Bana Harsacarita TR Cowell+Thos 1897
Bana Harsacarita TR Cowell+Thos 1897
Bana Harsacarita TR Cowell+Thos 1897
HABSA-CARITA
OF
BANA.
FEINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PEESS.
ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND.
NEW SERIES.
II.
THE
HABSA-CABITA
OF
BANA
TRANSLATED BY
E. B. COWELL, M.A.
PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
AND
F. W. THOMAS, M.A.
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
romance.
PREFACE.
Qri-harsa, who gives his name to the story, was the ruler
at whose court the Chinese Buddhist traveller Hiuen
Thsang
for a time resided, who has left us such a precious description
of India as he actually saw it in the early part of the seventh
Indian history ;
and under his wise toleration the adherents of
<
1
Translated by Miss Ridding in the present series.
PREFACE. IX
time ;
but we long in vain for some chronicler who would
have filled in the imperfect sketch with a thousand details
now for ever lost.
Eastern India.
But beside these veiled historical allusions, the work has
another interest from the vivid picture which it offers of the
condition of Indian society and the manners and customs of
the period. Bana is not a mere rhetorician ;
his descriptions
1
Iiid. Ant. xix. 40.
PREFACE. .
XI
2
queen Yagovati, two sons Rajyavardhana and Harsa, and a
3
daughter Rajyagri, who was married to Grahavarman the ,
1
Prabhakaravardhana is described as " a most devout worshipper
of the Sun "in the Sonpat Inscription.
2
Rajyavardhana is described in the Madhuban inscription as
"a most devout worshipper of Sugata."
3
The genealogy would seem to be Grahavarman, Avantivarman
(infr. p. 122), Susthitavarman, Qarvavarman, Iganavarman, Igvara-
variaan, Adityavarman, Harivarman ; cf. the inscriptions Nos. 42, 46,
Xll . PREFACE.
47, Corpus Inscr. Ind. in. Adityavarman had as his queen Harsa-
gupta, sister to Harsagupta, of the same Guptas of Magadha, who were
similarly connected with Harsa's family.
1
Professor Biihler suggests that this is the Northern Malwa about
Fatehpur. He would identify the king with the Devagupta of the
Madhuban Inscription.
2
Poni in Hiuen Thsang.
3
C Hiuen Thsang, (Julien), n. 248.
4
Bhaskaravarma Kumara, in Hiuen Thsang.
PREFACE. Xlll
[He was an
1
old pupil in the Calcutta Sanskrit College. E. B. C.]
THE HAKSA-CARITA.
INTRODUCTORY VERSES 1
.
[2] 2. I worship Uma, whose eyes are closed with the delight of
[3] 5. Countless such there are like dogs, following their own vile
nature from house to house 3 ,
not many are there like
Qarabhas,
4
possessing creative power .
6. poet A
is not reckoned among the good 5 and is detected as a
holy Sarasvati, hail that goddess, who, having her power manifested as the
!
grihastambha (of Visnu), C. I. I. iii. 159 and 160. Note that this verse
occurs entire in an inscript. Ind. Ant. xiii. p. 92.
Or " those are of no account who only give bald descriptions ( jati) from
:!
house to house."
4 There is a
pun in utpadaka, which is also a synonym for the fabulous
animal called the qarabha as having eight legs, four of which are said to
of syllables.
8. A new subject, a diction not too homely, unlaboured double
meanings, the sentiment easily understood, the language rich in sonorous
words all this it is difficult to combine in one composition.
[4] 9. What has that poet to do with poetry, whose language, going
to the furthest limits of metrical skill 5 , does not fill the three worlds
like the Bharata story ?
10. They upon whose lips abides Sarasvatl, unwearied even at the
end of their 'fits,'
6
how can such writers of romances 7 escape being
praised as the princes of poets ?
11. The pride of poets verily melted away through Vasavadatta 8
(when came to their ears), as the pride of the Brahman seers 9 through
it
1
Does this allude to the Caura-pahcdqikd ; or only to plagiarists gene-
rally ? For the poet Caura see Vdsavad. Comm. p. 33.
-
Or " by his changing colour through fear," or "by trying to change his
low caste."
3
Or "by his concealing the marks of his chains." For bandha cf.
Kdvydd. i. 47.
4
Utpreksd, where the comparison is introduced by 'as it were' or
'methought.'
5
Or " embracing all narratives." For the literary history contained in the
following lines compare Prof. Peterson's Introd. to Kadambari, pp. 68 96.
'
6
Ucchvdsa means ' a breathing out and also a division of a narrative.' '
The sk. contains puns in vaktre (also the name of a metre), and kavi$i-ara =
Brahma, on whose lips the goddess rests cf. Kdd. Introd. v. 11. ;
7
For the dkhydyikd see Sdh. Darp. 568.
8 See Dr Castellieri's
paper in the Vienna Oriental Journal, vol. i., where
he shews that Bana wrote his work especially to surpass Subandhu's
Vasavadatta ; see also our Appendix, notes to pp. 67, 74, 233.
9
Drona, &c.
10 Does this
refer to Arjuna's attack on Kama with the Aindra weapon,
Mahabh., vin. 4720? n Or "not
stealing from others" (aharl).
12
Or as applying to a king, " glorious by the rule of his territory, and
preserving all the caste-regulations. "
13 Another
reading is alivahana ; both Satavahana and Qalivahana have
been identified with Hala the author of the Sapta<?ataka, but see Weber, iibtr
das Sapta^atakam, p. 3. 14
Or " of pure description."
INTRODUCTORY VERSES. 3
14. The fame of Pravarasena 1 bright like a lotus 2, has gone to the
,
1
He seems to have written the Prakrit poem the Setubandha.
2
Kumuda is also the name of one of Kama's monkeys.
3
See Weber's Indian Literature, p. 205.
4
The Vrihat-katha is alluded to in Kadambari (Bombay ed. p. 40).
5
In the one by Kama's being consumed, in the other by the amatory
legends of the poem or it may mean that
; Kama is personified in the latter,
as Naravahana, one of its heroes.
An unknown poet, unless it refers to Gunadhya, the author of the
Vrihat-katha. Utsdha seems to refer to a pantomimic recitation as well as
to general energy.
" which
though mentioned abide in my heart." This is a hard cloka.
8 Or " with the
fastenings of gold." For cayyd cf. Kdd. introd. 8.
Criparvata is also the name of a range of mountains in Telingana.
9
I
12
CHAPTER I.
1
session,framing questions on the lore of Brahma and
enjoying other blameless discussions. As he so sate, adored
of the three worlds, the Prajapatis headed by Manu, Daksa,
and Caksusa, and allthe great sages with the seven Risis
i
Cf. Manu, in. 231.
CHAPTER I. 5
1
Cf. Spenser, Faery Queen, Bk. n. c. iii. 27, 28,
'And her straight legs most bravely were embay led
In gilden buskins of costly cordwayne...
Like two fair marble pillours they were seen
Which doe the temples of the gods support.'
Also Vasavadattd, p. 54 (Hall).
2
There is a pun on mdnasa = (l) mind, (2) lake Manasa.
3
The Sanskrit here has puns on mukta released and pearl and
' ' ' '
who attains yoga and the warrior slain face to face with his foe pass
'
through the centre of the sun cf. the last note to this chapter.
:
4
The eyebrow is compared to a spray used in sprinkling the ear.
6 A
laugh is often called by the Hindus white,' cf. Wilson, Hindu
' '
2
chess-board of his forehead, like the presence of the god of
death, and recalled the crocodile embellishments upon the
faces of Yama's wives ;
with a red eye offering, as it were, an
oblation of his blood to the goddess of pitilessness; imprison-
ing [11] the gleam of his teeth, as if it were his voice flying
in terror at the merciless biting of his lip altering the tie ;
cursing.
Meanwhile the great goddess Savitri was seated in
2
Atapadam: caturaiigaphalakam, Comm. perhaps so called from :
itsfurrowed lines. Regarding this and the next allusion vide further
note in the appendix.
CHAPTER I. 7
about him. With his right hand, which, as its signet ring
sent up a spray of emerald rays, seemed to grasp a cluster of
1
Ku$a grass for staying a world-dissolution he allayed the ,
tumult of the curse while his teeth shot out pure penetrating
;
2
rays like plummet lines for the building of a coming aeon of
bliss, and echoed through the spheres like a drum
his voice
one not frequented by the good. Its final goal is death. The
dust upraised by the steeds of passion in their unbridled
onrush is wont to cloud the vision of such as be not masters
of the senses 3 How
limited indeed the scope of the eye
. !
for 'tis by the purified intellect that the perfected behold all
things good and evil. Nature rejects this union of piety and
wrath as of water and fire. How dost thou, leaving the light,
sink in darkness for the root of all asceticism is patience.
!
passion
4
. How can censoriousness consort with commerce of
great penances [14] Blind verily is that seeing man who is
?
brow. The flush of passion assaults first the senses, last the
eyes. In the beginning the store of merit dissolves away;
then the oozing sweat. The flash of dishonour flickers;
then comes the trembling of the lip. How ruinous to the
world was the growth of thy matted locks and bark dress,
shoots and bark as it were of the
poison tree Like a pearl !
1
The origin of darblia = kuca grass from a world-convulsion is stated
Ath. V. 19. 30. 5, and its power to allay passion, id. 6. 43. 1- .
Sutrapatam, cf. Kathas. 14. 30, 24. 93 this passage has a bearing
2
:
'
flamed in both senses.
6 Vrittamukta has also per paronomaxiam the sense of '
having
parivartulamauktika Comm.
'
round pearls :
CHAPTER I. 9
udders ;
washed by the surge of the milky sea in
as though
uproar at the near rising of the moon. Let out for his
evening ramble, the chowrie-cro\vned Airavata was dashing his
tusks at will against the banks of the heavenly stream, while
the sound went up of their crashing against its sides of gold.
The sky displayed a rosy tint, as though smeared with lac from
the feet of thousands of mistresses of the Vidyadharas gone
forth to their trysts. Like the sweat of Sandhya in her
1
1
is described in 'the Meghaduta 9!. 38.
Diva's evening worship
2 '
Or ' loud in Brahma's praise or ' loudly from Brahma.'
3
The Aghamarsana hymn is the last in the Rig- Veda. c
4 '
thought :
Friend, my tongue is ashamed to prate to thee,
1
The ways of fate are here punningly compared to the caprices of
women, cf. vdmdh : striyctfca Comm.
2
There is a pun on lake Mfumsa made turbid by a falling particle.
CHAPTER I. 13
1
As e.g. Madhyade9a, Manu ii. 21.
2
The Kashmir and Bombay texts insert here vivicya :
vicarya
'
having reflected.'
3
Or descended from Dhruva,'
'
i.e. from the star of Dhruva or the
firmament or Visnu cf. Comm. ;
4
The Sanskrit may also mean with down-raining white
'
clouds.'
14 THE HARSA-CARITA.
1
The heavenly Ganges falls on Diva's head.
Liliputian munis concerning whom many stories are
2 told.
3 For the tilodaJcam cf. Manu in. 210.
4
An eclipse involves impurity to all people, and so necessitates a fast.
5
I.e. Apsarases.
6 and the planet Jupiter.
Brihaspati, the purohita of the Gods,
T
Ganeca ?
8 = Civa.
9 of goodness, (2) chariot.
Yuga=(l) age .
10 =The Milk Ocean or a Mount Candra (Cornm.).
CtiAPTER I. 15
heart was taken captive by its beauty, and there upon its bank
she resolved to dwell; so she said to Savitrl: 'Pleasant to me,
friend, is the neighbourhood of this great river, which makes
dull the lustre of Mandakim. Here are honeyed voices of
with her friend upon the western bank and for a dwelling :
she fixed her mind upon a certain fair creeper arbour by the
shore containing a slab of stone. Then after resting she
soon arose, and having with Savitrl gathered flowers for
worship, bathed next, having in Qiva's honour erected sand
:
[23] Now as the days in this wise sped on and time passed,
one morning, when the sun was risen only one watch, she heard
in the northern quarter the
deep clear sound of horses' neighs
1
I.e. as mirroring the sky. often reclines on a slab.
Qrl
2
,
_A prayer addressed to Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Aghora, Tatpurusa
and Isana. Comm. (We have divided this sentence in our translation.)
3
As symbolising the eight forms.
16 THE HARSA-CARITA.
cessant exercise leaping like the deer of the winds and spurn-
speed, away, away, make way in front.' In the midst [24] she
discerned a youth in age about eighteen years, shaded by a
1
The first portion having been used for Qiva, the second remains for
this hero. The Sanskrit words for 'natural loveliness' may also be
translated 'connate Laksmi,' referring to the birth of Laksml along
with the moon from the ocean.
,
2
The Ganges is imagined as seeking to stay the churning by cling-
ing fast to the mountain.
C. 2
18 THE HARSA-CARITA.
dangled rings of fine gold and the end of the bit rested against
its long nose. It was adorned with tinkling trappings of
2
Makaramukha is a name given to the upper part of the knee;
makaramukham janunor uparibhagah. Comm.
:
CHAPTER I. 19
'
1
.Kama was killed in anger by Civa.
2
Read valaksa (for dhavala) with Comm. and the Kashmir text.
22
20 THE HARSA-CARITA.
'
1
Or of the wine courteously offered by a superior.'
2
The pun here turns on the double sense of atinamre=(l') 'flexible,'
'
1
The custom should be noticed.
2
I.e. the moon.
3
Na jdyate yatra triptis tad asecanakam viduh.' Comrn. 'that of
l
5
The grove of the god Kuvera.
22 THE HARSA-CARITA.
young day, she has yet the smile of a night-lotus the voice ;
gait she has not passed the season of girlhood, yet she has
;
distance is
slight. Intimacy will make all clear. Let my
lord not forget people seen only by chance.' After which
reply she became silent. But Dadhica, with a voice which,
resembling the deep mutter of clouds laden with new rain,
set the peacocks dancing in the creeper arbours, gravely
said: 'My lord, her highness being conciliated will be
gracious to us ;
now let us visit my father. Rise, let us
proceed.'Then, the other assenting, he slowly arose, and
with a bow moved away. As he mounted his horse and
departed, Sarasvati gazed for a long time after him with an
eye with straight rigid lashes and pupil motionless as in a
1
The contradiction turns on the double sense ofpundarika = (1) lotus,
(2) lion.
2
Payodhardh may also mean 'clouds'; the kalahamsa migrates
during the rainy season.
3
Snow kills the lotus hence the contradiction.
:
4
The words may also mean 'not faithless to Kumara and yet loving
his enemy Taraka.'
CHAPTER I. 23
gems, the three- worlds' pride, laden with the company of all
fine qualities 3 Thus: the moon is but a trickling drop
.
prince well ?
'
1
The Comm. explains anvaksam=pratyaksam = 'm person': but
query I
2
Or '
inquiries.'
3
Uccdvacaik :
prakritavastvasamspar^ibhih, vicitrair iti vd. Comm.
4
The long description of Malati will be found in the Appendix.
5 Read vilipta with the Kashmir text.
26 THE HARSA-CARITA.
'
2
the charming and lovely are masters of our bodies, our
lives, our all. There is nothing that you are not to me,
sister, friend, loved one, second self. Ordain what task,
small or great, this poor body may perform. This com-
2
V. 1. ativelam ( = atimdtram) for atipecalas in Kashm. ed.
CHAPTER I. 27
3
familiar anguish has been in his secret counsels, pain the
,
5
emissaries, sighs his vanguard ,
death his squire, disquiet his
courier, fancies his aged advisers. How am I to speak ?
'
Should I say he a match for your highness,' your heart
is
will tell you that; 'of noble character,' that is beside the
mark a man of sense,' that is at variance with his state of
'
mind '
blessed by fortune,' that depends on you
;
constant ;
'
'
in affection,' that implies experience versed in rendering ;
'
be the mistress of his house,' a seductive tale happy ;
she who owns such a lord,' a partisan's story; [41] 'you are
his death,' an unkind saying; 'you know not worth,' a
'
4
'
The word paramasuhrid may also mean preeminently an enemy.' '
6
Or punningly sighs go before his body.'
'
28 THE HARSA-CARITA.
acquainted with the news. Her mind panting under its load
of longing, she could scarcely pass the rest of the day which
seemed an aeon. But when the adorable sun had sunk with
all his radiance in the west, when the dusk was stilly
descending, and the moon was issuing, like a lion from his
cave, from the eastern quarter now gleaming as with a
smile 1 then SarasvatI sate herself
, down on the Qona sands,
white, delicate as China silk, rolling in waves, like a silken-
soft bed. On her brow was a jewel, the imaged moonlight,
as it were, of Dadhlca's toe-nails as in her dreams she fell in
Thus did she expect him, and this was the thought in her
'
heart, Since I, even I, SarasvatI, have been enslaved, like
a low-caste woman, by this heart's son Kama, what is
'
to be expected of other poor excitable maidens ?
