife, son, and suite, heard that he had gone off somewhere secretly, and became bewildered with grief. And all this was at once known in Pátála, exactly as it had taken place. Then Trailokyamálin took with him his two daughters, and came fasting, with his wife and suite, to visit king Merudhvaja. And they all resolved on the following course of action; “Surely, as it is the fourteenth day, the prince has gone somewhere to worship Śiva; so we will wait for him here this day. But to-morrow, if he has not returned, we will go where he is: then, happen what will.”
In the meanwhile Padmávatí, who was in that hermitage of Śiva, named Meghavana, said that very day to her ladies-in-waiting; “My friends, I remember that last night I went in a dream to Siddhíśvara, and a certain man wearing matted hair came out of the temple of the god, and said to me, ‘My daughter, thy sorrow is at an end, thy reunion with thy husband is nigh at hand.’ When he had said this, he departed, and night and sleep left me together. So come, let us go there.” When Padmávatí had said this, she went to that temple of Gaurí on the slope of Meru.
There she saw with astonishment that Muktáphaladhvaja at a distance bathing in Siddhodaka, and she said to her friends, “This man is like my beloved. Observe how very like he is. Wonderful! Can he be the very same? It cannot be, for he is a mortal.” When her ladies-in-waiting heard that, and saw him, they said to her, “Princess, not only is this man very like your beloved, but observe, his companion also bears a resemblance to your lover’s friend Saṃyataka. So we know for certain that, in accordance with your last night’s dream which you related to us, Śiva has by his power brought those two here, after their becoming incarnate as men owing to a curse. Otherwise, how, being mortals, could they have come to this region of the gods?” When Padmávatí had been thus addressed by her ladies-in-waiting, she worshipped Śiva, and in a state of eager excitement, remained concealed near the god’s symbol to find out who the stranger was.
In the meanwhile Muktáphaladhvaja, having bathed, came into the temple to worship the god, and after looking all round, said to Mahábuddhi, “Strange to say, here is that very temple, which I saw in my dream, made of precious stone, with the form of Śiva visible within the linga. And now I behold here those very localities, which I saw in my dream, full of jewel-gleaming trees, which are alive with heavenly birds. But I do not see here that heavenly maiden, whom I then saw; and if I do not find her, I am determined to abandon the body in this place.”
When he said this, Padmávatí’s ladies-in-waiting said to her in a whisper, “Listen! it is certain that he has come here, because he saw you here in a dream, and if he does not find you, he intends to surrender his life; so let us remain here concealed, and see what he means to do.”
And while they remained there in concealment, Muktáphaladhvaja entered, and worshipped the god, and came out. And when he came out, he devoutly walked round the temple three times, keeping his right hand towards it, and then he and his friend remembered their former birth, and in their joy they were telling to one another the events of their life as Vidyádharas, when Padmávatí met their view. And Muktáphaladhvaja, remembering the occurrences of his former life, as soon as he saw her, was filled with joy, and said to his friend, “Lo! this very princess Padmávatí, the lady I saw in my dream! and she has come here by good luck; so I will at once go and speak to her.”