Part 8 (1/2)
DESCRIPTION OF UJJAYINI.
(102) There is a town by name Ujjayini, the proudest gem of the three worlds, the very birthplace of the golden age, created by the blessed Mahakala, [357] Lord of Pramathas, [358] Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of the Universe, as a habitation meet for himself, like a second earth. It is encompa.s.sed by a moat deep as h.e.l.l--as by the ocean, mistaking it for another earth--and surrounded by fenced walls, white with plaster, like Kailasa, with its many points showing clear against the sky, through joy at being the dwelling of civa.
It is adorned with large bazaars, like the oceans when their waters were drunk by Agastya, stretching far, with gold-dust for sand, with conch and oyster pearls, coral and emeralds laid bare. The painted halls that deck it are filled with G.o.ds, demons, Siddhas, [359] Gandharvas, genii, and snakes, (103) and show like a row of heavenly chariots come down from the sky to behold fair women at ceaseless festivals. Its crossways s.h.i.+ne with temples like Mandara whitened by the milk raised up by the churning stick, with spotless golden vases for peaks, and white banners stirred by the breeze like the peaks of Himalaya with the heavenly Ganges falling on them. Commons gray with ketaki pollen, dark with green gardens, watered by buckets constantly at work, and having wells adorned with brick seats, lend their charm. Its groves are darkened by bees vocal with honey draughts, its breeze laden with the sweetness of creeper flowers, all trembling. It pays open honour to Kama, with banners marked with the fish on the house-poles, with bells ringing merrily, with crimson pennons of silk, and red cowries steady, made of coral, standing upright in every house. Its sin is washed away by the perpetual recitation of sacred books. (104) It resounds with the cry of the peac.o.c.ks, intent on a wild dance with their tails outspread from excitement in the bathing-houses, wherein is the steady, deep sound of the drums, and a storm caused by the heavy showers of spray, and beautiful rainbows made by the sunbeams cast upon it. It glitters with lakes, fair with open blue water-lilies, with their centre white as unclosed moon-lotuses, beautiful in their unwavering gaze, [360]
like the thousand eyes of Indra. It is whitened with ivory turrets on all sides, endowed with plantain groves, white as flecks of ambrosial foam. It is girt with the river Sipra, which seems to purify the sky, with its waves forming a ceaseless frown, as though jealously beholding the river of heaven on the head of civa, while its waters sway over the rounded forms of the Malavis, wild with the sweetness of youth.
The light-hearted race that dwell there, like the moon on the locks of civa, spread their glory [361] through all the earth, and have their horn filled with plenty; [362] like Mainaka, they have known no pakshapata; [363] like the stream of the heavenly Ganges, with its golden lotuses, their heaps of gold and rubies [364] s.h.i.+ne forth; like the law-books, they order the making of water-works, bridges, temples, pleasure-grounds, wells, hostels for novices, wayside sheds for watering cattle, and halls of a.s.sembly; like Mandara, they have the best treasures of ocean drawn up for them; though they have charms against poison, [365] yet they fear snakes; [366] though they live on the wicked, [367] they give their best to the good; though bold, they are very courteous; though pleasant of speech, they are truthful; though handsome, [368] content with their wives; though they invite the entrance of guests, they know not how to ask a boon; though they seek love and wealth, they are strictly just; though virtuous, they fear another world. [369] They are connoisseurs in all arts, pleasant [370] and intelligent. They talk merrily, are charming in their humour, spotless in their attire, (106) skilled in foreign languages, clever at subtleties of speech, [371] versed in stories of all kinds, [372]
accomplished in letters, having a keen delight in the Mahabharata, Puranas, and Ramayana, familiar with the Brihatkatha, masters of the whole circle of arts, especially gambling, lovers of the castras, devoted to light literature, calm as a fragrant spring breeze, constantly going to the south; [373] upright, [374] like the wood of Himalaya; skilled in the wors.h.i.+p of Rama, [375] like Lakshmana; open lovers of Bharata, like catrughna; [376] like the day, following the sun; [377] like a Buddhist, bold in saying 'Yes' about all kinds of gifts; [378] like the doctrine of the Samkhya philosophy, possessed of n.o.ble men; [379] like Jinadharma, pitiful to life.
