Part 4 (1/2)

'”'Therefore, my Prince, in this post of empire which is terrible in the hundreds of evil and perverse impulses which attend it, and in this season of youth which leads to utter infatuation, thou must strive earnestly not to be scorned by thy people, nor blamed by the good, nor cursed by thy gurus, nor reproached by thy friends, nor grieved over by the wise. Strive, too, that thou be not exposed by knaves, (220) deceived by sharpers, preyed upon by villains, torn to pieces by wolvish courtiers, misled by rascals, deluded by women, cheated by fortune, led a wild dance by pride, maddened by desire, a.s.sailed by the things of sense, dragged headlong by pa.s.sion, carried away by pleasure.

'”'Granted that by nature thou art steadfast, and that by thy father's care thou art trained in goodness, and moreover, that wealth only intoxicates the light of nature, and the thoughtless, yet my very delight in thy virtues makes me speak thus at length.

'”'Let this saying be ever ringing in thine ears: There is none so wise, so prudent, so magnanimous, so gracious, so steadfast, and so earnest, that the shameless wretch Fortune cannot grind him to powder. Yet now mayest thou enjoy the consecration of thy youth to kinghood by thy father under happy auspices. Bear the yoke handed down to thee that thy forefathers have borne. Bow the heads of thy foes; raise the host of thy friends; after thy coronation wander round the world for conquest; and bring under thy sway the earth with its seven continents subdued of yore by thy father.

'”'This is the time to crown thyself with glory. (221) A glorious king has his commands fulfilled as swiftly as a great ascetic.'

'”Having said thus much, he was silent, and by his words Candrapida was, as it were, washed, wakened, purified, brightened, bedewed, anointed, adorned, cleansed, and made radiant, and with glad heart he returned after a short time to his own palace.

'”Some days later, on an auspicious day, the king, surrounded by a thousand chiefs, raised aloft, with cukanasa's help, the vessel of consecration, and himself anointed his son, while the rest of the rites were performed by the family priest. The water of consecration was brought from every sacred pool, river and ocean, encircled by every plant, fruit, earth, and gem, mingled with tears of joy, and purified by mantras. At that very moment, while the prince was yet wet with the water of consecration, royal glory pa.s.sed on to him without leaving Tarapida, as a creeper still clasping its own tree pa.s.ses to another. (222) Straightway he was anointed from head to foot by Vilasavati, attended by all the zenana, and full of tender love, with sweet sandal white as moonbeams. He was garlanded with fresh white flowers; decked [244] with lines of gorocana; adorned with an earring of durva gra.s.s; clad in two new silken robes with long fringes, white as the moon; bound with an amulet round his hand, tied by the family priest; and had his breast encircled by a pearl-necklace, like the circle of the Seven Ris.h.i.+s come down to see his coronation, strung on filaments from the lotus-pool of the royal fortune of young royalty.

'”From the complete concealment of his body by wreaths of white flowers interwoven and hanging to his knees, soft as moonbeams, and from his wearing snowy robes he was like Narasimha, shaking his thick mane, [245] or like Kailasa, with its flowing streams, or Airavata, rough with the tangled lotus-fibres of the heavenly Ganges, or the Milky Ocean, all covered with flakes of bright foam.

(223) '”Then his father himself for that time took the chamberlain's wand to make way for him, and he went to the hall of a.s.sembly and mounted the royal throne, like the moon on Meru's peak. Then, when he had received due homage from the kings, after a short pause the great drum that heralded his setting out on his triumphal course resounded deeply, under the stroke of golden drum-sticks. Its sound was as the noise of clouds gathering at the day of doom; or the ocean struck by Mandara; or the foundations of earth by the earthquakes that close an aeon; or a portent-cloud, with its flashes of lightning; or the hollow of h.e.l.l by the blows of the snout of the Great Boar. And by its sound the s.p.a.ces of the world were inflated, opened, separated, outspread, filled, turned sunwise, and deepened, and the bonds that held the sky were unloosed. The echo of it wandered through the three worlds; for it was embraced in the lower world by cesha, with his thousand hoods raised and bristling in fear; it was challenged in s.p.a.ce by the elephants of the quarters tossing their tusks in opposition; it was honoured with sunwise turns in the sky by the sun's steeds, tossing [246] their heads in their snort of terror; (224) it was wondrously answered on Kailasa's peak by civa's bull, with a roar of joy in the belief that it was his master's loudest laugh; it was met in Meru by Airavata, with deep trumpeting; it was reverenced in the hall of the G.o.ds by Yama's bull, with his curved horns turned sideways in wrath at so strange a sound; and it was heard in terror by the guardian G.o.ds of the world.

