Literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages - Summary - 2019
Ratnavali
Harsha (first half of the VII century)
The storm broke the ship on which the daughter of the king of Lanka (Ceylon) sailed Ratnavali, intended for the wife of the king of the Watts Udayan. After reaching the board, Ratnavali was saved, and, found on the coast, her under the name of Sagariki (from the Sanskrit "sagar" - "the ocean") was given to the care of the first Udayan's wife, Queen Vasovadt.
At the solemn feast in honor of the god of love Kama, which occurs at the court of Udayan, Sagarika first encounters with the king and fall in love with him, seeing in him the true incarnation of Kama. Having joined the banana grove, she paints a portrait of her beloved, and her girlfriend, the servant of Queen Susamagata, finds her behind this occupation. Suzamagata immediately guesses about the feelings of Sagariki and next to the portrait Udayana draws her own portrait on the drawing board. At this time in the palace there is a clutter due to the fugitive monkey who escaped from the cell, and her friends hide in the grove, forgetting the drawing board in fright. It is found by Udayan and his joke brahman Vasantak. The king can not restrain his admiration, admiring the portrait of Sagariki, and when the girlfriends come back to pick up the picture, Passionate passionately explains love in love, and, to her great joy,
Hardly Sagarika leaves, as Vasavadta appears, and in turn finds a drawing board, which was wiped out by Vasantka. Brahman clumsily tries to explain the similarity of portraits with Udayana and Sagarika with a simple coincidence, but the queen is guessing what has happened and is removed, embraced by jealousy. She establishes a constant observation of Udayana and Sagarika, so that Vasantak and Susamagat have to be exquisite in every way to make a new date for lovers. So that the servants did not suspect anything, they decide to change Sagarik's dress in Vasavatta's dress. However, the queen timely finds out about this and is on the date of the first one. Adopting his wife for the dressed Sagarik, the king appealed to her with the words of love, and Vasavadatta, having caught him in treason and showered with angry reproaches, quickly leaves. After some time, she, however, begins to repent, that she has done with Udayan too hard and returns to make peace with him. However, this time she finds her husband hugging Sagarik: he just pulled her out of the loop, because she wanted to finish the scores with her life, learning about Washawatta's anger. Now Vasavadatta does not want to think about reconciliation; insulted, she orders to put Sagarik in custody.
Meanwhile, Udayana arrives at the courtyard of the ambassador from the king of Lanka and informs Udayan that his lord sent his daughter Ratnavali to the king of Watts, which disappeared after the shipwreck. At the same time, the invited great magician gives the presentation in the palace. He creates the illusion of the appearance of the Shiva, Visnu, Brahma and Indra gods in the palace hall, the demigods - Gandharva and Siddhas. Suddenly a fire flashes. Udayan throws himself into the inner chambers of the palace and hands out Sagarik from there. It turns out that a sudden fire is also an illusion of the magician, but, to the utmost surprise, the ambassador from Lanka finds out in his caretaker Sagarika the Ratnavali was taken from the fire. The wise minister Udayanya Yaugandharayana explains to those present that the events that had taken place: the disappearance of Ratnavali, the appearance of her in the palace under the name of Sagariki, which arose from the Udayan and Sagariki-rattled a passionate passion for each other, - all these are the fruits of his plan to conclude between the king of the Watts and the princess of Lanka the marriage of love - a marriage which, according to the predictions of the holy wise men, will provide Udayan with authority over the whole world. Now for such a marriage there were no obstacles.