The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

162
Book IV
[The Prince pursues Maṇimēkhalai]
Having reached the garden, Maṇimēkhalai and her companion
wandered round enjoying the lovely scenes in it, to which
Maṇimēkhalai’s attention was drawn by her companion.
The city was in the meanwhile in great commotion as the state
elephant Kālavēgam got into must and went out of control. As it
turned hither and thither in the city like a ship caught in a tornado
causing destruction on its way, the prince, heir-apparent, mounting
his horse, went after it at the head of a guard to bring it back to
discipline.
Having successfully done so, he was returning in his car leading the
victorious guard that attended him and the crowd that gathered round
the cavalcade. Passing through the street of the dancing women, he
saw, in the front room of the first floor of one of the houses, a
merchant prince standing like a very statue with the stem of his vīna
in his embrace, his sweetheart by him.
Looking through the window the prince asked the young merchant
what it was that had so stunned him. The young merchant said in
reply that, as he was playing on the vīna, he looked out through the
window and saw Maṇimēkhalai in the garb of a Buddhist noviciate
passing along with her companion towards the flower garden outside
the [120] city. The sight of her brought to his recollection all that
befell her father Kōvalaṉ in Madura. Thus disturbed in mind, his
fingers passed unconsciously on to the wrong string, and that was