'”Then, at the roar of the drum, followed by an outcry of 'All hail!' from all sides, Candrapida came down from the throne, and with him went the glory of his foes. He left the hall of a.s.sembly, followed by a thousand chiefs, who rose hastily around him, strewing on all sides the large pearls that fell from the strings of their necklaces as they struck against each other, like rice sportively thrown as a good omen for their setting off to conquer the world. He showed like the coral-tree amid the white buds of the kalpa-trees; [247] or Airavata amid the elephants of the quarters bedewing him with water from their trunks; or heaven, with the firmament showering stars; or the rainy season with clouds ever pouring heavy drops.

(225) '”Then an elephant was hastily brought by the mahout, adorned with all auspicious signs for the journey, and on the inner seat Patralekha was placed. The prince then mounted, and under the shade of an umbrella with a hundred wires enmeshed with pearls, beauteous as Kailasa standing on the arms of Ravana, and white as the whirlpools of the Milky Ocean under the tossing of the mountain, he started on his journey. And as he paused in his departure he saw the ten quarters tawny with the rich sunlight, surpa.s.sing molten lac, of the flas.h.i.+ng crest-jewels of the kings who watched him with faces hidden behind the ramparts, as if the light were the fire of his own majesty, flas.h.i.+ng forth after his coronation. He saw the earth bright as if with his own glow of loyalty when anointed as heir-apparent, and the sky crimson as with the flame that heralded the swift destruction of his foes, and daylight roseate as with lac-juice from the feet of the Lakshmi of earth coming to greet him.

'”On the way hosts of kings, with their thousand elephants swaying in confusion, their umbrellas broken by the pressure of the crowd, their crest-jewels falling low as their diadems bent in homage, (226) their earrings hanging down, and the jewels falling on their cheeks, bowed low before him, as a trusted general recited their names. The elephant Gandhamadana followed the prince, pink with much red lead, dangling to the ground his ear-ornaments of pearls, having his head outlined with many a wreath of white flowers, like Meru with evening sunlight resting on it, the white stream of Ganges falling across it, and the spangled roughness of a bevy of stars on its peak. Before Candrapida went Indrayudha, led by his groom, perfumed with saffron and many-hued, with the flash of golden trappings on his limbs. And so the expedition slowly started towards the Eastern Quarter. [248]

'”Then the whole army set forth with wondrous turmoil, with its forest of umbrellas stirred by the elephants' movements, like an ocean of destruction reflecting on its advancing waves a thousand moons, flooding the earth.

(227) '”When the prince left his palace Vaicampayana performed every auspicious rite, and then, clothed in white, anointed with an ointment of white flowers, accompanied by a great host of powerful kings, shaded by a white umbrella, followed close on the prince, mounted on a swift elephant, like a second Crown Prince, and drew near to him like the moon to the sun. Straightway the earth heard on all sides the cry: 'The Crown Prince has started!' and shook with the weight of the advancing army.

(228) '”In an instant the earth seemed as it were made of horses; the horizon, of elephants; the atmosphere, of umbrellas; the sky, of forests of pennons; the wind, of the scent of ichor; the human race, of kings; the eye, of the rays of jewels; the day, of crests; the universe, of cries of 'All hail!'

(228-234 condensed) '”The dust rose at the advance of the army like a herd of elephants to tear up the lotuses of the sunbeams, or a veil to cover the Lakshmi of the three worlds. Day became earthy; the quarters were modelled in clay; the sky was, as it were, resolved in dust, and the whole universe appeared to consist of but one element.