With Malati Dadhica came bringing sweet perfumes
like the month of honey, bearing like a hariisa cooling
lotus fibres, his face uplifted in deep joy like a peacock at a
cloud 4 , causing like the Malaya breeze a tremour upon a
1
I.e. an arch smile at the meeting of the lovers.
2
The Kashmir text, however, reads stanayantl, which will go with
SarasvatI.
3
For vetralata cf. Pancatantra
(Bomb, ed.), p. 16, 1. 1.
4
G/iana = (l) great, (2) cloud.
CHAPTER I. 29
2
it seemed, by the lord of planets with finger-like rays grasping
1
The words may "
I.e. Sarasvati. also mean the creepers clinging
to the sandal and grislea trees."
2
The Moon.
3
Utkalikd = (l) wave, (2) agitation.
4
Because of its whiteness.
6 '
I.e. Sarasvatfs son' :
ukhyd and ndma are here distinguished.
30 THE HARSA-CARITA.
1
yet unconquered by the quality of passion possessed of ,
2
patience, cheering their dependents not cruel, girt with ,
3 4
knowledge not dull, masters of arts
,
free from faults, ,
5
helpful not inflaming
,
others yet suns of brilliance, without
heat yet sacrificers 6 without crooked ways, happy 7 no rigid
, ,
8
Stoics, yet abodes of good deeds rewarded unfailing in the ,
9
performance of sacrifice, dexterous guileless, superior to ,
pata, propagating their race, like the four aeons, through the
power of Vedic knowledge like Narayana's columnar arms
12
,
6
Or '
teachers,' taralcd: dcdryd, Comm. : the word may also mean
'constellations,' forming a punning antithesis to adosdh, which may
mean '
not belonging to evening.'
6
Or fires.'
' r Or
yet serpents.'
'
8
Or without pillars, yet caravanserais of holiness.'
'
9
Or 'yet Daksas.' Daksa's mythological sacrifice had been inter-
rupted by ^iva.
10
Or ' without serpents, yet Qivas.'
11
=(1) parent, (2) teacher. The son of Vinata is Garuda who stole
the amrita to purchase his mother's freedom.
12
Or of the aeons '
having a race sprung from Brahma's creative
power
'
= all beings.
13
Or of Narayana's arms '
and night, [47] passed some days, he knew not how, in his
own house. When his sorrow gradually became less absorbing,
he through indulgence in sundry youthful follies, due either
to misconduct arising from independence, to the impetuosity
7
nacular poet Icjlna, adherents Rudra and Narayana, precep-
1
Or of the mountain '
with motionless ranges.'
they were moonfaced. There may also be an allusion to the
2
I.e.
3
Soma juice. As a stiataka.
decade,' came to mean
4 tenth
Adacamistha, literally 'not in his
'
not having attained his allotted span,' because the Hindus regarded a
hundred years as the natural life of man. The father of Bana (who
was 14 years old) cannot have been anywhere near this.
5
Itvaro babhura may however mean was wild.' The Comm. gives
'
Divyavadana.
6 Pardcavdu = sons of a Brahman and a Sudra woman.
7
Bhasakavi is explained by the comm. as a writer of songs 01; a
vernacular poet.
CHAPTER I. 33
perhaps mean
'
2
Pustakrit :
lepyakara Coinm. ;
the word may a
scribe.'
3
Asuravivaravyasanl : patalabhilal. Comm. Perhaps it means 'a
miner or metallurgist.'
4 '
, Dardurika, explained by Tarauath as meaning potter,' is quoted
by Panim, iv. 4. 34.
c. 3
34 THE HARSA-CARITA.
'
Here ends the first chapter, termed the description of the Vatsya-
1
Bdlamitramandalasya madhyagato may also, with reference to the
liberated soul, mean in the centre of the mild sun's disc, as the sun
' 3
1
The words will also mean " earthen pots furnished with a string."
'
2 The day, as distinguished from the night, is the intercessor
'
between the lotus and the sun, as Krisna, the king's brother, is between
Banatind Crl-Harsa.
3 ' " betressed with stalks of
Or, if taken with fires,' tawny flames."
Of. 219.
Manu^ii.
32
36 THE HARSA-CARITA.
4
unloosed all the imprisoned blossoms throughout the earth.
The tresses of the fair [damp after bathing] were seized by
the god of love 5 as if they were chowries used at the
coronation of the Spring, the King of Seasons [and so still
wet with the waters of installation] and the Sun made ;
3 Caitra and
Vai9akha, i.e. from the middle of March to that of
May. Grlsma is from the middle of May to that of July. Mahakala
contains a punning reference to as the
Qiva in his character
also
destroyer.
4 As a King at his accession sets prisoners free.
5
Ragh. xvi. 50.
CHAPTER II. 37
young lions in their blind thirst for blood, the sides of the
mountains were wet with the water spouted from the fainting
elephant-herds, and the bees were dumb, as they lay in the
dark patches of the dried ichor of the heat-distressed
l
From the falling of the leaves.
2
Jvara. The Schol. takes Kuta as the bird's cry.
38 THE HARSA-CARITA.
1
Of. Taitt. Samhita ii. 3. 5;
ii. 5. 6.
2 3
For the drabhatl cf. Sahitya D. 420. Read rdserasa.
4
The Digambara Jamas carry peacocks' tails in their hards to
sweep insects from their path. Sarva-Darc. Sat}tgralui transl. p. 63.
CHAPTER II. 39
1
This refers to a particular method of pi'eparing drugs, the various
substances being wrapped up m
leaves, covered with clay, and roasted
in the fire.
2
The word for
'
deer
'
brought before him, his legs tired and heavy with the
long journey, with his tunic girt up tightly by a mud-
stained strip of cloth, the knot hanging loose and fastened
was not a true report. There are none so situated, but, even if
2
they are good, they will have friends, neutrals, and enemies .
fro like water. What now shall the lord of the earth do,
when he comes to a settled decision after hearing many
different suggestions Though thou wast far away, yet thou
?
1
Alas he who is unskilled in waiting upon a king is like
!
of an access of self-conceit ;
his voice is not rendered harsh
in heaps of ornaments,
pearl-like qualities, not
his judge-
his highest love is for preeminent glory, not for the withering
stubble of this life, his magnificence is devoted to adorning
the different quarters of the earth whose tribute he seizes,
not the dolls which he calls his wives, his notion of bosom
friendship belongs to his well-strung bow, not to the cour-
tiers who live on the crumbs of his board. His natural
instinct is to help his friends, sovereignty means to him
helping his dependants, learning at once suggests helping
the learned and success helping his kinsfolk, power means
helping the unfortunate and wealth helping the brahmans ;
ance, nor practice in all the turns of voice fit for inferiors,
1
Called here Mahacveta.
2
The Coram. seems to explain pistapancdhgulam (cf. text, p. 157. 7)
as flour daubed on with the five fingers moistened with goafs-milk
(iijakaktabhiK), but cf. Morris' note on pancangulika in the Pali Text
Soc. Journ. for 1884.
3
Rigv. 10. 103.
4
After the burning of forests plants often spring up whose seeds
had been lying dormant. (Balfour's Hot.)
46 THE HARSA-CAR1TA.
1
Vi.smi is called Padmanabha. Garudapaksa may also be a kind of
jewel ;
the white umbrellas were adorned with gems.
2
Saccharum spontaneum, see Wilson's Hindu Dr. ii.
p. 106, note.
Or "
;i
projecting, their legs thin and straight, and their round hoofs
hard like masses of iron ;
their round bellies seemed solid,
as if they had no entrails within them, lest they should
be broken by their excessive swiftness, and their broad flanks
were divided by a long depression 3 with the hairs like new
,
strings, their eyes were closed, and they kept moving their
"
pavilion." He replied, O my friend, if he is called Darpa-
<;ata and he has no faults, I may surely see this lord of
elephants, will you take me to him, for I am overcome
1
From the mada or ichor exuding from the elephants' temples.
2
Kadall also means a '
4 '
Keen (or perhaps attenuated and so lacking) in pride.'
42
52 THE HARSA-CAR1TA.
1
Read lesakaih.
CHAPTER II. 53
elephant approaching, one of his tusks had its root wet with
spray from a thick piece of plaintain covered with leaves
which was enclosed in the trunk, the other seemed to have
dropped its bough and was as it were all horripilated with
the joy of battle from a quantity of lotus fibres which hung
from it in play. He appeared to vomit whole beds of
lotuseswhich he had eaten in his gambols in the lake,
through the bright colour of the two tusks together, and
spread his own glory through the four quarters of space ;
over with lines which the bees seem to be reading aloud. There is also
the usual pun in ddna as meaning " patches of ichor," and in vibhrama
'
as mistake and haste.' 2
' c
Or perhaps ice.' '
54 THE HAR^A-CARITA.
short but his life was long ; he was stinted in his belly but
1
Ayatavaifica can also suggest a
'
2
love of quarrels ,
a thunderbolt without rain in his sudden
3
attacks, a Makarapower to disturb armies a serpent
in his ,
1
i.e. 'elephants' or 'snakes.'
2
Narada is expressly called kalahapriya and kalikdraka. Several
instances of his mischief-making propensities occur in the Visnu
Purana.
3 Vahinl ' ' '
is a river as well as an army.'
4
Parinati also means power to ripen.' '
tusks.'
7
Or with loopholes from whence to discharge arrows.'
'
8
Bhunandana can also mean " the heavenly garden of the earth."
9
(^ringdra
means "love" and "the marks with red lead on an
elephant's head and trunk."
10
Naksatra has been used before as an elephant's ornament.
56 THE HARSA-CARITA. /
1
trees an unprecedented cold-season for the showers of dew,
,
1
Which is like that of the ichor.
2 The Kashmir edition rightly reads alikhatam.
3
Or even the elephants of hope in their minds.'
'
4
Or their bodies tall through exercise.'
'
5
Or of the pillars, shaped by tools and firmly set.'
'
6
Or 'rays.'
CHAPTER II. 57
vexation when even the mountains did not bow before him,
and so displayed the ocean of his beauty which was white like
sandal- wood, boiling as it were into foam through the heat of
his heroic passion, in his isolated sovereignty feeling indignant
that his own image should be repeated even in the reflections
on the crest jewels of the prostrate kings round his feet, and
keeping his Royal Glory continually sighing under the guise
of the wind of his chowries as she sat fuming with vexed
1
Cf. Eaghuv. xiii. 67. 2
As reflected ill the ten nails.
58 THE HAR$A-CARITA.
majesty :
abiding in the hearts of all the world and yet never
leaving his own proper place in his greatness, he was beyond
;
look of Avalokita 5 ,
the face of the moon and the hair of
Krisna. [80] His left foot was playfully placed on a large
costly footstool made of sapphires, girt round with a band of
1
Qri only from one ocean when she became Visnu's queen.
rose
2
Parityaktam be also taken as neuter with madhu.
may
3
The charioteer of the Sun, who was born without feet. Taking
the proper names as adjectives, it is to be read, " he has delicately pink
feet, slow gracefully-moving thighs, his forearm hard as the thunder-
bolt, a bull's neck, a bright round lip, a mild aspect, a moon-face and
black hair."
4
Represented as a bull.
6
A Bodhisattva who is especially worshipped in Northern Buddhism.
.
CHAPTER II. 59
iron age, while the surface of the ground was dyed by the
rays which fell on it; like the youthful Krisna when he
planted his foot on the circle of hoods of the serpent Kaliya,
he dignified the earth by the spreading rays Q his toe-nails,
white like fine linen, as with the tiara of His chief queen 1 .
1 2
Of. Bombay ed. p. 186, 8. For the pun see note supr. p. 18.
3
Each of these epithets applies to Vasuki's skin as well as to the
king's garment and so too
;
in the next sentence they similarly apply
to Kailasa as well as to the king's chest.
60 THE HAR^A-CARITA.
of stars. [81] He shone with his broad chest, like Kailasa with
a cliff of crystal, able to bear the shock of various armies,
1
too sturdy to be confined within the limits of its garment ,
and made smooth in spite of its hardness by the thousands
of elephants' tusks which had collided against it. His neck
was encircled fry a necklace of pearls like the serpent Qesa,
now sleeping peacefully in the sense of relief at depositing
the burden of the whole earth on his stalwart arm, or like
the dividing-line which draws the boundary between the re-
spective empires of Qrl and Sarasvati over his bosom and face.
His breast was wrapped in a fold of rays from the pearls in
his necklace as if it were a strip of cloth put on to signify
the solemn conferring as a special gift of all the property
2
gained during one's whole life he was like a jewel mountain,
;
with the red rays of the bracelets as if they were the paths
for the passage of the glory produced by his arm or the
continued streams of honey from the lotuses in the ears of
Qri as she lay on the pillow of his arm, or as if they were
other arms newly budding forth in rivalry of Visnu's four
arms. He at once destroyed the greatness of the four
2
The Comm. do^s not explain the ceremony which this refers to.
3 Cf. Wilson's Visnu Pur. vol. ii. p. 206.
4
Both being produced at the churning of the ocean.
CHAPTER II. 61
1
Cf. fvltam, Pers. i. 78.
2 '
Or like so many longing regrets rising in the mind.'
3
The Kashmir ed. reads raci-.
CHAPTER II. 63
1
Kona seems to mean here the 'bow of the lute and also 'an inter-
'
mediate direction of the compass for the empire.
2
As devoted to his lawful spouse, Empire ?
3
Vahinl means an army as well as the Ganges.
4
^antanu was the father of Bhisma by the goddess Gaiiga,
Visnu Pur. iv. 20.
5
Bhisma conquered his senses when he resigned the kingdom to his
half-brother's children.
6
Or more averse to desire.'
'
7
Or more certain to help suppliants.'
'
64 THE HARSA-CARITA.
justice, the seraglio of the fine arts all together, the ultimate
authority for defining good fortune, the final bath which
completes the rites of installation to all monarchs, the
grave and gracious, the awe-inspiring and affable, at the
same moment a holiday and a holy day, the universal
Monarch.
Having seen him, feeling, as it were, at once welcomed
and checked, full of desire and yet satisfied, with his face
horripilated with awe, and with tears of joy falling from his
eyes, he stood at a distance smiling in wonder and pondered,
"This then Emperor Qri Harsa, that union of
is the
separate glories, noble in birth and of well-chosen name,
the lord of the field bounded by the four oceans, the
enjoyer of all the fruits of Brahma's pillar, the world, the
Diva's
father-in-law.
3
Alluding to Indra's name gotrabhid.
4
Or '
sword-bearers.'
6
Or '
his darcana (system) has arthavdda.' Should we read
arthdpatti, as the Jainas do not accept this as a pramana ?
t CHAPTER II. 65
feet ever cut off are those in metre only chessboards teach ;
4
the positions of the four members ,' there is no cutting off
'
crooked like a lion's claws, held aloft, does not spare thee 5."
But when the king heard it and saw him, he asked,
filling the sky with his voice deep like the roar of a lion in a
1
I.e. the 64 kolas.
2
This is a double-meaning of the phrase yoga-pattakah ;
and so in
the other sentences.
3 Lit.
'
in collecting ichor
'
or '
in giving and taking.'
caturanga 'the four members of an army,' or Chess. The
4
Sc.
phrase may also mean the cutting off of the four principal limbs.
The lines can be also taken as a tacit rebuke to the luxurious
r>
Bana.
C. 5
66 THE HARSA-CARITA.
speech of the king and the courtiers were all dumb, Bana
"
replied, Why, my lord, do you thus address me, as if you
did not know my character and did not believe me, as if you
depended on others for guidance and did not understand the
ways of the world yourself? The nature and talk of people
will always be wilful and various but the great ought to see
;
studied the Veda with its six angas, and as far as I was able
I have heard lectures on the castras, and from my marriage
I have been a diligent householder; what signs have I of
1
2
Madhu means wine ' '
as well as '
honey.'
4 CHAPTER II. 67
day was now calm and its fierce blaze soft like polished brass,
and the sun 1 the diadem of the western mountain's crest, as
,
he the sky, was letting fall his rays like the sprays of the
left
2
Nicula tree the deserted cow-stations in the forests had
;
wandering during the day; the sun's round goblet for drinking
the evening libation of the western ocean was sinking covered
with a red glow as if it were plunged into a stream of
mineral veins in the western mountain ;
the religious mendi-
cants were intent on worshipping the shrines, having washed
their feet and hands in the outpour of their water-pots the ;
with the sacred grass spread round it, was blazing up,-
fire,
groves stood with their monkeys resting from all their tricks,
1
Read in the Bombay ed. maricimati.
2
A tree with scarlet myrtle-like flowers in long pendent racemes.
52
68 THE HARSA-CARITA.
and with the nests of the crows crowded with their inmates
1
fast asleep ;
the owls, settled in their huts in the hollow trunks
of old trees, were preparing to go out on an expedition; a
thick&r-host of stars was indenting the expanse of the sky,
like a quality of water-drops scattered at the time of the
evening worship by the thousand hands of the sages; the
crest of night floated over the sky like a mountaineer- woman's
stealing the intellect of all the world, the ladies had their
loins jingling with the girdles of many woven threads tied
1
The Comm. explains vidrdna as alasa, cf. p. 90, 1.
