Vasavadatta of Subandhu is a short romance, of which the story is this.
Kandarpaketu, a young and valiant prince, son of Chintamani king of
Kusumapura, saw in a dream a beautiful maiden of whom he became
desperately enamoured. Impressed with the belief, that a person, such as
was seen by him in his dream, had a real existence, he resolves to
travel in search of her, and departs, attended only by his confidant
Makaranda. While reposing under a tree in a forest at the foot of the
Vindhya mountains, where they halted, Makaranda overhears two birds
conversing, and from their discourse he learns that the princess
Vasavadatta, having rejected all the suitors who had been assembled by
the king her father for her to make choice of a husband, had seen
Kandarpaketu in a dream, in which she had even dreamt his name. Her
confidante, Tamalika, sent by her in search of the prince, had arrived
at the same forest, and was discovered there by Makaranda. She delivers
to the prince a letter from the princess, and conducts him to king's
palace. He obtains from the princess the avowal of her love; and her
confidante, Kalavati, reveals to the prince the violence of her passion.
The lovers depart together: but, passing through the forest, he loses
her, in the night. After long and unsuccessful search, in the course of
which he reaches the shore of the sea, the prince, grown desperate
through grief, resolves on death. But at the moment when he was about to
cast himself into the sea, he hears a voice from heaven, which promises
to him the recovery of his mistress, and indicates the means. After
some time, Kandarpaketu finds a marble statue, the precise resemblance
of Vasavadatta. It proves to be she; and she quits her marble form and
regains animation. She recounts the circumstances under which she was
transformed into stone.
Having thus fortunately recovered his beloved princess, the prince
proceeds to his city, where they pass many years in uninterrupted
happiness.
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