thus lamentest?’ Thus questioned, king Nala answered him, saying, ’A certain person devoid of sense had a wife well-known to many.  That wretch was false in his promises.  For some reason that wicked person was separated from her.  Separated from her, that wretch wandered about oppressed with woe, and burning with grief he resteth not by day or night.  And at night, remembering her, he singeth this sloka.  Having wandered over the entire world, he hath at last found a refuge, and undeserving of the distress that hath befallen him, passeth his days, thus remembering his wife.  When calamity had overtaken this man, his wife followed him into the woods.  Deserted by that man of little virtue, her life itself is in danger.  Alone, without knowledge of ways, ill able to bear distress, and fainting with hunger and thirst, the girl can hardly protect her life.  And, O friend, she hath been deserted by that man of small fortune and having little sense, with the wide and terrible forest, ever abounding in beasts of prey’—­

“Thus remembering Damayanti, the king of the Nishadhas continued to live unknown in the abode of that monarch!”

SECTION LXVIII

“Vaisampayana said, ’After Nala, despoiled of his kingdom, had, with his wife, become a bondsman, Bhima with the desire of seeing Nala sent out Brahmanas to search for him.  And giving them profuse wealth, Bhima enjoined on them, saying, ’Do ye search for Nala, and also for my daughter Damayanti.  He who achieveth this task, viz., ascertaining where the ruler of the Nishadhas is, bringeth him and my daughter hither, will obtain from me a thousand kine, and fields, and a village resembling a town.  Even if failing to bring Damayanti and Nala here, he that succeeds learning their whereabouts, will get from me the wealth represented by a thousand kine.’  Thus addressed, the Brahmanas cheerfully went out in all directions seeking Nala and his wife in cities and provinces.  But Nala or his spouse they found not anywhere.  Until at length searching in the beautiful city of the Chedis, a Brahmana named Sudeva, during the time of the king’s prayers, saw the princess of Vidarbha in the palace of the king, seated with Sunanda.  And her incomparable beauty was slightly perceptible, like the brightness of a fire enveloped in curls of smoke.  And beholding that lady of large eyes, soiled and emaciated he decided her to be Damayanti, coming to that conclusion from various reasons.  And Sudeva said, ’As I saw her before, this damsel is even so at present.  O, I am blest, by casting my eyes on this fair one, like Sree herself delighting the worlds!  Resembling the full moon, of unchanging youth, of well-rounded breasts, illumining all sides by her splendour, possessed of large eyes like beautiful lotuses, like unto Kama’s Rati herself the delight of all the worlds like the rays of the full moon, O, she looketh like a lotus-stalk transplanted by adverse fortune from the Vidarbha lake