9, 230, 13, and
235, 16.
2
Taitt. Brahmana ii. 1, 2, 9 ; Raghuv. iv. 1.
3
The Yaksas or benevolent goblins who attend Kuvera are
4 *
so called. Vidrana.
4 CHAPTER II. 69
Here ends the second chapter entitled The Visit to the King of
the Harsa-Carita composed by Qri Bana Bhatta.
I
CHAPTER III.
devoted people 2 ,
the sky is like a whetted sword, the sun brilliant, the moon
at her clearest, tender the array of stars. The rainbow of
Indra fades, the girdling lightning is at rest, Visnu's sleep is
invaded 4 the waters run hued like lapis lazuli, the clouds
;
1
Or of the seasons 'bringing moisture by their rain.'
2
Or with people rich in rice.'
'
3
The wild geese fly to the hills when the inundations cover the
plains at the beginning of the rainy season, and they return in the
autumn.
4
Of. Wilson,
'
Hindu Theatre,' n. 197.
CHAPTER III. 71
i
soft the red lotus,the blue lotus exudes honey the water- ;
ablaze with opening night lotuses, grey are the wir^is with
1
Cf. Wilson, Hindu Theatre,' n. 196 n.
72 THE HARSA-CARITA. f
any case happy, but especially now that you, having cast
aside indolence, occupy a cane seat beside our sovereign
lord. All the ceremonies proper to Brahmans are fully
carried out as far as our powers and means permit and in
due season."
Mid such conversations asthese, court news, remembrances
of past boyish sports, and stories of the men of old he amused
himself with them for some time at length rising at noon,
;
2
he took a small light block of a few leaves, and read
with a chant the Purana uttered by Vayu, the rays of his
teeth seeming to cleanse the ink -stained syllables, and to
1
Which had been already read.
2
Literally
'
small door-panel,' from the shape.
o
o
CHAPTER III. 73
' 3
Itself sung by embracing the world,
sages, itself widespread ,
4
'Following the law of heredity free from discord, noised abroad ,
5
by its deeds including all India under its sway, ,
6
Issuing from a Crlkantha
'
this chant resembles the sove- ,
1
The Comm. explains gamakah as points '
of transition from note
'
to note ;
the Vacaspatya Diet, says svaro yo murchanam eti gamakah
sa ihocyate |Kampitah sphurito lino bhinnah sthavira eva ca \\
ahatan-
dolitau ceti gamakah sapta klrtitah. |
2
The couplet is replete with puns.
3
Or surpassing Prithu,' the primaeval king.
'
4
Or sound of the flute.'
<
5
Or 'with clear rhythm.' Bharatamargabhajanaguru contains a
punning ref. to (1) Bharata, the divine sage of music, (2) the Bharata-
'
varsa, India.'
6
I.e.
'
an honoured throat '
is the name of Harsa's
;
Crlkantha
ancestral kingdom.
7
This paragraph is full of untranslateable puns.
8
Each Veda being promulgated by a special mouth, see Visnu
Pur. i. v.
9
For the four Methods of Policy cf. Manu 7. 109 the compound :
4
Bana, the king of the twiceborn ravished his preceptor's
wife. Pururavas was severed from his beloved Ayus through
greed a Brahman's gold.
for Nahusa, lusting after another's
5
wife, became a great snake Yayati took upon himself to.
10
snakes, avoided not the Naga-girl A9vatara Prithu, that fine .
to control his passion for dicing 3 [99] was overcome f.-y Kali. ,
[100] Pandu in the midst of the woods lost his life, like a fish,
in the heat of passion 9 Yudhisthira, downcast through fear of
.
'
of Hosts has set at rest the moving partisan kings
12
. In him
1
Mah. xin. there a pun here, as also mean "a
vi. ;
is it may
confusion of colours."
2
Mah. i. clxxviii. Naraksita may go with Saudasa in the sense of
'
murderer.'
3
Or without control over heart and senses.'
'
4
Mah. I. clxxi. By a pun the author implies a weakness '
for his
friend's daughter.'
5 6
Or 'for beloved women.' By Jamadagnya.
7
Marutta wished to but Vrihaspati, the priest
offer a great sacrifice,
of the gods, refused to officiate, and he had to submit to many indig-
nities before he could secure the services of the Brahman Samvartaka
at Benares, see Mah. xiv. vi. vii.
8
For the legend of Qantanu's love for the goddess Gaiiga see
Mah. I. xcvi.-xcix. Fa Ami beside 'river' may also mean 'army.'
9
Mah. i. cxxv.
10
Drona, see Mah. vii. cxci. The truthful Yudhisthira is once
persuaded to prevaricate, when in order to stop Drona in his career of
victory he tells him that Asvatthaiuan has been killed, meaning an
elephant of that name and not Drona's sou. Drona had said that his
pupil Yudhisthira would never tell a lie even for the sovereignty of the
three worlds.
11
He proceeds to shew by a series of plays on words how Harsa
fulfils the feats of mythological heroes.
12
Or 'a Balajit (Indra) has fixed fast the winged in ountains.'
76 THE HARSA-CARITA. (
'
pounding a
loosene&,a king 3 from a circling trunk and abandoned an
elephant VNJn him a 'Lord' has anointed a young prince
5
.
'
'
'
him a Supreme Lord has taken tribute from an inaccessible
'
Let our Bhrigu race become even more pure by the purificatory
1
Or 'a Prajapati has set the earth upon the hoods of the serpent
esa.'
2
Or 'a Purusottama has obtained Laksml by churning the
ocean.'
3
The king's name was Qrikumara or Kumara Gupta. Harsa rescued
him when encircled in the trunk of a mad elephant, which he then
let loose in the woods. The words may also mean a Bali has set free '
the one hand you have a mere student's wit of an atom's capa-
1
Or reading rajarsivam$acaritapravanena hearing of the for-
'
sleep, waiting like lotus beds for the sunrise, curiosity made
the night wear but heavily away.
Awaking at the fourth watch of the night, the same bard
as before sang a couple of verses :
'
Inflamed by irritation in sleep, while small bits of chaff cling
to his moving eyelashes,
'
And his eye is uneasily smitten 1
by his tossing hoar-frost-scat-
tering forehead-tuft.'
every side its marches are packed with corn heaps, like ex-
3
temporized mountains, distributed among the threshing floors .
1
Should we read ahanyamanam 1
2
By reason of their sweetness, Comm.
3
But v. Comm. khaladJianadhamabhih Jchalapaldih
'
by the owners
of the threshing floors.'
4
Lit. 'To be cut with tears': the name denotes the excessive
tenderness of the grass (cf. Pan. ii. 1. 33).
80 THE HARSA-CARITA. {
1
men, in conduct spotless as the moon's rays, adorn it like
The Sanskrit has a play on the double sense of vrittam = (1) conduct,
1
c. 6
82 THE HARSA-CARITA.
3
Northern Kurus, with hundreds of great rivers uproarious
with tumult surpassing Tripura, as it were, in having all
;
6
minded; virgins, yet attached to worldly pomp dark, yet ;
7
possessed of rubies their faces are brilliant with white
;
1
There is a pun on mahisl, which means 'a crowned
queen' as
well as
'
a buffalo.' The paragraph contains many other puns.
2
The Bombay text reads vipaksa 'rival' for viksepa ('threat'?).
3
Or punningly
'
armies.'
4
Or punningly
'
ambrosia.'
5
Or punningly
'
wine 1 ;
their bodies are like crystal, yet their limbs are soft
as acacia flowers they are unattainable by paramours, yet
;
2
robed in bodices ;
wide are their beautiful hips, yet are
3 4
they possessed of thin waists ; lovely are they, yet honeyed
in speech ; they trip not, yet have a bright and captivating
they are without curiosity yet weded.
5 6
beauty ; ,
of greatness.
In that country there arose a monarch named Puspabhuti,
1
Or 'with faces pure as Brahmans, yet &c.', wine-drinking being
forbidden to Brahmans.
2
Or
punningly libidinous.'
'
3 Or
punningly 'far-famed as wives (Or 'having brilliant reti-
5
Or punningly 'they are flushed with wine.'
6
Or punningly the marriage thread.' '
62
84 THE HARSA-CARITA. (
4
ether-lijf.e in the noising abroad of his fame , moon-like in
6
his receptivity for arts 5 , Veda-like in truthful speech, earth-
like in [110] supporting all mankind, wind-like in sweeping
away the bad passions of all kings
7
,
a Guru in speech, a
Prithu in breast, a Vigala in intellect, a Janaka in asceticism,
8
kings.
"
This king, jealous of the saying this earth was made
a cow by Prithu," made the earth his queen
10
Now the .
minds of the great are naturally wilful and follow their own
lights. Wherefore from boyhood upwards he, untaught by
any man, entertained a great, almost inborn, devotion towards
1
Or of all colours.'
'
2
Or Laksrni.'
'
3 Or rectitude.'
'
4
Or manifesting sound,' which is the property
'
of akapa.
6 Or assemblage of digits.'
'
6 Or increate.'
'
7
Or 'all earthly dust.'
8
The name of a Bodhisattva, Comm.
9
Or perhaps in conquering Qurasena.'
'
10
Mahisl may also mean a buffalo-cow.'
'
CHAPTER III. 85
Thu s house by house the holy lord of the Cleaving Axe was
:
dropped a rain of dew from the milk used for bathing they ,
whirled along petals of Bel twig chaplets. [Ill] K' was with
giftsand presents customary in Qiva's worship that the king
was honoured by citizens, dependants, councillors, and neigh-
bouring sovereigns, whom his arm's might had conquered and
made tributary. Thus they gratified his heart with huge
:
2
Qiva bulls white as Kailasa's peaks, and ringed about their
1
I.e. bathing the god's image.
2
I.e. bulls let loose in honour of
Qiva.
8
It is difficult to see what this word means : the Comm. says
is a
mukhayuktah kopd mukhakofd ye lingopari diyante. Perhaps it
covering for wrapping the image of the linga.
4
The real overthrower of Daksa's sacrifice was Qiva himself.
86 THE HARSA-CARITA.
'
Where he/ the king with profound respect inquired,
is
and soon the king saw the ascetic enter, a tall fellow [112] with
arms extending to his knees, emaciated by a mendicant's life
yet from *he stoutness of the bones in his limbs appearing
fat, broad in he head, his forehead undulating with deep
wrinkles, fleshless hollows beneath his eyes, which were
round and ruddy as wine drops, his nose slightly curved,
one ear very pendulous, the rows of his prominent teeth
distinct as seeds in a gourd, his lip loose as a horse's, his jaw
'
'
north of yon old temple to the Mothers.' So he proceeded
to the place, dismounted, and entered the plantation.
In the midst of a great throng of recluses [116] he beheld
Bhairavacarya who on seeing him at a distance moved like
1
,
the ocean seeing the moon, and, after his disciples had first
risen, rose and went forward to meet the king. Having
presented a gift of Bel fruit, he pronounced a benediction in
tones deep as the roar of Ganges' flood when it was vomited
forth from Jahnu's ear.
The king, whose eyes, expanding their white in pleasure,
seemed to repay the lotuses many-fold, and whose brilliant
crest-jewel, declining upon his forehead, seemed to put forth
a third eye as a manifestation of Qiva's favour 2 repeated his ,
1
For the description of Bhairavacarya v. Appendix.
2
Qiva himself has a third eye in his forehead.
88 THE HARSA-CAR1TA.
i
seated, the nobles and retinue and also the students, he made
the customary offering of flowers and the like. In due course
captivated by the king's charm of manner, [117] he began to
speak, displaying teeth glittering like devotion to Qiva made
visible, and stainless as a piece of moonlight :
'
My son,
your exceeding condescension of itself proclaims the majesty
of your virtues. You are a vessel for universal good-fortune.
Your undertakings harmonize with your greatness. I from
birth upwards have never had regard to riches. This poor
person of mine therefore is not sold to wealth, that fuel to
the fire round of vice. My life is sustained by
of the whole
alms. A
few hard-won syllables of knowledge are mine. I
have some small store of merit acquired by humble service
of the holy Master Qiva. Be pleased to appropriate whatever
of this deserves to be of service. Like flowers, the minds of
1
the good can be bound by very slight ties Moreover good .
1
Manu xn. 60.
2
There is a punning reference to the notion of '
sword-edge water.'
3
Himsa wife of Adharma.
4 Musti may also mean '
hilt.' There is also a reference to a demon
of that name.
90 THE HARSA-CARITA.
'
Inform his reverence that, though too practised in the art of
scorning the acceptance of other people's property, my mind
is unable in his case to commit the impropriety .of going
trunk, take Attahasa and for one night become the bolt of
one quarter of the heavens.'
To this speech the king, delighted, like one in darkness
1
We " with his hand which
might, however, translate embracing it
favour, replied : I ;
1
Tri9anku is
suspended in the southern heavens, see Ramay. I. 60.
94 THE HARSA-CARITA. ,
ground.
Never before had the king heard himself reviled. His
limbs, albeit unwounded, poured forth a stream of furious
sweat, water of the sword-edge, as it were, drunk in many a
battle. His hair bristled like an array of arrow heads shot
out in hundreds to lighten him for the fray. Even Attahasa,
mirroring the constellations, seemed to proclaim his un-
bending spirit by a contemptuous smile showing clearly a
row of white teeth. As his hands moved restlessly in the
1
An Indian challenge to combat.
CHAPTER III. 95
1
The night-lotus would close in the absence of the moon.
06 THE HARSA-CARITA.
bust with its prominent bosoms was like the sky displaying
the sky- elephants' frontal bones, and across her bosom, like
the dew on the trunk of Airavata in his time of rut, lay a
necklace with lustrous pearls like stars of autumn. Swayed
like white chowries by her soft, soft breathing, the light of
the necklace seemed to fan her. Her hands bore a naturally
rosy tint, as if they had caught a vermilion tinge from slap-
2
ping the forehead of a rut-blinded scent elephant Her .
3
flashing ear-ring shone like the second half of Hara's crest
the moon, curved to a circle. Clinging about her ear was an
ornament of Apoka shoots like a cluster of the Kaustubha's
brightness. Her forehead lacked not a great sectarial line
dark as elephant's ichor, like an unseen umbrella's circular
shadow 4 . Moon- white sandal, like the glory of the kings
of old, brightened her form from hair-parting to feet.
Flowery wreaths, dangling from her throat and kissing the
ground, flowed over her like rivers finding their repose in
5
ocean Limbs soft as lotus fibres voicelessly proclaimed her
.
lotus birth.
'
Who art thou, lady ?
'
2
Laksml's elephant is referred to. The gandhadvipa is a particularly
powerful kind of elephant.
3
Civa wears a crescent moon this was the second or absent half.
4
The umbrella being a sign of sovereignty. Mada is described as
dark like Tamala shoots in Kadambar! p. 243 I. ; tamala-pallava-rasa-
fydmena madajalena.
6
I.e. as if they were the rivers which had flowed into the ocean from
affection 1
;
if I
'
superfluous
say mymake life is yours,' 'tis ;
'
this poor body your own' would imply the creation of an un-
' '
;
heart remains with you
my '
mere reiteration ;
Here ends the third Chapter entitled The Exposition of The King's
Ancestry of the Harsa-Carita composed by Cri Bana Bhatta.
1
A reference to the shape of the constellation, i.e. Capricorn, Comm.
According to the Comm. he first makes the ascetic's friends bathe
2
but came to be the name for the collection of Welsh heroic legends.
72
CHAPTER IV.
populous
There arises but one like to Prithu, causing all monarchs 4 to
shake !
From 5
this Puspabhuti there issued a line of kings, as
from Visnu a lotus whose calix the best of the twice-born
6
voluntarily occupied as from the ocean a treasure of jewels
,
1
Or punningly strategy.'
'
2
Or grasping of taxes.'
'
3
There is a pun on pratimd = (l) likeness, (2) the space between
the tusks in an elephant's mouth. Ganesa has only one tusk.
4 Or 'mountains.'
5
Only a 'smalL '}art of the puns in this paragraph is susceptible of
trapj^iojii. The w>rds for Visnu ('lotus-eyed'), ocean ('collection of
'jewels'), Orient Mou\it ('source of greatness'), might of Sagara ('one
mighty as Sagara'), Uiira ('hero') may all apply to Puspabhuti, the
others similarly to the race.
Or whose treasures were grasped at will by the best of the twice-
'
Acworth's '
Maratha Ballads,' p. 43 :
'
And 'twixt the teeth a straw is fit
1
Or '
their vacant hearts.'
-
His ministers were gems reflecting his greatness.
3
Or punningly '
his hand's grasp.'
4
Sudhd = (l) stucco, (2) ambrosia.
5 is a hut erected on the sacrilicial ground
Pragvamcahpatiiicdh'i
for the sacrificer's family.
