Part 2 (1/2)

Like autumn, she opened her lotus eyes; like the rainy season, she had cloudy tresses; like the circle of the Malaya Hills, she was wreathed with sandal; (24) like the zodiac, she was decked with starry gems; [65] like cri, she had the fairness of a lotus in her hand; like a swoon, she entranced the heart; like a forest, she was endowed with living [66] beauty; like the child of a G.o.ddess, she was claimed by no tribe; [67] like sleep, she charmed the eyes; as a lotus-pool in a wood is troubled by elephants, so was she dimmed by her Matanga [68] birth; like a spirit, she might not be touched; like a letter, she gladdened the eyes alone; like the blossoms of spring, she lacked the jati flower; [69] her slender waist, like the line of Love's bow, could be spanned by the hands; with her curly hair, she was like the Lakshmi of the Yaksha king in Alaka. [70] She had but reached the flower of her youth, and was beautiful exceedingly. And the king was amazed; and the thought arose in his mind, (25) 'Ill-placed was the labour of the Creator in producing this beauty! For if she has been created as though in mockery of her Candala form, such that all the world's wealth of loveliness is laughed to scorn by her own, why was she born in a race with which none can mate? Surely by thought alone did Praj.a.pati create her, fearing the penalties of contact with the Matanga race, else whence this unsullied radiance, a grace that belongs not to limbs sullied by touch? Moreover, though fair in form, by the baseness of her birth, whereby she, like a Lakshmi of the lower world, is a perpetual reproach to the G.o.ds, [71] she, lovely as she is, causes fear in Brahma, the maker of so strange a union.' While the king was thus thinking the maiden, garlanded with flowers, that fell over her ears, bowed herself before him with a confidence beyond her years. And when she had made her reverence and stepped on to the mosaic floor, her attendant, taking the parrot, which had just entered the cage, advanced a few steps, and, showing it to the king, said: 'Sire, this parrot, by name Vaicampayana, knows the meaning of all the castras, is expert in the practice of royal policy, (26) skilled in tales, history, and Puranas, and acquainted with songs and with musical intervals. He recites, and himself composes graceful and incomparable modern romances, love-stories, plays, and poems, and the like; he is versed in witticisms, and is an unrivalled disciple of the vina, flute, and drum. He is skilled in displaying the different movements of dancing, dextrous in painting, very bold in play, ready in resources to calm a maiden angered in a lover's quarrel, and familiar with the characteristics of elephants, horses, men, and women. He is the gem of the whole earth; and in the thought that treasures belong to thee, as pearls to the ocean, the daughter of my lord has brought him hither to thy feet, O king! Let him be accepted as thine.'

Having thus said, he laid the cage before the king and retired. (27) And when he was gone, the king of birds, standing before the king, and raising his right foot, having uttered the words, 'All hail!' recited to the king, in a song perfect in the enunciation of each syllable and accent, a verse [72] to this effect:

'The bosoms of your foemen's queens now mourn, Keeping a fast of widowed solitude, Bathed in salt tears, of pearl-wreaths all forlorn, Scorched by their sad hearts' too close neighbourhood.'

And the king, having heard it, was amazed, and joyfully addressed his minister k.u.marapalita, who sat close to him on a costly golden throne, like Brihaspati in his mastery of political philosophy, aged, of n.o.ble birth, first in the circle of wise councillors: 'Thou hast heard the bird's clear enunciation of consonants, and the sweetness of his intonation. This, in the first place, is a great marvel, that he should raise a song in which the syllables are clearly separated; and there is a combination of correctness with clearness in the vowels and anunasikas. (28) Then, again, we had something more than that: for in him, though a lower creation, are found the accomplishments, as it were, of a man, in a pleasurable art, and the course of his song is inspired by knowledge. For it was he who, with the cry, ”All hail!” straightened his right foot and sang this song concerning me, whereas, generally, birds and beasts are only skilled in the science of fearing, eating, pairing, and sleeping. This is most wonderful.' And when the king had said this, k.u.marapalita, with a slight smile, replied: 'Where is the wonder? For all kinds of birds, beginning with the parrot and the maina, repeat a sound once heard, as thou, O king, knowest; so it is no wonder that exceeding skill is produced either by the efforts of men, or in consequence of perfection gained in a former birth. Moreover, they formerly possessed a voice like that of men, with clear utterance. The indistinct speech of parrots, as well as the change in elephants' tongues, arose from a curse of Agni.'

