The ocean of story, being C.H. Tawney's translation of Somadeva's ...

FATAL CURIOSITY 33
as if the Disposer had determined out of playfulness to
show him a second but spotless moon not in the sky, as he
had that night seen the spot-beflecked moon of heaven. And
not being able to discern the rest of her body, but eager to
behold it, his eyes being attracted by her beauty, he im-
"
mediately said to himself : Long ago, when the Daitya
Atapin was impeding the creation of Brahma, that god
employed the artifice of sending him to Nandana, saying to
him, '
Go there and see a very curious sight,' and when he got
there he saw only the foot of a woman, which was of wonderful
beauty ; and so he died from an insane desire to see the
rest of her
1
body. In the same way it may be that the
Disposer has produced this lady's face only to bring about my
destruction." While he was making this momentary surmise,
the lady displayed her shootlike finger
beckoned to him to come towards her.
at the window, and
Then he deliberately went out of the chamber in which
his beloved was sleeping, and with eager impatience ap-
and when he came near she
"
Madanamanchuka, they say that your husband
proached that heavenly lady ;
exclaimed :
is in love with another woman ! Alas, you
" 2
are undone !
When Naravahanadatta heard this, he called to mind his
beloved, and the fire of separation flamed up in his bosom,
"
and he said to that fair one : Who are you ? Where did
you see my beloved Madanamanchuka ? And why have
"
you come to me ? Tell me ! Then the bold lady took the
prince away to a distance in the night, and saying to him,
" Hear the whole story," she thus began to speak :
" There is in the city of Pushkaravati a prince of the
Vidyadharas named Pingalagandhara, who has become
yellow with continually adoring the fire. Know that I am
his unmarried daughter, named Prabhavati, for he obtained
me by the special favour of the God of Fire, who was pleased
with his adoration. I went to the city of Ashadhapura to
1 The three India Office MSS., which Dr Rost has kindly lent me, read
tadanydnga.
So does the Sanskrit College MS.
2 The D. text reads praqamsanti, which seems preferable : " Alas, Madana-
manchuka, you are undone ! For you praise
other women." See Speyer, op. cit, p. 143. n.m.p.
vol. VIII.
a husband who is attached to