6
The Sonpat seal has Yacowatl.
7
I.e. she was sati (l) noble, (2) cobkunCt
'
blonde,' whereas Parvatl's
other incarnation was
'
<;y<~i.m<~t
brunette.'
CHAPTER IV. 103
glancing eyes
1
like the moon's Rohim, mother of all her
1
Or punningly 'stars.'
2
Or mountains.'
'
3
Or visiting Manasa.'
'
4
Or schools
' '
the Triad : is the three Vedas.
5
Or clouds.'
'
6
He is the inventor of palmistry : a literalrendering would be in
'
' '
Cloudless rain is a synonym for a marvel.' Comm. '
104 THE HAKSA-CARITA.
I
So it
happened that on the occasion of one hot season the
king slept on his palace roof white with stucco spotless as
the moon-light and the queen lay on a second couch at his
;
1
On the Sonpat seal Harsa attaches the epithet param&dityabhak-
tali to his father, brother, and other members of the family.
2
There is a pun on anurakta = (I) devoted, (2) reddened.
3
Of. Weber Ind. Stud. ix. 91.
4
I.e. 'rays.'
5
I.e. the personified beauty of his face.
CHAPTER IV. 105
family goddesses, and the servants who slept near were all
awake. So now that the alarm which had made her heart
I know now,
'
tremble had subsided, the queen replied :
t
106 THE HARSA-CARITA.
<
world revealed !
Or punuingly
1 '
to clip the wings of all mountains,' referring to
a feat of Indra.
a
Or ' mountains.'
108 THE HARSA-CARITA.
into her face for her bosom's supply, her eye, long, moist 2 and
upon her to bathe even in the united waters of the four great
your majesty, you are blessed with the birth of a second sou,'
and carried off the customary festal spoil 2 .
1
Vividhosadhidharas applies also to the mountains. So also pra-
castaratnani in seqq. has a twofold application.
2
For purnapatra the Comm. quotes
anandado hi sauhardad etya vastrddikam baldt \
Steeds 6.'
Instantly unblown horns rang out spontaneously loud and
sweet. Unbeaten boomed the consecration drum deep as the
roar of oceans in turmoil. Unstruck the auspicious tabors
pealed. Like a timbrel proclaiming security to all the world,
the tabor's echo thrilled through the aerial spaces. Tossing
their manes, the horses neighed with joy, while their muzzles
were graced by wisps of green Durvci sprays which they
haughtily took. Sportively uplifting their trunks as if
dancing, the elephants trumpeted in sounds grateful to the
ear. Soon a heavenly breeze, fragrant with perfumes of wine,
blew like a sigh of Laksmi letting fall the disc 7 In the courts .
1
For the Bhojakas or Magas see Wilson's Visnu P. (Hall's ed.),
vol. v. p. 382.
2
These are Bharata, Arjuna, Mandhatri, Bhagiratha, Yudhisthira,
Sagara, Nahusa.
3
The signs are peculiar formations in hands, feet, &c.
4
The six great jewels are enumerated in the verse
manyacvakaricakrdni vara strl parinayakah \
nuts and tufted with slim Khadira fibres dripping mango oil ;
1
Brahmamukhas has two senses, (1) as in text, (2) 'headed by
Brahma.' There are other puns in addition.
2 Cf. Carlyle, Frederic, n. 195.
3
JatamatridevatdmarjarananCi bahuputraparivdrasfttikagrihe sthap-
yate. Comm. the tutelary deity of a new mother, with a cat's face and
'
7
Read -vltikuvltakdmcca. explained by B. and R. as cut
1 '
\ ltilca is
areca nuts in cube form covered with roots and folded in a betel leaf.'
2 Read caranakuttana- in place oicaraiian! h/ftana-.
3
Literally 'possessing a Qiva (Attalutsa "the God of the loud
laugh") in its booming drums.'
4
Or punningly '
manes.'
5
Their eyes are compared to the spots of the antelope.
CHAPTER IV. 113
string drums were belaboured, the low gourd lute sang, gently
boomed the kahalas with their brazen sounding boxes, while
all the time a subdued
clapping proceeded. Even the clank
of jingling anklets kept time pace by pace, as if intelligent, with
the clapping. Whispering softly, like cuckoos, in low passion-
ate tones, they sang the words of vulgar mimes, ambrosia to
their lovers' ears. Wreaths were about their brows, and
chaplets round their ears, upon their foreheads sandal marks.
With upraised creeper-like arms, vocal with rows of bracelets,
they seemed to embrace the very sun. Like Kashmir colts,
they leapt all
aglow with saffron stains*. Great garlands of
amaranth hung down upon their round hips, as if they were
ablaze with passion's flame. Their faces, marked with rows of
vermilion spots, seemed to wear the rubric of the edict plates
of Love, [146] whose ordinances none may resist. Dusty
were they with camphor and perfumes scattered in handfuls,
3
like roads frequented by the desires of youth. Like women
chamberlains of a children's festival, they lashed the young folk
1
=the world.
2
As applied to the colts kunhmapramristi means
'
rolling in saf-
fron.'
3 '
Lit. mind-chariots.'
C.
} 8
114 THE HARSA-CAR1TA.
marks' and 'earrings' may be for the sake of the simile translated
'
bunches of leaves.'
2
Or punningly of hamsas.' '
3
Or punningly with the ketak'is
'
the booming of clouds.'
4 Or '
magicians.'
5 It is a great cause of congratulation when a Hindu grows fat,
they hold itimplies a virtuous life and a good conscience.
6
The Bombay text has vilesur for virejur.
CHAPTER IV. / 115
1
with hamsas plucking at forests of blue lotuses Others, from .
2
whose tripping feet trickled a dew of lac-reddened sweat
that besprinkled the palace hanisas, resembled moonlight
nights when the twilight casts a glow upon the moon's disk.
Others, with brows curved in derision at the contortions of
chamberlains bending beneath golden girdles placed about
their necks, seemed love-nets with outstretched arms for
toils.
82
116 THE HARSA-CARITA.
3
spring to woodrows with their limbs all fair with flowers, [149]
as the sky to the shower of wealth flashing with grains of
wild-goose's.'
3
Or tender as flowers.'
'
4
Sahasraksa is also a name of Indra, '
for the God of the Thousand
Eyes.'
5
Or 'kings.'
CHAPTER IV.
/ 117
t
junction ;
fit to bear the yoke of the Krita age, like two great
bulls; like Aruna and Garuda, borne on horses and well-propor-
tioned 4 ;
likeIndra and Visnu, with the gait of elephants 5 ;
like Kama and Arjuna, bedecked with ring and diadem; like
the eastern and western heavens, capable of procuring the
uprising and setting of all great lights. In their over-
1
For the simile cf. Raghu- V. x. 78.
2
Or with
'
tall Sal trees.'
3 Few of the puns in this paragraph can be represented in transla-
tion. The word abhirdmadurnirlksyau may also be taken with fire and
'
wind.'
4
Referring to Aruna and Garuda the compound harivdhanavibliak-
tacanrau will mean having their bodies divided in
'
;
118 THE HARSA-CARITA.
c
averted from the light they blushed that even their reflec-
;
the coward breaking even of one of their hairs; they felt shame
at the second umbrella mirrored in their crest-jewels. The
2
name of master, even as given to the Six-faced God grated ,
3
Glory was carried away by a mountain (Mandara) they ;
4
sneered at the potent wind that wore no warlike shape It .
1
Comp. Dryden, 'Cooped up he seemed in earth and seas confined.'
may mean
' '
Jtfdna size,' as well as pride.'
2
Kartikeya.
3 At the churning of the ocean : otherwise '
whose glory was
carried off by kings.'
4
Or made no
'
war.'
5 A pun on chdyd, as meaning shadow and splendour.'
' ' '
6
Or punningly even upon the temperate their lips, though they
'
I
CHAPTER IV. / 121
/
frame he seemed to wear down the very n^ountains. His
happy graciousness was as if he were selling to joy the
people whom he purchased by his look.
Behind him came his younger brother Madhavagupta,
who for height and dignity 1 resembled a moving realgar
mountain. In the guise of a low topknot of Mdlatl flowers
2
great glory seemed to be imprinting upon his head a father's
kiss at going forth. His meeting brows seemed to bespeak
the late union of those irreconcilables, youth and decorum.
With profound gravity he kept his gaze fixed, like his loyal
devotion, upon his heart. Cooled by a smearing of the
purest sandal paste and provided with a pillow in the shape
of his necklace, his breast was like a broad slab of moonstone
for glory to rest upon when wearied by her round of brief
visits tonumberless rival kings. He had the eye of a
gazelle, the nose of a boar, the broad shoulders of a buffalo,
the forearm of a tiger, the prowess of a lion, the gait of an
yellowness.'
2
Gurund = (1) great, (2) father.
3 Sc. thfir knees and hands.
122 \ THE HARSA-CARITA.
a care to us.'
bestowal, the king sent for his sons and acquainted them also
with his purpose. Then on a day of good omen, in the
presence of the whole royal household, he poured the
betrothal water upon the hand of an envoy extraordinary,
who had arrived previously with instructions from Graha-
varman to sue for the princess.
He
having gleefully departed with his mission
[157]
accomplished, the royal household, as the marriage days
drew near, assumed an aspect brilliant, charming, exciting,
and auspicious. All the world bedecked itself with betel,
roofs were covered all over with garments, and posts swathed
in strips of variegated silk all these gave to the court an
;
groom, her love with her daughter, her attentions with the
invited ladies, her injunctions with the servants, her body
distance,
'
and not with what follows karbura may mean yellow or golden.' ' ' '
:
For the 'yellow' cf. Psalm 68. 13 Sept. Trrepuye? Trfpiarfpas irepiijp-
:
CHAPTER IV. / 127
y
time the bridegroom drew nigh. Before him with red gold-
studded chowries incessantly flashing ran footmen, like desires
with the topmost shoots of passion standing out. The horizon
was filled with troops of horses, which were welcomed, as it
seemed, by answering neighs from the prick-eared steeds of
the capital. Throngs of mighty elephants with chowries
waving at their ears, arrayed in trappings all of gold,
with gay housings and twanging bells, seemed to re-form
the darkness dissolved by the rising moon. He came
mounted on an elephant whose muzzle was bedecked with
a zodiac of pearls 2 even as the lord of night rides the eastern
,
2
Naksatramald = (1 ) the moon's asterisms,'
' '
(2) a string of 27 pearls.'
3
Beast and Man in India, p. 225
Cf. Kipling, In Western India:
'
the bridegroom rides, covered with tinsel and gay clothing, in the midst
of a moving square of artificial flowers and bushes, counterfeiting a
garden, borne on long platforms on the heads of coolies.'
128 \ THE HARSA-CARITA.
i
y
to behold his Yew bride's countenance, he appeared almost to
fall forward on liis face.
On his arrival at the gate the king and his sons, accom-
panied by their royal retinue, went forth on foot to meet him.
Dismounting he bowed, and the king with outstretched
arms gave him a hearty embrace, like Spring embracing
Kama. Next in order he embraced Rajyavardhana and
Harsa, and the king, taking him by the hand, led him
within doors, where he honoured him with a seat equal to
his own and with other attentions.
Soon Gambhlra, a wise Brahman attached to the king,
'
said to My son, by obtaining you Rajya9rl
Grahavarman,
has at length united the two brilliant lines of Puspabhuti and
Mukhara, whose worth, like that of the Sun and Moon houses,
1
is
sung by all the world to the gratification of wise men's ears .
2
Previously you were set fast by your merits on the king's
breast, like the Kaustubha jewel on Visnu's. [162] But
now you are one to be supported, like the moon by Qiva, n
his head.'
Even while he spoke, the astrologers, approaching the king,
said, Your majesty, the moment approaches let the bride-
'
:
1
Or of Budha, the regent of Mercury and son of the moon, and
'
the moon when near eclipse 1 Her body was white with sandal,
.
jewel, the moon, wine, the tree of paradise, and ambrosia, she
seemed a second Qrl formed by the ocean in his rage with
gods and asuras [163] The soft light of an earring produced
2
.
c. 9
130 THE HARSA-CARITA.
god of love aiming his shaft, the arrow drawn to the string,
and a third of his eye sideways closed. A fair well-upholstered
1
So the Kashmir and Bombay texts and the commentator. The
Calcutta text has amairamukhaih '
goblet-mouths.'
2
The Bombay and Kashmir texts read -mut-, 'spoons,' 'ladles,
a j ao vhich
seems preferable.
3 The nails represent the teeth shown in smiling.
CHAPTER IV. 131
/
bed with pillows was guarded on the one p^ae by a golden
rinsing vessel, on the other by a golden figure holding an
ivory box, like LaksmI incarnate with an upright lotus stalk
in her hand. At the bed's head stood a night bowl of silver
bedecked with lotuses, like the moon come to join company
with the flowery god. *
There, while the bashful young bride slept with her face
averted, the bridegroom spent the night in gazing at her im-
ages in the mirrors of the jewelled walls, like family goddesses
come in curiosity to hear their first words and seen through
jewelled .loopholes. Abiding in his new father's house, by his
noble nature raining ambrosia as it were upon his new
mother's heart, he spent ten blissful days, ever varying with
continually renewed tokens of favour and then, leaving regret
;
like a palace porter behind, [165] and taking all men's hearts
with him like provisions named in the dowry, he managed to
secure his dismissal from the king and set out with his bride
to his native country.
9-2
CHAPTER V.
specting none.
1
Cf. Visnu Pur. vol. n. pp. 133, 134.
2
Or perhaps anxious
'
(for their proteges).'
3
This is a sign of near fulfilment.
CHAPTER V. 133
'
1
The right would have foretold good news.
-
The darkcolour symbolizes the bad news.
134 THE HARSA-CARITA.
V
though overweighted by the purport committed to the letter.
[168] One mightfbompare him to a fragment of a black cloud
soon to let fall a thunderbolt of ill-news, a smoke whorl of a
fireof sorrow soon to blaze, a seed of a paddy of sin soon to
bear its harvest a very courier of ill-omen.
;
1
An oblation to propitiate adverse planets.
2
Qiva. The Bombay text reads Ahirbudhna.
3
Amarddako VetCilo^ liaudradevatiiblieda ity anye. Comni.
4
Kailagcandra Datta reads -dntra-
'
entrails of a sacrificed animal,'
for -bdhuvapra-.
136 THE HARsA-CARlTA.
,
1
The Kashmir text, however, and Kailac. read adhikaraih ('rule')
for dhikkaruih.
2
Yamapattaka one who exhibits pictures of Hades.' Of. Kipling
'
'Beast and Man in India' p. 123: 'One of the most popular of the
pictures sold at fairs is a composition known as Dkarmraj, a name of
Yama, the Hindu Pluto, and also broadly for Justice. The Judge is
enthroned and demon executioners bring the dead to receive their doom.
The river of death flows on one side of the picture and those go safely
across who hold a cow by the tail, while others are torn by terrible
fishes. Chitragupt, the clerk or recording angel of Yama, considered to
be the ancestor of the kayastk or clerkly caste, sits in an office with
account books exactly like those of a Hindu tradesman, and according
to the record of each soul, punishments or rewards are given. ..Duts or
executioners torture offenders, while the blest sail upwards in air-borne
chariots.'
CHAPTER V. 137
ing the household, completing the rites fof keeping out the
spirits by offerings. Earnest Brahmans were occupied in
muttering Vedic texts; [171] (Diva's temple resounded with
the murmur of the Hendecad 4 Rudra
(^aivas of great holi-
to ;
eating, and sleeping had become mere names to them, and their
clothes were foul from neglect of the toilet, while they passed
Diva's thousand
milk vessels.' Virupdksa=*
Qiva,
because of his third^ eye.
138 THE HARSA-CARITA.
i
sorrow ;
the court poets had laid aside their glee confiden- ;
stand stood a sand jar for the sick man's eyes 1 to rest upon ;
but black death was uprooting him, as the black demon" up-
rooted Kailasa. As they touched him, the hands of the
attendants engaged in ceaselessly smearing him with sandal
were as white in the palm as if turned to ashes by contact
with his burning limbs: while in the guise of the sandal
1
For -iintaracaksusi read -iituracaksu$i with Kailacc. In the next
Kailacc. reads -galagolayantrake coiled round tlie neck of
'
compound
'
a globe for -galadgolayantrake.
Or, if we omit pita with Kailac. and take ma3dra = nllamani, 'a
a
sapphire cup.'
3
Literally 'wavy.'
Ksayahlle = (l) at doomsday,
* death.
(2) at his
5
Or 'pearls, sand, and dust.'
DofHnano vddkikRdifCuaca,
. Comm. The demon is Ravaua.
140 THE HARSA-CARITA.
r
1
ointment his abiding glory seemed to be saying farewell on his
departure to another sphere. Incessantly applied petals of
red, white, and blue lotuses seemed to blot his body with the
1
Sthamuna abiding = (1)
'
'
1
sickness, dandled by death, the target of the south quaffed ;
putting out his arms, half rose from the couch, calling to him
'
Come to me, come to me.' When the prince hastily drew
1
The region of the god of death.
