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

122 VĀSAVADATTĀ
dawn ; like to a thread of cloth, red with Bengal madder, woven
with threads of the colour of the dawn ; seeming to be the disc
of a golden dinar of the east ; the magic globe, so to say, of the
Vidyādhara of day ; even as the foot of a world-elephant, red
with the colour of ruddle ; the thief of the darkness of night¹ ;
when the young dawn was arising ruddy as a bit of fresh² coral ;
like a chowry, dyed with Bengal madder,³ on an elephant of the
quarters ; seeming to emit the blood of the battleground ⁴ of
the Mahābhārata on the plains of Kuru ; [255] anointed, as it
were, with the beauty of the bow of the Lord ⁵ of the Gods among
them that split ⁶ the clouds ; simulating the red cloth in the
huts ⁷ of Buddhist hermitages ; like to the colour of safflower in
the streamers of banners ; the ripening of fruit, so to say, among
the jujubes ; beauteous as a mass ⁸ of the saffron of ⁹ the courtyard
of the mighty palace of the sky ; like the red entrance-curtain of
the actor ¹⁰ Time ; and ¹¹ when the multitude of the rays of him
whose rays are heat had suddenly become hot, as if from taking
the burning grief of the hearts ¹² of the Brahminy ducks that were
tremulous with gentle talk ; from the entrance, so to say, of
majesty commingled with flame ¹³ ; from union, in all seeming,
with the fire which is ¹⁴ the beauteous jewel of the lord of day ;—
¹ Tel. ed., 'like a ball of madder cloth ; the disc of a golden dinar, as it were, in
the girdle of a beauty of the east, fastened with the ruddy threads of twilight ; ‹gathering
the stars together› as Kumāra ‹destroyed Tāraka› ; with beautiful ‹lotuses› as the Lote-
Born God [Viṣṇu] had beautiful ‹Padmā [Lakṣmī]› ; beloved of ‹Chāyā› as a traveller
‹delights in shade› ; being the ‹sun› as Indra is ‹Gōpati› ; even as the foot of a world-
elephant, red with the colour of the ruddle of the eastern mount ; the thief of the
darkness of dawn' ; similarly the Srirangam text.
² Tel. ed. omits 'fresh.'
³ Tel. ed., 'like a mass of Bengal madder.'
⁴ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit 'of the battleground.'
⁵ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit 'of the Lord.'
⁶ Tel. ed., 'hid.' The reference is, of course, to the victory of Indra over the cloud-
demons.
⁷ Tel. ed., 'branches' ; Srirangam text, 'branches of the trees.'
⁸ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit 'mass of.'
⁹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, 'in.' ¹⁰ Tel. ed., 'great actor.'
¹¹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit 'and.'
¹² Tel. ed., 'as if from taking the grief from the treasury of the hearts.'
¹³ Tel. ed., 'from the entrance, so to say, of burning splendour.'
¹⁴ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit 'the fire which is.'