Naishadha-charita of Shriharsha

by Krishna Kanta Handiqui | 1956 | 159,632 words

This page relates Adornment of Damayanti and Nala which is canto 15 of the English translation of the Naishadha-charita of Shriharsha, dealing with the famous story of Nala (king of Nishadha) and Damayanti (daughter of Bhima, king of Vidarbha), which also occurs in the Mahabharata. The Naishadhacharita is considered as one of the five major epic poems (mahakavya) in Sanskrit literature.

Canto 15 - Adornment of Damayantī and Nala

1. The king of the land of Niṣadha,[1] honoured with that wreath of choice, then went to his tent,[2] showering vast riches on the panegyrists, particularly on those who sang Damayantī’s virtues.

2. On the way he gave away gifts in such a manner that the heaps of jewels, left behind like straw by the minstrels feeling that tremendous burden, were long gathered in plenty by an eager crowd, as if they were grains of corn left behind by reapers in the fields.

3. “Should he[3] not be ashamed to have taken a woman in the open assembly?” “How can a person with excessive beauty be happy?” Such utterances of the sycophants of the (rejected) kings were drowned by the recitations of panegyrists and poets.

4. The imputation by enemies of petty faults that are untrue serve only to set forth the innocence of the good. If a charge were true, there would never be an attempt to attribute a false guilt.

5. The king of Vidarbha, too, in a cheerful mood, entering the inner apartments with his daughter, said to the queen who was in suspense, “Anxious one, accept thy son-in-law, Nala.

6. “In comparison with the lustre of Nala’s body, Cupid is mere straw. He will sanctify our family with the splendour of his lineage. Our daughter alone knows how to single out such a suitor amid a gathering of the heroes of all the three worlds.

7. “Let gazelle-eyed women perform ceremonies, regulated by womanly convention, and befitting the auspicious occasion of a marriage. We shall carry out the injunctions laid down in the scriptures and the law books.” Thus he said and went out.

8. The assembly of astrologers, looked at in the face by the king on going out, declared the astrological moment to be free from defects caused by the rise and fall of planets by virtue of its perfect qualities. Thereupon the king made preparation for giving his daughter in marriage.

9. He then sent word to Nala through a messenger, “Let my family and my daughter be favoured by thee. To-day, after a long space of time, let the sprout of our desire grow into leaf by virtue of the ceremonial water washing thy feet.”

10. Hearing the echo of king Bhīma’s words going up thus from the messenger’s mouth as from a cave, Nala said, ‘Here I go. I bow at the feet of my superior.’ He sent back the messenger, liberally bestowing gifts on him.

11. The king of Vidarbha, when he heard the messenger’s report, waited for Nala, full of esteem, even as the eager Cakravāka bird, hearing the crowing of the cock at the end of the night, waits for the sun.

12. At that moment, in one place, a woman expert in painting felt a certain pride, being selected (for the task).[4] Another, expert in making cakes, acquired a certain dignity by reason of her occupying a high seat.

13. The facades of all the houses of the city, tinged with a beam of joy, shone forth with the rays shooting from the gates of pearls and gems; (rays) assuming the sportive role of travellers.

14. At that moment, wreaths of flowers, out of season, and made with strips of cloth, were spread over the streets like a canopy, fearless of heat, and confounding even bees owing to their being so richly perfumed.

15. The citizens shone, covered with ornaments. The houses shone with their lustre heightened[5] by many-coloured paintings. In the city, the very form of the earth seemed to be transformed on account of the bejewelled floors of the houses.

16. Then rang bells in continual peals in the city. Harps sounded in highly swelling tones. Flutes reached a high pitch of intonation. Drums sounded unrestricted by any limit.

17. Lyres were not drowned by flutes, nor flutes by singers, nor singers by cymbals. Cymbals were not drowned by tabours, nor tabours by drums, nor drums by tambours, nor tambours by drums.

18. The far-spreading noise of the crowds, deepened by the sound of wonderful musical instruments, and mellow with its resonance on the waters of the ocean, more than filled[6] the ears of the elephants on the limits of the regions of the sky.

19. In conformity with family custom, lifting up golden pitchers, a multitude of matrons then bathed the princess on a raised platform, beauteously gleaming with decorative designs.[7]

20. With their mouths bent, the pitchers carried mango-tree sprouts, which seemed to be the gloom of their deep disgrace; for they were conquered and reduced by her breasts to the position of water-carriers, as if as a mark of their slavery.[8]

21. Drenched with water over and again, and becoming gradually radiant with a silk scarf shining white,[9] she, at that moment, perfectly resembled the meeting point of the rainy season and the autumn.

