“Set in movement by the wind the odour of the Timira is perceptible. This is Kaśerudvīpa, where Suśroṇī dwells.”
Hearing these words the king ordered his women to find out who had sung them. After Āśuga had been discovered and brought before the king, and had been obliged to repeat his song, the king asked him how far off Kaśerudvīpa was. He replied in a śloka—
“The waters of the ocean stretch well nigh a hundred yojanas from here to where lies Kaśerudvīpa, wherein Suśroṇī dwells.”
The king answered likewise in a śloka—
“If it be said that thou hast looked in sinful fashion [[232]]on my dear Suśroṇī, say then what marks her body bears.”
Āśuga replied in a śloka—
“On her thigh is the svastika. Her breast is spiral. Over her spread wreaths of Timira blossoms.”
When in this way the king had become aware that Suśroṇī had sinned, he was of opinion that she was not necessary to him, and that he would give her to the blind man. In his anger he uttered this śloka—
“Suśroṇī is given to you, arrayed in all splendour. Let her mount on an ass, and get ye gone swiftly, exiled from this city.”
Then he ordered Suśroṇī and the blind man to be driven out of the city, riding upon the same ass.