J
Kail&9c. reads parikalpitam for parikalitam. Not so the Kashmir
text.
1
Kail^c. reads praiftsasya 'journey' for prayasasya.
9 \
\ .
low ; then, having greeted his mother, returned and sat down
near the couch, where his father gazed upon him with eyes
that seemed to drink him in with their fixed unblinking look.
sickness, 'My boy,' he said, 'you are thin.' Whereat Bhancli ex-
plained that it was three days since the prince had taken food.
At this the king, after a long sigh, found strength to say
in tear-choked accents 'I know, my boy, your filial love and
:
3
exceeding tender heart. At times
overmastering, like this
'
1
All these images suggest '
coolness or relief from the heat of the
fever.
2
Head apasritya with Kail^c.
3 '
Kaila9c. reads
'
Idricesu vidhuresu '
in such afflictions as this.'
4
Kaila9C. reads phalam asyuneka, explaining ast/a as
= afr//i.
CHAPTER V. 143
I
you, who through the merits of a whole people are born for
the protection of all the earth, fathers are j>mere expedient
to bring you into being. In their people, not in their kin,
are kings rich in relatives. Rise therefore, and once more
attend to all the needs of life. Not till
you have eaten will I
1
myself take my diet.'
At
these words the flame of sorrow blazed up still more
fiercely in the prince's heart, as if to consume it. One short
2
moment he paused, and then being again charged by
his father to take food, he descended from the White House
with these thoughts in his mind This great crash 3 has :
'
2
punah punar again and again.'
'
Kaila9<5. reads
3
Mahapralayo om. Kailac.
4
Prakriti, as the comm. observes, is an ominous word, implying
'ante-natal state.'
144 THE HARSA-CARITA.
thing at all
'With the beauty of the red-lotus pools the sun hies himself
to Sumeru's peak.'
2
brisk breeze with a cloth, Patalika assuage the heat with !
1
Yathavasthitam masculine = 'the king's real
may however be
'
condition so Kaila9c. trans. in the comm. he gives prakritam.
:
;
3 Lit.
'imprison my runaway head.' Kail^c. notes a var. lee.
badhamanam.
CHAPTER V. 145
stories,KumudvatI !'
1
The Kashmir text reads prasthanisthuraih, perhaps to be taken
as one word, 'bent on departing' Kaila$c. has prasthah for pranah.
:
king's death.
Thus first the earth, heaving in all her circle of great
:
1
I.e. were non-existent.
2
The Kiddcala's are seven in number, viz. Mahendra (the Northern
parts of the Ghats), Malaya (the Western Ghats), Sahya (Northern parts
of Western Ghats), of Gond-
(^uktimat (doubtful), Riksaparvata. (Mts.
wana), Vindhya, Pdriyatra (Central or Western Vindhya).
3
Or 'seeking (another) Dhanvantari' to heal the king. Read
Dhanvantarer with Kailagc., who also has ature tasmin for antare
tasmin. Dhanvantari was produced at the churning of the Ocean.
CHAPTER V. 147
1
The quarters of the heavens are compared to wives fearing for
their husband's death. Widows wear braided hair. VitatacikhikalCipa-
may punningly mean curly and long
'
vikatakutiliih as a peacock's out-
spread tail.'
2 '
There are puns in -prastidhitah (also decked in the king's splen-
'
dour ') and anuraktdh (' red and devoted '). '
;
while in a blindness of tears she
seemed to learn the way from tame cranes screeching in answer
to the girdle, which as she stumbled rang upon her broad hips.
Her forehead having been cut in collisions with unnoticed
wiping away her hot tears. The people near her, imaged in
her cheek, she seemed to bathe in her eyes' broken cascade,
as if they were soon to enter the fire of sorrow. Under the
quivering rays that issued from her restless eyes the very
1
In times of misfortune the hair of the family goddesses is supposed
sometimes to smoke the smoke is the dishevelled hair.
;
2
A form of Durga the name (Kdlardtri= Night of Doom ') is
:
'
2
Tulita is supported by the alliteration :
Railage, has akulita
'
dumbfounded.'
3
Sanupuraravena strlcaranenCibhitddanam dohadam yad a$okasya
'
'
tatah puspodgamo bhaved ap. Kailagc. Of. Malavikagn. in.
*
I.e. the jcdanjali offered at a funeral.
150 THE HARSA-CARITA.
1
With reference to Sita '
before
'
= '
in presence of.'
2
Satis are burnt in all their ornaments. Kaila^c. reads avidkava
'
she fell at the feet even of rival queens to even the painted :
she clasped her hands to the very brutes she said farewell
: :
Mother,' cried the prince while still afar, his eyes filling
with tears, do you also abandon hapless me ? Be merciful
'
-
152 THE HARSA-CAR1TA.
i
pent up, could not in spite of all her efforts check the
torrent of her weeping. Her bosom heaved convulsively,
betraying the resistless will of grief: her throat was choked
distressfully with sobs her lip quivered with exceeding
:
her eyes, she deltiged her clear cheeks with flowing rills of
tears then raising her face a little, she covered it with the
:
recurred to home and kin, full oft she moaned, calling aloud
upon her parents, 'Mother! father! look not upon me as a
sinner that in my sore affliction I have set out for the other
'
world': crying to her dear elder son far away, Alas darling !
'
you now :
reproaching fate,
'
Merciless power, how have I
offended?': inveighing in various
ways against herself, 'No
woman has had such an evil portion as I suddenly reviling
'
death, !
1
Muktakantham '
uncontrollably.'
2
Insert ca with Kaiha9c.
3
Or simply '
in torrents.' The rays are the white tears.
4
-tdra- is omitted by Kaila^c. v
CHAPTER V. 153
>
back with her hand a shawl which, being wet and filled with
a torrent of tears, had somewhat slipped : bathed her lotus
face, whose beauty, marked with thin red lines impressed by
the shawl's hem, wore a rippled appearance, with water
poured from a silver flamingo-mouthed vessel tilted by a
hunchbacked girl 1 wiped her hands on a white cloth held by
:
mutes 2 stood for some time with her eyes fixed immoveably
:
upon her son's face, and then after many long sighs spoke.
'
It is not, dear, that you are unloved, without noble
the heads of rival wives have these feet been set ; they have
been adored with diamond-wreaths of diadems by the bending
matrons of a whole capital. Thus every limb has fulfilled its
mission I have spent my store of good works, what more
:
1
Cambhund tu hate kdme tatpatnl ratisaujititd
Mwnoha purato dristvd patim bhasmdvacesitam \\
! ^
CHAPTER V. 155
Having embraced her son and kissed his head, the queen
went forth on foot from the women's quarter, and, though
the heavens, filled with the citizens' lamentations, seemed to
block her path, proceeded to the Sarasvati's banks. Then,
having worshipped the fire with the blooming red lotus
posies of a woman's timorous glances, she plunged into it, as
the moon's form enters the adorable sun. The other, distracted
at his mother's death, departed 'mid a throng of kinsmen
to his father's side, and found him with his vital forces
ling away.
The
king, whose eyes were closing recovering conscious-
1
,
1
But the commentator explains uparudhyamanadristir as having '
moonlight.
'
'
involved in the taking of the king's life, he now bent low his
face. As if scorched within by a fire of sorrow for the
monarch's decease, he assumed a coppery hue. Slowly,
slowly he descended from the heavens, as if in compliance
with earthly usage to pay a visit of condolence. As
though to present drew
an oblation of water to the king, he
1
Like an ascetic. <
CHAPTER V. 157
1
The puns here turn on the various meanings of chayd (V) bright-
ness, (2) shadow, and cyamd = (l) black, (2) lady. The puns require
the reading parivritta- for parivrita- the shadows have retraced their :
course eastwards.
cf. Comm. vanam
2
Or ' vicinity of the woods '
to view.'
Or with the night '
black in its quarters as aloe wood.'
7
'Beauteous night lotuses' may also punningly mean 'night
ivory-petalled buds ( = buds with petals white
' ' '
lotuses like Satis :
'
as ivory ')
also means '
ehrrings of ivory.'
158 THE HARSA-CARITA.
the living has reached its goal a chasm sunders the progress
:
Civi gave up a part of his own flesh to save a pigeon from a hawk.
1
which follows upon 77 years, months, and days,' or, according to the
'
commentator, a river in hell.'
3
Sc. as at a funeral.
4
The words samaprayatu
rdjyaprir acramapadam are, as Kaila^c.
observes, ominous of Mdjyacrl's fortunes, since they may also mean let
'
R. flee to a hermitage.'
CB AFTER V. 159
1
the earth array herself in two white robes let merriment wear ,
[191] Even in another birth might I but clasp again those arms
more massive than pillars of steel Even in another world !
might but hear his voice, deep as the roar of the churned
I
" "
Milk Ocean, calling me son in accents like a torrent of
ambrosia.'
While the prince was engaged in these and other medi-
tations, the night drew drearily enough to a close. Anon
the cocks began to clamour wildly, as if in grief. The
courtyard peacocks precipitated themselves from the tops of
the trees on the garden mounts 3 The birds, forsaking their
.
6
wild elephants, their humps covered with mountain minerals ,
had set out towards divers pools, rivers, and fords. Like a
1
Sc. like a widow.
2
Or of the lotus' buds.'
3 Or for the sake of the implied simile 'houses, hills and trees.'
4
Or punningly '
self-love.'
5
Read samucclyamandsu with Kailac. Prabhatasamayena may
also be translated '
(asthicayana).
6
Or punningly 'paving p t, s filled with the king's ashes.'
160 THE HARSA-CARITA.
*
had mounted the heavens, and like the sovereignty, the course
of night had changed.
Roused by the appeals of groups of wise kings, like the
lotus bedsby awaking flamingos, my lord Harsa started up, and
passed with eyes aflame out of the palace. In the women's
apartments only a few sorrow-stricken chamberlains were
left, and the domestic hamsas were dumb and inert now
that the tinkle of anklets had ceased. In the court 4
stood his father's servants, like a herd of wild elephants
whose leader is fallen. Near his post the king's sorrowing
elephant lay motionless and dull with his rider weeping on
his back. [192] The royal steed occupied the stable yard, as
might be known from the lamentations of the marshal. In
5
'
lotus and rivetted to the end of his nose, seemed vomiting forth
his sorrow's flame for fear of burning his father, who now
1
Or with the moon ' pale as a ball of pure white wax.' Kailafc.
'
inserts parvctryam at night.'
3
ridrana, as before,
'
=
stupefied.' Prosita may perhaps go with
purandhri, if on pp. 149 sqq. all the queens enter fire.
3
Read rajamva (for rajatlva) with Kaila?c.
4
Kaksya may also denote the elephant's girth cord so Kailagc. :
survived only in his heart, and his lower lip, though unstained
by betel and now for a long time washed dean, yet, being
naturally red as a spray of the tree of Paradise, appeared by
its colour, asthe hot sighs came forth, to emit lumps of flesh
and blood from a cloven heart.
On the same day the king's favourite servants, friends, and
ministers, whose hearts were held tight by fhe bonds of his
many virtues, went forth, and in spite of the remonstrances
of tearful friends, abandoned their loved wives and children.
Some consigned themselves 1
to precipices: some stationed
themselves at holy fords in the neighbourhood. Some in
agony of heart spread couches of grass, and quieted their
great sorrow by abstinence from food some, beside them-
:
tearing off their crest jewels, bound the ascetic's knot upon
their heads, and made
Qiva their refuge others [193] by
:
1
For babandhuh Kaila9c. has babhanjuh. For the custom cf.
Dac.ak. Purvapithikd ucchvds. 4 sub init.
2
Or as the commentator (pindakdih'farirdih) suggests 'with
emaciated frames.'
3 '
Lit. with prominent veins.'
4 '
brim with a flood of tears, may he yet look upon the lordless
1
Whence the contagion of governing it would excite disgust.
2
Kaila9c. here inserts adhigatanikhilajinavacanaviditavipantabha-
vasthitayo dharmadegandpatlydmsah pdrd$arinah 'mendicants skilled
in inculcating Dharma and acquainted by knowledge of Buddha's
teaching in full with the contradictions in men's notions of life.'
3 Here Kailacc. has in place of munayah 'samdpritdh sandbhayah
' '
slight the advances of sovereign glory All aflame with the fire !
4
possess such a stately frame, tall as a golden palm such a ,
Here ends the fifth chapter entitled The Death of The Great King
of the Harsa-Carita composed by Qri
Bana Bhatta.
2 '
Remember me '
Kailagc. (trans.).
3
For '-fldghaya mam' Kailagc. reads -claghayam. The Kashmir
text has the unintelligible -$laghay& mam.
4
Kailac. reads punah (sic) vapuh kancanatalatarupramgupramanam
for punah kancanatalatarupramgu kayapramanam. The Kashmir text
112
CHAPTER VI.
1
Read nripatilcata- with the Kashmir text for nnpanikata-.
2
Bead kalpitagokaqalyesu with the Kashmir text. The fragments
of bone are spearheads in the people's hearts.
CHAPTER VI. 165
was becoming a moral theme the poet's pathos 2 had had its
1
,
day. Only in dreams was the king present to the eye, only in
hearts did he reside, only pictures retained His outline [196],
'
speak ;
is my noble brother arrived ? 'As your majesty
' '
the earth, had made him her refuge. Long white bandages,
bound about arrow-wounds received in battle while con-
quering the Hunas, dotted his form like side-glances from his
approaching royal glory. Limbs emaciated, as though for
1 '
Pradecavrittitdm dcrayati declamatio fiebat.'
2 Kaviruditesu = duhkhoddlpanakalesu 'occasions for kindling grief
afresh.'
'
3 '
Nihita
placed in
lit. there is probably a pun, the fire of sorrow
:
6
Kramdgataya cont^ns a pun gathered on his way.'
'
166 THE HARSA-CARITA.
ornament, of which only the amulet was left, the region of his
ear seemed burnt by a great flame of sorrow at the recent
news of his father's death. Though his beard showed but a
faint growth, yet his face, being fringed with a tassel of rays
from the dark pupils of his fixed downcast eyes, looked black
with the long growth of mourning. He was as a lion distres-
sed and left without a refuge by the fall of a great hill 4 like ,
1
There is an oxymoron in the antithesis between the emaciation of
the limbs and the heaviness of the grief.
'And many a furrow on my grief-worn cheek
Has been a channel for a flood of tears.' Moss.
3
The commentator, who explains adharavimbenapi as instrumental
of circumstance, must have read this in place of adkaravimbenopalak-
sitam,
*
Or '
king.'
5
Kalpapadapo may also mean 'king,' and vickayam 'reft of
splendour.'
6 '
Or by the fall of a thunderbolt upon his^sire.'
CHAPTER VI. 167
i
1
culled by melancholy, looted by
adopted lamentation,
by apathy, renounced by presence of mind, disowned by
discernment, repudiated by resolution, he wa*s absorbed in a
sorrow beyond the appeals of the counsels of age, the cure of
good men's eloquence, the scope of sages' voices, the power
of holy writ, the course of wisdom's efforts, the range of
1
Read vritam chosen for the sake of the alliteration.
' '
p. 42 1. 9.
4
Its whiteness and^oolness are compared to moonlight.
168 THE HARSA-CARITA.
i
3
Twastri was the artist of the gods. For the story cf. Wilson's
Hindu Drama, vol. i.
p. 363.
4
The pairs of ruddy-geese spend the night on different sides of the
river wailing to each other.
6
Or perhaps 'not to be resisted.'
CHAPTER VI. 169
1 '
Pancajana people of the five races,' cf. the panca janah of the
Rig-V.
2
The '
' '
from pure birth, polluting assemblies or perhaps destined to be borne
;
5
Yayati, being afflicted by Indra with the curse of old age, pre-
vailed upon his son Puru to take the affliction upon himself.
6 The allusion is to the
youthful sports of Krisna with the shep-
herdesses before Laksm! became his wife.
CHAPTER VI. 171
on the earth.
At this speech Harsa's heart was cloven as with the
"
stroke of a sharp-pointed spear, and he reflected : Can my
lord have been angered when away from me by a hint
received from some envious wretch ? Or is he seeking in
this way to try me ? Or is this a mental Aberration born of
grief? Is this perchance not my dear brother, or has he
possibly said one thing and my sorrow-vacant sense appre-
hended another? Did he intend one thing while another
escaped his lips ? Is this a stratagem of fate for the downfall
and ruin of our whole house, [202] an intimation of the
failure of all the garnered merit of my deeds, or a freak of
a whole horizon of disastrous stars ? Or is it a pleasantry of
the Kali age, heedless of my sire's death, that this man has,
like the vilest of mankind, instigated me, as one ready for
1
Or perhaps an orthodox Brahman.'