22. Radiant with a white-shining silk scarf, with her rain-cloud lock of hair dripping water, she at times resembled the sky, once made gloomy by rain-clouds rent asunder, and (then) beautiful with the lustre of the moon.

23. Verily the lock of her hair, scattering for a moment clear running drops of water, shone forth, as if it were emitting white pearls of fame, earned by its conquest of the dark bushy tail of the Camarī deer.

24. Made brighter by the water on her body being wiped off with a tender cloth, she shone much like a golden image, glowing clear from being burnished with a stone.

25. If gold were to learn the art of being fragrant from the slightly opening flower-leaves of the golden Ketakī, it would acquire the grace of her limbs, redolent with beauty-paint, and shimmering with a gleam.

26. Expert in all the arts, the girl friends of Damayantī, who was taken to the middle of a bright platform, adorned her in a moment neatly on every limb by virtue of their long training in their art.

27. She who was beauty’s climax even without any adornment was adorned by clever maids, and seen to be fairer. But who will have the skill to prove that she shone not by her adornment, but the adornment shone by her?

28. On receiving an ornamental mark of red arsenic on the forehead, her face, embellished by her lips and eyes, surpassed in beauty the moon with a Campaka bud offered to it in worship, after it has been worshipped with blossoms of the Bandhūka and the lotus.[10]

29. A certain damsel tied her lock of hair, a spray of flowers, softened by the smoke rising from the censer. Her hair was a mass of yarn for the making of the cloth of darkness enveloping the night of blindness brought by Cupid to her royal suitors.

30. It was after a long while that a girl, who repeatedly bound the fume of incense, taking it for a lock of hair, came to bind Damayantī’s Cāmara-like hair, having inferred that mistake of hers from the smiles of her maiden friends.

31. Her wavy flowing hair, with buds of Karuṇa flowers then set in it, resembled the Yamunā undulating with dense ripples, that looks as if it were being dragged by Balarāma’s plough.[11]

32. The gold band worn by her on the forehead was a flash of lightning accompanying the clouds, her hair. The lightning’s permanence, maintained by nectar,[12] I surmise to be due definitely to its contact with the moon, her face.[13]

33- The curls of Damayantī’s hair gleamed on the border of her brow-omament, as if they were winding curls of sooty smoke issuing from that light, the ornamental mark of red arsenic on her brow.

34. The ornamental line drawn with collyrium (on her temple) brightly shone, reaching unto the corner of her eye. It seemed as if the Beauty of her youth[14] cast that thread to enlarge her eyes.[15]

35. That line was perhaps painted not with collyrium. It was a trail left by the sapphire-like pupil running to the eye-comer oft and anon with an amorous grace. Was it painted with the pupil’s darkness-born gleam?

36. In contact with that line of collyrium, Damayantī’s eyes acquired the beauty of two lotus blossoms, used by Cupid as his arrows, and imprinted[16] with the line of scars left by the bowstring on Cupid’s hands.

37. The rent near the eyes of the black antelope bespoke the fact that the Creator wished to put out the eyes of the animal, thrusting his finger-nail into them, for their offence in bearing resemblance to Damayantī’s eyes at the time of creation.[17]

38. Damayantī’s ears, heavily pressed by the eyes,[18] installed on themselves two ornamental blue lotus buds, knowing them to be rivals of the eyes.

39. The two decorative lotus buds, worn by her, shone forth, as if they were the eyes of some onlooking appreciative swain, made blind by Cupid. The eyes dropped on her, and remained attached.

40. Cupid viewed Nala as his sole target, provided as he was with arrows, Damayantī’s lotus eyes, appearing within the curve of a bow of Palāśa flowers, to wit, the radiance of the gems of her ear-rings.

41. Did her face, having conquered those moons, her jewel ear-rings, reported to be jealous of her face, bind them with the creeperlike ears, taking the ear-rings for two moons, without investigating whether the charge of jealousy was true or false?

42. A girl friend, after she had made Damayantī put on the ear-rings, said to her, “Verily the contact of thy moonlike face with these ear-rings on either side will, in respect of the growth of love in thy beloved, have the same effect as the association of the moon with Venus and Jupiter[19] has with regard to the birth of a child.”

43. The wax, applied to her lips for brightening the lustre of their red lac paint, shone forth, clinging to the border of her nether lip, eager to abide on the nectarlike lip, having forsaken honey.