(234) '”When the horizon became clear again, Vaicampayana, looking at the mighty host which seemed to rise from the ocean, was filled with wonder, and, turning his glance on every side, said to Candrapida: 'What, prince, has been left unconquered by the mighty King Tarapida, for thee to conquer? What regions unsubdued, for thee to subdue? (235) What fortresses untaken, for thee to take? What continents unappropriated, for thee to appropriate? What treasures ungained, for thee to gain? What kings have not been humbled? By whom have the raised hands of salutation, soft as young lotuses, not been placed on the head? By whose brows, encircled with golden bands, have the floors of his halls not been polished? Whose crest-jewels have not sc.r.a.ped his footstool? Who have not accepted his staff of office? Who have not waved his cowries? Who have not raised the cry of ”Hail!”? Who have not drunk in with the crocodiles of their crests, the radiance of his feet, like pure streams? For all these princes, though they are imbued with the pride of armies, ready in their rough play to plunge into the four oceans; though they are the peers of the great kings Dacaratha, Bhagiratha, Bharata, Dilipa, Alarka, and Mandhatri; though they are anointed princes, soma-drinkers, haughty in the pride of birth, yet they bear on the sprays of crests purified with the shower of the water of consecration the dust of thy feet of happy omen, like an amulet of ashes. By them as by fresh n.o.ble mountains, the earth is upheld. These their armies that have entered the heart of the ten regions follow thee alone. (236) For lo! wherever thy glance is cast, h.e.l.l seems to vomit forth armies, the earth to bear them, the quarters to discharge them, the sky to rain them, the day to create them. And methinks the earth, trampled by the weight of boundless hosts, recalls to-day the confusion of the battles of the Mahabharata.

'”'Here the sun wanders in the groves of pennons, with his...o...b..stumbling over their tops, as if he were trying, out of curiosity, to count the banners. The earth is ceaselessly submerged under ichor sweet as cardamons, and flowing like a plait of hair, from the elephants who scatter it all round, and thick, too, with the murmur of the bees settling on it, so that it s.h.i.+nes as if filled with the waves of Yamuna. The lines of moon-white flags hide the horizon, like rivers that in fear of being made turbid by the heavy host have fled to the sky. It is a wonder that the earth has not to-day been split into a thousand pieces by the weight of the army; and that the bonds of its joints, the n.o.ble mountains, are not burst asunder; and that the hoods of cesha, the lord of serpents, in distress at the burden of earth pressed down under the load of troops, do not give way.'

(237) '”While he was thus speaking, the prince reached his palace. It was adorned with many lofty triumphal arches; dotted with a thousand pavilions enclosed in gra.s.sy ramparts, and bright with many a tent of s.h.i.+ning white cloth. Here he dismounted, and performed in kingly wise all due rites; and though the kings and ministers who had come together sought to divert him with various tales, he spent the rest of the day in sorrow, for his heart was tortured with bitter grief for his fresh separation from his father. When day was brought to a close he pa.s.sed the night, too, mostly in sleeplessness, with Vaicampayana resting on a couch not far from his own, and Patralekha sleeping hard by on a blanket placed on the ground; his talk was now of his father, now of his mother, now of cukanasa, and he rested but little. At dawn he arose, and with an army that grew at every march, as it advanced in unchanged order, he hollowed the earth, shook the mountains, dried the rivers, emptied the lakes, (238) crushed the woods to powder, levelled the crooked places, tore down the fortresses, filled up the hollows, and hollowed the solid ground.

'”By degrees, as he wandered at will, he bowed the haughty, exalted the humble, encouraged the fearful, protected the suppliant, rooted out the vicious, and drove out the hostile. He anointed princes in different places, gathered treasures, accepted gifts, took tribute, taught local regulations, established monuments of his visit, made hymns of wors.h.i.+p, and inscribed edicts. He honoured Brahmans, reverenced saints, protected hermitages, and showed a prowess that won his people's love. He exalted his majesty, heaped up his glory, showed his virtues far and wide, and won renown for his good deeds. Thus trampling down the woods on the sh.o.r.e, and turning the whole expanse of ocean to gray with the dust of his army, he wandered over the earth.

'”The East was his first conquest, then the Southern Quarter, marked by Tricanku, then the Western Quarter, which has Varuna for its sign, and immediately afterwards the Northern Quarter adorned by the Seven Ris.h.i.+s. Within the three years that he roamed over the world he had subdued the whole earth, with its continents, bounded only by the moat of four oceans.

(239) '”He then, wandering sunwise, conquered and occupied Suvarnapura, not far from the Eastern Ocean, the abode of those Kiratas who dwell near Kailasa, and are called Hemajakutas, and as his army was weary from its worldwide wandering, he encamped there for a few days to rest.

