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264
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
TRANSLATION
[VOL. XXVI
Success! Om! Adoration to Siva!
(V. 1) May the divine half-moon-crested (Siva) increase your welfare !--(he) who has three eyes as if because of his desire to see simultaneously, at the time of playful amorous enjoyment, the pair of gold-pitcher-like breasts and the lotus-like face of Parvati, the daughter of the mountain !
(V. 2) May that Nilakantha (i.e., Siva) grant you fortune!-(he) whose neck with a white surrounding on account of [the smearing of] ashes, imitating the beauty of collyrium, a row of blue lotuses, a line of bees, a sapphire, wild buffaloes and a mass of darkness, appears like the slope of a ridge of the snow-mountain, covered with a cloud, dark with the surcharge of water!
(V. 3) May that lover of Parvati remove your sin !-seeing in the nails of whose lotus-like feet as in the surface of a mirror the reflection of the universe in the form of Brahman, Indra, Vishnu, the moon, the jewel of heaven (ie., the sun), the principal mountains, the earth, the oceans and other things, the daughter of the lord of mountains (Parvati), at the time of her marriage, was struck with wonder, her moon-like face being bent in bashfulness!
(V. 4) May that lord of serpents, Sesha, grant happiness to the worlds!-(he) on whose lap tl:cre sleeps for a long time Narayana, in the unique cavity of whose belly as in a cottage there rests the universe and whose feet are caressed by the lotus-like hands of Lakshmi; and on account of the precious stones in whose numerous hoods the ocean came to be the store of jewels!
(V. 5) This famous province (mandala) of Talahari is the ornament of the earth--which is surrounded on all sides by tanks with full-blown lotuses and humming bees and is adorned with gardens which appear beautiful with plantain trees shining [in the groves of mangoes and other trees] and to which the god of love is attracted by the excessive warbling of cuckoos.
(V. 6) [In the Talahari province] where the regions are noisy [with the humming of bees hovering on] blooming, fresh, blue lotuses [in the desire for honey dripping from them], the teachers, the cavities of whose ears are, in admiration, filled with the musical sound, do not mark. the faulty (pronunciation) of crowds of pupils reciting (their texts).
(V. 7) Here, while its fair fame, resembling the lord of serpents, [the moon, camphor-powder, silver, milk, pearl-necklaces and others], is roaming in all directions, the chakōra birds even now eagerly fly (after it), mistaking it, for the rays of the moon.
(V. 8) In the sacrificial enclosures in it, the line of smoke, as it speedily touches the expanse of the sky, is looked at by the peacocks which scream in joy, mistaking it for a multitude of clouds.
(V. 9) Then there was born Prithvipāla. From the necks of the hostile princes struck by him with the sharp sword grasped in his hand. . . . for half a moment subjects himself to apprehension.
(V. 10) [Whose fame of bright lustre resembling lightning] and wearing a white necklace of spotless pearls scattered from the large, frontal globes of the best elephants of his enemies cleft by the strokes of his sword.... has gone from the earth to the region of the sky in order to divert itself.
(V. 11) From him was born the illustrious Brahmadēva, the foremost of feudatories, the play house of fame white like the moon, (and) the resting place of valour,-(he) who is to the