The city seems possessed of rocks, with its palaces; it stretches like a suburb with its long houses; it is like the tree that grants desires with its good citizens; it bears in its painted halls the mirror of all forms. Like twilight, it s.h.i.+nes with the redness of rubies; [380]
(107) like the form of the Lord of Heaven, it is purified with the smoke of a hundred sacrifices; like the wild dance of civa, it has the smiles, which are its white markets; [381] like an old woman, it has its beauty worn; [382] like the form of Garuda, it is pleasing in being the resting-place of Vishnu; [383] like the hour of dawn, it has its people all alert; like the home of a mountaineer, it has palaces in which ivory cowries [384] are hanging; like the form of cesha, [385] it always bears the world; like the hour of churning the ocean, it fills the end of the earth with its hubbub; [386]
like the rite of inauguration, it has a thousand gold pitchers [387]
at hand; like Gauri, it has a form fit to sit on the lion-throne; like Aditi, honoured in a hundred houses of the G.o.ds; like the sports of Mahavaraha, showing the casting down of Hiranyaksha; [388] like Kadru, it is a joy to the race of reptiles; [389] like the Harivamca, it is charming with the games of many children. [390]
(108) Though its courts are open to all, its glory is uninjured; [391] though it glows with colour, [392] it is white as nectar; though it is hung with strings of pearls, yet when unadorned [393]
it is adorned the most; though composed of many elements, [394] it is yet stable, and it surpa.s.ses in splendour the world of the immortals.
There the sun is daily seen paying homage to Mahakala, for his steeds vail their heads at the charm of the sweet chant of the women singing in concert in the lofty white palaces, and his pennon droops before him. There his rays fall on the vermeil floors like the crimson of eve; and on the emerald seats, as though busy in creating lotus beds; on the lapis-lazuli, as though scattered on the sky; on the circling aloe smoke, as though eager to break its dense gloom; on the wreaths of pearl, as though disdaining the cl.u.s.ters of stars; (109) on the women's faces, as though kissing unfolding lotuses; on the splendour of crystal walls, as though falling amid the pale moonlight of morning; on the white silken banners, as though hanging on the waves of the heavenly Ganges; on the sun-gems, as though blossoming from them; on the sapphire lattices, as though entering the jaws of Rahu. There darkness never falls, and the nights bring no separation to the pairs of cakravakas; nor need they any lamps, for they pa.s.s golden as with morning suns.h.i.+ne, from the bright jewels of women, as though the world were on fire with the flame of love. There, though civa is at hand, the cry of the hamsas in the houses, arising sweet and ceaseless, at the kindling of love, fills the city with music, like the mourning of Rati for the burning of the G.o.d of Love. There the palaces stretch forth their flags, whose silken fringes gleam and flutter at night in the wind, like arms to remove the mark of the moon put to shame by the fair lotus-faced Malavis. (110) There the moon, deer-marked, moves, in the guise of his reflection, on the jewel pavement, cool with the sprinkling of much sandal-water, as though he had fallen captive to Love at the sight of the faces of the fair city dames resting on the palace roofs. There the auspicious songs of dawn raised by the company of caged parrots and starlings, though they sing their shrillest, as they wake at night's close, are drowned and rendered vain by the tinkling of women's ornaments, reaching far, and outvying the ambrosial voices of the tame cranes. [395] (111) There dwells civa, who has pierced the demon Andhaka with his sharp trident, who has a piece of the moon on his brow polished by the points of Gauri's anklets, whose cosmetic is the dust of Tripura, and whose feet are honoured by many bracelets fallen from Rati's outstretched arms as she pacifies him when bereft of Kama.
DESCRIPTION OF TARAPIDA. [396]
(112) Like h.e.l.l, he was the refuge of the lords of earth, [397]
fearing when their soaring pride was shorn; [398] like the stars, he was followed by the wise men; [399] like Love, he destroyed strife; [400] like Dacaratha, he had good friends; [401] (113) like civa, he was followed by a mighty host; [402] like cesha, he had the weight of the earth upon him; [403] like the stream of Narmada, his descent was from a n.o.ble tree. [404] He was the incarnation of Justice, the very representative of Vishnu, the destroyer of all the sorrows of his people. He re-established justice, which had been shaken to its foundations by the Kali Age, set on iniquity, and mantled in gloom by the spread of darkness, just as civa re-established Kailasa when carried off by Ravana. He was honoured by the world as a second Kama, created by civa when his heart was softened by the lamentations of Rati.
