The Kadambari of Bana Part 8

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 shine 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] shine 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 worship 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 shines 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 sunshine, 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 worshipped 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 worship of the Seven Rishis, 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.

(192) He reached cukanasa's gate, which was crowded with a troop of elephants appointed for the watch, obstructed by thousands of horses, (193) confused with the hustling of countless mult.i.tudes, visited day and night by Brahmans, caivas, and red-robed men skilled in the teaching of cakyamuni, clothed as it were in the garments of righteousness, sitting on one side by thousands, forming circles, coming for various purposes, eager to see cukanasa, having their eyes opened by the ointment of their several castras, and showing their respectful devotion by an appearance of humility. The gateway was filled with a hundred thousand she-elephants of the tributary kings who had entered the palace with double blankets drawn round the mahouts who sat on their shoulders, having their mahouts asleep from weariness of their long waiting, some saddled and some not, nodding their heads from their long standing motionless. The prince dismounted in the outer court, as though he were in a royal palace, though not stopped by the guards standing in the entrance and running up in haste; and having left his horse at the entrance, leaning on Vaicampayana, and having his way shown by circles of gatekeepers, who hastened up, pushing away the bystanders, he received the salutes of bands of chiefs who arose with waving crests to do him homage, and beheld the inner courts with all the attendants mute in fear of the scolding of cross porters, and having the ground shaken by hundreds of feet of the retinues of neighbouring kings frightened by the moving wands, (194) and finally entered the palace of cukanasa, bright inside with fresh plaster, as if it were a second royal court.

DESCRIPTION OF NIGHT.

(196) The brightness of day approached the west, following the path of the sun's chariot-wheels, like a stream of water. Day wiped away all the glow of the lotuses with the sun's...o...b..hastening downwards like a hand roseate as fresh shoots. The pairs of cakravakas, whose necks were hidden in swarms of bees approaching from familiarity with the scent of lotuses, were separated as if drawn by the noose of destiny. The sun's...o...b..poured forth, under the guise of a rosy glow, the lotus honey-draught, as it were, drunk in with its rays till the end of day, as if in weariness of its path through the heavens. And when in turn the blessed sun approached another world, and was a very red lotus-earring of the West, when twilight shone forth with its lotus-beds opening into the lake of heaven, (197) when in the quarters of s.p.a.ce lines of darkness showed clear like decorations of black aloes; when the glow of eve was driven out by darkness like a band of red lotuses by blue lotuses dark with bees; when bees slowly entered the hearts of red lotuses, as if they were shoots of darkness, to uproot the sunshine drunk in by the lotus-beds; when the evening glow had melted away, like the garland round the face of the Lady of night; when the oblations in honour of the G.o.ddess of twilight were cast abroad in all quarters; when the peac.o.c.k's poles seemed tenanted by peac.o.c.ks, by reason of the darkness gathered round their summits, though no peac.o.c.ks were there; when the doves, very ear-lotuses of the Lakshmi of palaces, were roosting in the holes of the lattices; when the swings of the zenana had their bells dumb, and their gold seats motionless and bearing no fair dames; when the bands of parrots and mainas ceased chattering, and had their cages hung up on the branches of the palace mango-trees; when the lutes were banished, and their sound at rest in the ceasing of the concert; when the tame geese were quiet as the sound of the maidens'

anklets was stilled; (198) when the wild elephants had the clefts of their cheeks free from bees, and their ornaments of pearls, cowries, and sh.e.l.ls taken away; when the lights were kindled in the stables of the king's favourite steeds; when the troops of elephants for the first watch were entering; when the family priests, having given their blessing, were departing; when the jewelled pavements, emptied almost of attendants on the dismissal of the king's suite, spread out wide, kissed by the reflection of a thousand lights shining in the inner apartments, like offerings of golden campak-blossoms; when the palace tanks, with the splendours of the lamps falling on them, seemed as if the fresh sunlight had approached to soothe the lotus-beds grieved by separation from the sun; when the caged lions were heavy with sleep; and when Love had entered the zenana like a watchman, with arrows in hand and bow strung; when the words of Love's messenger were uttered in the ear, bright in tone as the blossoms in a garland; when the hearts of froward dames, widowed by grief, were smouldering in the fire transmitted to them from the sun-crystals; and when evening had closed in, Candrapida ... went to the king's palace....

THE REGION OF KAILASA.

(243) The red a.r.s.enic-dust scattered by the elephants' tusks crimsoned the earth. The clefts of the rock were festooned with shoots of creepers, now separating and now uniting, hanging in twists, twining like leaf.a.ge; the stones were wet with the ceaseless dripping of gum-trees; the boulders were slippery with the bitumen that oozed from the rocks. The slope was dusty with fragments of yellow orpiment broken by the mountain horses' hoofs; powdered with gold scattered from the holes dug out by the claws of rats; lined by the hoofs of musk-deer and yaks sunk in the sand and covered with the hair of rallakas and rankus fallen about; filled with pairs of partridges resting on the broken pieces of rock; with the mouths of its caves inhabited by pairs of orang-outangs; with the sweet scent of sulphur, and with bamboos that had grown to the length of wands of office.

Pa.s.sAGES PRINTED IN THE APPENDIX. [408]

102, 1--110, 6 111, 1-4 112, 6--115, 1 188, 4--189, 5 190, 6--191, 5 192, 11--194, 2 196, 4--199, 1 243, 4-10

Pa.s.sAGES CONDENSED OR OMITTED. [409]

11, 7--15, 2 *31, 10--34, 2 46, 7--48, 4 81, 3-10 83, 1-8 85, 3--89, 4 119, 3--124, 3 137, 7--138, 3 141, 6--155, 5 162, 8--164, 8 176, 6--188, 4 *199, 5--200, 9 203, 2--204, 2 *227, 4--234, 6 242, 6-10 *245, 4--248, 3 250, 3-8 *252, 7--256, 5 262, 1--266, 3 276, 9--277, 8 285, 2-4 *346, 7--348, 7 353, 6--355, 9 357, 1-10 359, 12--365, 2 369, 2-8 *383, 6--384,9 388, 5--390, 4 403, 6--410, 3 417, 1--426, 3

NOTES

[1] It is needless to give here more than the few facts essential for the understanding of 'Kadambari,' for the life and times of Bana will probably be treated of in the translation of the 'Harsha-Carita'

by Professor Cowell and Mr. Thomas in this series; and Professor Peterson's Introduction to his edition of 'Kadambari' (Bombay Sanskrit Series, 1889) deals fully with Bana's place in literature. The facts here given are, for the most part, taken from the latter work.

[2] E.g., the Madhuban grant of Sam 25, E. I. i., 67 ff. For this and other chronological references I am indebted to Miss C. M. Duff, who has let me use the MS. of her 'Chronology of India.'

[3] For Bana's early life, V. 'Harsha-Carita,' chs. i., ii. I have to thank Mr. F. W. Thomas for allowing me to see the proof-sheets of his translation.

[4] Peterson, 'Kadambari,' pp. 96-98; and 'The Subhas.h.i.tavali,'

edited by Peterson (Bombay Sanskrit Series, 1886), pp. 62-66.

[5] Translated by Mr. C. Tawney (Calcutta, 1884), vol. ii., pp. 17-26. Somadeva's date is about A.D. 1063.

[6] V. Peterson, 'Kadambari,' pp. 82-96.

[7] Translated by Ballantyne and Pramada-Dasa-Mitra (Calcutta, 1875), -- 567. The italics represent words supplied by the translators.