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 171

CANTO II
1. Then did Rama behold the restless sea, esteemed as the (source) of the precious nectar, but hard to traverse on account of many a hazard; as if it were the youth of his enterprise, (the age) that is valued for the bliss of the sweet emotion (of love), but fickle, and must be passed with worries because of its numerous flaws.1
2. It seemed to be the reflection of the sky; the opening through which the earth emerged; the home of the regions of the sky; the bejewelled floor of the world; the mass of waters that remained after the deluge.
3. With the rolling formidable waves, and the waters smitten by the massive moonbeams, and spreading on all sides, the sea was violently stirred by the moon that shelters a deer, even as it is stirred by an ever-rutting elephant of the quarters2 (with its massive trunk).
4. It bore waves, now restless, now still, that overran the coral-reefs, and seemed to be the bruises inflicted by the Mandara mountain, with the clotted gore still in them.3
5. It was absorbing its own water, scattered by the rumbling clouds, and pervading the interval between the sky and the earth, and cascading through the mouths of the rivers; as if it were its own fame, constantly spread abroad by the minstrels, and expanding through (the praises of) suppliants, and permeating the entire heavens, the earth and the nether regions.
6. The goddess of wealth, even though she emerged from it long ago, still adhered to it, as does moonlight to the moon, or fame to a good man, or sunshine to the sun, or a great river to a mountain.
1. The sea is represented as the great obstacle to Rama's undertaking, and fancied as its youth, because that period of a man's life is beset with difficulties on account of temptations and follies.
2. One of the elephants supposed to support the earth.
3. The waves are fancied as the bruises received by the sea when it was churned with the Mandara mountain by the gods and demons, the coral-reefs being the clotted blood.
4. i.e., during the churning. Cf. verse 11.