“Kadambari” of the Banabhatta in brief summary


The novel in prose, left unfinished and finished, according to legend, the son of Bana – Bhushana

To King Shudrake comes a girl from the caste of untouchables and gives him a talking parrot. At the request of Shudraki, the parrot tells that, as a chick, he barely escaped the mountaineers-hunters and took refuge in the cloister of the wise-visionary Jambadi. Jambali told the parrot about his past births, for the sins of which he suffers in a bird’s guise.

Once in the city of Ujjayini, King Tarapid reigned, who had no children for a long time. One day he saw in a dream how a full month entered the mouth of his wife Vilasavati, and when, after this miraculous sign, his son was born, he called him Chandrapida. At the same time Minister Tarapida Shukanasy also has a son – Vayshampayana, and from early childhood he becomes Chandrapida’s closest friend. When Chandrapida grew, Tarapida anointed him as the heir to the kingdom, and Chandrapida, together with

Vaishampayana at the head of a mighty army, went on a campaign to conquer the world. After the successful completion of the march on the return journey to Ujjaini, Chandrapida, detached from the retinue, lost his way in the forest and saw a mourning girl engaged in severe asceticism not far from Mount Kailas on the shore of Lake Achchkhod. This girl named Mahashveta, the daughter of one of the kings of the demigods-gandharvas, that one day during the walk she met two young hermits: Pundariku, the son of the goddess Lakshmi and the sage Shvetaketu, and his friend Kapinjalu. Mahashvet and Pundarika fell in love at first sight, fell in love so much that when Mahashvette had to return to his palace, Pundarika died, unable to endure even a brief separation from her. Mahashveta tries desperately to commit suicide, but a certain divine husband descends from heaven, consoles her with the promise of an impending date with her beloved, and Pundarika’s body carries with him to heaven. Following Pundarika and his captor, Kapinjala rushes into the sky; Mahashveta remains to live as a hermit on the shore Achchody. fell in love
so much that when Mahashvette had to return to his palace, Pundarika died, unable to endure even a brief separation from her. Mahashveta tries desperately to commit suicide, but a certain divine husband descends from heaven, consoles her with the promise of an impending date with her beloved, and Pundarika’s body carries with him to heaven. Following Pundarika and his captor, Kapinjala rushes into the sky; Mahashveta remains to live as a hermit on the shore Achchody. fell in love so much that when Mahashvette had to return to his palace, Pundarika died, unable to endure even a brief separation from her. Mahashveta tries desperately to commit suicide, but a certain divine husband descends from heaven, consoles her with the promise of an impending date with her beloved, and Pundarika’s body carries with him to heaven. Following Pundarika and his captor, Kapinjala rushes into the sky; Mahashveta remains to live as a hermit on the shore Achchody. Following Pundarika and his captor, Kapinjala rushes into the sky; Mahashveta remains to live as a hermit on the shore Achchody. Following Pundarika and his captor, Kapinjala rushes into the sky; Mahashveta remains to live as a hermit on the shore Achchody.

Mahashveta introduces Chandrapida to her friend, also the princess of Gandharvas, Kadambari. Chandrapida and Kadambari fall in love with each other no less passionately than Pundarika and Mahashveta. Soon they have to part because Chandralida, at the request of his father, must return to Ujjaini for a time. He leaves, leaving Vaishampayana at the head of the army, and the latter lingers for a few days at Achchody, where he meets Mahashvetu, to whom he feels an irresistible attraction. Pagged by Pundarik and enraged by the persistent persecution of Vaishampayana, Mahashvet curses him, predicting that he will become a parrot in the future birth. And then, as soon as she pronounced the curse, the young man dies.

When Chandrapida returns to Achchhod and finds out about the sad fate of a friend, he himself falls lifeless to the ground. Kadambari is desperate for death, but again suddenly there is a divine voice that commands her to give up her intention and stay with Chandralida’s body until his forthcoming resurrection. Soon Kadambari and Mahasvete descend from the sky Capinjala. He learned that the body of Pundarika was carried to heaven by none other than the god of the moon Chandra. Chandra told him that once he delivered Pundarike to his suffering, because of his love for Mahashvette, and that he was tormented for his heartlessness: he was doomed to an earthly birth in which the moon-god must experience the same as Pundarika, the love flour. To the curse Chandra responded with a curse, according to which and Pundarika in a new birth, will share with the god of the moon his sufferings. Due to mutual curses, Chandra was born on earth as Chandrapida, and then as Shudraka; Pundarika, first as Vaisampayana, and then in the guise of a parrot, who told the story of his former births to King Shudrake.

Thanks to the selflessness of Father Pundarika Shvetaketu, the term of cursing uttered by Chandra, Pundarika and Mahashveti comes to an end. Once Kadambari, in a sudden impulse, embraces the body of Chandrapida. The touch of the beloved returns the prince to life; Then Pundarika descends from the heavens and falls into the embrace of Mahashveta. The next day, Chandrapida and Kadambari, Pundarika and Mahashvet celebrate their weddings in the capital of the Gandharvas. Since then the lovers are no longer parted, but Chandra Chandrapida spends part of her life in heaven as the god of the moon, and the other part on earth as the king of Ujjaini.


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“Kadambari” of the Banabhatta in brief summary