(113-115) Before him bowed conquered kings with eyes whose pupils were tremulous and quivering from fear, with the bands of the wreaths on their crest ornaments caught by the rays of his feet, and with the line of their heads broken by the lotus-buds held up in adoration. They came from the Mount of Sunrise, [405] which has its girdle washed by the ocean waves, where the flowers on the trees of its slopes are doubled by stars wandering among the leaves, where the sandal-wood is wet with the drops of ambrosia that fall from the moon as it rises, where the clove-trees [406] blossom when pierced by the hoofs of the horses of the sun's chariot, where the leaves and shoots of the olibanum-trees are cut by the trunk of the elephant Airavata; (114) from Setubandha, built with a thousand mountains seized by the hand of Nala, [407] where the fruit on the lavali-trees is carried off by monkeys, where the feet of Rama are wors.h.i.+pped by the water-deities coming up from the sea, and where the rock is starred with pieces of sh.e.l.l broken by the fall of the mountain; from Mandara, where the stars are washed by the waters of pure waterfalls, where the stones are polished by the rubbing of the edge of the fish ornament of Krishna rising at the churning of ambrosia, where the slopes are torn by the weight of the feet moving in the effort of drawing hither and thither Vasuki coiled in the struggles of G.o.ds and demons, where the peaks are sprinkled with ambrosial spray; from Gandhamadana, beautiful with the hermitage of Badarika marked with the footprints of Nara and Narayana, where the peaks are resonant with the tinkling of the ornaments of the fair dames of Kuvera's city, where the water of the streams is purified by the evening wors.h.i.+p of the Seven Ris.h.i.+s, and where the land around is perfumed by the fragments of lotuses torn up by Bhima.
CANDRAPIDA'S ENTRY INTO THE PALACE.
(188) Preceded by groups of chamberlains, hastening up and bowing, he received the respectful homage of the kings, who had already taken their position there, who came forward on all sides, who had the ground kissed by the rays of the crest-jewels loosened from their crests and thrown afar, and who were introduced one by one by the chamberlains; at every step he had auspicious words for his dismounting uttered by old women of the zenana, who had come out from inside, and were skilled in old customs; having pa.s.sed through the seven inner courts crowded with thousands of different living beings, as if they were different worlds, he beheld his father. The king was stationed within, surrounded by a body-guard whose hands were stained black by ceaseless grasping of weapons, who had their bodies, with the exception of hands, feet, and eyes, covered with dark iron coats of mail, (189) like elephant-posts covered with swarms of bees ceaselessly attracted by desire of the scent of ichor, hereditary in their office, of n.o.ble birth, faithful; whose heroism might be inferred from their character and gestures, and who in their energy and fierceness were like demons. On either side he had white cowries ceaselessly waved by his women; and he sat on a couch white as a wild goose, and bright as a fair island, as if he were the heavenly elephant on the water of Ganges.
VILASAVATI'S ATTENDANTS.
(190) Approaching his mother, he saluted her. She was surrounded by countless zenana attendants in white jackets, like cri with the waves of milk, and was having her time wiled away by elderly ascetic women, very calm in aspect, wearing tawny robes, like twilight in its clouds, worthy of honour from all the world, with the lobes of their ears long, knowing many stories, relating holy tales of old, reciting legends, holding books, and giving instructions about righteousness. (191) She was attended by eunuchs using the speech and dress of women, and wearing strange decorations; she had a ma.s.s of cowries constantly waved around her, and was waited upon by a bevy of women seated around her, bearing clothes, jewels, flowers, perfumes, betel, fans, unguents, and golden jars; she had strings of pearls resting on her bosom, as the earth has the stream of Ganges flowing in the midst of mountains, and the reflection of her face fell on a mirror close by, like the sky when the moon's...o...b..has entered into the sun.
cUKANASA'S PALACE.