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Lodurva is the scene
of Rajasthan's answer to Romeo and Juliet, the story of Moomal and Mahendra.
Moomal was a princess whose legendary beauty brought her many suitors, none of
whom succeeded in gaining her affections, until the handsome Prince Mahendra,
with the aid of Moomal's maid, was able to reach her bedroom and win her heart.
Every night he visited her, and in the morning he left.
One day Moomal's sister, who was dying to meet him, persuaded Moomal to let her
attend the bedchamber disguised as a minstrel. That night however, Mahendra's
wives, suspicious of his absence, kept him from leaving, and he didn't arrive at
Moomal's until dawn. On finding her asleep in bed with a minstrel boy, he
stormed out in disgust, and in the months that followed, though ill from grief,
refused to so much as open her letters.
Finally, Moomal disguised herself as a man and set out to find him. She
eventually tracked him down and, joining him in a game of chokar (a board game),
noticed that he was crying and asked him why. "It's the birthmark on your hand",
he explained, "it reminds me of my lost true love".
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Revealing her
identity, Moomal explained to Mahendra what had happened, and they fell into
each others' arms. But alas, it was too much for them, and they both died there
and then from the emotion of it all. Scant remains of Moomal's palace can still
be seen by the bank of the River Kak, which they say has never flowed since that
day.
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