44. Verily her throat resembling a young sapling, by virtue of its melodious voice, passed formerly for a lyre without any qualifying epithet. Then when it received seven pearl-strings looking like the strings of a lyre, it clearly shone forth, as a sevenstringed lyre.

45. The fair[20] maiden’s arms, accompanied each by an auspicious conch bracelet, shone forth, as if they were each attended by a young lotus stalk to learn the art of being soft from the arms.

46. The fresh paint of red lac applied to her feet was at that moment surmised by people to be fresh sunlight, emerging after long embracing a pair of lotus blossoms, having parted with them at the coming of the night.

47. It was not red lac. It was clearly Cupid’s glowing[21] fire, which, having offended the beautiful maid,[22] now[23] waited upon her feet, thinking of her union with her lover.

48. Since her limbs looked beautiful by themselves, and adorned each other, nothing could those adornments claim. Useless it was to make them.

49. Each successive feature of beauty, growing by degrees higher and higher, which she acquired in contact with her ornaments, broke the chain of the idea of limit, owing to (fresh) beauty coming and coming to the fore.

50. While she was looking at the reflection of her face on the gemlike surface of a mirror, she shone as if she, bringing her face close to the moon, measured the difference between the two.

51. The moon, defeated by her face, assumed a magic form, visible to those who have a notion of seeing two moons in the sky.[24] But, still was it defeated by her face, assuming a plurality of forms, in the mirrors, simultaneously displayed by two of her maiden friends.

52. (Amid the reflections) on the two mirrors held before her by her two friends, was only one her face, and the rest[25] lotus blossoms? The flowers were seen to acquire a resemblance to her face, having ended their lives by nightly devotions in the midst of frost.[26]

53. She was surrounded by bows, the rays of the gems of her ornaments; (bows) with oncoming arrows, to wit, the bees coming to her, taking her for a wreath of Palāśa blossoms.[27] She then appeared to be guarded with hundreds of thousands of bows, because she was Cupid’s treasure.[28]

54. Her beauty attained a rare excellence by her ornaments, as does the Gaṅgā with its special sites of pilgrimage; as does natural affection for someone by virtue of his merits; as does statecraft by brilliant turns of luck.

55. Wives of kings, who came to king Bhīma’s great festival, bowed to Damayantī to avoid being made widows by Nala.[29] They bore on their heads the red lac of her feet, as if it were auspicious vermilion borne for the long life of their husbands.

56. Bashfully drooping, she then received, bowing as she did so, the blessings of her parents, Brāhmaṇas, and devoted matrons, which, by their unfailing nature, were equal to the utterances[30] conveying the boons of the gods when pleased.

57. At the same time, in the same fashion, servants expert in the art of decoration effected on their master Nala an adornment worthy of the festive occasion of his wedding.

58. The persons engaged in the work, pondering over and again, tied[31] the king’s hair, which stole the grace of the feathers of moulting peacocks, left in deposit with it.[32]

59. Flower buds, coming in contact with his flowing hair, beautifully dressed,[33] acquired the beauty of Cupid’s arrows, joined to the long polished string of his bow.

60. The king looked beautiful, adorned with a crown of priceless jewels on his head. A wishing tree he was to suppliants. So he seemed to put forth a charming spray of flowers.[34]

61. The halo of the moon, in the guise of a band of jewels attached to Nala’s brow, shone forth, as if it could not encompass his face,[35] which at that moment acquired a beauty greater than the moon’s.

62. Verily, the circular ornamental mark on Nala’s brow, near the eyebrows, looked like a shot kept ready near a bow;[36] (a bullet) of Cupid who wished to kill that swan, Damayantī’s abounding strength of mind.[37]

63. The circular dot of sandal, which Nala’s face surpassing a lotus blossom bore (on the forehead), resembled[38] some beauteous star abiding in the bosom of the moon.

64. ‘Damayantī cannot be married to Nala until she goes through the ceremony of going round the fire’. Thinking thus, did Indra in despair[39] send the moon in the form of a dot of sandal, to decipher the Creator’s script (on Nala’s brow), and see whether she was ‘on his forehead or not’?[40]

65. At that moment, Nala’s circular ear-rings, combined with their reflections on the surface of his cheek, acquired the beauty of four flashing wheels of Cupid’s chariot.

66. The pearl-string attached to his neck, coming in contact with the fore-end of his chin, while he was bowing in homage to his elders and Brāhmaṇas, looked like a multitude of dense nectar drops oozing from the moon, his face.