Hardly had he thus spoken when there arose the blast of the mid-day conch, following the roar of the drum distinctly struck at the completion of the hour, and announcing that the sun had reached the zenith. (29) And, hearing this, the king dismissed his band of chiefs, as the hour for bathing was at hand, and arose from his hall of audience.

Then, as he started, the great chiefs thronged together as they rose, tearing their silk raiment with the leaf-work of their bracelets, as it fell from its place in the hurried movement. Their necklaces were swinging with the shock; the quarters of s.p.a.ce were made tawny by showers of fragrant sandal-powder and saffron scattered from their limbs in their restlessness; the bees arose in swarms from their garlands of malati flowers, all quivering; their cheeks were caressed by the lotuses in their ears, half hanging down; their strings of pearls were trembling on their bosoms--each longed in his self-consciousness to pay his respects to the king as he departed.

The hall of audience was astir on all sides with the sound of the anklets of the cowrie bearers as they disappeared in all directions, bearing the cowries on their shoulders, their gems tinkling at every step, broken by the cry of the kalahamsas, eager to drink the lotus honey; (30) with the pleasant music of the jewelled girdles and wreaths of the dancing-girls coming to pay their respects as they struck their breast and sides; with the cries of the kalahamsas of the palace lake, which, charmed by the sound of the anklets, whitened the broad steps of the hall of audience; with the voices of the tame cranes, eager for the sound of the girdles, screaming more and more with a prolonged outcry, like the scratching of bell-metal; with the heavy tramp on the floor of the hall of audience struck by the feet of a hundred neighbouring chiefs suddenly departing, which seemed to shake the earth like a hurricane; with the cry of 'Look!' from the wand-bearing ushers, who were driving the people in confusion before them, and shouting loudly, yet good-naturedly, 'Behold!' long and shrill, resounding far by its echo in the bowers of the palace; (31) with the ringing of the pavement as it was scratched by the points of diadems with their projecting aigrettes, as the kings swiftly bent till their trembling crest-gems touched the ground; with the tinkling of the earrings as they rang on the hard mosaic in their owners' obeisance; with the s.p.a.ce-pervading din of the bards reciting auspicious verses, and coming forward with the pleasant continuous cry, 'Long life and victory to our king!'; with the hum of the bees as they rose up leaving the flowers, by reason of the turmoil of the hundreds of departing feet; with the clash of the jewelled pillars on which the gems were set jangling from being struck by the points of the bracelets as the chieftains fell hastily prostrate in their confusion. The king then dismissed the a.s.sembled chiefs, saying, 'Rest awhile'; and after saying to the Candala maiden, 'Let Vaicampayana be taken into the inner apartments,' and giving the order to his betel-nut bearer, he went, accompanied by a few favourite princes, to his private apartments. There, laying aside his adornments, like the sun divested of his rays, or the sky bare of moon and stars, he entered the hall of exercise, where all was duly prepared. Having taken pleasant exercise therein with the princes of his own age, (32) he then entered the bathing-place, which was covered with a white canopy, surrounded by the verses of many a bard. It had a gold bath, filled with scented water in its midst, with a crystal bathing-seat placed by it, and was adorned with pitchers placed on one side, full of most fragrant waters, having their mouths darkened by bees attracted by the odour, as if they were covered with blue cloths, from fear of the heat. (33) Then the hand-maidens, some darkened by the reflection of their emerald jars, like embodied lotuses with their leafy cups, some holding silver pitchers, like night with a stream of light shed by the full moon, duly besprinkled the king. (34) Straightway there arose a blare of the trumpets sounded for bathing, penetrating all the hollows of the universe, accompanied by the din of song, lute, flute, drum, cymbal, and tabor, resounding shrilly in diverse tones, mingled with the uproar of a mult.i.tude of bards, and cleaving the path of hearing. Then, in due order, the king put upon him two white garments, light as a shed snake-skin, and wearing a turban, with an edge of fine silk, pure as a fleck of white cloud, like Himalaya with the stream of the heavenly river falling upon it, he made his libation to the Pitris with a handful of water, consecrated by a hymn, and then, prostrating himself before the sun, proceeded to the temple. When he had wors.h.i.+pped civa, and made an offering to Agni, (35) his limbs were anointed in the perfuming-room with sandal-wood, sweetened with the fragrance of saffron, camphor, and musk, the scent of which was followed by murmuring bees; he put on a chaplet of scented malati flowers, changed his garb, and, with no adornment save his jewelled earrings, he, together with the kings, for whom a fitting meal was prepared, broke his fast, with the pleasure that arises from the enjoyment of viands of sweet savour. Then, having drunk of a fragrant drug, rinsed his mouth, and taken his betel, he arose from his das, with its bright mosaic pavement. The portress, who was close by, hastened to him, and leaning on her arm, he went to the hall of audience, followed by the attendants worthy to enter the inner apartments, whose palms were like boughs, very hard from their firm grasp of their wands.

