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Notes
159
Next , in a Kulaka of 15 Gāthas (167-181 ) the Poet gives us a picturesque description of the Pralaya or a periodical dissolution of the Universe, where everything is destroyed, except Hari or Vişnu who alone survives. Is not our king Yašovarman an incarnation of the Child Krspa or Bālaka Hari ? The Pralaya, therefore, may be looked upon as merely a sport or imidiapu of the King himself. Cf. लीला कंसारिसरूवधारिणो जस्स णिव्वडिआ। G.181.
During the Universal destruction, three elements, Viz. Fire, Wind and Water, play havoc. There is thus wild conflagration, violent hurricanes and drowning floods all over . Cf.
दग्धं विश्वं दहनकिरणोंदिता द्वादशार्काः वाता वाता दिशि दिशि न वा सप्तधा सप्त भिन्नाः । छन्नं मेघर्न गगनतलं पुष्करावर्तकाद्यैः ।
979 9791: 5424777 mai theerst: fogo il quit. III. 8. 167. The golden mountain, Meru, starts burning and the molten gold began to flow (facT3T) through its crevices. It, therefore, looked as if it is from the Pātāla or the world down below, that the fire is coming up.
168. As the gods' grove of trees started burning, the sylvan goddesses stretched forth their palms to save the clusters of pink, tender leaves, which blended with the palms very well.
169. When the moon began blazing up, the deer, which very much looked like his spot on the orb, fled away and the planets, attending on him, dropped away in the form of sparks darting off from the orb.
171. Vidyādharas or Possessors of Knowledge' are a class of inferior deities inhabiting the regions between the earth and the sky and generally of benevolent disposition. They are attendants upon Indra, but they have a chief and kings of their own, and are represented as intermarrying and having much intercourse with men.
Here this Vidyadhara is confident of staying to-gether even in death and the first whiff of smoke, issuing from them, looked like the blade of the sword held in the hand by the Vidyādhara.
172. Yama, the god of death, is supposed to ride a big buffalo. This vehicle of Yama is enveloped in the fire-flames. The Poet imagines the burning buffalo to be the mass of smoke,
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