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126
KUVALAYAMÂLÂ
a crowd of people making noise to bring the animals together, i.e., engaged in what is now known as hānkā; then a way-farer captured by the robbers and subjected to various tortures, torments, splitting, hanging, scorching etc. Then, in another portion, were painted the agriculturists engaged in ploughing their field with plough, bullocks with pierced nostrils and with ropes tied round their necks, having ploughs on their necks, and bleeding owing to their having been pricked with sharp pointed whips (totta); farmers engaged in tearing the walls of earth and becoming sinful thereby; other house-holders engaged in field operations and undergoing much suffering for their sons and wives; farmers harvesting ripe crops and collecting heaps of pulse and paddy and crushing them with bullocks tied to the middle of the post: people suffering from many kinds of diseases like fever, pain and burning, and lying on their cots and meeting their deaths, to gather their mourning servants, wives and friends; coffins (sava-sayana) being borne by their relatives and the body being cremated on the funeral pyres of wood and grass; bemoaning relatives seated round and setting fire to it; the devoted wife crying and weeping for her departed lover, the old father sitting nearby with tears flowing from eyes and his mother becoming unconscious in a swoon; visit of dear ones in condolences; all the dear ones and relatives going to the water tank and performing the obsequies; a young couple engaged in atrandom talk and the young women scratching the earth with the toe and smiling; a young man embracing with deep affection his young wife; a number of congruous poses between the male and the female; birth ceremony attended by auspicious rites and music; parties of dancing and singing men and women taking part in birth celebrations; wrestlers with stout bodies giving demonstration of their art; persons proud of their beauties bearing perfumed ornaments; persons puffed with pride of their high families; persons in the grip of greed; persons although ignorant feigning knowledge and holding scriptures in their hands; persons shooting animals with bow and arrow; a person holding a naked sword and showing feats of swordsmanship; parrots and magpies put in cages for amusement; a pregnant woman thinking of the birth of a son or daughter and experiencing dohada and labour pains; birth of a son accompanied by female festivities; a young boy amusing himself with the fight of cocks, male parrots, rams; a young man enjoying the company of young girls and maidens; an old man surrounded by his family; a beggar asking for food; a mendicant clothed in tattered garments; a recluse sitting on a palankeen and invited by the king; a soldier fighting with weapons on the battle-field; a king seated on his throne and surrounded by his feudatories and feeding on five mouthfuls of food offered in a leafy cup by a woman; a man entering the sea to save some drowning relation; a man stealing others' money; a fisherman catching a haul of fish with his net; traders engaged in false dealings and not realising the sinful nature of their actions; persons renouncing the world in a state of detachment: these were some of the topics depicting scenes of human life which were painted on the scroll.
Then follows a description in 19 verses of scenes of bird and animal life depicted in the painting, e.g., fight between lion and elephant (as depicted in the Kailāsa temple at Ellora); fight between a tiger and a wild bull, and killing of a
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