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Description:
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This story is adapted from the Sanskrit play Swapnavasavadatta, generally attributed to the Sanskrit playwright Bhasa. It is one of the thirteen Sanskrit dramas discovered in the South by Pandit Ganapati Shastri in 1912. Udayana, the Vatsa king, was tricked into captivity by King Pradyota of Avanti who wanted to learn from him the secret of taming elephants. At Ujjaini, the capital of Avanti, Udayana refused to teach Pradyota unless he paid him the homage due to a guru. But Pradyota's ego would not permit him to do so. Instead, he sent his daughter Vasavadatta, telling Udayana that she was one of his hunch-backed relatives. Vasavadatta was told that Udayana was a leper. The lessons began with a curtain screening the teacher from the taught. However, one day when the two saw each other the inevitable happened. They fell in love and with the help of his loyal minister Yaugandharyana, Udayana eloped with Vasavadatta to Kaushambhi. The story that followed is retold here in this Amar Chitra Katha.
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