The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

160
Book III
[Maṇimēkhalai goes to the Garden]
Information of this reached Maṇimēkhalai, as the time had come for
her to give up attachment to things worldly. So she wept tears of great
sorrow for the fate that had befallen her father Kōvalaṉ and his
chaste wife. She was therefore asked to throw away the garland of
flowers that she was then making as it was contaminated by her tears,
and directed to go and bring fresh flowers for making other garlands
as a diversion from her sorrow.
Mādhavī’s companion Sutamatī protested [118] against her going
alone as the great charm of her looks was likely to prove dangerous to
her in the great city. Sutamatī took occasion to explain to Mādhavī
that a similar lonely adventure was the cause of her presence in the
Cōḻa capital. She was the wife of a Brahman Kauśika in Champa. 83
She went into a garden alone for gathering flowers when she was
carried off by a Vidyādhara who was flying through the air to see the
festival of Indra at Puhār. Having spent some time with her, he left
her behind in the city and went away to his own place, and that
accounted for her presence in the city. She pointed out therefore the
danger that beset young women being found alone, and offered to
escort Maṇimēkhalai to the garden.
Rejecting a number of flower gardens in the city as being exposed to
one or other of the dangers from men or beings other than men, she
pointed to a garden outside the city, with ever-flowering trees, and
sacred to the memory of Buddha. It contained in it a pavilion made of
83 (Bhagalpur on the Ganges).