Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 152

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
compound words. Other poets also use the word similarly though more rarely. Further we must notice the second half of verse 17:
[MAY, 1913.
अद्यापि चान्ये समरप्रगल्भाः कुर्वन्स्वरीणामहितं प्रसह्य ॥
And, even to-day, others courageous in war, effect by force the destruction of their enemies.' Here the wording which expresses the simple fact that some members of the weaver-class served as soldiers, is exactly as it is required in artificial poetry; and the words samarapragalbhaḥ. And prasahya of which latter, the position also is to be observed, are quite characteristic of artificial poetry.
With verse 23, begins the description of the princes of Dasapura and their suzerain, wherein, at the very threshold we are face to face with quite a rush of images and turns of expression very frequently used by artificial poets.
28. While Kumaragupta ruled over the earth, which is circumscribed by the four oceans as by a moving girdle, whose high breasts the mountains Sumeru and Kailasa are, and which smiles with the flowers in full bloom coming from the woods.
24. 'King Visvavarman was the protector [of Daiapura] who, equal to Sukra and Brihaspati in wisdom, the ornament of the kings on this earth, performed exploits in the battles, like Pârtha."
The metaphor of the girdle and the breasts of the earth is absent from no Indian poet. The only thing to be noted in our passage is that Vatsabhatti selects for the comparison the most important mythical mountains. Probably, the Himavat and Vindhya which are otherwise frequently referred to in this connection appeared too trivial to him, not to mention his desire to surpass his predecessors. The third metaphor of the smile in the form of flowers is also not a rare one. So also the compounds samudránta and vanánta are quite characteristic, in which the word anta has, really speaking, no meaning. The word vanduta, as the passages quoted in the great Petersburg Lexicon show, is very frequently used in the sense of forest-region, forest' in epics as well as in kávya literature. Samudránta, on the other hand, signifies only sea-shore' in other places. But this sense would not do in the present place. For the shores are really included in the earth; and it is only the rocking oceans that can suitably be represented as the swinging, moving girdle. Thus, on the analogy of vendnta, samudránta appears to be used in the sense of the surface of the ocean'; and it is very probable that the compound is used only for the exigency of the metre.
Equally noteworthy is the figurative use of the word vanta, so favourite with the court-poets, which Dandin treats of in Kavy. I. 95-97 and sanctions as atisundaram. Of the comparisons in verse 24, that of the king with Partha or Arjuna is very familiar; so also is the comparison with Sakra and Brihaspati, the teachers and Purohitas of the Asuras and the gods. In the second verse referring to Viśvavarman (verse 25), the comparison of the king with the tree of Paradise, yielding all the desires, stands out prominently, a comparison which the needy poets, as is well known, apply very frequently to kings, in order to stimulate their generosity. Verse 26 with which begins the description of Bandhuvarman has been discussed above. In the following verse, there occurs the stereotyped comparison with the God of love, which the poet has taken troubles to make even more emphatic by the use of several epithets:
27... Of a graceful form, he shines forth, though not wearing ornaments, by virtue of his beauty, as if he is a secend ged of love."
Even the last verse contains a description of the terrible character of the king, very frequently recurring in the kavyas:
28. Even to-day, when the beautiful, long-eyed wives of his enemies, afflicted as they are by the severe pangs of widowhood, remember him, a painful, violent tremour tortures their full breasts. With this may be compared, for instance, Raghuvamia, IV. 68, Subhashitavali 7 rather incarnation of love.