'
172 THE HAR5A-CARITA.
king's son without vice are all equally hard to find, yet my
f
lord himself has been my instructor. Who, I wonder, with
such a father, a very scent-elephant among kings, fallen,
with such a royal elder brother going in his young manhood
to a hermitage, abandoning his throne, and rendering sterile
his great pillar-like thighs and arms, could desire the clod
called earth, defiled by the tears of all men's eyes, or, even
were he an outcast, could court that bawd of the deeds of
warrior families entitled Glory, whose low character is be-
ichor from the heads of mad elephants which his paw, terribly
1
The Comm. gopyo-dasah points to the reading of the Kashmir
text, which omits parivrad abvhhukmh and has gopyah in place of
nrifctmsah.
Alluding to the far-famed younger brothers of the Ramayana and
2
1 2
I.e. senses. , Abrahmanyam.
174 THE HARSA-CARITA.
3
left hand, proudly stroking his right shoulder huge as a
sky- ,
if, all kings being in his presence, it were filled with the
pride of trampling upon their array of diadems. Imprinted
on the jewelled mosaic, his left foot through the desperate
twitching of his toes spat out a smoke, as though he would
spout a flame to leave the earth widowed of men. His fresh
wounds, bursting in his fierceness, spurted a bloody dew, as if
to awake his valour sent by the poison of sorrow to sleep.
"
Thus he addressed his younger brother : This task, my noble
brother, is my royal house, this my kin, my court, my land, my
1
The river Yamuna.
Krisna, see Visnu Pur. v. 16.
2
I.e.
3
The Comm. takes ko$a as an oath at an ordeal ;
but it seems here
used as an expletive, cf. bahudauda.
people sprinkle red powder on one another at the Holi
* The
frog slapping the cobra, the calf taking thetiger captive, the
support if you
;
would have me watch over my wife, Glory
resides in your steel if you wish me to guard your rear,
;
valour is
your rear-guard ;
if you argue that the feudatories
are uncontrolled, they are secured by the bonds of your
virtues if you say a great man must not carry a companion
;
you say you are marching with a very light train, what
1
excessive weight there in the dust of your feet ? if you
is
1
Sc. such as I.
176 THE HARSA-CARITA.
"
Why thus, deartbrother, by putting forth too great an effort
add importance to a foe too slight for our power ? A concourse
of lions in the matter of a deer is too degrading. How
many flames gird on their armour against a sheaf of grass ?
Moreover for the province of your prowess you have already
the earth with her amulet wreath of eighteen continents.
The winds that carry off ranges of great hills arm not against
a trembling cotton yield. The sky elephants, audaciously
familiar with Sumeru's flanks, butt not upon a tiny ant-hill.
For a world-wide conquest you, like Mandhatri, shall grasp,
in the shape of your bow with its curving frame adorned
with bright gold leaf, a comet portending the world's end of
all [207] Only, in the unbearable hunger
earthly kings.
which has been aroused in me for our enemies' death, forgive
this one unshared morsel of wrath. Be pleased to stay."
Such was his answer, and on the same day he set out to seek
the foe.
1
Or of the ship '
cables.'
2
Or of the ship '
it were upon a
eyes gaze as mighty conflict of planets in the
abysm. [208] Whistling with bits of gravel and permeated
by huge flying dust clouds, the wind seems transporting the
earth somewhither to signify the transmission of sovereignty.
I see no fair auspice in the hour. Who shall waylay this
fatality in tender growth as an
our stock, which wastes its
1
The trunk seen in the sun seems to provide Rahu, an eclipse
'
demon who is all head, with a body. Varahamihira (iii.) says, if a
staff is seen in the sun, the sovereign will die ; if something in the
c. 12
178 THE HARSA-CARITA.
4
he brought a tremour upon all monarchs like the Vindhya, :
1
Mud is often described as '
red.'
2
Sc. the fire, as if in fear of a hotter fire, scatters water around.
3
Or 'a second source of light.'
4
Or mountains.'
'
CHAPTER VI. . 179
3
upon burning all
sovereigns : like Vrikodara, athirst for his
Mbh. til. 8781 (104). The mountain swelled in order to stop the
1
4
Or against a rival elephant.'
'
5
Dhristadyumna killed Drona unfairly, when the latter heard the
news that his son was dead. Dhristadyumna is called the progeny of
fire because he and his sister Draupadl were produced out of the
sacrificial fire. The word may also punningly mean the author of evil '
courses.'
fi
The word pakapatam may punningly mean either 'favour' or
'flight by wings': for the story of Rama's forming a path over Kailasa
for the wild-geese cf. Mahavlracarita p. 26 (Trithen) and the name
Krauncari.
7
Or punningly 'ray, regardless of their (the lotuses') beauty.'
122
180 THE HARSA-CARITA.
c
tall as if ripened
by valour's exceeding heat. He was far
advanced in years and, although he had oft risen from repose
:
4
Or by paronomasia dims v. vipesena haranam viharo vichaylka-
' '
:
5
The Comm. has kandam skandhah, which may point to a reading
-kanda- for praka-naa-. t
CHAPTER VI. 181
1
There is perhaps a pun here, as the Sanskrit might mean 'an
untimely Vikrama-era commencing with autumn instead of the spring-
'
month Caitra.
2
He is compared to an eastern hill because of the long line of
ridges across his breast and also because of the astronomical reference
to the use of this hill in calculating ascensions. The Sanskrit helps the
Ci'va.'
182 THE HARSA-CARITA.
'
My lord, knaves in themselves most foul mark not how
they are themselves deluded by the foul unresting vixen
fortune, as crows by the koil. The aberrations of success, like
those of the lotus, include the closing of the eyes in error 2 .
angered heroes when the fire of rage puts forth its bristles
3
1
Or to noxious serpents a Garuda.'
'
2
Or punningly the closing of buds at eve.'
'
3
The words for timidity and heroes may also mean
' ' ' : '
delicacy
'
and 'suns.'
4
There is a pun in ciprakritah, which means (1) 'dishonoured,'
(2) 'wrought by Brahmans.'
5
Or even in water electric flashes blaze out.'
'
CHAFFER VI. 183
suddenly grow manes along with the thorny hair that bristles
under the joy of conflict The mass of wealth 5 born from
!
the four oceans has two dreadful crucibles whereby foes are
burnt, the subaqueous fire and the heart of a great hero
6
.
How can the fire's natural heat rest before it has em-
braced all oceans 7 ? Idly has the lord of serpents expanded
his vast ponderous hood, when by his coils he supports 8
1 = Laksnil.
-
Or '
in overpowering all planets.'
3
This compound goes with both daksiiiaca, and bhatabhrukutir : in
the former case we must translate lines of the Great Buffalo's horns,'
'
'
translation would be letting loose Sitnhauada.'
Or punningly 'cinders.'
5
mean king.'
'
9
Padm^kara = (Y) the hands of PaclmS, = Qri, (2) lotus bads.
184 THE HARSA-CARITA.
his feet. [214] But the coward is, like the moon, deer-hearted
and pallid of hue
1
how can his glory abide steady for even
:
Whoso, when his people have been slain by the foe, announces
man by the breast beating of his
his heart's grief like a wise
enemies' wives, whose sighs are the wind caused by the
descent of hard scimitars, whose tears are those which drip
and fall on the body of a lifeless foe, who offers water by
2
the eyes of his enemies' mistresses ,
he and none other
deserves fame. No notion of kindred do the enlightened attach
to bodies evanescent like a vision come and gone in sleep :
1
Literally 'pale of back': jjcuidurapristlia&ya~de$abhasaya nirlaj-
jasya 'shameless,' Comin.
2
Water is offered to the dead.
CHAPTER VI. 185
1
(^raddliakamulca occurs iu this sense in c. III. p. 94. might We
however translate these seekers
'
after the reverence of the whole earth.'
2
The Kashmir text has vlrakarya '
of valorous feats.'
3
A pun in ce$a ((1) left, (2) the serpent (^esa) refers to the eartli-
supporting serpent. .
186 THE HARSA-CARITA.
scorching cloudsof smoke from sighs all hot with the vexation
of consecration to new subservience and with dawning light
from a horizon of trembling crest gems give your feet a
dappled hue. Even Para9u-Rama, though reared as a solitary
ascetic among t^he deer, though soft-hearted with the
tenderness of his Brahmauical nature, did yet, when his
father was slain, frame his resolve and one and twenty times
cut down and
eradicated the united power of the Ksatriya
stock, which with the fierce echoing twang of its forest of
bows' notched ends [216] could rob the sky elephants of their
madness, and could inflame the world with fever by its array
of humming bow-strings what then of my lord, the prince
:
'
The advice of your eminence deserves to be acted upon.
As it is, my envious arm looks with a claimant's eye
upon even the king of serpents who upholds the earth.
When the very planet groups rise, my brow longs to set
itself in motion for their repression. My hand yearns to
clutch the tresses of the very hills that will not bow. My
heart would force chowries upon even the sun's presumptu-
1
'
'
Let a proclamation be engraved "As far as the orient :
chowries, let them bend their heads or their bows, grace their
ears with either my commands or their bowstrings, crown their
heads with the duJit of my feet or with helmets, join suppliant
hands or troops of elephants, let go their lands or arrows,
grasp mace-staves or lance-staves, take a good view of them-
selves in the nails of my feet or the mirrors of their swords.
Iam gone abroad. r Like a cripple, how can I rest, so long as
my feet are not besmeared with an ointment found in every
continent, consisting of the light of precious stones in the
diadems of all kings?"
Thus resolved, he dismissed the assembly, and having sent
away the feudatories, left the hall once more desirous of the
bath. Having risen, he performed all his daily duties like one
restored to himself. And from the face of the three worlds,
which had heard the vow, the day with heat allayed faded,
like the spirit of self-assertion, away. [218] Later on when
even the adorable sun, reft of his radiance, had disappeared,
as if afraid of the loss of his own sovereignty; when even
the red-lotus beds, apparently through fear, were closing and
2
and checking as if in fright the agitation of their wings were ,
becoming invisible ;
when in honour of the afterglow, which,
like the vow, embraced the whole world, all the
king's
people with bowed heads joined a forest of adoring hands ;
Harsa did not stay long at the evening levee. The very
lamps around, whose flames shook in the wind from the
swaying shawls of bending kings, seemed to salute him, as he
dismissed the company, and, interdicting the servants from
if in
quest of his brother's life. Covering his face with a
a white shawl's hem, he wept long
flood of tears in place of
and silently and these thoughts were in* his heart
;
How :
'
but, like the iron-stone from the hills, my brother was harder
still. How after losing him does it becom$ me, heartless that
I am, even to draw one breath ? This is my love, devotion,
attachment ! What child even could approve of my surviving
his death ? Whither so suddenly has that noble unity gone ?
Accursed fate has parted me from him without even an
effort. Unfeeling that I am, my grief has been all this time
obscured by rage fie upon it and I have not even
!
world verily burn, as if they had caught fire from his pyre.'
These and the like mournful meditations were in his mind.
1
The comm. however explains andyatta hastiparcvaraksinah
'
ele-
phant attendants.'
190 THE HARSA-CARITA.
i
supply of shells for elephants' ears, to pillage the very hills for
store of red-chalk unguents to paint their heads, to deprive
Indra of his Airavata's charge over the sky elephants. His
tread, heavy as when Kailasa bent beneath the weight of
2
1
These were figures of elephants used in training the animals for
battle.
2
Or namita was bent (Kashmir).
' '
CHAPTER VI. 191
elephant of (Jrl.
His nose was as long as his sovereign's
pedigree. A pair of long eyes, exceedingly soft, sweet, white,
and large, as if they had drunk the Milk Ocan, gulped down
the expanse of heaven. His forehead was full and wide
beyond even Meru's flank. His hair, very long, naturally
curling and rejoicing in a soft dark colour as if from
growing in a perpetual umbrella shade, appeared, as its
tresses tossed and quivered like young tendrils, to cut the
sun's rays and despoil them of their light. Though, owing to
the fall of all hostile alliances, he had abandoned the use of
the bow, yet all the ends of heaven heard the echo of his
great qualities
1
. With a whole army of raging elephants at
his disposal, he was yet untouched by presumption 2 Great .
4
virtues chief of the generous 3 as of elephants: wearing
:
Or bowstrings.'
1 ' 2
Or rut.' '
3
Or though made of ashes, yet full of sap.'
'
4
Or made of earth, yet consisting of threads.' Cf. Comm. gunas
'
Chapter II. .
192 THE HARSA-CARITA.
3
the fall of Nagasena heir to the Naga house, whose policy
,
1
Read abhijanasya or abhijdtyasya for ajdtyasya: the Kashmir
text has abhijanasya abhijatyasya.
2
This speech refers to a curious mass of unknown legendary
history.
3
Cf. Visnu P. Wilson's tr. (Hall's eel. vol. iv. p. 217) Mann, vii.
149. 150.
4
Cf. Kathnsarit. S. ch. 12.
CHAPTER VI. 193
students of music, cut off his head with sharp knives hidden
in the space between the vino, and its gourd. base-born A
general, Puspamitra, pounded his Maurya master
foolish
c. 13
194 THE HARSA-CARITA.
1 2
Kamandaki, Nltis. vii. 52. Ibid. 53.
3
Brihatsamhita Ixxviii. 1, Kamandaki vii. 53. Read visara.
4
Cf. Varahamihira, Brihat-Samhitd Ixxviii. 1, Kamandaki vii. 54.
5
Kamandaki vii. 53.
The India Office MS. has aviprakristakaladristayah.
CHAPTER VI. 195
1
Natural marks on an emperor's feet ;
cf. Varahamihira, Brihat S.
Ixix. 17.
2
Literally 'clustering': stambakarim'baddhastambam pakvam va
Comm.
3
Widows braid their hair and omit the use of colly rium. Bead
with the MS. niranjanalofana-.
132
196 THE HARSA-CAR1TA.
<
Here ends the sixth Chapter entitled The King's Vow of the
Harsa-Carita composed by
Qrl
Bana Bhatta.
1
Carudatta in the Mricchakatika, Act x., describes himself, when
led to execution, as dragged like a beast to sacrifice, decked with the
'
marks of red sandal on his limbs and besprinkled with meal and
pounded incense.'
2
The meteors act the part of the torch which was carried round the
sacrificial animal, see Ait. Brdhm. ii. 5.
3
We may here note a few small variations of reading by the Kash-
mir text in the above paragraph (1) for aviprakristah at no great
'
:
distance' pravista 'having entered' with 'emissaries,' (2) for ajire 'in
the courts dram' '
dram advdrtham long and
for a long time,' (3) for
'
with no fair presage' upadviram gavartham 'near the camp for corpses,'
(4) 'in the halls' omitted. There are also unimportant misreadings
prarudhaprasardh for -pranayah 'full well acquainted,' pdnipallavdh for
' '
down to the feet with sandal bright as his own fame put on ;
1
Or '
white,' the rainless autumn clouds being so.
2
=Rudra-Qiva.
3 This
clause is much curtailed in the Kashmir text, which omits all
mention of gifts to Brahmans, and by a zeugma makes the king sacrifice
the cows.
4
Paramecvara = (l) kitig, (2) Qiva.
198 THE HARSA-CARITA.
I
The omen signifies that the earth shall be stamped with the
single seal of my sole command :
[228] but the rustics
1
Karani, cf. the Hindi Kinuit, 'a clerk.' The Comm. suggests an
alternative rendering 'requisites for writing.'.
CHAPTER VII. 199
night with their glare. Loving pairs were roused from sleep
by the tramp of the women of the watch
4
Shrill words of .
2
Nallvahikah karinam vusa(ghasa 1)grahananiyukto Jiastipako me-
.
thakhyah. Comm.
3 Or dragged by the hands of sideways-bowing servants ?
' '
4
But the Kashmir arid Bombay texts read varavajini show horses ' '
2
reins 1 Stablemen dragged along half-eaten shoots to be
.
2
The Coram.'s prdudhiko yogydzandrtham prasevako yo bukkana
iti prasiddhah seems to point to a reading prdudhike 'bags' for
prdrohake 'shoots.'
Or, taking celam as = vastram, loaded with bundles of clothes.'
3 '
4
The Comm. however says lambama.no gardabhaddso banijdni
'
'
karmakaro vd, which would require the translation greedy for &c. were
driven on by donkey boys.' Cf. lamband gardabhaddsdh p. 236,1. 9
(text).
'
Vidrdiidh sagokdh Conini. Cf. supra p. 68 note.
'
There are no mules in the Deckan,' Comm.
202 THE HARSA-CARITA.
1
-nalaka- 1
2
Read pddabandha- ('pddakataka, 'anklet') with Comm.
3
The Kashmir text and the Comm. read -svasthdnasthagita- for
svasthaganasthagita-.
4
The sense here is far from clear. The Comm. writes pihgd -jah-
2
I.e. by reason of the reverberations of the sound.
