Literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages - Summary - 2019
Sacrificing Vasavatta
Bhasa (III-IV centuries ?)
King Udayan, ruler of the Watts country, defeated the battle and lost half of the kingdom. His wise minister Yaugandharayana understands that only the mighty King Magadhi Darshaki can return the lost. For this, Udayan needs to join with him in a related union - to marry the sister of the king Darshaki Padmavati. But Udayan so much loves his spas Vasavatta that he will never agree to a new marriage. And then Yaugandharayana rushed to the trick: he set fire to the women's chambers of the Udayan palace, spreading a rumor of death at the fire of Vasawadatta, and he himself, dressed, hid along with her in Magadha.
There, when visiting the princely Padmavi, the forest abode of hermits, Yauganghardayan, presented her to Vasavadatta under the name Avantika as her sister, whose husband left for a foreign land, and asks Padmavati to take her for a while under her patronage. When, shortly thereafter, in Rajabryh, the capital of Magadhi, arrived as the king's guest Udayan, Vasavadatta-Avantika became a beloved maid and friend Padmavati. Conducted by the Udayan, King Darshak offered him his wife Padmavati. And although Udayan is still mournfully mourning for Vasavadatta, he is forced to agree to this marriage in the will of circumstances.
As Vasawattagha attaches to Padmawati, her feelings of impotent jealousy torment her. But once she and Padmavya hear the Udayana conversation with his friend Brahmin Vasantka in the palace park by chance. Udayan admits to Vasantak that he "is totally devoted to Padmamati for her beauty, for her mind, for her tenderness ... but with her heart, no!" It, as before, belongs to Vasavatta. " For Vasavadatta, these words serve as consolation and at least a reward for suffering, while Padmavati, although initially bitter to hear them, pays tribute to Udayan's nobility and his faithfulness to the memory of his deceased spouse. A few days later, searching for Padmavati, Vasawadtgha finds Udayan sleeping in one of the pavilions of the park. Taking him in the dark for Padmavati, she sets her down on the bed, and Udayan suddenly cries with him in the midst of the hand, stretches her hands to her, asks forgive him.
In an alliance with Darshaka Udayan defeats enemies and returns a kingdom. Messengers of father and mother Vasavadatta arrive on the solemn feast of victory. The breadwinner Vasawadatta presents the king with a memorial portrait of her, and here, to his surprise, Padmavati finds out in his portrait of his maid Avantika in this portrait. Ugandharayan's dressed up suddenly appears and asks Padmavati to return her sister to her previously left to her care. Already foreseeing who will be her maid, Padmavati is called to bring her, and when it comes, then she first nurse, and then, not believing in her eyes, Udayan will find out in the imaginary Avantine the miraculously resurrected Vasavatta. Yaugandharayana has to tell the present, why he has conceived and how to implement his cunning plan. He asks for forgiveness from Udayana, receives it and predicts to his sovereign a long reign in love and harmony with two beautiful consort queens, Vasavadatta and Padmavati.