The Story of Sundarasena - Part Seven

Sundarasena was depressed after losing Mandaravathi to the wicked merchant with his ship.

Drdhabuddhi consoled him as the two of them plodded through the forest.

Sundarasena blindly walked  through the forest and everything in the forest right from the creepers to the flowers reminded him of Mandaravathi.

It went so bad that Sundarasena swooned into unconsciousness.

At this point of time, they were in the part of the forest inhabited by fierce hill tribes.

The particular hill tribe was led by Vindhyaketu and Vindhyaketu was a vassal of the kingdom of Alaka.

However, this time, Vindhyaketu had sent his men to search for people to be sacrificed to Goddess Chandi.

The men of the tribe found Drdhabuddhi and Sundarasena lying in the middle of the forest. Realizing that the two men were perfect to be sacrificed, the hill tribe men attacked them.

Sundarasena was already furious and he fought brilliantly and injured many of the hill tribe men. Drdhabuddhi also was a good swordsman and the two men nearly demolished the group of hill tribe men who attacked them.

However,there was another group of hill tribe men who were the backup for this group. 

They joined the attack against Sundarasena and Drdhabuddhi.

Then the prince and his friend were subdued and thrown in a dungeon.

The prince was shocked because Sundarasena found his other friends who had jumped off the ship, in the dungeon.

Sundarasena learnt the chief of the hill tribe was going to sacrifice all of them before Goddess Chandi in the coming days.

Adapted from Katha Sarith Sagara

The Story of Sundarasena - Part Six

Mandaravathi, Drdhabuddhi and Sundarasena wandered around the sea-shore and wondered how they could get off the island.

At that time they saw a merchant ship coming into the island.

The three of them ran to the ship and found it to be a merchant ship.

The merchant who owned the ship had come to the island to sell his goods in the place.

Sundarasena approached the merchant. “Will you take the three of us on your ship? We have to get to the kingdom of Alaka.”

The merchant studied the signs of wealth of the prince and then his eyes traveled to Mandaravathi.

The merchant was smitten after studying the beautiful Mandaravathi. 

He studied the prince and before agreeing to the prince’s proposal, the merchant went and spoke to the people running the ship.

Some time later, he came out and nodded at the prince. “We will take in all of you.” The merchant waved at the princess. “Let the lady come inside the ship first. She looks tired and unused to the dangers of living on an island like this.”

Sundarasena and Drdhabuddhi did not find anything wrong in this idea.

They got Mandaravathi inside the merchant’s ship.

Before Sundarasena and Drdhabuddhi could get in the ship, the ship got inside the water and left the two of them stranded on the island.

Adapted from the Katha Sarith Sagara

The Story of Sundarasena - Part Five

 

The story of Prince Sundarasena and Princess Mandaravati reached their fathers.

Both the kings and the kingdoms were in despair as to what had happened, but they could not find what had happened to the prince and princess.

The two kingdoms searched for the lost royals, but could not find any news of them.

Meanwhile, Sundarasena and Drdhabuddhi were trying to understand the island that they were stranded on. 

During his spare time, Sundarasena found a forest near the place that he had been living.

As he was roaming around the forest, he heard sharp cries of a woman.

Sundarasena ran towards the sound and found a woman who was screaming on account of her friend. 

The woman’s friend had been dragged into the river by a crocodile.

Sundarasena pulled out his sword and raced into the water.

There was a fierce fight between Sundarasena and the crocodile and finally, the prince killed the crocodile and freed the woman from the clutches of the animal.

Both the prince and the woman collapsed on the shore of the river and looked at each other for the first time.

Both were stunned because they recognized each other from the portrait they had seen of each other as Sundarasena and Mandaravati.

Adapted from the Katha Sarith Sagara

The Story of Sundarasena - Part Four

 

After surviving the wreck, Princess Mandaravati woke up on the shore of the strange new place.

She realized that she had been stranded in some strange place with no hopes of getting out of here and informing the others of her plight and she wept.

At that time, Sage Matanga came to the sea shore to take bath in the river. He was taken aback to find a beautiful princess there.

He calmed her down, talked with her and soon how she had ended up here.

Sage Matanga was a very kind man. “Do not cry, princess. If you are brave enough, you can overcome all this and meet your prince. Until then you can stay here at my hermitage and my daughter will be your companion.”

The princess realized that she had no other choice and she was grateful for Sage Matunga’s offer.

She went to the sage’s hermitage and stayed there.

Meanwhile, Prince Sundarasena had troubles of his own.