67. Nala’s arm, whence sprang his splendour, and by the resisting power of which he became powerful in battles, overcoming armies, and which fulfilled (the desire) of numerous suppliants asking for riches, assumed the character of the ocean. (The ocean, too, produced the goddess of splendour, Lakṣmī. By means of its elephant, Airāvata, Indra became powerful in battles. The ocean, too, fills up the clouds asking for water).[41]

68. Verily his arm became a divine tree, unceasingly fulfilling the wishes of suppliants. The pair of bracelets,[42] placed on his wrist, looked like a basin for water made round trees.

69. He shone forth, radiating his fame and might, in the guise of the white and crimson lustre of diamonds and rubies, visible[43] on the circle of his arm-ornament; (fame and might) earned by his conquest of the earth, and confronting all the ten regions of the sky.

70. When Nala saw the gleam of his appearance on the dense mass of the gems of his ornaments, which covered[44] all his limbs, he made useless the holding of mirrors before him by his expert attendants.

71. Not merely did the rejoicing people look at the gleam of the setting of his ornaments, the ornaments themselves, widening their gem eyes, seemed to look at one another’s gleam.[45]

72. Delighted with the nuptial procession, and with his crown on, the king, who used to destroy in battle the conquering chariots of enemy kings, then mounted his chariot driven by Vārṣṇeya;[46] just as Arjuna, known as Kirīṭin, who killed in battle the enemy king Jayadratha, mounted his chariot driven by Kṛṣṇa and rejoiced in martial expeditions, accompanied by his followers.

73. The nymphs of the heaven Vidarbha, with their ornaments on, then brightened the highways evermore, coming from every house, to look in the eagerness of their hearts[47] at the radiant prince.

74. Eager to have a look, a certain woman of the city, without noticing even the scarf over her breasts, which was half blown away by the wind, displayed before him as he was proceeding the offering of an auspicious pitcher, her own bosom.[48]

75. A woman, while pointing out Nala to a friend, for a moment showered over him parched rice, namely, the pearls of her necklace, which got loose unnoticed by her, striking against the bracelet of her hand, which she had abruptly raised from her lap.

76. The multitude of those young women served as auspices to the king while he was journeying,[49] for they had mirrors, their own flashing finger nails; lotus blossoms, their faces; flowers, their smiles; honey, their voice; and young leaves, their hands.[50]

77. Wishing to take the betel which was in her hand, a gay woman, whose lotus eyes were fixed in a gaze, thrust her toy lotus into her mouth, as if she were angry with it for rivalling her face in beauty.[51]

78. At that moment, a certain woman felt her view of Nala to be greatly obstructed by the daring embraces of a paramour, who joined her in the midst of the crowd while it was distracted, looking at Nala.[52]

79. Another woman with superhuman beauty,[53] who was eager to see, her eyes ceasing to wink, was prevented from passing for a nymph, simply because she touched the earth with the extremity of her feet.[54]

80. Another woman seemed to thrust[55] by force into her friends a joy exceeding the capacity of their hearts, with strokes of hands and shakings, calculated to warn them[56] that their ornaments had slipped off.

81. Did even the ears of the gazelle-eyed women who were absorbed in looking at Nala, turn absent-minded, gazing with their own eyes, to wit, the blue lotus buds decorating the ears? Was that the reason why their ears did not hear?

82. With their eyes[57] as with the hollow of a palm,, drinking in Nala who seemed to be enveloped in clusters of ornamental gems up to the crown of his head, and mistaking him for Indra, the sovereign of the region that is the Veda-ordained result of the Soma and other sacrifices;[58] some of the women thought in their simplicity, ‘Is he encircled,[59] by a thousand flickerless[60] eyes’?

83. The women said: “Perfect in his beauty, he hath now emerged to adorn the throne of Cupid, who was consumed by the fire of Siva’s wrath. With the lustre of his body he surpasses even Purūravas, Urvaśī’s beloved, dear as her life, whose mother was king Sudyumna, transformed into a woman.[61]

84. “For the sake of this youth, rightly did Damayantī who is wise reject the suppliant Indra, the lord of all the gods. But, unbearable is the unbecoming attitude of the gods,[62] who, though known to be benign,[63] were annoyed[64] when she chose him as her consort.

85. “Why did not the lords of the cardinal points,[65] who witnessed Damayantī’s wreath of choice playing round Nala’s eager neck, rend with some weapon their bosoms, which burst not of themselves? How will Indra, alas, disappointed in his love for Damayantī, appease to-day his consort Śacī, bowing to her on his return, her lotus face turned aside?

