03.059
Nala said.
Just as your father's kingdom is yours, so it is mine too, without a doubt. But I will not go there at all while I am in hardship. (03-59-1)
How, having gone prosperous, can I be your source of joy? Or, utterly depleted, how shall I go, becoming the source of your sorrow? (03-59-2)
Bṛhadaśva said.
Thus, King Nala, speaking again and again, consoled Damayanti, the auspicious lady, who was covered with half of his garment. (03-59-3)
The two of them, dressed in a single cloth and girdled, weary from hunger and thirst, approached an assembly hall. (03-59-4)
Then the lord of Niṣadha, accompanied by the princess of Vidarbha, entered that assembly and sat down upon the ground. (03-59-5)
He, indeed, without clothes, soiled, disheveled, covered in dust, together with Damayantī, exhausted, slept upon the ground. (03-59-6)
Damayanti, the auspicious and delicate maiden, was also carried away by sleep and then, suddenly experiencing suffering, became an ascetic. (03-59-7)
But when Damayantī was asleep, King Nala, O lord of the people, whose mind was shaken by grief, indeed did not rest as he formerly did. (03-59-8)
He, having seen in the forest that total ruin—the taking away of his kingdom and abandonment by friends—fell into anxiety. (03-59-9)
What indeed will happen to me if I do this? What indeed will happen to me if I do not do it? Is death better for me, or abandoning people? (03-59-10)
This woman, being attached to me, certainly undergoes this suffering for my sake. But if bereft of me, she might at some time return to her own people. (03-59-11)
By me, this woman will certainly suffer the greatest misery. But if she is abandoned, there is some doubt—she might even find happiness somewhere. (03-59-12)
The king, having firmly decided and considered in many ways again and again, thought that abandoning Damayantī was the better course. (03-59-13)
He thought about himself being without clothes and her being with only one garment, and the king realized (the impropriety of) cutting off half the cloth. (03-59-14)
How might I cut the clothing so that my beloved would not notice; thinking thus, King Nala of Nishadha then roamed about the assembly (03-59-15)
O Bhārata, then Nala, running here and there, found an excellent drawn sword in the assembly area. (03-59-16)
Having torn half of his garment and put it on, the enemy-scorcher, leaving the sleeping princess of Vidarbha, fled away in a state of unconsciousness. (03-59-17)
Then, his heart tightly bound, having returned again to that assembly and seeing Damayantī there, the king of Niṣadha wept. (03-59-18)
She whom neither the wind nor the sun had seen before, my beloved—today she lies on the ground in the midst of the assembly like one without protector. (03-59-19)
How will this lovely-smiling, excellently-figured woman, clad only in a garment and behaving as if maddened, regain awareness? (03-59-20)
How will the virtuous Bhīma's daughter, left alone and separated from me, survive in that dreadful forest haunted by wild beasts? (03-59-21)
Again and again, king Nala goes and comes back to the assembly, repeatedly drawn by Kali and then, by friendship, pulled away. (3-59-22)
At that moment, the heart of the sorrowful man seemed split in two. Like a swing, again and again, he kept coming and going to the assembly. (03-59-23)
He, dragged away and deluded by Kali, ran away in distress, alas! Having abandoned his sleeping wife, he lamented pitifully and at length. (03-59-24)
His self ruined, touched by Kali, reflecting on various things, the sorrowful king abandoned his wife and went into the empty forest. (03-59-25)
