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TALES FROM THE HINDU DRAMATISTS - Awaken Video

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Vasavadatta of Subandhu is a short romance, of which the story is this.<br />

Kandarpaketu, a young and valiant prince, son of Chintamani king of<br />

Kusumapura, saw in a dream a beautiful maiden of whom he became<br />

desperately enamoured. Impressed with the belief, that a person, such as<br />

was seen by him in his dream, had a real existence, he resolves to<br />

travel in search of her, and departs, attended only by his confidant<br />

Makaranda. While reposing under a tree in a forest at the foot of the<br />

Vindhya mountains, where they halted, Makaranda overhears two birds<br />

conversing, and from their discourse he learns that the princess<br />

Vasavadatta, having rejected all the suitors who had been assembled by<br />

the king her father for her to make choice of a husband, had seen<br />

Kandarpaketu in a dream, in which she had even dreamt his name. Her<br />

confidante, Tamalika, sent by her in search of the prince, had arrived<br />

at the same forest, and was discovered there by Makaranda. She delivers<br />

to the prince a letter from the princess, and conducts him to king's<br />

palace. He obtains from the princess the avowal of her love; and her<br />

confidante, Kalavati, reveals to the prince the violence of her passion.<br />

The lovers depart together: but, passing through the forest, he loses<br />

her, in the night. After long and unsuccessful search, in the course of<br />

which he reaches the shore of the sea, the prince, grown desperate<br />

through grief, resolves on death. But at the moment when he was about to<br />

cast himself into the sea, he hears a voice from heaven, which promises<br />

to him the recovery of his mistress, and indicates the means. After<br />

some time, Kandarpaketu finds a marble statue, the precise resemblance<br />

of Vasavadatta. It proves to be she; and she quits her marble form and<br />

regains animation. She recounts the circumstances under which she was<br />

transformed into stone.<br />

Having thus fortunately recovered his beloved princess, the prince<br />

proceeds to his city, where they pass many years in uninterrupted<br />

happiness.<br />

* * * * *<br />

OPINIONS OF EMINENT EDUCATIONISTS on "<strong>THE</strong> BOY'S RAMAYANA"<br />

ADOPTED BY <strong>THE</strong> <strong>HINDU</strong> SCHOOL CALCUTTA, <strong>THE</strong> KRISHNAGHUR COLLEGIATE<br />

SCHOOL, BETHUNE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL, DUPLEX COLLEGIATE SCHOOL &c.,<br />

_Rev. George Bruce M. A. Senior Professor of English Literature, the<br />

Scottish churches College, Calcutta and Examiner to the University of<br />

Calcutta for the M.A. Examinations in English writes;--_<br />

I have looked over Babu Ramanath Dutt's Ramayana. The English is<br />

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