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BILHARI CHEDI INSCRIPTION.
263
TRANSLATION. Om !
Om! Adoration to Siva!
(Verse 1) May Sambhu's matted hair, that store of all blessings, protect you!(that hair) on which the ever-moving waters of the Mandakini, flowing down from the shining vault of heaven, appear like a white umbrella, upheld as they are by the breezes from the opened mouth, terrific through the broad expanding hoods, of the lord of serpents, pained by being drawn into a tight knot!
Moreover :
(2.) May the flame of the fire of the eye of the moon-crested (Siva) guard you, which flares up as it were to burn the moon, because she is a friend of the god of love!
(3.) May Sarva's nectar-rayed (moon), the unique flower in the wood of his matted hair, protect you!-that (moon) which the six-faced (Karttikeya), child as he is, lays. hold of and seeks to play with; which is the stake when the destroyer of Pura is playing at dice with Devi; (and) which Pârvati uses as a missile, when in jest she is talking angrily!"
(4) May the gigantic dance of the conqueror of Tripura guard you to the full extent of your desires !-(that dance) at which the quarters are made far to recede by the mighty blasts of wind raised by his massive arms, suddenly become terrific through his graceful movements when he throws his full energy into the act of dancing, and at which the sky rises high, because the earth bends down beneath his violent evolutions!
(5.) Applying my speech to this family which is descended from the moon, I, alas! vainly attempt to measure the sky with my hands.
(6.) And yet, even though I possess no brilliant speech, it will surely come to me from this great family of the moon whose rise I celebrate. Or do not, mark! the streams of rutting-juice of the elephants of the quarters, though by nature the seat of black colour, acquire the bright hue of the milky ocean, when brought into contact therewith ?
(7.) That abode of lustre, loving to brighten the earth, which took its origin from the eye of Atri, which rises up to the Lokaloka mountains and disperses the most profound darkness,-men call it the moon. It is the moon's crescent that decorates Sambhu's head; from the moon too sprang, need I say more? this race of the Haihayas.
(8.) And in this (race) which was rendered an object of reverence by (those) primeval princes, Budha and the rest, there was a noble prince, named Arjuna, who overspread the wide quarters with the lustre of his fame, praiseworthy because he cut down the enemies like forests.
(9.) What became of that lord of Lanka even," who with ease had coaxed Sarva and the lord of the mountains, when he ventured on hostility with him,-(that lord of Lanka, before whom) the lord of the gods went, nobody knew where, on his elephant,
The noun is generally feminine (T). I am doubtful about the meaning of the word, which I have translated by 'stake. Both and are given as synonyms of .
See, eg., Vishnupurana, Wilson's translation, p. 417: RAvana... was taken prisoner by Kartavirya (Arjuna), and confined like a tame beast in a corner of his capital. Matsyapurdna, adhy. 43; Harivamia, adby. 33.
