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Notes
145
on a lotus. The Poet imagines that having been fondled and thus spoiled by Brahmā, she now wanders about like a wanton lady over the soft tongues of poets. Cf. धातुश्चतुर्मुखीकण्ठशृङगाटकविहारिणीम्। नित्यं प्रगल्भवाचालामुपतिष्ठे सरस्वतीम् ।। सुभा.
48. Sanskrit poets have indulged in various fine fancies to explain away the dark spot on the moon. Here is one such from Väkpatirāja. He imagines that a big, wide rent was caused in the surface of the heavenly floor, as a result of the rushing cascadelike stream of Gangā, flowing down to the earth from the heaven. Through this breach also flowed the stock of moon's loveliness, colle ted in the middle of the moon's surface. This left a wide, yawning gap, which, perhaps, is seen as the shadowy spot.
49. Sūrya is represented in a chariot drawn by seven horses or a horse with seven heads, surrounded with rays. His charioteer is Aruņa or Vivasvat and his city is Vivasvati or Bhāsvati. The colour of his horses, like that of Lapis Lazuli, the poet imagines, is due to the fact of the darkness being pushed back every day (afger) by Aruna.
50. Ordinarily the sun contracts himself to give out a dim glow for preserving the world. At the time of Dissolution, the mass of his rays, fully expanding (qfa fors 37), as it were, blazes forth in intensity
51. The weight of the earth became light, as it was evenly distributed over his many hoods.
52. “Gaņeśa o Ganapati, a son o Śiva and Pārvatī, is represented as a short, fat god of a yellow colour, with a protuberant belly, four hands, and the head of an elephant, which has only one tusk. Sometimes, he is depicted as riding upon a rat; hence his appelation 'Ākhu-ratha'. The picture of Ganesa, with his trunk resting upon his one tusk, is likened by the Poet to the Gangetic stream, mingling with the huge column of the waters of Yamunā - a mixture of black and white. Cf. Fafara guitar भूषणेव भस्माङगरागा तनुरीश्वरस्य । पश्यानवद्याअगि विभाति गङगा भिन्नप्रवाह Tatar S9: 11 Raghu, XIII. 57.
53. The earlier picture of Ganesa, indulging in the playful frolics of clasping his trunk ove his solitary tusk, is fancied to be similar to that of bringing to-gether the Himalayas and Vindhyas
G. 10
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