A History of Sanskrit Literature c19.s4.4.1

c19.s4.4.1

After this long interlude action is resumed in Book xiii, Pañca, so called because in it the prince wins five more brides, Vidyādhara maidens who are determined to espouse him. The main business, however, of the book is the effort to attain Madanamañcukā. With the aid of Prabhāvatī, a Vidyādhara, the prince penetrates to her place of confinement, using a woman’s form lent by Prabhāvatī; as she, however, has to resume it, suddenly he is discovered and Mānasavega has him tried by the court of the Vidyādharas, but will not accept their decision in his favour. Prabhāvatī takes him in safety away from the Vidyādharas; ultimately he reaches Kauçāmbī, and many Vidyādharas join him for an attack on his foes. After great efforts, he attains Çiva’s favour, and in a great battle slays Gaurīmuṇḍa and Mānasavega in single combat. He prepares to attack his remaining foe Mandaradeva in the north of Kailāsa, and marries the five damsels who seek his love. The next step ought obviously to be the attack on Mandaradeva, as it is in Somadeva, but there now occurs a long series of episodes which doubtless had been inserted here in the Kashmirian *Bṛhatkathā*. In Book xiv he marries Ratnaprabhā, whose name the book bears, and pays an important visit to the land of camphor, returning in a flying machine of the kind which the Yavanas, Greeks, were experts at constructing. In Book xv we have a sort of duplication of this adventure;