Gaudavaho

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

Page 99

(Lxxxii) mountains, panoramic views from their tops, the mad onrush of cascades down the hill-slopes, the hooting of owls in bamboo thickets, wriggling snakes on old, rotten sandal trees, growls of bears in caves, frightful roars of wild beasts and pythons, lurking still in crevices with their spread-out huge bodies, as lizards lick drops of sweat over them. Such has been his approach to Nature, that of a man stupefied and mystified and this explains his peculiar fondness for delineating the awful and the frightful in Nature, with as great force and precision as the sublime and the beautiful.
This also practically sums up in a nutshell what Vākpatirāja feels and thinks of Nature. His love of Nature, too, like that of his master, Bhavabhūti, strikes a different path and finds original, unconventional and unorthodox ways of expression. His feelings of mystic awe and wonder are vented in his grand descriptions of the cosmic phenomena of the wing-cutting of mountains, universal destruction by fire and floods, the Serpentsacrifice of Janamejaya, the churning of the ocean and similar other scenes. The description of the goddess Kālī on the Vindhya mountain with all its gruesome, bloodcurdling details of blood-spilling and animal slaughter, clearly indicates his close association with Bhavabhūti, " the ocean from whom he has culled just a few drops of nectar". In the same vein are given to us the King's saddening thoughts at the sight of a dead body, reduced to a rotten, worm-riddled condition, observed by him on the precincts of the temple of Kāli.
Stark Realism prevails and dominates his descriptions of the seasons as they affect, changing the life on the earth at intervals. The summer heat and its effects, massing of clouds, shower-bursts, mountain-rivers