86. “Think ye not, Damayantī is ignorant that fame is higher than pleasure. Rightly she refused to be made a second Śacī by Indra. Tell us, who ever composed a poem on the life of Śacī? But, who will not compose poems on her career, a current of the river of poetic emotion?

87. “Cupid of the earth, this youth delights our eyes with his beauty, created by Damayantī’s religious austerities performed in many a birth. Let him to-day acquire a unique lustre,[66] enjoying his union with Damayantī, who was unattainable to Indra, the overlord of heaven, even with the wealth of his religious merit.

88. “Did the practice of the Creator, who unites man and woman, become mature in order to bring about the conjugal union of this pair? The creation of the profound love of this couple by Cupid was perfected by his play of inducing mutual love in men and women ever since the beginning of the world.

89. “We do think only those women whose eyes made the acquaintance of Puruṣottama occupying the platform, first of all, on the occasion of the great festival of the full moon in the month of Jyeṣṭha,[67] now see Nala going through the streets. The woman who bathed in the month of Māgha in the sin-destroying confluence of the Yamunā and the Gaṅgā, becomes (now) a queen[68] by virtue of those black and white whisks of Cāmara hair, to wit, Nala’s glances playing[69] on her.

90. “On account of Damayantī’s great love being directed to Nala, the course of her past action proclaimed the luck that attended him, the Indra of the entire circle of the earth; while the blessing given by Śacī, who was pleased, because Indra was not chosen, is a guarantee of happiness for the daughter of our king.

91. “Full of esteem for the kings, because they came for her sake, Damayantī rightly wiped away their disgrace, by rejecting the gods as well, even Indra.[70] Presenting herself to her husband as a gift from the gods, obtained through their favour, she removed all occasion for any talk of shame, anger or disgrace in respect of the gods as well.”

92. Thus did the wives of the citizens speak, delighted to see that beauty of Nala, which was growing insolent on account of the perfect charm of the ornaments set on his every limb; who had hands fair as rubies, and went along, occupying a delightful chariot; even as the moon with rays fair as rubies goes to the pleasure hill of the east, on the border of the Nandana garden, riding on the air.[71]

93. Epilogue.

Śrīhīra, etc. In the epic, The Story of Nala, composed by him, mellifluous with profuse sentiments, the fifteenth canto, brilliant by nature, is at an end.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Nala.

[2]:

i.e., the royal tent destined for his use during his stay in king Bhīma’s capital.

[3]:

i.e., Nala.

[4]:

Lit. put forward.

[5]:

Lit. bathed.

[6]:

Lit. was not contained in.

[7]:

See Vocab. under “catuṣka”.

[8]:

Damayantī’s breasts are imagined to have defeated the pitchers and made them their slaves. The customary mango leaves attached to the mouths of the pitchers represent the gloom of their disgrace.

[9]:

Also......... bright with the moon, her silken scarf.

[10]:

The face with the ornamental mark on the forehead is compared to the moon worshipped with a Campāka bud, while the lips and eyes are compared respectively to Bandhūka and lotus blossoms.

[11]:

See Notes.

[12]:

Lit. The permanence of its life-span which resorts to nectar.

[13]:

The face is the moon, and the gold band a flash of lightning made permanent by the nectar of the moon.

[14]:

Lit. The second beauty of age.

[15]:

The line in question is compared to a thread dipped in ink, which an artisan casts on a plane surface in order to have the impression of a straight line. Here the artisan is Damayantī’s youth, whose motive is perhaps to reconstruct her eyes on a larger plane.

[16]:

Lit. touching.

[17]:

Or, at the time of her adornment. Lit. at that time. Cf. 8. 38.

[18]:

Eyes stretching as far as the ears are regarded as beautiful.

[19]:

Supposed to bring luck.

[20]:

Lit. fair-toothed.

[21]:

Lit. marked by redness.

[22]:

i.e., while she was pining for her lover.

[23]:

Lit. thereafter.

[24]:

i.e., in order to surpass Damayantī’s face, the moon assumed a dual form visible to certain people. See Vocab. under “dvicandradhī”.

[25]:

Lit. the others which were many, i.e., the reflections of the faces of her friends.

[26]:

Cf. 2. 39 and 7.35.

[27]:

Damayantī shining with gems is fancied as a garland of bright red Palāśa flowers.

[28]:

Cf. 7.19.