3
Or punningly wearing robes white as the Milk Ocean's foam.' By
'
the gathered kings 4 with intent to cleanse the earth: like the
sun, preceded by thousands of ushers, like rays, heralding his
appearance and clearing the way, nimbly moving in deft
5
3 Indra killed
Vi9varupa, the three-headed son of Tvastri, who was
agraja in the sense of being a Brahman.
4
Or 'hills,' cf. Visnu-P. i. 13. 82.
5
Lit. 'causing light,' or 'crying Ho! people.' The other adjectives
have a punning application to the sun.
CHAPTER VII. 205
1
Cf. Malati Madhava, Wilson's trans. ' Hindu Theatre,' n. p. 66
'As the countless jewels shoot
Their blaze into the sky, the heavens reflect
The countless hues, as if the peacock's plumage,
Or the mixed colours of the painted jay,
Played through the air &c.'
The clouds represent the doors, the colours of the gems the
2
'
horse.' Friend, you hobble like a lame man, while the
'
' '
the child lying there ? Ramila, darling, take care not to
' '
get lost in the dust Don't you see the barley-meal sack
!
' '
leaks What's the hurry, Go-ahead ?
? Ox, you are leaving
the track and running among the horses.' Are you coming, '
'
'
the males.' Hullo, the peasack is awry and dribbling you :
precipice :
quietly, you self-willed Porridge man, brute.'
'
your jar is broken.' Laggard, you can suck the sugar cane
on the way.' '
Quiet
2
your bull.'
'
How long, slave, are you
to gather jujube fruit ?
' '
We have a long way to go ; why
do you linger, Dronaka, now ? this long expedition is at a
Ed.) = '
pitiless.' (^uka
in the sense of compassion is quoted by lexico-
and downs old fellow, see you don't break the sugar
:
2
tellthe fate of his crop when we are gone' ?' 'Keep
away your oxen, fellow this field is guarded by watchmen.' !
'
The wagon is stuck fast harness a strong pulling steer to :
the yoke.'
'
Madman you are crushing women are your
3
,
:
'
'
no getting out.'
Here groups of elephant men, bachelors, knaves, donkey
boys, camp followers, thieves, serving men, rogues, and
grooms, sated with an easily acquired meal of plentiful readily
pounded remnants of grain, expressed their approval of the
4
camp in bold boisterous jubilation
5
There poor 6 unat- .
done with.'
'
Let it go to the bottom of hell.' An end to '
1
Head with MS. A nistheyam.
2
Or when people are away.'
'
3
Yaksapalita, may, however, be a proper name.
4 Atidirdh -pragalbhah, 'bold,' Comm. who also suggests rdndlrah
'
harlots' sons.'
5
Read kelikaldih (not kekikaldih) with the Kashmir text and the
Comm.
6 The Kashmir text and the Comm. here insert -vriddha-, '
old.'
7
Gatasamyogair utpannacittaksobhair,
l
distracted,' Comm. Read
-aydsdvegdgatasamyogair.
208 THE HARSA-CARITA.
their eulogies :
'
The king is Dharma incarnate ; others, de-
'
escape, screaming the while with all the energy left them.
Elsewhere a cloud of dust was raised by bands of running
foragers with loins a mass of fodder bundles and grey with
chaff, sickles swinging from one part of their ancient saddles,
loose dirty blankets made of bits of old wool, and, dangling in
C. 14
210 THE HARSA-CARITA.
itwas replete *vith toil, yet like them bringing the noble
onwards in their way.
With such a spectacle before his eyes Harsa arrived at the
encampment. Reaching his quarters, he heard the stout-
armed princes abound expressing their zeal in such talk as
It was the famous Mandhatri who opened the way to
' 1
this :
1
Read tatrabhavata (not -am) with the Kashmir text and the
Comm.
2
Druma was the king of the Kinnaras.
3
There is an oxymoron in the expression alasac Candakogah, since
caiida means violent.'
'
4
Read tifhu for kisku with the Kashmir text.
CHAPTER VII. 211
'
-
I.e. hands, feet, and head.
1
Pragjyotisa.
3 For the construction nyastahastah pristhe pdrthivena cf. Raghu.
V. vi. 20 nripdndm crufavrittavamcu, for crutanripavrittavamca.
142
212 THE HARSA-CARITA.
in the
governing the four oceans, is with difficulty attainable
world. Nevertheless my master, in his endeavour to add
substance to rfis message, has fulfilled the destiny jof this
1
Read crosyasi (for frosyati) with the Kashmir text. So the MS.
2
Read duyamdna (for huyamana) with the Kashmir text.
CHAPTER VII. 213
1
The reference is to the galaxy.
a
The Ganges is said to issue forth from Visnu's foot.
3
Sc. the world. _
214 THE HARSA-CARITA.
(
1
bark pillows of samuruka leather
: and other kinds of ,
leaves made from aloe bark and of the hue of the ripe pink
cucumber: luscious milky betel nut fruit, hanging from its
sprays and green as young harlta doves; thick bamboo
tubes containing mango sap and black aloes oil, and fenced
round with sheaths of Kapotika leaves, tawny as an angry
ape's cheeks bundles contained in sacks of woven silk and
:
1
Samuruka is a kind of deer.
2
The Comru. doubts whether
this is the juice of a kind of fragrant
fruit or a kind of decoction.
3 Sc. to hold
the paints.
4
The Kinnaras are described as mythical beings in the shape of
men with horses' heads, perhaps originally a kind of ape. Some species
of ape may be meant here.
CHAPTER VII. 215
t
not, fair sir, to obtain from the prince, rich in every precious
gift, as the moon was got from the ocean, this great umbrella,
fit to be held above the head of the Supreme. The first
1
These pearls are often alluded to in Sanskrit poetry, e.g. Kumara-
S. i. 6.
2
Or perhaps with the name Parivega formed by groups of &c.
' ' ' J
216 THE HARSA-CARITA.
i
1
Pratigraha is used in a double sense, (1)
= presents given to Brah-
mans, (2)
= the rear of an army.
2
Or 'lords of rivers,' = oceans. The use of conchs was a sign of
independent rule.
3 '
Or mountains.'
218 THE HARSA-CARITA.
2
Indra, that of Dhananjaya with Krisna, of Vaikartana with
Duryodhana, of the Malaya wind with the month Madhava.
If your majesty's heart too is inclined to friendship and
can comprehend that friends enter upon a slavery disguised
under a synonym, then enough ! Commission me to say
that the sovereign of Assam may enjoy your
majesty's, as
Mandara Visnu's, hearty embrace, so that the crushed bits of
bracelet 3 gems may grind as they clash against the jewelled
1 2
I.e. Civa, Cf. Megha-D. 76, a. Karna, the son of the sun.
3
Kataka by a pun (
= 'the slope of a hill') applies also to Visim
and the mountain.
4
Or with the Kashmir reading ksalayatu bathe her '
eyes.'
CHAPTER VII. 219
1
The argument is that every one, however exalted, is at once at-
tracted by that which is perfect in itself, the sun by the day lotus,
the ten regions by the noble, the moon by the night lotus, and I by
your king.
2
The notion of the malefactor and the causes which lead him to
crime runs through the whole of the preceding.
220 THE HARSA-CARITA.
t
3
scorching glance of a master angered by his unseasonable
approach. Like an ape, he changes not colour when angrily
reprimanded like a Brahman-slayer, he performs degrading
:
6
like a fasting monk, he wastes his frame, retaining the
desire of life like a dog, he turns away from
in his heart :
9
life, his manly vigour subservient to a greedy tongue :
1
Pratihdramaiidalakara may also mean 'trunks surrounded by
'
gloves '.'
2
Amargaiiasya may also mean no arrow and udvegam vrajatah,
' '
'
speeds on its flight.' No arrow, he is drawn far back, turned outwards,
'
6
Or as applying to the monk '
with death (jiva-iiaca) determined
in his heart.'
7
Anucita may be divided anu-cita = post -burial,' i.e. 'cemeteries.'
'
1
success : like a child, he is innocently duped by the talk
of parrot kings, conferring delight by a false tongue and
2
showing affection only on their lips: like* a vampire, [250]
there nothing he will not do under his master's spell
is :
6
daily worried by acrid doorkeepers like a Buddhist, he has :
all weight behind him and bends even for water degraded :
below the worm, he worships even with his words the feet
of those uncontented with his head alone. Abandoned by
shame, as if she were alarmed by hard strokes from chamber-
lains' canes avoided by self-esteem, as if stifled in a heart
:
6
Katuka may mean either (1) 'doorkeeper' or (2) 'hot flavours.'
7 The reference is to the nihilist tenets of the Buddhists. Through '
'
vain petitions or '
9
Vane may also mean water in reference ' '
to the mirage. The literal
sense is that the courier might have recourse to a life in the woods.
222 THE HARSA-CARITA.
a walking footstool all grey atop with the dust of feet, [252]
in coaxing notes a human cuckoo, in gratifying cries a
chariot,' vimdna.
2
I.e. his own. Human flesh is offered to goblins or spirits.
3 Or 'hapless.'
4
This was the name of a sect of ascetics.
5
Or punningly a hell of dishonour.'
'
6 The word -pdlisu is ambiguous =(1) 'rice field,' (2) 'possessor of.'
7
Of the servant in shrivelling up his soul.' ^
'
CHAPTER VII. 223
2
hands a ball in beatings with sticks a lute board, if a
,
the price of bowing the wise deem not even the joy of a
in his own
quarters [253] with his attendants noiseless and
still
through the chamberlains' prohibitions, he waited awhile
with his royal retinue for Bhandi's arrival.
Soon with a single horse and a retinue of a few
nobles, he came in sight. His soiled garb, his breast filled
with the points of enemies' arrows, like an array of iron pins
implanted to restrain his heart from bursting, his beard
resting like reverence for his master in his bosom, all
betokened his grief. On his arm, flabby from neglected
exercise, dangled for an ornament a remnant of his charm
bracelet. His parched lip, faint in colour from careless
application of betel, protruded under the force of long sighs,
1
There is some obscure pun in pratipadaka (
= 'leg of a couch' text
1.
p. 7, 2).
2
Read kanduka for katuka with the Kashmir text.
3
Or by himself.'
'
224 THE HABSA-CARITA.
story in full. Next the king asked what was Rajya9ri's plight.
Your
majesty,' was the response, I learnt from common
' '
Where she has gone, I myself, abandoning all other calls, will
go.Your honour also must take the army and advance against
the Gauda.' So saying, he rose and went to the bath
chamber and when Bhandi had caused his mourning beard
;
Let your majesty inspect the Malwa king's army and royal
'
1
A kind of rice ripening in sixty days, commonly called sathl.
2 and
\'atsarupaka : cf.
yatsarupa p. 257 1. 3 from end, Bombay ed.,
Comm. svalpd vatsd vatsarupdh.
c. . 15
226 THE HARSA-CARITA.
1
The Kashmir text and A read
2
Kantakita^' containing grass stalks'? cf. c. v. p. 139.
CHAPTER VII. 227
Or yuga may mean 'yoke': for balad read balavad with the
1
152
228 THE HARSA-CARITA.
i
points the rabbits which devastated the rising buds, and high
bamboo fences which the antelopes lightly leapt when startled
by ox-drivers' sticks which the watchers hurled at them.
At very wideintervals were the dwellings of the forest
valvaja .
CHAPTER VII. 229
1
seeds mats worn from being used to pound ashes and
,
1
MS. A reads tamalavyaih.
2
A B read bhajmamalinamldnakdcmaryakutavydprita-, 'mats
(?)
used for heaps of Kdcmarya and so worn and dusty ? '
3
MS. A -pdlijatakadibhir, cf. p. 235, infr.
Here ends the seventh chapter entitled The Gift of the Umbrella
of the Harsa-Carita composed by Crl Bana Bhatta.
e
CHAPTER VIII.
roamed hither and thither for many days. But one day as
he was wandering, the son of Qarabhaketu, a tributary chief
in the forest, named Vyaghraketu, taking with him a young
a medicine, his nose was flat, his lower lip thick, his chin
low, his jaws full, his forehead and cheek-bones projecting,
his neck a little bent down [260] while one half of his
Bhuvane, MS. A.
1 2
Cf. Bombay ed. p. 140. 1.
3
Qr!
Harsa will gain all these blessings in the course of the eighth
book.
4
Pliny says that hyena's gall "illitum frontibus lippitudini
prodest," xxvin. 27.
CHAPTER VIII. 231
shoulders stood up
1
,
he seemed to mock the broad rocks
of the Vindhya's with his brawny chest, which was
side
broadened by exercise and hardened by incessantly bending
his bow, while his arms, which were more solid than a
1
The Schol. explains this as a sort of deer ;
the name would seem
to denote some kind of bird. 2
MS. A ramamdna.
CHAPTER VIII. 235
the juice of the Pitadru trees which was yellow when freshly
basins at the foot of the trees had been made with sand, the
mountain-streams were checked in their rush by the zigzag
lines of waterpots, while pitchers hung on the thick boughs
and branches, and the bowers were full of empty begging-bowls
welcomed him with his eye and his heart. Heroic in mind
though he was, he sprang up hurriedly from his seat and
gathered together his robe which was somewhat disordered by
his sudden movement as it hung from his left shoulder, and,
the true adornment, gems and the like are mere stones,"
so,when the king, however much pressed, would not consent,
he resumed his old seat. Having paused awhile with his heart
bound fast in the fetters of his eyes, which were fixed on the
monarch's lotus-face, he thus addressed him, seeming to wash
away the sin of the Kali age by the bright gleams of his
1
Read with the Kashmir text atibhiimir bhumir eva.
2
Read with the Kashmir text pradecavritti.
CHAPTER VIII. 239
was thy mother who bore thee who givest life to all living
creatures. Blessed indeed are those merits, of which thou
art the fulfilment. Preeminently meritorious are those
atoms which make up the total of thy limbs. Fortunate is
that good fortune which has visited thee, blessed is the
human nature which is thine. For verily, though I have
been longing for liberation, the sight of thee has made me
once more believe in human birth, without my own will I
have seen Kama himself. The eyes of the wood-nymphs have
to-day won their desire these forest-trees have attained the
;
end of their being, since thou hast come within their range.
Thou art all ambrosia thy words must be only sweet.
[269] But ponder as I may, I cannot imagine what earthly
being could have instructed thee in courtesy, when thou art
still such a boy. The range of virtues was void till thou wast
"
The king
respectfully replied, Reverend Sir, you have
performed everything by your zealous words which ceaselessly
rain forth ambrosia-like honey to gladden my heart, I am
indeed fortunate that a venerable saint should thus consider
an insignificant person like me worthy of respect. Be pleased
to learn what is the cause of my being fatigued with
even a poor worm in pain which found no rest has often ere
now experienced the sage's compassion."
sister, melting within with grief from his
Fearful for his
fraternal affection, and having his heart greatly agitated,
on their ankles which were aching with the wounds from stakes,
while their legs were fevered and lame with blisters, and their
calves were white with dust, and their knees were torn by
the matted fibres of the date-palms, and their thighs were
wounded by the Catavarl shrubs; their silk skirts were
torn by the Ftdar-i-plants, their jackets rent by the sharp
ends of the bambu branches their soft hands were pierced
;
dug up with the horns of the deer; they chewed the soft
myrobalans to relieve the dryness of their mouths without
their favourite betel, while they used red arsenic as an oint-
ment which were swollen and bleeding with the
for their eyes
blows of the flowers of theKu$a grass, and their curls were
torn by the thorny creepers some used boughs as umbrellas
;
hanging from a yoke while the rest of the crowd were be-
;
fever, made
as of water in her streaming outflow of tears,
like the sky in herwant of all support, like the lightning in
her tremulousness, like sound in her ceaseless wailing, like
the kalpa tree of paradise 4 dropping off her silken garments,
,
1
Saralatailena Kashm. and MS. A.
2
Read -golcamkalaka.lamv.1ca-.
3 Read
-patallkriyamana- (A -pdtal'ikrita-}.
4
The Kalpa tree dropped everything which its votary desired. Cf.
flowers, and she herself longing for another world like the
Strange ! do calamities
assail even such a form as this ?' But even in that destitute
condition she bowed her head respectfully as I came up. I
1
Daca, also means '
state.'
162
244 THE HARSA-CARITA.
girl would
' '
imply old age, holy would not be borne out by the fortune
'
which has befallen her 1 madam would be too applicable to
,
'
everybody.
dost thou weep ?' would remind her of the cause of her grief,
'
weep not is not to be said unless one can remove the cause
'
Grameyika, who lovest the virtues of the noble, may you rise
to a Vasantika, make room
happy birth ! O
queen, thy !
2
you keep alighting on a milky tree in front of me born to
ill-fortune O Harini, I hear to the north the neighing of
!
1
This sudden change from sorrow to joy implies Qri Harsa's ap-
proach.
2
This seems to be a good omen a crow seen on one's right hand
is a good omen in the Bengal! poem
'
Candi.'
