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

A SANSKRIT ROMANCE 117
eye, many hundred leagues ¹ through the enclosure of a cemetery
thronged with flocks of fearless herons assembled in desire of
a mouthful of flesh ²; [242] horrible with the howls of awful
goblins that had kaṭapūtanas ³ quivering with eagerness for the
hideous corpses chilling ⁴ in the circle of half-burned funeral
pyres; repulsive with patches of ground full of swarms of
buzzing flies sprinkled with quantities of blood from the am-
putation of ears and noses of thieves placed on the top of
stakes ⁵; with the horrible sound of the bursting of human skulls
slowly crackling as they were burned by fires of straw ⁶; [243]
with its contour concealed by rows of skulls, ashes, ‹jackals, fires,
goblins›, and serpents as He who holds the trident in his hand ⁷
has his contour concealed by rows of skulls, ashes, ‹Śivā, the
element of fire›, and serpents ⁸; frequented by many ‹dogs› as
¹ For instances of the magic horse in modern Indian folk-tales, cf. Steel and Temple,
Wide-Awake Stories, pp. 425-426, Bombay, 1884; Day, Folk-Tales of Bengal, pp. 73,
80, 214-219, 249, London, 1883; Thornhill, Indian Fairy Tales, pp. 108–145,
London, n.d.; Dracott, Simla Village Tales, p. 102, London, 1906; Campbell, Santal
Folk Tales, p. 86, Pokhuria, 1891; Leitner, ‘Historical Legend of the Origin of
Ghilgit’ (a Dard legend), in IA. I. 88.
² Tel. ed., ‘for the purpose of a mouthful of human flesh’; similarly the Srirangam
text.
³ Tel. ed., ‘horrible with howls from the awful throats of kaṭapūtanas.’ The
kaṭapūtana is the ghost of a renegade Kṣatriya (Manu, 12. 71).
⁴ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘hideous corpses with the raw odour of their fat
chilling.’
⁵ See Jolly, Recht und Sitte, pp. 126–127, 130, Strassburg, 1896. Impalement was
accomplished by ‘a stout iron rod with a thin point at the top. The condemned person
was made to sit on the top which penetrated into his body slowly and went out by the
head’ (Ram Satya Mukharji, Indian Folklore, p. 129, note, Calcutta, 1904).
⁶ Tel. ed., ‘noisy with the dancing of horrible demons at the ends of whose hands were
skulls resounding with the drip, drip of the fall of quantities of blood fallen from the
amputation of noses of thieves placed on the tops of stakes; repulsive with patches of
ground filled with the abundant sport of swarms of bees; awful with the bursting of
sharply crackling human skulls, burning in fires of straw; filled with fiery fire fired from
goblins’ open mouths; with the noise of the division of corpses made by hosts of
monstrous female fiends with pendants of skulls that had entrails for threads; with
funeral fires circumambulated to the right by pairs of demons with auspicious marriage
cords formed of wet sinews’; similarly the Srirangam text.
⁷ Śiva.
⁸ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘with its contour concealed by rows of skulls, ‹jackals›,
many fires, ‹serpents, and the moon› as He who holds the trident in his hand has his
contour concealed by rows of skulls, ‹Śivā›, many fires, and ‹lordly serpents›.’