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Śramana/April-June/1999
During the spring, the days are longer in their duration than the nights. The poets have fariform and fine farcies annent the reasons for them. The restive but sentimented horses of the sun could not restrain themselves from enjoying bit by bit the amenity of vernal beauty that has set in the pleasure gardens, wide forests, big cities etc. and as such they delayed the sunset. The long sighs of the love-lorn heroines are prolonged along with the days.21
The Malayānila (breezes blowing in the spring from the Malaya mountain) also called Dakkhinamāruta or Caittânila is another delicious feature of sheet delight in the poets' decent description of Vernai Nature. The Malaya mountain is noted for its rich growth of sandle trees, and the gentle breeze blowing through this is supposed to be very cool and fragrant that enhances the exalted glory of the spring to a greater extent. No poet in Sanskrit or Prakrit literature forgets this Malayamâruta even when he briefly thinks of exolling the spring. It has become welneigh a tradition to describe this breezing of the Dakkhinamāruta as welcoming or congratulating the hero or the heroine.22 These spring breezes decently pass through so many places and make even the rippling of the rivers sweet. The slender creepers and plants dance gracefully along with their pretty flowers and sprouts. The pleasantness of the breezy mornings in the spring added by the sweet fragrance of flowers refreshes the mind a great deal. A stanza by Rājasekhara delineating this Malayamăruta is considered to be the best in this field. The Malayānila when breezing from lofty mountains of Lankā was quite rich at its starting point. While passing through the Malaya mountain where many a serpent in the sandle grove was very hungry on account of love sport, and the breeze when swallowed by these hungry serpents (pavanāśana) were enervated. Again by the addition of the heavy and long sight of love-lorn ladies the gentle breeeze is reinforced.23
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