Gaudavaho

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

Page 473

176
Gaüdavaho
Ben 306. The owls are proverbially shy and afraid of day-light and hence are called Diva-Bhita'. Inside the inner hall of the temple, there is complete darkness effected by the bluish swords and daggers and, therefore, even during the day, the owls move about fearlessly in the temple hall. Cf. farsafa गुहासु लीनं दिवाभीतमिवान्धकारम् । कुमारo I-12
307. The Night, personified as a devotee of Kāli, does daily worship of the goddess, by first (g) offering her head dripping with blood in the form of the setting sun and then handfuls of rice-grains in the form of the clusters of stars.
308. The mythological background for this Gatha is as follows. The sage Narada had foretold to Kamsa that a son of Devaki, his brother's daughter, would destroy him and overthrow his kingdom. To obviate this danger, Kamsa kept his cousin Devaki confined in his own palace and six children that she bore, he caused to be put to death. She conceived a seventh time, but the child was an incarnation of Visnu and was miraculously preserved by being transferred from the womb of Devaki to that of Rohini, who was Vasudeva's second wife. This child was Balarama. Devaki again conceived and her eighth child was born at midnight with a very dark skin, whence he was called Krsna. Vasudeva took up the child and escaped with him from Mathura. Crossing the river Yamuna, he went to the house of Nanda, a cowherd, whose wife Yasoda had on that very night been delivered of a female child. Vasudeva secretly changed infants and carried back the daughter of Yasoda to his wife Devaki. Kamsa discovered that he had been cheated and, therefore, in his wrath he tried to smash the infant daughter brought to Devaki, on a slab of stone kept by him outside for this purpose. The child, however, slipped away from the hands of Kamsa and like a lightning streak, shot up to the heaven along with the black stone-slab on which it was meant to be killed.
The goddess moving among the black watery clouds, like lightning, is compared to this infant. Cf. arenag i fac देवकीगर्भात् तव प्रलयो भविष्यतीति । ततः कंसेनात्मरक्षणार्थं घातका आदिष्टाः । अस्यां वध्यशिलायां देवकीगर्भा आस्फोटय निपातनीया इति । तच्च ज्ञात्वा देवक्या गोकुलपतिनन्दभार्यायशोदादुहिता स्वगर्भपरिवर्तनाय समानीता । सा च गौरी वध्यशिलायां घ्रातकैः संयोज्यमाना सती तेषां शिरसि स्वचरणाभिघातं कृत्वा स्वकं