The story of 'Kadambari' is a very complex one, dealing as it does
with the lives of two heroes, each of whom is reborn twice on earth.
(1-47) A learned parrot, named Vaiçampayana, was brought by a Candala
maiden to King Çudraka, and told him how it was carried from its
birthplace in the Vindhya Forest to the hermitage of the sage Jabali,
from whom it learnt the story of its former life.
(47-95) Jabali's story was as follows: Tarapida, King of Ujjayini, won
by penance a son, Candrapida, who was brought up with Vaiçampayana,
son of his minister, Çukanasa. In due time Candrapida was anointed
as Crown Prince, and started on an expedition of world-conquest. At
the end of it he reached Kailasa, and, while resting there, was
led one day in a vain chase of a pair of kinnaras to the shores of
the Acchoda Lake. (95-141) There he beheld a young ascetic maiden,
Mahaçveta, who told him how she, being a Gandharva princess, had seen
and loved a young Brahman Pundarika; how he, returning her feeling,
had died from the torments of a love at variance with his vow; how
a divine being had carried his body to the sky, and bidden her not
to die, for she should be reunited with him; and how she awaited
that time in a life of penance. (141-188) But her friend Kadambari,
another Gandharva princess, had vowed not to marry while Mahaçveta
was in sorrow, and Mahaçveta invited the prince to come to help her
in dissuading Kadambari from the rash vow. Love sprang up between
the prince and Kadambari at first sight; but a sudden summons from
his father took him to Ujjayini without farewell, while Kadambari,
thinking herself deserted, almost died of grief.
(188-195) Meanwhile news came that his friend Vaiçampayana, whom he had
left in command of the army, had been strangely affected by the sight
of the Acchoda Lake, and refused to leave it. The prince set out to
find him, but in vain; and proceeding to the hermitage of Mahaçveta,
he found her in despair, because, in invoking on a young Brahman,
who had rashly approached her, a curse to the effect that he should
become a parrot, she learnt that she had slain Vaiçampayana. At her
words the prince fell dead from grief, and at that moment Kadambari
came to the hermitage.
(195-202) Her resolve to follow him in death was broken by the promise
of a voice from the sky that she and Mahaçveta should both be reunited
with their lovers, and she stayed to tend the prince's body, from
which a divine radiance proceeded; while King Tarapida gave up his
kingdom, and lived as a hermit near his son.
(202 to end) Such was Jabali's tale; and the parrot went on to say how,
hearing it, the memory of its former love for Mahaçveta was reawakened,
and, though bidden to stay in the hermitage, it flew away, only to be
caught and taken to the Candala princess. It was now brought by her to
King Çudraka, but knew no more. The Candala maiden thereupon declared
to Çudraka that she was the goddess Lakshmi, mother of Pundarika or
Vaiçampayana, and announced that the curse for him and Çudraka was
now over. Then Çudraka suddenly remembered his love for Kadambari,
and wasted away in longing for her, while a sudden touch of Kadambari
restored to life the Moon concealed in the body of Candrapida, the
form that he still kept, because in it he had won her love. Now the
Moon, as Candrapida and Çudraka, and Pundarika, in the human and
parrot shape of Vaiçampayana, having both fulfilled the curse of an
unsuccessful love in two births on earth, were at last set free,
and, receiving respectively the hands of Kadambari and Mahaçveta,
lived happily ever afterwards.
The plot is involved, and consists of stories within each other after
the fashion long familiar to Europeans in the 'Arabian Nights'; but
the author's skill in construction is shown by the fact that each
of the minor stories is essential to the development of the plot,
and it is not till quite the end that we see that Çudraka himself,
the hearer of the story, is really the hero, and that his hearing
the story is necessary to reawaken his love for Kadambari, and
so at the same time fulfil the terms of the curse that he should
love in vain during two lives, and bring the second life to an end
by his longing for reunion. It may help to make the plot clear if
the threads of it are disentangled. The author in person tells all
that happens to Çudraka (pp. 3-16 and pp. 205 to end). The parrot's
tale (pp. 16-205) includes that of Jabali (pp. 47-202) concerning
Candrapida, and Vaiçampayana the Brahman, with the story told by
Mahaçveta (pp. 101-136) of her love for Pundarika.