of the caravan that had escaped unhurt, met together, and asked one another, “Of what deed of ours is this the consequence?  Surely, we have failed to worship the illustrious Manibhadras, and likewise the exalted and graceful Vaisravana, the king of the Yaksha.  Perhaps, we have not worshipped the deities that cause calamities, or perhaps, we have not paid them the first homage.  Or, perhaps, this evil is the certain consequence of the birds (we saw).  Our stars are not unpropitious.  From what other cause, then hath this disaster come?” Others, distressed and bereft of wealth and relatives, said, “That maniac-like woman who came amongst this mighty caravan in guise that was strange and scarcely human, alas, it is by her that this dreadful illusion had been pre-arranged.  Of a certainty, she is a terrible Rakshasa or a Yaksha or a Pisacha woman.  All this evil is her work, what need of doubts?  If we again see that wicked destroyer of merchants, that giver of innumerable woes, we shall certainly slay that injurer of ours, with stones, and dust, and grass, and wood, and cuffs.”  And hearing these dreadful words of the merchants, Damayanti, in terror and shame and anxiety, fled into the woods apprehensive of evil.  And reproaching herself she said, “Alas! fierce and great is the wrath of God on me.  Peace followeth not in my track.  Of what misdeed is this the consequence?  I do not remember that I did ever so little a wrong to any one in thought, word, or deed.  Of what deed, then, is this the consequence?  Certainly, it is on account of the great sins I had committed in a former life that such calamity hath befallen me, viz., the loss of my husband’s kingdom, his defeat at the hands of his own kinsmen, this separation from my lord and my son and daughter, this my unprotected state, and my presence in this forest abounding in innumerable beasts of prey!”

“’The next day, O king, the remnant of that caravan left the place bewailing the destruction that had overtaken them and lamenting for their dead brothers and fathers and sons and friends.  And the princess of Vidarbha began to lament, saying, “Alas!  What misdeed have I perpetrated!  The crowd of men that I obtained in this lone forest, hath been destroyed by a herd of elephants, surely as a consequence of my ill luck.  Without doubt, I shall have to suffer misery for a long time.  I have heard from old men that no person dieth ere his time; it is for this that my miserable self hath not been trodden to death by that herd of elephants.  Nothing that befalleth men is due to anything else than Destiny, for even in my childhood I did not commit any such sin in thought, word, or deed, whence might come this calamity.  Methinks, I suffer this severance from my husband through the potency of those celestial Lokapalas, who had come to the Swayamvara but whom I disregarded for the sake of Nala.”  Bewailing thus, O tiger among kings, that excellent lady, Damayanti, devoted to her husband, went, oppressed