The hall showed as though walled with crystal by reason of the white silk that draped its ends; the jewelled floor was watered to coolness with sandal-water, to which was added very fragrant musk; the pure mosaic was ceaselessly strewn with ma.s.ses of blossoms, as the sky with its bevy of stars; (36) many a golden pillar shone forth, purified with scented water, and decked with countless images, as though with the household G.o.ds in their niches; aloe spread its fragrance richly; the whole was dominated by an alcove, which held a couch white as a cloud after storm, with a flower-scented covering, a pillow of fine linen at the head, castors encrusted with gems, and a jewelled footstool by its side, like the peak of Himalaya to behold.

Reclining on this couch, while a maiden, seated on the ground, having placed in her bosom the dagger she was wont to bear, gently rubbed his feet with a palm soft as the leaves of fresh lotuses, the king rested for a short time, and held converse on many a theme with the kings, ministers, and friends whose presence was meet for that hour.

He then bade the portress, who was at hand, to fetch Vaicampayana from the women's apartments, for he had become curious to learn his story. And she, bending hand and knee to the ground, with the words 'Thy will shall be done!' taking the command on her head, fulfilled his bidding. (37) Soon Vaicampayana approached the king, having his cage borne by the portress, under the escort of a herald, leaning on a gold staff, slightly bent, white robed, wearing a top-knot silvered with age, slow in gait, and tremulous in speech, like an aged flamingo in his love for the race of birds, who, placing his palm on the ground, thus delivered his message: 'Sire, the queens send thee word that by thy command this Vaicampayana has been bathed and fed, and is now brought by the portress to thy feet.' Thus speaking, he retired, and the king asked Vaicampayana: 'Hast thou in the interval eaten food sufficient and to thy taste?' 'Sire,' replied he, 'what have I not eaten? I have drunk my fill of the juice of the jambu fruit, aromatically sweet, pink and blue as a cuckoo's eye in the gladness of spring; I have cracked the pomegranate seeds, bright as pearls wet with blood, which lions' claws have torn from the frontal bones of elephants. I have torn at my will old myrobalans, green as lotus leaves, and sweet as grapes. (38) But what need of further words? For everything brought by the queens with their own hands turns to ambrosia.' And the king, rebuking his talk, said: 'Let all this cease for a while, and do thou remove our curiosity. Tell us from the very beginning the whole history of thy birth--in what country, and how wert thou born, and by whom was thy name given? Who were thy father and mother? How came thine attainment of the Vedas, and thine acquaintance with the castras, and thy skill in the fine arts? What caused thy remembrance of a former birth? Was it a special boon given thee? Or dost thou dwell in disguise, wearing the form only of a bird, and where didst thou formerly dwell? How old art thou, and how came this bondage of a cage, and the falling into the hands of a Candala maiden, and thy coming hither?' Thus respectfully questioned by the king, whose curiosity was kindled, Vaicampayana thought a moment, and reverently replied, 'Sire, the tale is long; but if it is thy pleasure, let it be heard.'

