Gaudavaho

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

Page 358

Scenes in Nature
61
546. Here (is) this forest with thickets of Devadāru trees, dried up and shorn of branches ( visāha), being broken with their heavy trunks by the elephants and girdled by ( a grove of) greyish, sparse Sallaki trees.
547. Here passes by a herd of elephants, their young ones hoarsely grunting, having been entangled ( samkalia) in (clustering) creepers, their females recoiling (in fright) and their leader (looking back) with only a ( majestic ) turn of his face (head).
548. The big trees here, giving stamping strokes (madda) to the ground underneath, as their close, foremost ends of the branches are lopped off, suggest the fact of a herd of lordly elephants resting there.
549. Here are lands fit to roam about (bhamiavva ), (where we have ) speedless ( ajava) big boars, the enemy, and the ferocious, wild beast (tiger) killing each other (avaroppara) and rare finds of Ruru horns.
550. Birds here fall upon ( samvajjamti) the fruits ( grains ), standing upon the stems ( vidava ) of wild rice-crops with their slender (pavirala) roots remaining, after (much of it) having been collected (samvaggia) by the ascetics.
551. · Here the birds, with their flight impeded (paţihaa ) by the groves of trees, their tops having been enmeshed in a thick network of creepers, fly out oblique ( tamsam ) and then take to ( valaggamti) the sky.
552. The lions here shake off the swarms ( kadappa ) of bees, sent into flight by the blows (with their paws ), from the masses of their manes, heavily ( glued ) by the liquid of rut of the elephants ( whose temples) are violently cleft (by them).
553. The forests here, with peacocks noisy ( with their cries ) and looking reddish with fresh Palāśa blossoms, attract in a way indescribable (kimpi), as they develop a yellowish look by the dry (uvyāa) (waterless ) ponds.
554. The pond-beds situated in the neighbourhood (parivesino ) of Palāśa trees, (that are ) rendered cool by the spray of water-particles ( splashed) by waves (jhilli ), captivate (the eye ), with a few Kimśuka trees standing conspicuous in the centre of the water-less zone ( asalilamajjha).