In the meanwhile Muktáphaladhvaja searched for the princess in the temple of Gaurí, and not finding her was despondent, and said to that friend, “I have not found her here; let us go back to that temple of Śiva; if I cannot find her there, I will enter the fire.”
When that friend heard it, he said, “Good luck will befall you! The word of the hermit and Śiva’s promise in your dream cannot be falsified.” With those words did Muktáphaladhvaja’s friend try to comfort him; and then Muktáphaladhvaja ascended the chariot, and went with him to Siddhíśvara.
When Padmávatí saw him arrive, she still remained there invisible, and she said to her ladies-in-waiting, “Look! he has come to this very place.” He too entered, and seeing that offerings had been recently placed in front of the god, prince Muktáphaladhvaja said to that companion of his, “Look, my friend, some one has been quite recently worshipping this symbol of the god; surely, that beloved of mine must be somewhere here, and she must have done this worship.” When he had said this, he looked for her, but could not find her; and then in the anguish of separation he cried out again and again, “Ah! my beloved Padmávatí!”
Then, thinking that the cry of the cuckoo was her voice, and that the tail of the peacock was her hair, and that the lotus was her face, the prince ran wildly about, overpowered with an attack of the fever of love, and with difficulty did his friend console him; and coaxing him, he said to him, “What is this that you have taken up, being weak with much fasting? Why do you disregard your own welfare, though you have conquered the earth and Pátála? Your father Merudhvaja, and king Trailokyamálin, the king of the Dánavas, your future father-in-law, and his daughter Trailokyaprabhá, who wishes to marry you, and your mother Vinayavatí, and your younger brother Malayadhvaja will, if you do not go to them, suspect that some misfortune has happened, and fasting as they are, will give up their breath. So come along! Let us go and save their lives, for the day is at an end.”
When Muktáphaladhvaja’s friend said this to him, he answered him, “Then go yourself in my chariot and comfort them.” Then his friend said, “How will that hermit’s pupil, who has been made your vehicle by a curse, submit to me?” When the prince’s friend said this, he replied, “Then wait a little, my friend; let us see what will happen here.”
When Padmávatí heard this conversation of theirs, she said to her ladies-in-waiting, “I know that this is my former lover by all the notes tallying, but he is degraded by the curse, being enclosed in a human body, and I too am thus afflicted with a curse, because I laughed at the Siddha-maiden.” While she was saying this, the moon rose, red in hue, the fire that devours the forest of separated lovers. And gradually the moonlight filled the world on every side, and the flame of love’s fire filled the heart of Muktáphaladhvaja.
Then the prince began to lament like a chakraváka at the approach of night; and Padmávatí, who was concealed, being despondent, said to him, “Prince, though you are my former lover, still, as you are now in another body, you are to me a strange man, and I am to you as the wife of another; so why do you lament again and again? Surely some means will be provided, if that speech of the hermit’s was true.”
When Muktáphaladhvaja heard this speech of hers, and could not see her, he fell into a state which was painful from the contending emotions of joy and despondency; and he said to her, “Princess, my former birth has returned to my recollection, and so I recognised you, as soon as I saw you, for you still wear your old body, but as you saw me when I was dwelling in my Vidyádhara[5] body, how can you recognise me, now that I am in a mortal body? So I must certainly abandon this accursed frame.” When he had said this, he remained silent, and his beloved continued in concealment.
Then, the night being almost gone, and his friend Mahábuddhi, who was formerly Saṃyataka, having gone to sleep out of weariness, prince Muktáphaladhvaja, thinking that he could never obtain Padmávatí, as long as he continued in that body, collected wood,[6] and lighted a fire; and worshipped Śiva embodied in the linga, uttering this prayer, “Holy one, may I by thy favour return to my former body, and soon obtain my beloved Padmávatí!” And having said this, he consumed his body in that blazing fire.
And in the meanwhile Mahábuddhi woke up, and not being able, in spite of careful search, to find Muktáphaladhvaja, and seeing the fire blazing up, he came to the conclusion that his friend, distracted with separation, had burnt himself, and out of regret for his loss, he flung himself into that same fire.