thirst, the girl can
hardly protect her life. And, O friend, she hath been deserted by that
man of small fortune and having little sense, with the wide and terrible
forest, ever abounding in beasts of prey."

"'Thus remembering Damayanti, the king of the Nishadhas continued to
live unknown in the abode of that monarch!'"

SECTION LXVIII

"Vrihadaswa said, 'After Nala, despoiled of his kingdom, had, with his
wife, become a bondsman, Bhima with the desire of seeing Nala sent out
Brahmanas to search for him. And giving them profuse wealth, Bhima
enjoined on them, saying, "Do ye search for Nala, and also for my
daughter Damayanti. He who achieveth this task, _viz_., ascertaining
where the ruler of the Nishadhas is, bringeth him and my daughter
hither, will obtain from me a thousand kine, and fields, and a village
resembling a town. Even if failing to bring Damayanti and Nala here, he
that succeeds learning their whereabouts, will get from me the wealth
represented by a thousand kine." Thus addressed, the Brahmanas
cheerfully went out in all directions seeking Nala and his wife in
cities and provinces. But Nala or his spouse they found not anywhere.
Until at length searching in the beautiful city of the Chedis, a
Brahmana named Sudeva, during the time of the king's prayers, saw the
princess of Vidarbha in the palace of the king, seated with Sunanda. And
her incomparable beauty was slightly perceptible, like the brightness of
a fire enveloped in curls of smoke. And beholding that lady of large
eyes, soiled and emaciated he decided her to be Damayanti, coming to
that conclusion from various reasons. And Sudeva said, "As I saw her
before, this damsel is even so at present. O, I am blest, by casting my
eyes on this fair one, like _Sree_ herself delighting the worlds!
Resembling the full moon, of unchanging youth, of well-rounded breasts,
illumining all sides by her splendour, possessed of large eyes like
beautiful lotuses, like unto Kama's Rati herself the delight of all the
worlds like the rays of the full moon, O, she looketh like a lotus-stalk
transplanted by adverse fortune from the Vidarbha lake and covered with
mire in the process. And oppressed with grief on account of her husband,
and melancholy, she looketh like the night of the full moon when Rahu
hath swallowed that luminary, or like a stream whose current hath dried
up. Her plight is very much like that of a ravaged lake with the leaves
of its lotuses crushed by