Gaudavaho

Author(s): Vakpatiraj, Narhari Govind Suru, P L Vaidya, A N Upadhye, H C Bhayani
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 336

The Summer
351. The practice (joggā) in the skill of encircling enemyheads was being done, as it were, by his victorious elephants, as they stretched up their trunks to smash lumps of palm fruit.
352. The hill-paths became strewn with the fire-sparks (phulimga) of his wrath, as it were, dreadful (as they looked ) with clusters of tiny Gunja fruit, dropped ( virikka) by the frightened Bhil women running away.
353. Under the guise of peacock's feathers worn on their ears, the feathered (kaapattaņā ) arrows in the form of glances, as it were, are cast at the King by the Sabara women.
| 354. The Lord of Magadha moved away, creating by magic a screen of dark night ( tami) over his face, as it were, as he darkened the whole expanse of quarters by a thick layer of elephants’ rut, in fear of the King.
355. The tracts of land, flickering (in the heat ) of summer, with peacocks, restless and languid, (resting) in the afternoons, and charming with green forest-groves, give to the King a peculiar feeling of uneasiness.
356. The earth warms up, oppressed by summer, with thick heaps of chaff (busa ) falling in showers and then clearing away, the ponds made muddy upto their bottoms and ( grassy) sprouts, rare and withering.
357. The mountain-rivers falter along (in their courses ), their currents being slowed down on rugged land, fragrant ( as they are ) with bits of fresh sprouts (roha), their water cooled by the fall ( oyūra) of icy flow in it.
358. The landscapes (disābhoā) greatly appreciate (in charm), their loveliness emerging on account of a surrounding belt (pariara) of blue forest-ranges and their villages (looking ) white with a covering of newly-laid thatches.
359. Even in summer, the mountain-slopes (oniambā), develop an overgrowth of lawns ( saddalia ) in the forests, because of the sprinkling of water by windy (stormy) showers at evening, thus (looking) as comely and delicate ( as they do ) at the commencement of the rainy season.
360. Then the rivers flow in turbid currents and the breezes get fully (pajjatta ) surcharged with Kadamba fragrance. The