CHAPTER VIII. 249
long pondered over, and her soul filled with the weight of
her distress but when the first vehemence of her emotion
;
250 THE HARSA-CARITA.
was spent she allowed her brother to lead her away from
the fire and sat down at the foot of a tree near by. [280.]
The holy teaoher, having slowly recognised that it was
Harsa himself, felt a still deeper feeling of reverence, and,
after a short pause, made a secret sign to his disciple, and,
the latter having brought some water, he himself presented
it to the king in some lotus leaves that he might wash
1
He therefore ruled Jambudvlpa, Plaksadvlpa and Calmalidvlpa.
2
Lit.'budding creeper-brides'.
3 '
Or is it the sharp long leaves
'
?
CHAPTER VIII. 253
The
king, after repeatedly opening and closing his eyes
which were dazzled by the mass of rays in front of him, at
last with a great effort beheld the wreath filling all the
1
Or punningly 'having great pearls'.
2
Or punningly 'without the constellation hasta\
3
Or punningly 'eclipsing the ashes worn by Civa the ornament
of the whole world '.
4
The Kashmir text and MS. A have sudhaydh for vasudhdyah.
6
Samudra may punningly refer to the sea.
254 THE HARSA.-CARITA.
<
1
MSS. A and B read iyam hi pucam asahyatd vyaharayati hata-
daivadattd ca dafil githilayati vinayam, which we adopt. But we might
read -ddegdn in the Bombay text as governed by vyapdrayantl.
2
Or " other than Yama."
3
A name of Krisna as '
agitating mankind.' Every epithet in
this speech is susceptible of two or more meanings.
4
Or " a destroyer." 6
Or " a kind of sleep with no waking."
CHAPTER VIII. 255
tears 7 ,
this thief of life, stealing in under the long dark
8 9
night ,
this cause of chaos, overpowering all beings this lord ,
to trace out the ways of all the minds which preside over the
five different families of the five kinds of great beings 11 . In
I
Or "ever active." 2
Ganea and also "an obstacle."
3
Or " a light without yoga." 4
Or the Manasa lake.
5
Or " dust out of moisture." Or " colour (riiga)."
7 Read with Kashmir text
ajasrdsra-.
8
Or 'under the bewilderment of many faults.'
9 Or "all 10 The
the elements.' lightning is Ksanaprabha.
II
This is obscure. Perhaps it means the five races of embodied
beings, Gods, men, the Manes, cattle and birds. Or perhaps panca-
kula means the assembly (the pancdyit) of the elements.'
'
256 THE HARSA-CARITA.
i
the soul, are apt to fly asunder in the night. The atoms
which build up this corporeal frame, are ready to crumble,
helpless against the onsets of good or evil fortune. The
threads of the cords that bind the living principle break at a
touch. Nothing is self-depending, all is ending.
"
Considering all this, O wise woman, thou surely wilt
1
The MS. A reads Ksanam apy aksamamanah.
2
The Kashmir edition and A read ayuh-kald.
3
The Kashmir edition and A read gatrayantra.
CHAPTER VIIT. 257
I
C. 17
258 THE HAESA-CAR1TA.
fying rays, which had been spread far and wiSe to the ends of
the world, red like freshly spilt blood, just as the preceptor
2
Qakalya swallowed back the Yajur-veda vomited by his
disobedient disciple Yajfiavalkya. Then in gradual succes-
sion, the Sun, bright with its gathering mass of deepening
3
colours, seemed to be like the congenital'crest-jewel which
Bhima carried off from A9vatthaman's turban, horribly red
with the fresh blood or like the begging vessel consisting
;
of Brahma's 4 skull, filled with the blood from the veins of the
bald heads, which Qiva flung down in his furious eagerness
to present a Rudra-alms, or like the far-stretching lake of
blood 5 made by Rama (Jamadagnya) when incensed at his
,
through fear in its round shell and covered with blood from
the attacks of Garuda's cage-like claws, or like the egg
which contained Aruna's half-formed embryo body when its
mother Vinata broke it
7
;
or like a cliff of Meru, rich in
metallic ore, tossed up by the goddess Kali, vexed at the
1
Pdpamumsi.
2
Oneor two words have been supplied here from the Commentary.
For the legend see Visnu Pur. iii. 5.
3 Mahabh.
x. ch. 14, 15.
he cleared them from the earth seven times and filled five lakes with
their blood.
7
6
Mahabh. i. 29. Mahabh. i. 16.
8
The priest of the gods.
172
260 THE HARSA-CARITA.
(
1
bloody stew, or like theyawning gulf of Mahftbhairava's
mouth, fearful with the smeared blood of the demon Gaja,
as his body wasVapidly swallowed.
Then the evening appeared, leaning on the clouds which
shone with the sun's many forms as reflected in the ocean,
like a goblin who has just seized his fill of raw flesh, while
the ocean had its waves dyed in the evening glow as if it
were once more crimson with the blood of the demons Madhu
and Kaitabha, when crushed by the brawny thighs of Visnu.
At the close of the evening-tide, the moon was brought to
the King as a respectful offering by the Night, as if it were
the impersonated Glory of his Race bringing him a cup from
the pearl Mountain, to slake his boundless thirst for fame.
or the impersonated glory of the Kingdom bringing him the
2
stamp of the primeval King on the silver patent of his
sovereignty, to encourage him in his resolve to bring back
the golden Krita age, or the Goddess of the Future 3 con-
ducting a messenger from the White Dvlpa to animate him
to the conquest of all the seven Dvipas 4 .
Here ends the eighth chapter in the great poem, the Harsa-Carita,
composed by Cri Bana Bhatta, the son of Citrabhcanu, and crest-jewel
of the company of great poets.
1
A name of Civa. -
Manu or Prithu Vainya.
3
Or perhaps Majesty
' '
(dyati).
4
This concluding such in the book, is at least
description, like all
semi-symbolical ('the pathetic fallacy'). The sunset is described in
terms suggesting bloody wars and the fall of Harsa's enemy, followed
by the rising of the moon of Harsa's glory. Bana's narrative abruptly
ends here which was begun in p. 79.
APPENDIX A.
I.
[35]
'
Under the semblance of her form's radiant halo
she seemed to be bringing with her all the pure water of the
river. Like Gaurl on her tiger, she was mounted upon a
great maned steed, in colour resembling a bunch of opened
Atimuktaka blossoms. Sportively inserted in the girth of
her horse, which turned prick-eared to listen to the clear
tinkle of the anklets, her feet, glowing with clotted lac and
stained with saffron on the upper surface, poured out on
either side bright red streams of light, as if she were
cravings for her kicks [36] About her loins a girdle rang
.
1
A reference to the superstition that the Acoka cannot blossom
until kicked by a woman, cf. p. 149 supra.
262 THE HARSA-CARITA.
1
The Ketakl flower is white, and therefore compared to the
moonlight.
2
The MS. reads -avaculinl and -pattikeva ;
\\e have read iva in both
places.
APPENDIX A. 263
I
II.
upon his disciples. With his hair, knotted at the top and
showing the round shells of his rosary hanging from one
braided part, he seemed to be imprisoning the saints, who,
presuming upon a smattering of knowledge, roamed overhead.
[114] His time of life, marked by a few white hairs, had just
passed five-and-fifty years. The hair-line on his skull was
giving way to baldness, the orifices of his ears were covered
1
The manahpild or realgar stone is very precious.
2G4 THE HAKSA-CA1UTA.
<
was curved like the end of Garuda's beak, his cheeks nan-owed
by the wide gash of his mouth, and the outgoing light of his
teeth, somewhat indented, whitened the stretch of heaven as
with the light of the moon, the crest of that Civa who was
ever treasured in his heart. As if overweighted by the whole
Qaivite canon resting on the tip of his tongue, his lip hung
a little downwards. A pair of crystal earrings, dangling from
his pendulous ears, suggested that Venus and Jupiter were
2
K. R. Kale explains this of a rice oblation smeared with yellow
turmeric and reddish saffron.
APPENDIX A. 265
male and female stream like the Ganges flood, made pure
;
APPENDIX B.
'
of the wives of Yama, (3) with blackness at hand of the '
ascetic's forehead.
For the comparison cf. Kad. p. 83, 11. 14-15. The 'sand-
bank' is that surrounding the ocean, cf. p. 160, 11. 1-2 infra.
t
APPENDIX B. 2G7
18 19-20. Read 'in the air and falling with the force of their
curvetting to tear up the earth,' valitavikatam going with
patadbhir. >
'
19 18 Took it all in we have translated pratltya, but the reading
'
:
wearing etc.'
27 13-14 For 'your heart will tell you that' read 'that is honouring
and cf. Kad. p. 199, 11. 17-18.
oneself,'
p. 220, 1. 8.
49 8 Read Pardcara.
50 5-6 Read 'with the huge pearls which studded it.'
58 2-5 Or perhaps 'he gave away to the Kings from the coruscations
of his ornaments thousands of rainbows, which had been
sent to him by Indra as presents in his conversations he ;
61 30 Omit 'self.'
62 27-8 For this conceit cf. Kdd. p. 192, 11. 5-6. We read
-darfanusukharasarasardfimanthantapaksmand : cf. the
Kashmir text.
65 12 Omit 'royal.'
65 26 Read aparavaktm.
66 9-11 Read 'the other by his silence seemed not to comprehend
the speech Bana having paused a moment in silence etc.'
67 5 Or that they
'
73 19-74 2 The
epithets have different senses according as they
apply to the lives and to the studies of Bana's cousins. In
their are men of mild (or pure ') ways, believed
' '
live^ they
when they speak, holders of the status of preceptors (or a '
affectionately.'
expeditions.'
75 1-10 In a few cases we have in this paragraph placed the wrong
alternative in the text the whole should run In Nriga's
;
:
76 8-10 This passage refers, as Biihler has shown (Ind. Ant. xix.
p. 40), to Harsa's conquest of Nepal.
light.'
eyes.'
APPENDIX B. 271
t
83 15 Read '
their hair-nets but the fashion of young ladies.'
83 last line Biihler suggests (Epigr. Ind. I. p. 70) that the name
should be read as Pusyabhuti, as many proper names in
-bhnti have the name of a constellation for their first member.
84 9-10 Read 'a Budha in the assembly.' It is to be noted that these
proper names are significant, Prithu meaning
'
broad,' etc.
86 19 Or bamboo
'
sieve for straining earth.'
89 1 Or on the following
'
day.'
89 24 Or a '
hilt of ivory.'
92 1 Read mystic'
hand-clasps.'
93 35 Read '
globes.'
94 10-11 For 'raised... leg' read 'raised the right leg crosswise in a
bent shape,' cf. below, p. 174, 1. 23.
272 THE HARSA-CARITA.
I
indragopakarucd,
109 10 Read dhavalantyo with MS. A and the Kashmir text.
109 n. 2 In the first quotation read sauhdrddd, and in the second
alahkardmcukddikam and purnakam.
110 25 and n. 7 Read leaving her husband, the
'
disc-wielder.'
111 8 Or '
old ladies of the family could be seen.'
113 18 Or perhaps 'the soft ring of the brazeu gong was clearly
heard.'
117 25 The word kritayiigayogyau has two senses, (1) 'fit for the
'
Krita age,' (2) taking exercise together.'
119 14
'
Unwatched '
: or '
considerately treated.'
121 6-8 This noble's glory is 'going forth' in the sense of 'spreading
abroad,' cf. p. 90, 11. 4-5 supra.
123 10-11 The reading of MS. A (yathd neyam) gives better sense
may incur no trouble, 'tis for my lord
'
that all our lives she
to provide.' A. reads acitam (?), the Calc. ed. nddhitam,
and, in a note, arttitam.
c. 18
274 THE HARSA-CARITA. 4
p. 77, 1. 7 of inscr. ;
we might compare Raghu V. xvn. 25
hamsa&hnadukiilavdn with S. P. Pandit's note : MS. A has
-hamsatulaicca (?
= '
beds of goose down ').
128 2 For muk/ieny patati in this sense cf. Kdd. p. 35, 1. 6 (with
Peterson's 'note) and p. 38, 1. 2.
129 SOsqq. We have puns in sudhd = (l] 'plaster,' (2) 'ambrosia,' and
bhubhrid=(V) 'mountain,' (2) 'king.'
133 13 The red eyes of the cakora are referred to below, p. 170, n. 2
and also Kdd. p. 140, 1.
6, Raghu- V. vn. 22.
134 21 Read 'to have his horse (or 'the horses') saddled.'
135 30 Or '
young devotees
'
or '
squires,'
'
apprentices the word
'
:
'
I know, my boy, your filial affection. At times like this
an over tender heart distracts even a sober man's mind.
Hard to resist is family affection, all-confounding.'
158 19-21 Place comma after manorathdndm and read 'the paths of
men's desires are sundered, their Eldorados are laid
desolate etc.' Of. Kdd. p. 312, 1. 23 bhagnd panthdno
gundndm, and the whole passage. *
' '
159 30 For humps read frontal
'
globes.'
160 14 'With eyes aflame'; sc. the prince could not bear to look
164 6-9 Rather As the twang of the broken sapling, by robbing the
'
169 7-8 'Softened etc.'; this however may go with 'you,' after
'
tractable.'
171 14-15 Read 'freed from fear by my sire's death.' Sc. Puspabhuti
had held it in check.
172 n. 3 The meaning might be '
174 16-20 The hand is here compared to a spray (pallava) used for
sprinkling water. The 'sweat' in the next sentence is a
common Hindu erotic idea.
'
176 1 For you desire read
' '
it desires.'
177 n. 2 MS. A
here agrees with the Kashmir rendering, which
should be adopted 'which, breached within and timid
through brotherly affection, seemed as it were in flight.'
The reading is confirmed by antarbhinnahridayatvat, Kad.
p. 273, 1. 18.
180 24 The senapati had really risen from a bed of reeds (para). Cf.
Vasavadatta, p. 297, 1. 9.
183 19 The serpent Cesa supports merely the earth (not the oceans)
and does not enjoy the earth (v. next sentence).
1.
13, p. 264, 1. 11, and our text, p. 243, 1. 3.
189 12-14 We may better take suciram with ruditam 'I have not
abandoned myself for long even to tears.'
200 27-8 The apes are carried for superstitious reasons (raksdrthatn\
Comm.
200 n. 3 The sense of jdghanika is uncertain possibly it means :
'
p. 331, 1.
14, which confirms
' '
the meaning vanguard here.
201 28 MS. A reads trastavesara-
'
frightened mules
'
205 16 'Spread': for tastdra intransitive cf. Kad. p. 76, 1. 21, p. 368,
1. 11. MS. has tatdra. A
206 4-6 We have read haritakritdh for haritlkritdh : MS. A has
harmdm kritdh.
'
207 2 For old fellow read
' '
standstill.'
208 16
'
The whole body of nobles
'
: or asamvibhakta might mean 'the
not specially provided nobles.'
,
APPENDIX B. 279
p. 98 n.) by
'
209 1
'
211 23-4 For this custom of touching on the back cf. Kdd. p. 230,
1.19, p. 335, 11. 9-10 and Hiuen Thsang, Si- Yu-Ki (Beal), i.
p. 85 ; (Julien) I. 86.
214 14-15 'And of the hue etc.': the Sanskrit adjective may here go
with the next clause. The Kashmir text in this line reads
the adjective dgurava-.
216 15
'
Rushed towards' or perhaps : 'fled from,' as the gandhadvipa
is a terror to all other elephants. The Moon in 1. 18 refers
to
Qagaiika,
the Gauda king (cf. sup. note on p. 168).
216 20 The 'ladies' are the wives of Harsa's enemies, whose lands
are soon to be seized.
219 17-18 Or perhaps 'What any more can torment my noble master,
thus addressed by your majesty?'
'
221 16-17 We might here translate 'he worships men's feet even
with his words, uncontented with his head alone.'
280 THE HARSA-CARITA,
polecat.'
222 n. 5 Or an uncounted
'
hell.'
few days
will arrive in a
'
or '
has come home only a few
'
223 32-3 Read 'dangled as his sole remaining ornament his charrn
p. 84.
;
A
dvistagopdlakalpita.
226 20
'
Dust of travellers' stamping feet' : for this use of prasphotita
(the dust flying out] in almost the same word cf. Kdd.
p. 223, 1. 15 kdrpatikaprasphotitacaranadhfdidhnsarakisa-
layaldnchitopakanthaih.
22811 Or '
white skeletons.'
the king stayed,' or with MS. A There the king passed the '
day.'
233 13 According to Dr Bhau Dhaji (J. R. A. S. Bomb. x. p. 40) the
Maitrayaniya Brahmans are still found at Bhadgaon and in
neighbouring villages near the Satpuda Mts.
233 29-235 5 Part of this passage recurs nearly verbatim, Vdsava-
dattd (Hall), p. 263, 1.
4-p. 266, 1. 3.
256 30
'
In the night :
I.
11. 10
217^
Bhaskaravarman = foreg. 217 , Hamsa, uncle of Bana, 32
19
282 THE HARA-CARITA.
II.
232
Magas, 110 s,