'There is a forest, by name Vindhya, that embraces the sh.o.r.es of the eastern and western ocean, and decks the central region as though it were the earth's zone. (39) It is beauteous with trees watered with the ichor of wild elephants, and bearing on their crests ma.s.ses of white blossom that rise to the sky and vie with the stars; in it the pepper-trees, bitten by ospreys in their spring gladness, spread their boughs; tamala branches trampled by young elephants fill it with fragrance; shoots in hue like the wine-flushed cheeks of Malabaris, as though roseate with lac from the feet of wandering wood-nymphs, overshadow it. Bowers there are, too, wet with drippings from parrot-pierced pomegranates; bowers in which the ground is covered with torn fruit and leaves shaken down by restless monkeys from the kakkola trees, or sprinkled with pollen from ever-falling blossoms, or strewn with couches of clove-branches by travellers, or hemmed in by fine cocoanuts, ketakis, kariras, and bakulas; bowers so fair that with their areca trees girt about with betel vines, they make a fitting home for a woodland Lakshmi. Thickly growing elas make the wood dark and fragrant, as with the ichor of wild elephants; (40) hundreds of lions, who meet their death from barbaric leaders eager to seize the pearls of the elephants' frontal-bones still clinging to their mouth and claws, roam therein; it is fearful as the haunt of death, like the citadel of Yama, and filled with the buffaloes dear to him; like an army ready for battle, it has bees resting on its arrow-trees, as the points on arrows, and the roar of the lion is clear as the lion-cry of onset; it has rhinoceros tusks dreadful as the dagger of Durga, and like her is adorned with red sandal-wood; like the story of Karnisuta, it has its Vipula, Acala and caca in the wide mountains haunted by hares, [73] that lie near it; as the twilight of the last eve of an aeon has the frantic dance of blue-necked civa, so has it the dances of blue-necked peac.o.c.ks, and bursts into crimson; as the time of churning the ocean had the glory of cri and the tree which grants all desires, and was surrounded by sweet draughts of Varuna, [74] so is it adorned by cri trees and Varuna2 trees. It is densely dark, as the rainy season with clouds, and decked with pools in countless hundreds; [75] like the moon, it is always the haunt of the bears, and is the home of the deer. [76]

(41) Like a king's palace, it is adorned by the tails of cowrie deer, [77] and protected by troops of fierce elephants. Like Durga, it is strong of nature, [78] and haunted by the lion. Like Sita, it has its Kuca, and is held by the wanderer of night. [79] Like a maiden in love, it wears the scent of sandal and musk, and is adorned with a tilaka of bright aloes; [80] like a lady in her lover's absence, it is fanned with the wind of many a bough, and possessed of Madana; [81] like a child's neck, it is bright with rows of tiger's-claws, [82] and adorned with a rhinoceros; [83] like a hall of revelry with its honeyed draughts, it has hundreds of beehives [84] visible, and is strewn with flowers. In parts it has a circle of earth torn up by the tusks of large boars, like the end of the world when the circle of the earth was lifted up by the tusks of Mahavaraha; here, like the city of Ravana, it is filled with lofty calas [85] inhabited by restless monkeys; (42) here it is, like the scene of a recent wedding, bright with fresh kuca gra.s.s, fuel, flowers, acacia, and palaca; here, it seems to bristle in terror at the lions' roar; here, it is vocal with cuckoos wild for joy; here it is, as if in excitement, resonant with the sound of palms [86] in the strong wind; here, it drops its palm-leaves like a widow giving up her earrings; here, like a field of battle, it is filled with arrowy reeds; [87] here, like Indra's body, it has a thousand netras; [88] here, like Vishnu's form, it has the darkness of tamalas; [89] here, like the banner of Arjuna's chariot, it is blazoned with monkeys; here, like the court of an earthly king, it is hard of access, through the bamboos; here, like the city of King Virata, it is guarded by a Kicaka; [90] here, like the Lakshmi of the sky, it has the tremulous eyes of its deer pursued by the hunter; [91] here, like an ascetic, it has bark, bushes, and ragged strips and gra.s.s. [92] (43) Though adorned with Saptaparna, [93] it yet possesses leaves innumerable; though honoured by ascetics, it is yet very savage; [94] though in its season of blossom, it is yet most pure.

