Lilavaikaha

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

Page 45

S. T. Nimkar
228-229 Here nearby, there is an extremely beautiful penance grove of (two) Yakṣa hermit girls, which has creepers in full bloom, trees laden with fruits, surroundings resounding with beautiful songs of birds and where the Sun's rays are warded off campletely by the fresh foliage of various trees and creepers.
And there, the beloved daughter of a Yakṣa king, Mahānumati by name stays in the guise of an ascetic, I do not know for what reason.
And another similar good hermit girl, named Kuvalayāvali also (stays there) who is the daughter of a great sage, and who is as if the banner of the Creator's skill (in oreating beauty).
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Both of them, with their hearts tied to each other with bonds of mutual love, pass their days sharing happiness and sorrow equally.
So come along; before the sight of these (my) eyes, weakened (lit. ripened) with old age is blocked by darkness, I will guide you to them.
234. So that staying there overnight and gaining confidence (or getting rest?) you will go to your desired place from that penance-grove of the girls".
235. Then, with him, O King, I went to that penance-grove, seeing which even Indra would forget his heaven.
236-239 There I saw a very beautiful temple of Parvati and Siva, never seen before, which was dazzling with many jewels set in the surrounding high crystal (-walls), which had its vast regions scented with the fragrance of flowers of the trees all around, which had hosts of statues carved out (lit. placed) on pillars and arches of Vaidurya, which had its pillars decorated with diamonds, sapphires and emeralds, which had the beauty of its doorway enhanced (lit. overspread) with the lustre of different kinds of valuable rubies, which had movements in it made convenient by staircases beset with corals and which had Nandi and Mahākāla placed (lit. sitting) in the Vṛṣabhamaṇḍapa made of gold.