The novel in prose, which remained incomplete and finished, according to legend, the son of Bana - Bhushana

A girl from the untouchable caste (chandals) comes to King Shudraka and gives him a talking parrot. At the request of Shudraki, the parrot says that, being a chick, he barely escaped from the highlanders-hunters and took refuge in the monastery of the sage-seer Dzhambadi. Jambali told the parrot about his past births, for the sins of which he suffers in bird form.

Once in the city of Ujjayini, King Tarapida ruled for a long time without children. One day he saw in a dream how his wife Vilasavati entered the mouth for a full month, and when after this wonderful sign he had a son, he called him Chandrapida (“Crowned with the Month”). At the same time, a son, Vaishampayan, is also born to Minister Tarapida Sukanasy, and from early childhood he becomes the closest friend of Chandrapida. When Chandrapida grew up, Tarapida anointed him to be the heirs of the kingdom, and Chandrapida, together with Vaishampayana at the head of a mighty army, goes on a campaign to conquer the world. After successfully completing the campaign on the way back to Ujjayini, Chandrapida, having lost her retinue, got lost in the forest and not far from Mount Kailasha on the shore of Lake Achchhoda she saw a grieving girl engaged in stern asceticism. This girl named Mahashvet, the daughter of one of the kings of the demigod Gandharvas, tells that once during a walk she met two young hermits: Pundarika, the son of the goddess Lakshmi and the sage Shvetaketu, and his friend Kapinjalu. Makhashvet and Pundarik fell in love at first sight, fell in love so much that when Mahashveta had to return to her palace, Pundarika died without even a brief separation from her. In desperation, Mahashveta is trying to commit suicide, but a divine husband comes down from heaven, consoles her with the promise of an upcoming date with her lover, and Pundarika’s body carries with him to heaven. Following Pundarika and his captor, Kapindzhala rushes into the sky; Mahashvet remains to live a hermit on the bank of Achchkhody.

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

When Chandrapida returns to Achchhod and finds out about the sad fate of his friend, he himself falls lifeless to the ground. Kadambari desperately seeks death, but again a divine voice suddenly sounds that commands her to abandon her intention and remain with the body of Chandralida until his impending resurrection. Soon Kapinjala descends from the sky to Kadambari and Mahashvet. He learned that the body of Pundarika was taken to heaven by none other than the moon god Chandra. Chandra told him that he once delivered to Pundarika, who was suffering so much because of love for Mahashvet, new torments, and he cursed him for heartlessness: he was doomed to an earthly birth, in which the moon god should experience the same ones as Pundarika, love flour. Chandra responded to the curse with a curse according to which Pundarika in the new birth will share his suffering with the moon god. Due to mutual curses, Chandra was born on earth as Chandrapida, and then as Shudraka; Pundarika, first, as Vaishampayana, and then in the guise of a parrot, who told King Shudraka the story of his past births.

Thanks to the asceticism of Father Pundarika Shvetaketu, the term of the curses uttered by Chandra, Pundarika and Mahashveta is coming to an end. One day, Kadambari, obeying a sudden impulse, hugs the body of Chandrapida. The touch of a beloved brings the prince back to life; Pundarika descends from heaven and falls into the arms of Mahashvet. The next day, Chandrapida and Kadambari, Pundarika and Mahashvet celebrate their weddings in the capital of the Gandharvas. Since then, the lovers have not parted, but Chandra-Chandrapida spends part of her life (the bright half of the lunar months) in heaven as the god of the moon, and the other part (their dark half) on earth as King Ujjayini.