'In that forest there is a hermitage, famed throughout the world--a very birthplace of Dharma. It is adorned with trees tended by Lopamudra as her own children, fed with water sprinkled by her own hands, and trenched round by herself. She was the wife of the great ascetic Agastya; he it was who at the prayer of Indra drank up the waters of ocean, and who, when the Vindhya mountains, by a thousand wide peaks stretching to the sky in rivalry of Meru, were striving to stop the course of the sun's chariot, and were despising the prayers of all the G.o.ds, yet had his commands obeyed by them; who digested the demon Vatapi by his inward fire; who had the dust of his feet kissed by the tips of the gold ornaments on the crests of G.o.ds and demons; who adorned the brow of the Southern Region; and who manifested his majesty by casting Nahusha down from heaven by the mere force of his murmur.

(44) 'The hermitage is also hallowed by Lopamudra's son Dridhadasyu, an ascetic, bearing his staff of palaca, [95] wearing a sectarial mark made of purifying ashes, clothed in strips of kuca gra.s.s, girt with munja, holding a cup of green leaves in his roaming from hut to hut to ask alms. From the large supply of fuel he brought, he was surnamed by his father Fuelbearer.

'The place is also darkened in many a spot by green parrots and by plantain groves, and is girt by the river G.o.daveri, which, like a dutiful wife, followed the path of the ocean when drunk by Agastya.

'There, too, Rama, when he gave up his kingdom to keep his father's promise, dwelt happily for some time at Pancavati with Sita, following the great ascetic Agastya, living in a pleasant hut made by Lakshmana, even Rama, the vexer of the triumphs of Ravana's glory. [96]

'There, even now, the trees, though the hermitage has long been empty, show, as it were, in the lines of white doves softly nestling in the boughs, the hermits' pure lines of sacrificial smoke clinging to them; and there a glow bursts forth on the shoots of creepers, as if it had pa.s.sed to them from Sita's hand as she offered flowers of oblation; (45) there the water of ocean drunk and sent forth by the ascetic seems to have been wholly distributed among the great lakes round the hermitage; there the wood, with its fresh foliage, s.h.i.+nes as if its roots had been watered with the blood of countless hosts of demons struck down by Rama's many keen shafts, and as if now its palaacas were stained with their crimson hue; there, even yet, the old deer nurtured by Sita, when they hear the deep roar of fresh clouds in the rainy season, think on the tw.a.n.g of Rama's bow penetrating all the hollows of the universe, and refuse their mouthfuls of fresh gra.s.s, while their eyes are dimmed by ceaseless tears, as they see a deserted world, and their own horns crumbling from age; there, too, the golden deer, as if it had been incited by the rest of the forest deer slain in the ceaseless chase, deceived Sita, and led the son of Raghu far astray; there, too, in their grief for the bitter loss of Sita, Rama and Lakshmana seized by Kabandha, like an eclipse of sun and moon heralding the death of Ravana, filled the universe with a mighty dread; (46) there, too, the arm of Yojanabahu, struck off by Rama's arrow, caused fear in the saints as it lay on the ground, lest it should be the serpent form of Nahusha, brought back by Agastya's curse; there, even now, foresters behold Sita painted inside the hut by her husband to solace his bereavement, as if she were again rising from the ground in her longing to see her husband's home.

'Not far from that hermitage of Agastya, of which the ancient history is yet clearly to be seen, is a lotus lake called Pampa. It stands near that hermitage, as if it were a second ocean made by the Creator in rivalry with Agastya, at the prompting of Varuna, wrathful at the drinking of ocean; it is like the sky fallen on earth to bind together the fragments of the eight quarters when severed in the day of doom. [97] (48) It is, indeed, a peerless home of waters, and its depth and extent none can tell. There, even now, the wanderer may see pairs of cakravakas, with their wings turned to blue by the gleam of the blossoming lotuses, as if they were swallowed up by the impersonate curse of Rama.

