Indian Sculpture c8.114

c8.114

The prince was away on some business when the chaplain persuaded the king to arrange for a Kinnara sacrifice, intending thereby to make an end of the life of Manoharā. The Kinnarī princess, coming to know about this, consulted the prince’s mother, who advised her to escape. The sacrificial tank was dug out and all the preliminaries were finished, and the only thing left was to have Manoharā brought over to the place for immolation, when she made her escape and flew through the air, and got down at the hermitage of the Ṛṣi. On her way back to her father’s capital she left an instruction with the Ṛṣi, requesting him to give the prince a proper direction if by chance he came that way in search of her. On his return to Hastināpura Sudhana was deeply grieved to know all that had happened, and lost time in seeing the hunter, Halaka, about the hermitage of the Ṛṣi, from whom the latter got his first information about the tank and the Kinnarī Manoharā. The prince started for the hermitage, and, following the direction left by the Kinnarī, went to the tank, Brahmasabhā, when the maids of Manoharā came to fetch water in pitchers to bathe the princess, as a means of removing the contamination of human contact. The prince put a ring, given him by Manoharā, into one of the pitchers, and asked the maid who was carrying that particular pitcher to pour water over her head first out of that pitcher. She did what the prince had asked her to do, with the result that the ring fell into Manoharā’s lap. She particularly enquired of the maid if she had come across a human being, and receiving an answer in the affirmative, she asked her to bring him into the palace with caution. In the meanwhile Manoharā wanted to sound her father, King Druma, to find out if he would agree to welcome the prince and make him his son-in-law. Her father pretended at first to show a hostile attitude, but, knowing for certain that the prince would be welcome, she presented him to the king, who duly gave her in marriage to the prince. Thus Sudhana and Manoharā returned at last to Hastināpura, where they were received with a great ovation by King Dhana and other people.