Nagananda; Or, the Joy of the Snake-World - A Buddhist Drama in Five Acts (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872 edition. Excerpt: ... JiMrJTAVAHANA. How should I release your guilty hand, which was caught in the very act of placing a noose on a neck fit only for strings of pearls? VlDtfSHAKA. What could have been the cause of this determination of hers to die 1 Girl. Was it not this friend of yours 1 JiMTJTAVAHANA. How I the cause of her death? I do not understand. VlDUSHAKA. O lady how do you mean? Girl (meaningly). It was that loved one, whoever she is, that was painted by your friend on the stone. My mistress took this determination in a fit of despair, saying to herself, "Through his devotion to that woman, I am not accepted, even when offered to him by Mitravasu." Jimutavahana (joyfully, to himself). How, then This is that Malayavati, daughter of Visvavasu Yet, except from the ocean, how could there be the birth of a digit of the moon 1 Ah How I have been taken in by her The moon is fabled to have been produced from the ocean when it was churned by the gods for ambrosia. VlDUsHAKA. 0 lady if this be so, my friend here is blameless. If you do not believe me, however, go yourself and look on the surface of the stone. The heroine, with joy and modesty, looking at the hero, draws away her hand. JiMtfTAVAHANA (with a smile). 1 will not release it, until you have seen the object of my passion, drawn on the stone. All walk about. ViDiJsHAKA (having taken off the plantain leaf). O lady look. Behold the individual his heart is set on. MalAyavaTi (having looked at it, aside, smiling). O Chaturika it is as if my very self were drawn there. Girl (looking at the picture and at the heroine). 0 lady why do you say, "It is as if myself were drawn there"? So exact is the likeness, that I do not know whether it is a reflection of you cast on the stone, or a drawing....