'On the left bank of that lake, and near a clump of palms broken by Rama's arrows, was a large old calmali tree. [98] It shows as though it were enclosed in a large trench, because its roots are always encircled by an old snake, like the trunk of the elephants of the quarters; (49) it seems to be mantled with the slough of serpents, which hangs on its lofty trunk and waves in the wind; it strives to compa.s.s the measurement of the circle of s.p.a.ce by its many boughs spreading through the firmament, and so to imitate civa, whose thousand arms are outstretched in his wild dance at the day of doom, and who wears the moon on his crest. Through its weight of years, it clings for support even to the shoulder of the wind; it is girt with creepers that cover its whole trunk, and stand out like the thick veins of old age. Thorns have gathered on its surface like the moles of old age; not even the thick clouds by which its foliage is bedewed can behold its top, when, after drinking the waters of ocean, they return from all sides to the sky, and pause for a moment, weary with their load of water, like birds amongst its boughs. From its great height, it seems to be on tiptoe to look [99] at the glory of the Nandana [100] Wood; its topmost branches are whitened by cotton, which men might mistake for foam dropped from the corners of their mouths by the sun's steeds as, beset with weariness of their path through the sky, they come near it in their course overhead; (50) it has a root that will last for an aeon, for, with the garland of drunken bees sticking to the ichor which clings to it where the cheeks of woodland elephants are rubbed against it, it seems to be held motionless by iron chains; it seems alive with swarms of bees, flas.h.i.+ng in and out of its hollow trunk. It beholds the alighting of the wings of birds, as Duryodhana receives proofs of cakuni's [101]

partizans.h.i.+p; like Krishna, it is encircled by a woodland chaplet; [102] like a ma.s.s of fresh clouds its rising is seen in the sky. It is a temple whence woodland G.o.ddesses can look out upon the whole world. It is the king of the Dandaka Wood, the leader of the lordly trees, the friend of the Vindhya Mountains, and it seems to embrace with the arms of its boughs the whole Vindhya Forest. There, on the edge of the boughs, in the centre of the crevices, amongst the twigs, in the joints of the trunks, in the holes of the rotten bark, flocks of parrots have taken their abode. From its s.p.a.ciousness, they have confidently built in it their thousand nests; from its steepness, they have come to it fearlessly from every quarter. Though its leaves are thin with age, this lord of the forest still looks green with dense foliage, as they rest upon it day and night. (51) In it they spend the nights in their own nests, and daily, as they rise, they form lines in the sky; they show in heaven like Yamuna with her wide streams scattered by the tossing of Bala's ploughshare in his pa.s.sion; they suggest a lotus-bed of the heavenly Ganges flowing away, uprooted by the elephant of heaven; they show forth a sky streaked, as it were, with the brightness of the steeds of the sun's chariot; they wear the semblance of a moving floor of emerald; they stretch out in the lake of heaven like long twines of Vallisneria; they fan the faces of the quarters wearied with the ma.s.s of the sun's keen rays, with their wings spread against the sky like plantain leaves; they form a gra.s.sy path stretching through the heaven, and as they roam they grace the firmament with a rainbow. After their meal they return to the young birds which stay in the nest, and give them, from beaks pink as tiger's claws reddened with the blood of slain deer, the juice of fruits and many a dainty morsel of rice-cl.u.s.ters, for by their deep love to their children all their other likings are subdued; (52) then they spend the night in this same tree with their young under their wings.

'Now my father, who by reason of his great age barely dragged on his life, dwelt with my mother in a certain old hollow, and to him I was, by the decree of Fate, born as his only son. My mother, overcome by the pains of child-birth when I was born, went to another world, and, in spite of his grief for the death of his loved wife, my father, from love to his child, checked the keen onrush of his sorrow, and devoted himself in his loneliness wholly to my nurture. From his great age, the wide wings he raised had lost their power of flight, and hung loose from his shoulders, so that when he shook them he seemed to be trying to shake off the painful old age that clung to his body, while his few remaining tail feathers were broken like a tatter of kuca gra.s.s; and yet, though he was unable to wander far, he gathered up bits of fruit torn down by parrots and fallen at the foot of the tree, and picked up grains of rice from rice-stalks that had fallen from other nests, with a beak the point of which was broken and the edge worn away and rubbed by breaking rice-cl.u.s.ters, and pink as the stalk of the sephalika flower when still hard, and he daily made his own meal on what I left.

