Gaudavaho

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

Page 342

Advent of Rains
45
406. The sky becomes overcast with massive clouds, the forests have their Arjuna trees pressed down and drooping on account of showers; and the dark-blue nights, with the moon, bereft of the pride ( ahamkāra) (of his lustre), do attract.
407. In the rainy season, the earth sinks, the sites (nivesa) of river-banks sagging under water, thus looking as if it (the earth ) has been tossed away (from his head ) by Sesa, when he himself was being fashioned into a bed ( talimattaņa) by the god Vişnu.
408. The beauty of the forests in the rainy season has to be observed only from a distance, since the ground underneath the trees is full of high grass ( tanailla ) and the water of the ponds, muddy and warm, is unserviceable.
409. The villages, with their groves of trees discernible only at their tops because of the upheaving overgrowth of grass (avaroha) on the forest-borders, appear to have sunk, as it were, enveloped, as they are, by the coiling columns of smoke.
410. The jasmine flower, with its ( encircling ) petals drooping (being beaten ) by showers and half of its filaments soiled and slight-smelling (ūsurabhi), gets loosened from its stem where alone it ripens.
411. The forest borders, which delight trees and with cool breezes ( blowing ) after a break in showers, gladden the heart ( by the sight) of the herds of cattle, returning by their paths on land.
412. The forests develop denseness (bahala-bhūva) with their thick (mibiļa) groves of trees and with the tufts of grassy lawns heaving up (ūsasia ) in their close ( ņiramtara) growth, thus appearing as if they are being (moved and ) massed together ( pumjijjamtāi).
413. And then it looked as if all the four quarters are having their Nīrājana (waving of lights ) ceremony done in honour of the King through some one, just in the rainy season, when streaks of lightning start flashing round in circles.
414. The group of kings looked radiant ( with valour) as they returned, and (joined ) the Magadha king turning away (in flight from the field of battle ), looking like a cluster of (blazing) fire-sparks from a column of a meteor.