वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

100 VĀSAVADATTĀ
guise of closing blue lotuses, immediately ¹ the stars shone forth,
scattered like drops of the stream of water of Jahnu’s daughter
wandering in the winding hollows of ² the mass of matted locks
of Śiva, shaken by the fury of his twilight dance ; showers ³ of
drops, one might say, shed from the trunks ⁴ of the herd of
terrible must ⁵ world-elephants bowed with the burden of bear-
ing ⁶ the earth, hard to sustain ⁷ ; [182] masses of foam, as it were,
poured out by the steeds ⁸ of day, weary of wandering in the far
distant sky ; giving rise to the suspicion that they might be a grove
of white lotuses ⁹ in the great ocean of the heavens ; like ciphers ¹⁰
because of the nullity of metempsychosis, scattered ¹¹ in the sky as
if on the ink-black skin rug of the Creator who reckoneth the sum
total with a bit of the moon for chalk ; parched grain, it would
seem, sown by the hand of Rati, (the wife) of Him whose banner
is a dolphin,¹² and who setteth forth to conquer ¹³ the threefold
world ; [183] like globules ¹⁴ on the pearly arrows of Him of the
flowery bow ¹² ; masses ¹⁵ of foam, as it were, in the ocean of the sky ;
handfuls of cosmetic, so to say, prepared by Rati in the courts ¹⁶
of heaven ; multitudes ¹⁷ of pearls, one might fancy, in the neck-
lace of the Lakṣmī of the heavens ; fragments of the bones of
Kāma, in all seeming, scattered by the wind’s impulse ¹⁸ from the
circle of the pyre of the moon ¹⁹ ; [184] like the semblance of
¹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘then immediately.’
² Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘wandering in her devious roamings in.’
³ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘wide-spread showers.’
⁴ Tel. ed., ‘cheeks.’ ⁵ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit ‘must.’
⁶ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘bowed with bearing.’
⁷ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘hard to bear.’ [the mouths of the steeds.’
⁸ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘broad masses of foam on the edges of the cavities of
⁹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘mass of white lotuses.’
¹⁰ Literally ‘points’ (cf. the form of the null sign in the Bakhṣālī Manuscript). On the
importance of this passage for the history of the Arabic (properly, Hindu) numerals see
Bühler, Indische Paläographie, p. 78, Strassburg, 1896 ; cf. also Smith and Karpinski,
Hindu-Arabic Numerals, pp. 51–54, New York, 1911.
¹¹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘painted.’ ¹² Kāma.
¹³ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘in desire of conquest over.’
¹⁴ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘scattered globules.’
¹⁵ Tel. ed., ‘wide-spread masses.’ ¹⁶ Tel. ed., ‘in the delimitation of.’
¹⁷ Tel. ed., ‘torn-off multitudes of pearls’ ; Srirangam text, ‘old multitudes of pearls.’
¹⁸ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘entrance.’
¹⁹ Tel. ed., ‘from the circle of the pyre of Kāma, burnt by the Destroyer’s (Śiva’s)
fire’ ; similarly the Srirangam text.