(53) 'But one day I heard a sound of the tumult of the chase. The moon, reddened by the glow of dawn, was descending to the sh.o.r.e of the Western Ocean, from the island of the heavenly Ganges, like an old hamsa with its wings reddened by the honey of the heavenly lotus-bed; the circle of s.p.a.ce was widening, and was white as the hair of a ranku deer; the throng of stars, like flowers strewn on the pavement of heaven, were being cast away by the sun's long rays, as if they were brooms of rubies, for they were red as a lion's mane dyed in elephant's blood, or pink as sticks of burning lac; the cl.u.s.ter of the Seven Sages was, as it were, descending the bank of the Manasa Lake, and rested on the northern quarter to wors.h.i.+p the dawn; the Western Ocean was lifting a ma.s.s of pearls, scattered from open sh.e.l.ls on its sh.o.r.e, as though the stars, melted by the sun's rays, had fallen on it, whitening the surface of its alluvial islands. The wood was dropping dew; its peac.o.c.ks were awake; its lions were yawning; (54) its wild elephants were wakened by herds of she-elephants, and it, with its boughs raised like reverential hands, sent up towards the sun, as he rested on the peak of the Eastern Mountain, a ma.s.s of flowers, the filaments of which were heavy with the night dews. The lines of sacrificial smoke from the hermitages, gray as the hair of an a.s.s, were gleaming like banners of holiness, and rested like doves on the tree-tops whereon the wood-nymphs dwelt. The morning breeze was blowing, and roamed softly, for it was weary at the end of night; it gladdened swarms of bees by the flowers' perfume; it rained showers of honey dew from the opened lotuses; it was eager to teach the dancing creepers with their waving boughs; it carried drops of foam from the rumination of woodland buffaloes; it removed the perspiration of the weary mountaineers; it shook the lotuses, and bore with it the dewdrops. The bees, who ought to be the drums on the elephant's frontal-bones to recite auspicious songs for the wakening of the day lotus-groves, now sent up their hum from the hearts of the night-lotuses, as their wings were clogged in the closing petals; (55) the deer of the wood had the markings on their breast, gray with resting on the salt ground, and slowly opened eyes, the pupils of which were still squinting with the remains of sleep, and were caught by the cool morning breeze as if their eyelashes were held together by heated lac; foresters were hastening hither and thither; the din of the kalahamsas on the Pampa Lake, sweet to the ear, was now beginning; the pleasant flapping of the wild elephant's ears breaking forth caused the peac.o.c.ks to dance; in time the sun himself slowly arose, and wandered among the tree-tops round the Pampa Lake, and haunted the mountain peaks, with rays of madder, like a ma.s.s of cowries bending downwards from the sun's elephant as he plunges into the sky; the fresh light sprung from the sun banished the stars, falling on the wood like the monkey king who had again lost Tara; [103] the morning twilight became visible quickly, occupying the eighth part of the day, and the sun's light became clear.

'The troops of parrots had all started to the places they desired; that tree seemed empty by reason of the great stillness, though it had all the young parrots resting quietly in their nests. (56) My father was still in his own nest, and I, as from my youth my wings were hardly fledged and had no strength, was close to him in the hollow, when I suddenly heard in that forest the sound of the tumult of the chase. It terrified every woodland creature; it was drawn out by a sound of birds' wings flying hastily up; it was mingled with cries from the frightened young elephants; it was increased by the hum of drunken bees, disturbed on the shaken creepers; it was loud with the noise of wild boars roaming with raised snouts; it was swollen by the roar of lions wakened from their sleep in mountain caves; it seemed to shake the trees, and was great as the noise of the torrents of Ganges, when brought down by Bhagiratha; and the woodland nymphs listened to it in terror.

'When I heard this strange sound I began to tremble in my childishness; the cavity of my ear was almost broken; I shook for fear, and thinking that my father, who was close by, could help me, I crept within his wings, loosened as they were by age.

