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SRNGARAMANJARIKATHA
In the courtyards of the dhārā-grha were tanks and lotus ponds in which at some places mechanical tortoises swam up and down, at another, mechanical families of cranes were cheated by the swimming mechanical fishes, and at other places the mechanical crocodiles frightened the dolls fashioned as mermaids.
Inside the dhārā-grha were many mechanical contrivances. Dolls of various sizes and shapes danced and played music. Mechanical cranes, bees and cakravākas moved up and down like living ones. Water flowed from all possible slits and holes-the eyes of the winged crocodiles, the mouth of the pea-hen, hair, palms, nails and breasts of dolls, mouths of monkeys climbing up an artificial tree, from the ground underneath, walls, ceiling, lotuses, pillars and pillartops. On the whole it created the illusion of pleasant rainy days within, when as a matter of fact the sun blazed fiercely without. It was natural therefore that the whole populace was bewitched by the splendour of such a yantra-dhārā-grha:
इदं नानाकार कुलभवनमाद्यं रतिपतेनिवासश्चित्राणामनकरणमेकं जलमचाम् । पयःपातीष्मे रविकरपरीतापशमनं
न केषामत्यर्थं भवति नयनानन्दजननम् ।। The picture of the city bespeaks the prosperity and grandeur of the times. With the increase of material prosperity the lives of the people flowed easy and smooth. There was ample time, opportunity and means to indulge in every interest and temptation that life offered. If this text were taken to portray a faithful picture of its times, it offers us a glimpse of the pattern of the social life in general. The picture, it must be confessed, is hardly flattering or respectable.
The mosaic of the population was made up of Brāhmaṇas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, Kāyasthas and men of other professions. the way of life of the individuals described in the text indicates nothing high or noble about them. It may be wrong to infer that the whole social fabric was corrupt, that the air was thick with fraud, greed and slickness, and that society was suffocated with the stench of lust; but it cannot be denied that at least partially it was so, and even the rich and the respectable descended to low and vulgar levels.
The social arrangement demanded that the populace should be distributed among different localities according to their varnas and professions. The locality of the Brāhmaṇas made the entire city look as if it was a world of Brāhmaṇas; for at places rows of śrotriyas moved up and down engaged continuously in various rituals. At some places the recitations of the khilas and nigamas could be heard. 32. SS, p 182, vs. 148. See Notes.
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