Setubandha

SR No.: 001384
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 812
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English & Literature
File Size: 14 MB

Page 162

CANTO I
TIT
1. Bow down to Vişņu, who is high without being heightened, pervasive without being stretched, deep without being low, infinitesimal without being light, and manifest, even though his true nature is unknown.
2. When the radiant lustre of his nails disappearedi in the blood of Hiranyakasipu, the Fortune of the great demon slunk away bewildered, as if her scarf had slipped off her bosom.2
3. Life departed with toil and trouble from the severely twisted neck of the bull demon Arista, hard to grasp because of its massive size, when it was cruelly gripped by his encircling arms.3
4. When he uprooted the Pārijāta tree (from heaven), Indra's fame, pervading the earth, and deep-rooted because of his eminent qualities, was destroyed by him, like the branch-root of a treet that goes deep into the earth, and is firmly established on account of the roots and rootlets growing into the soil.
5. Bow down to him,5 (during whose evening dance) the regions of the sky, resounding with his loud laughter, glimmer as the flame of his eyes blends with the lustre of his (deep blue) neck, and seem to be enveloped in darkness surmounted by flames.?
6. His left half,8 overpowered by love, with the ample bosom thrilling with rapture, quivers bashfully as it yearns to turn round in its eagerness to encompass the other half.
1. Lit. got stuck.
2. The reference is to the Man-Lion incarnation of Vişnu and the slaying of Hiranyakaśipu by him. The lustre of the claws of the deity is likened to that of the scarf covering the bosom of the goddess of fortune attending upon the great demon. It is also fancied that when the dazzling claws of Narasimha suddenly disappeared, having penetrated the victim's bosom, she ran away in confusion, thinking that her scarf had slipped off her breast.
3. This and the next verse refer to the Krsna incarnation of Vişnu.
4. e.g., the banyan tree 'from whose branches grow shoots that take root and become new trunks.'
5. Refers to Siva who is described in verses 5-8. 6. Cf. Naisadhacarita 22.7,8. 7. Lit. darkness set on fire at the top. 8. i.e., the fimale hall, a reference to the Ardhanārisvara form of Siva,