'Straightway I heard an outcry of ”Hence comes the scent of the lotus beds the leaders of the elephants have trampled! Hence the perfume of rushes the boars have chewed! Hence the keen fragrance of gum-olibanum the young elephants have divided! Hence the rustling of dry leaves shaken down! (57) Hence the dust of antheaps that the horns of wild buffaloes have cleft like thunderbolts! Hence came a herd of deer! Hence a troop of wild elephants! Hence a band of wild boars! Hence a mult.i.tude of wild buffaloes! Hence the shriek of a circle of peac.o.c.ks! Hence the murmur of partridges! Hence the cry of ospreys! Hence the groan of elephants with their frontal bones torn by lion's claws! This is a boar's path stained with fresh mud! This a ma.s.s of foam from the rumination of deer, darkened by the juice of mouthfuls of gra.s.s just eaten! This the hum of bees garrulous as they cling to the scent left by the rubbing of elephants' foreheads with ichor flowing! That the path of the ruru deer pink with withered leaves bedewed with blood that has been shed. That is a ma.s.s of shoots on the trees crushed by the feet of elephants! Those are the gambols of rhinoceroses; that is the lion's track jagged with pieces of the elephant's pearls, pink with blood, and engraved with a monstrous device by their claws; that is the earth crimsoned with the blood of the newly born offspring of the does; that is the path, like a widow's braid, darkened with the ichor of the lord of the herd wandering at his will! Follow this row of yaks straight before us! Quickly occupy this part of the wood where the dung of the deer is dried! (58) Climb the tree-top! Look out in this direction! Listen to this sound! Take the bow! Stand in your places! Let slip the hounds!” The wood trembled at the tumult of the hosts of men intent on the chase shouting to each other and concealed in the hollows of the trees.

'Then that wood was soon shaken on all sides by the roar of lions struck by the cabaras' arrows, deepened by its echo rebounding from the hollows of the mountains, and strong as the sound of a drum newly oiled; by the roar from the throats of the elephants that led the herd, like the growl of thunder, and mixed with the ceaseless las.h.i.+ng of their trunks, as they came on alone, separated from the frightened herd; by the piteous cry of the deer, with their tremulous, terrified eyes, when the hounds suddenly tore their limbs; by the yell of she-elephants lengthening in grief for the death of their lord and leader, as they wandered every way with ears raised, ever pausing to listen to the din, bereft of their slain leaders and followed by their young; (59) by the bellowing of she-rhinoceroses seeking with outstretched necks their young, only born a few days before, and now lost in the panic; by the outcry of birds flying from the tree-tops, and wandering in confusion; by the tramp of herds of deer with all the haste of limbs made for speed, seeming to make the earth quake as it was struck simultaneously by their hurrying feet; by the tw.a.n.g of bows drawn to the ear, mingled, as they rained their arrows, with the cry from the throats of the loving she-ospreys; by the clash of swords with their blades whizzing against the wind and falling on the strong shoulders of buffaloes; and by the baying of the hounds which, as it was suddenly sent forth, penetrated all the recesses of the wood.

'When soon afterwards the noise of the chase was stilled and the wood had become quiet, like the ocean when its water was stilled by the ceasing of the churning, or like a ma.s.s of clouds silent after the rainy season, I felt less of fear and became curious, and so, moving a little from my father's embrace, (60) I stood in the hollow, stretched out my neck, and with eyes that, from my childishness, were yet tremulous with fear, in my eagerness to see what this thing was, I cast my glance in that direction.

'Before me I saw the cabara [104] army come out from the wood like the stream of Narmada tossed by Arjuna's [105] thousand arms; like a wood of tamalas stirred by the wind; like all the nights of the dark fortnight rolled into one; like a solid pillar of antimony shaken by an earthquake; like a grove of darkness disturbed by sunbeams; like the followers of death roaming; like the demon world that had burst open h.e.l.l and risen up; like a crowd of evil deeds come together; like a caravan of curses of the many hermits dwelling in the Dandaka Forest; like all the hosts of Dushana [106] and Khara struck by Rama as he rained his ceaseless shafts, and they turned into demons for their hatred to him; like the whole confraternity of the Iron Age come together; like a band of buffaloes prepared for a plunge into the water; like a ma.s.s of black clouds broken by a blow from a lion's paw as he stands on the mountain peak; [107] like a throng of meteors risen for the destruction of all form; it darkened the wood; it numbered many thousands; it inspired great dread; it was like a mult.i.tude of demons portending disasters.