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The Story in Bhasa’s ‘Vasava·datta in a Dream’

and Subandhu’s ‘Vasava·datta’

Bhasa’s ‘The Drama of Vasava·datta [who meets her husband] in a Dream’ (Svapna/vasavadatta), was composed early in the fourth century ce. This play shares with the first text from the ‘Ocean of the Rivers of Story’ the revealing sleep/dream; with the second, much of the plot and the name of the co-wife, Padmavati; and, with the third, more of the plot and the slip of the tongue:

Vasava·datta in a Dream

King Udayana was married to Vasava·datta and loved her too much to take a second wife, but there was a prediction that for the good of the kingdom he should marry Padmavati, the sister of Darshaka, the king of Magadha. To gain Darshaka as an ally when Udayana’s throne had been usurped, the king’s minister, Yaugandharayana, spread the rumor that Vasava·datta had perished in a fire at Lavanaka, but secretly he put Vasava·datta in the care of Padmavati, giving her the name of Avantika. Udayana married Padmavati, and Vasava·datta made a garland for her husband’s bride.

Padmavati was stricken with a headache and lay down in a room different from her own room. The king and the jester went to her own room to conciliate her, but the jester, seeing the garland that Vasava·datta had made, mistook it for a cobra and fled. The king, finding that Padmavati was not in fact there, fell asleep in Padmavati’s bed. Vasava·datta came in and, thinking that Padmavati was in the bed, sat on it and said, “I wonder why my heart rejoices so as I sit ________