Gaudavaho

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

Page 54

(xxxvii)
Although in bed, he gets no sleep. He, therefore, utilises the time at his disposal till next morning to depict the 'Night Life' of lovers in a Kulaka of 42 Gāthās (1122-1163 ), fantasizing many a love-scene, mostly modelled, like that of his predecessors on Vātsyāyana's Kāma-Sūtra, which had almost served as a guide or a manual to them all. The special toilet and make-up of the young girls for this occasion (1122-1128), meeting of the loving couples and the flirtatious dalliance of these ladies (1129-1138), the couples drinking wines to-gether (1144–1148), the embrace, the kissing, sex-enjoyment and sleep afterwards ( 1151-1163) are some of the features of the Poet's description of these night-activities.
The end of the night, heralding the advent of dawn, is the theme of the next 19 Gathās (1163-1181), followed by the sunrise ( 1182–83).
The Poet has awakened by this time and having finished his morning duties, gets ready to narrate the life of the King, which is very much like the life of Canakya' (1184). The whole universe feels alerted by this great event and there follow interesting scenes of great excitement and enthusiasm on the part of the gods and celestial nymphs in the heaven (1186-89), the ascetics, the flocks of birds and all people on the earth (1190-92). "The whole surface of the sky was filled by the suspended, circling rows of aerial cars of gods, terraced one over the other " (1193).
Having thus collected in a vast, open auditorium all gods, nymphs, men, women and clusters of birds, ( as, earlier, Bhavabhūti had done for his Garbha-Nătaka in the Seventh Act of the Uttararāmacarita, called Sammelana ), the Poet starts with eulogistic address sambohana ) from other poets, almost in the manner of