The demand and the spell

Prakriti now wants to lay her whole life at Ananda's feet. When her mother talks of destiny and caste, she refuses to listen: plenty of real chandals are born in Brahmin families, she says, but she is no chandal.

She will not simply call him from outside. She wants her mother's spells to drag him to her.

Her mother is terrified of working spells on a monk. Prakriti answers that any religion that humiliates people is false, and that she fears nothing now.

When the monks pass by in a procession, and Ananda does not even glance at the well, she beats her head on the dust in despair.

She demands her mother's cruellest spells. Her mother gives her a magic mirror, in which she can watch the spell work, and warns her: once the spell reaches its height, undoing it will cost the mother her life.