'”One day during his sojourn there he mounted Indrayudha to hunt, and as he roamed through the wood he beheld a pair of Kinnaras wandering down at will from the mountains. Wondering at the strange sight, and eager to take them, he brought up his horse respectfully near them and approached them. But they hurried on, fearing the unknown sight of a man, and fleeing from him, while he pursued them, doubling Indrayudha's speed by frequent pats on his neck, and went on alone, leaving his army far behind. Led on by the idea that he was just catching them, he was borne in an instant fifteen leagues from his own quarters by Indrayudha's speed as it were at one bound, and was left companionless. (240) The pair of Kinnaras he was pursuing were climbing a steep hill in front of him. He at length turned away his glance, which was following their progress, and, checked by the steepness of the ascent, reined in Indrayudha. Then, seeing that both his horse and himself were tired and heated by their toils, he considered for a moment, and laughed at himself as he thought: 'Why have I thus wearied myself for nothing, like a child? What matters it whether I catch the pair of Kinnaras or not? If caught, what is the good? if missed, what is the harm? What a folly this is of mine! What a love of busying myself in any trifle! What a pa.s.sion for aimless toil! What a clinging to childish pleasure! The good work I was doing has been begun in vain. The needful rite I had begun has been rendered fruitless. The duty of friends.h.i.+p I undertook has not been performed. The royal office I was employed in has not been fulfilled. The great task I had entered on has not been completed. My earnest labour in a worthy ambition has been brought to nought. Why have I been so mad as to leave my followers behind and come so far? (241) and why have I earned for myself the ridicule I should bestow on another, when I think how aimlessly I have followed these monsters with their horses' heads? I know not how far off is the army that follows me. For the swiftness of Indrayudha traverses a vast s.p.a.ce in a moment, and his speed prevented my noticing as I came by what path I should turn back, for my eyes were fixed on the Kinnaras; and now I am in a great forest, spread underfoot with dry leaves, with a dense growth of creepers, underwood, and branching trees. Roam as I may here I cannot light on any mortal who can show me the way to Suvarnapura. I have often heard that Suvarnapura is the farthest bound of earth to the north, and that beyond it lies a supernatural forest, and beyond that again is Kailasa. This then is Kailasa; so I must turn back now, and resolutely seek to make my way unaided to the south. For a man must bear the fruit of his own faults.'

'”With this purpose he shook the reins in his left hand, and turned the horse's head. Then he again reflected: (242) 'The blessed sun with glowing light now adorns the south, as if he were the zone-gem of the glory of day. Indrayudha is tired; I will just let him eat a few mouthfuls of gra.s.s, and then let him bathe and drink in some mountain rill or river; and when he is refreshed I will myself drink some water, and after resting a short time under the shade of a tree, I will set out again.'

'”So thinking, constantly turning his eyes on every side for water, he wandered till at length he saw a track wet with ma.s.ses of mud raised by the feet of a large troop of mountain elephants, who had lately come up from bathing in a lotus-pool. (243) Inferring thence that there was water near, he went straight on along the slope of Kailasa, the trees of which, closely crowded as they were, seemed, from their lack of boughs, to be far apart, for they were mostly pines, cal, and gum olibanum trees, and were lofty, and like a circle of umbrellas, to be gazed at with upraised head. There was thick yellow sand, and by reason of the stony soil the gra.s.s and shrubs were but scanty.

(244) '”At length he beheld, on the north-east of Kailasa, a very lofty clump of trees, rising like a ma.s.s of clouds, heavy with its weight of rain, and ma.s.sed as if with the darkness of a night in the dark fortnight.

'”The wind from the waves, soft as sandal, dewy, cool from pa.s.sing over the water, aromatic with flowers, met him, and seemed to woo him; and the cries of kalahamsas drunk with lotus-honey, charming his ear, summoned him to enter. So he went into that clump, and in its midst beheld the Acchoda Lake, as if it were the mirror of the Lakshmi of the three worlds, the crystal chamber of the G.o.ddess of earth, the path by which the waters of ocean escape, the oozing of the quarters, the avatar of part of the sky, Kailasa taught to flow, Himavat liquefied, moonlight melted, civa's smile turned to water, (245) the merit of the three worlds abiding in the shape of a lake, a range of hills of lapis lazuli changed into water, or a ma.s.s of autumn clouds poured down in one spot. From its clearness it might be Varuna's mirror; it seemed to be fas.h.i.+oned of the hearts of ascetics, the virtues of good men, the bright eyes of deer, or the rays of pearls.