[29]:

i.e., prayed that their husbands might not be killed by Nala in battle.

[30]:

Lit. garlands of letters.

[31]:

Also, “imprisoned.”

[32]:

Lit........ hair that concealed the fact of the deposit (with it) of the grace etc.

[33]:

“arjitamārjanaśriyā” is to be applied to both “hair” ('kacena) and “bowstring” (dhanurguṇena)

[34]:

The jewels are likened to flowers.

[35]:

Nala’s face is the moon, and the jewel-band the halo of the moon. But as the jewel-band encompassed only the forehead, it is fancied that it could not encircle the whole face owing to the latter having a wider radius of lustre than the moon.

[36]:

Nala’s eyebrows are fancied as Cupid’s bow, and the circular mark on his forehead as a shot kept near the bow. Lit. A shot in the shape of the circular ornamental mark......

[37]:

“mānasaukasam”: “swan” (acc.) qualifies also:

“dhairyabharam—(bhaimyāḥ) mānasam okaḥ yasya dhairyabharasya tam”.

[38]:

Lit. made friends with. The last two lines of the verse may be construed as follows:

“(candanabindumaṇḍalyā) śriyaṃ śritā (saśrīkā) śaśāṅkasya aṅkacartinī kācana tārakā sakhī kṛtā

[39]:

Lit. Indra’s despair.

[40]:

i.e., to see whether she was really destined to be Nala’s. The expression is found in some modem Indian languages also.

[41]:

The portion within brackets is derived by means of puns. See Notes.

[42]:

Lit. The bracelet having a second one.

[43]:

To be connected with “lustre.” Lit. present. ‘White’ refers to fame and ‘crimson’ to might.

[44]:

Lit. clinging to.

[45]:

“vibhūṣaṇairapi paraspareṇa any[e/o?]nyamya dy[?]tira[d/ṭ?]śīṃva [?]” Nārāyana.

[46]:

Lit. that had Vārṣṇeya as the charioteer.

[47]:

Lit. owing to the rise of emotion.

[48]:

Lit. with one of her breasts.

[49]:

Lit. bent on going.

[50]:

Lit...... women possessing mirrors in the shape of their...... finger nails, lotuses in the shape of their faces etc. Mirrors etc. are lucky objects.

[51]:

Lit...... as if in anger at its joint sovereignty with her face. The absent-minded woman swallowed the lotus instead of the betel.

[52]:

Lit...... the crowd whose eyes were distracted through looking.

[53]:

Lit...... possessing a physical charm ill-suited to mortals.

[54]:

The woman was standing on tiptoe to look at Nala. But nymphs neither wink nor touch the earth.

[55]:

Lit. caused to be contained as it were.

[56]:

Lit. which were given by way of telling them that etc. The woman was drawing the attention of her friends to the ornaments which had slipped off in the bustle. She is, however, fancied as thrusting back into them their overflowing joy by jostling and striking them with her hands. The imagery is that of stuffing a receptacle with things beyond its capacity by thumping and shaking.

[57]:

See Vocab. under “cakṣuḥprasṛti”.

[58]:

i.e., heaven.

[59]:

Lit. embraced.

[60]:

Lit. unwilling to wink. Nala adorned with gems is likened to the thousand-eyed Indra.

[61]:

The king, while out in the forest hunting, was turned into a woman for entering a pleasure grove sacred to Pārvatī. Moon’s son Budha happened to see him and begot on him or her Purūravas, the famous lover of Urvaśī.

[62]:

i.e., the gods who had been Damayantī’s suitors.

[63]:

sumanasaḥ” [sumanas]: (good-minded) means also “gods.”

[64]:

“dumanasaḥ” [dumanas/durmanas?]: (evil-minded)—here, sorry and angry—is contrasted with “sumanasaḥ”.

[65]:

Indra and the other three gods.

[66]:

Lit. a non-duality of lustre.

[67]:

The reference is to a festival celebrated at Puri in Orissa, during which idols of Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and others are led out in procession on separate platforms. To witness this procession was to acquire great religious merit.

[68]:

Lit. a woman king.

[69]:

Lit. falling. The lucky woman who happened to be looked at by Nala with his dark and bright eyes is compared to a queen who is fanned with black and white tufts of Cāmara hair.

[70]:

Lit. the gods including Indra.

[71]:

.I have followed the following construction—

syandanaṃ pavanamadhyāsya adhiṣṭhāya... krīḍādriṃ yataḥ gacchata indoriva”

See, however, Notes.

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