He could not stay at Alaka anymore. Even as the auspicious day approached he asked his father to send to Hamsadvipa to meet the princess.

From his kingdom, Prince Sundarasena had to travel to Sasankpura which was a seaport town and from there the prince had to take the ship to Hamsadvipa.

When Prince Sundarasena arrived at Sasankpura, he was the guest of the honour of the king of the place, for a day.

The very next day, the prince set off to Hamsadvipa with his friends in two ships.

On the third day of the ship's journey, a ghastly wind blew across the seas.

It went so bad that the people in both the ships realized that they had to abandon the ships if they had to survive.

Prince Sundarasena and one of his friends Drdhabhuddhi jumped from the ship into the sea with the raging sea around.

Adapted from the Katha Sarith Sagara

The Story of Sundarasena - Part Three

 

King Mahasena decided to send a message to King Mandaradeva of Hamasdvipa, about the entire thing.

The messenger of Mahasena carried a portrait of Sundarasena and along with plenty of gifts, boarded a ship to Hamasdvipa.

Mandaradeva was thrilled on having Sundarasena as his son-in-law. When Mandaravati saw the pictures of Sundarasena, she happily agreed to marry him.

Soon after further exchange of messages, the marriage was fixed on an auspicious day after three months.

However, after that, the lovers could not bear to be separated from each other. They were not sure how they could stay away from each other for the next three days.

Mandaravati seemed to be getting thinner because of her love-sickness.

So to solve this trouble, the king of Hamasdvipa sent his daughter to the kingdom of Alaka, along with his minister.

That was when disaster struck.

The ship on which Mandaravati got on was wrecked.

The princess was washed ashore all alone in an unknown place.

The place that Princess Mandaravati had washed over was near the hermitage of Sage Matanga.

Adapted in the Katha Sarith Saritha

The Story of Sundarasena - Part Two

After Sundarasena came back from his hunting expedition, he refreshed himself and met the ascetic Katyayani. “Mother, what did you want to meet me about?”

Katyayani was pleased with the prince and told him everything. “I went to the place of Hamsadvipa when I visited all the places of pilgrimage in the country. Hamsadvipa was ruled by Mandaradeva. His daughter is Mandaravati.” Katayayani smiled at the prince. “Her beauty cannot be described in words, prince. Brahma, the Creator God, created her personality from nectar. Anyone who sees her will fall in love with her.” Katyayani waved at the prince. “You are the only one I have found in the country who is equal to her in charm and beauty.”

Katyayani smiled. “I think she will be a proper match for you.”

Sundarasena was stunned. The more he heard about Mandaravati’s description, the more he was smitten. 

Katyayani pulled out a handmade portrait from her bag and handed it over to Sundarasena. “This is Mandaravati’s picture.”

Sundarasena was hit by Kamadeva, the God of Love, the minute he saw the picture.

He learnt that Katyayani was a good artist and asked the ascetic to draw another portrait of Mandaravati for him.

Katyayani obliged.

Sundarasena showed the picture of the princess in the court.

All the people who saw the picture were stunned and realized that the girl in the portrait was a perfect match for their king.

Sundarasena thanked the ascetic and stared at the portrait and became love sick.

When the king learnt of his son’s troubles, he did the most obvious thing. He decided to get his son married to the beautiful princess.

Adapted from Katha Sarith Sagara

The Story of Sundarasena - Part One

There was once a king called Mahasena who ruled the kingdom of Alaka.

Mahasena and his wife Sasiprabha had a son called Sundarasena. Sundarasena was extremely handsome and that was the reason that he was given that name.

Sundarasena was friendly with all the sons of the ministers in his father’s court and they all grew up together. Drdhabuddhi was one of the sons of a minister of the kingdom and he was Sundarasena’s best friend.

Once just as Sundarasena was about to go on a hunting expedition with his friends, a great female ascetic by name Katyayani came to the kingdom. 

She saw the beauty of Sundarasena and she realized that there was only one woman in the entire country who would be a match for the man.

She came forward to tell Sundarasena about this.

But that was when Sundarasena’s troubles started.

As he had been packing for the hunting expedition, he had not been able to pay any attention to Katyayani.

Katayayani was angry at being ignored by the prince. “I came to tell you all about a good match for yourself. However, if you are not interested, I shall keep silent.”

The prince realized his mistake. He asked forgiveness from the ascetic and asked her to wait in the palace while he returned from the hunting expedition.

Katyayani saw that the prince was sincere and agreed to this.

She waited in the palace of the kingdom while the prince went on the hunting expedition.

Adapted from the Katha Sarith Sagara