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No. 23.) CHANDREHE INSCRIPTION OF PRABODHASIVA: KALACHURI YEAR 724 151
TRANSLATION.
Verse 1. Om! Adoration to śiva! Victorious is that Śiva (Sarvva) in whose piles of matted hair, (being like a cloud and in the humming waters of the divine river (Ganges), dark with the hissing of snakes (on Siva's body), flashes the lightning (in the form of the fire of his third) eye and whose garland of human skulls elevates the quarters even as the shower of the collected effulgence of the moon on (his) crest.
V. 2. May the mass of lustre of the laugh of Sankara clad in an elephant skin which is as white as the geese which is spread around his face and which is slightly darkened by the reflection of his (dark or blue) neck (and) which therefore) bears the clear splendour of the moon emerging from a cloud, bring you prosperity.
V. 3. May the Tändava dance of the lord of Chandi (i.e., Siva) give you pleasure, which caused the hood of the lord of the snakes (viz., Śēsha) to be bent down owing to the hollow on the earth revolving on account of the movements of the feet (of Siva) skilled in practising the chari step (in dancing), which (dance) put to flight the elephants of the cardinal points on account of the revolutions of his rodlike arms, which (dance again) suddenly caused commotion in parts of the universe (and) which (was accompanied by the) deep sound of the damaru.
V. 4. May the uninterrupted succession of the illustrious Mattamayūra (clan) purify the three worlds, like the Ganges ; in which clan) was born Purandara, who had performed austerities (tapas) and who was the spiritual preceptor of kings. His disciple (was) Sikhāśiva (who was) like the fire, (and) who through the lustre of his austerities became a lamp (lit. bore the qualities of a lamp) illuminating (lit. standing on the path of final beatitude and having destroyed the intense darkness (of ignorance).
V. 5. After him (who was) lord of Madhumati came Prabhāvasiva who had accumulated great aus erities (to his credit), who was worshipped by many kings, who was the crest-jewel of all Saivas (and who) was made to accept the earth, sanctified by his feet (i.e., was induced to settle in his territory by free gifts of land, etc.,) by Yuvarajadēva.
V. 6. Thereafter came his disciple Praśāntasiva, (who like) the moon, (was) pure, whose real self was manifested in his attempt to dispel ignorance (or darkness), who whitened all the quarters with the rays of his bright fame, and who bestowed prosperity on the meritorious Saivas, as the moon bestows splendour on the fibrous night lotuses.
V. 7. He, the virtuous, whose food was fruits, the stalk of the lotus and (edible) bulbs, who had the Munis as his companions, and who had sanctified the face of earth by his footsteps, built an incomparable hermitage, well-known to the people, at the confluence of the river soņa and at the foot of the Bhramara hill covered with dense forest of Priyāla trees.
V. 8. Whose fame was incessantly sung with delight in every month of Magha' in & high tone by Gandharvas and Vidyādharas, in the assembly of Indra in the celestial garden and by Nandin, who for the pleasure of Siva relaxed his attention to instrumental music, (to enable the God to hear his devotee's fame sung) (and by) the charioteer of the sun who lolling his head (from one side to the other) in an ecstatic mood let the reins of the horses slide from his hands.
V. 9. Prabodhasiva was the foremost among all his (Prasantabiva's) disciples, just as Paragurāma was of the enemy of Madana (i.e., Siva), who had conquered all enemies, who had
Apparently the moon with the slight dark spot on its surface is likened to the splendour of the laugh, while the cloud in the vicinity has its counterpart in the elephant skin-Ed.]
• Buchanania Latifolia. * [This month being the occasion of the five-ratri festival is particularly stored to stva-Ed.]
