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SETUBANDHA
3
had somehow passed the rainy season that was, as it were, nightfall to the sun of his endeavour; a strong chain restraining the mighty elephant, his wrath; and a cage imprisoning the lion, his victory in the coming war).15
15. He had lived through the breezes of the Kadamba groves, seen the sky obscured by the clouds, and endured the rumble of thunder: yet, verily, he had no confidence in his life.16
16. Then came the autumn, the pathway to Sugriva's fame, the initial succour to Rāma's life, the hindrance to Sītā's tears, the day of Răvana's doom.17
17. The sky, a worthy sight for Vişnu, looked beautiful like the lotus whence Brahma was born.18 It was covered with banks of white clouds, thousands of petals, as it were; while the rays of the sun were the mass of filaments.
18. The rainbow, a flash from the rays of the sun, departed from the sky: it was, as it were, the bejewelled girdle of the Beauty of the clouds; a quiver for the arrows of the god of love in the shape of the season of rains; 19 a fresh filament, as it were, of a flower of the Mandāra tree that was the sky.
19. The regions of the sky, branches, as it were, of the tree that was the firmament, drawn down by the rainy season, and then relcased, seemed to have returned to their respective places. shaking off the bees in the shape of the clouds.20
15. The rainy season is so described, because it halted Rāma's warlike preparations for the recovery of Sītā.
16. i.e., Rāma had somehow passed the rainy season believed to be unbearable to separated lovers, but the advent of the autumn filled him with despair.
17 The autumn, the season of military expeditions, is described as heralding the fulfilment of Rāma's hopes and the success of his ally Sugrīva and the destruction of Rāvana.
18. i.e., the autumn sky was fit to be seen by Vişnu at the end of his sleep during the rainy season. The lotus in question grew out of his navel.
19. The rainy season is intimately associated with love in Kavya poetry.
20. The regions of the sky, which seemed to be weighed down by the clouds during the monsoon, are described as clearing up in the autumn. The sky is fancied as a tree whose branches, bent down by the rainy season, spring back when released at the advent of the autumn, scattering the clouds in the process.
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