Lilavaikaha

Author(s): K R Chandra, Ramniklal M Shah
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 24

Lilavai-Kahā of Koühala
18. There was (a Brahmana), Bahulāditya by name, who had
pleased the Gods by his (constant) contact with three Vedas and three sacrificial fires, and who had achieved three goals
(of human life). 19. Even to-day the moon bears (or has), under the pretext of
an antelope mark, his broad chest darkened as it were by
the columns of smoke rising from his sacrificial fires. 20. And to him, an ocean of jewel-like virtues, was born a son,
Bhūsanabhatta by name, who was like the moon in the sky
of his family. 21. Staying in whose (only) one mouth, the (four) Vedas emana
ting from the four mouths (of Brahmā) considered themselves
fortunate, like his relatives. 22. His son Koūhala, though of a poor intelligence, has composed
this gem of a poem (kathā) Lilāvai by name; listen (to it). 23. It runs thus : (Once) while the temples of elephant in the
form of darkness were shattered by the claw-like rays of the moon-lion, brightening with pearls of stars (here and there) an evening in autumn
(Prose) - at the beginning of night, (the poet) was addressed (by his beloved) sitting comfortably in her couch on the
terrace of his white palace (thus) : “Look, look, my dear! 24. In the pleasure pond of the house, the fluttering bee encir
cled by the opening petals is humming sweetly as he freely sips the sweet and abundant wine of nectar in the nightlotus, which is bright white with its interior filled with moon
light and fragrant all over. 25. In this autumn the moon looks beautiful, with the moon the
night (shines brightly), with the night the bed of night-lotuses, with the lotus bed the sandy bank, and with the sands the
flock of swans (appears charming.) 26. Listen : this cackling of swans, attractive and sweet owing
to their voice being made sharp by the sap of fresh lotusstalks, sounds like the jingle of anklets on the feet of the Beauty that is Autumn !