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SRNGĂRAMAÑJARIKATHA
fashioned his bow-string from her beautiful line of hair; the Cakravāka birds learnt keeping close company from her pair of breasts; the lotus plants drew out tenderness from her creeper-like hands; the Aśoka sprouts took loveliness from her lotus-like hands; the conchshells adopted the beauty of three lines from her neck; the clusters of corals drew from her lips the natural excellence of redness; the Kanakaketaki acquired pure brilliance from her cheeks; the doe took unsteadiness from her eyes; the Pundarīka took whiteness from her, the Ketaka leaves took sharpness; the good adopted straight-forwardness; the bees blackness; the moon its curvature from her pair of creeper-like eyebrows; the knots of the string of Smara's bow the beauty of form; the strung bow of Love acquired the beauty of form from her forehead; the plumages of peacocks got the charm to allure mens' mind from her braid of hair; the fullmoon drew constant splendour and the charm of bewitching mens' eyes from her face; the cuckoo drew sweetness from her speech; and the beds of salt took salinity «loveliness from all her limbs.
(13) In not using the following bevy of helps the Lord Creator must have procured some other implements for the creation of her beauty. Thus he did not take the mass of hair of the camari; not the plumages of peacocks, not swarms of bees, not the crescent moon, not slabs of gold, . . . . . . . . . not blooming Indivaras, not Ketaki leaves covered by bees at a corner, not the graces of doe's eyes, not Pātala flowers, not the beauty of the staff of Madana's lute, not the Bimbi fruits, not the Bandhujīva flowers, not the clusters of corals, not the sparkle of the seeds of the ripe promegranates, not the cooing of the cuckoos, not the notes of the lute, not the beauty of Bandhuka flowers, not the white splendour of blooming Kanakacampakas, not the knots of the bow-strings of Smara, not sprouts, not conchshells, not lotus plants, not the Syāmā creeper, not fresh leaves, not red lotuses, not pairs of Cakravāka birds, not the temples of elephants, not the waves of the river, not the loveliness of Smara's bow-string, not naves of the wheels of Madana's chariot, not slabs of precious stones, not slabs of gold, not trunks of plaintain, not the teeth of the Lord of elephants, not Kokanadas, not pearls, not the stars in autumn, not the gait of the Lord of elephants and not the movements of the royal swans. And yet the wonderful Creator created her, a storehouse of wonder. Oh! the skill of the Creator in fashioning this supernatural beauty!
She possesses 'lāvanya' «loveliness yet is not saline «caustic; though common <harlot» is uncommon «unique»; she becomes attached to any one near at hand like a crystal doll «which takes the colour of any adjunct placed near it; she loves no family like Draupadi «who loved Nakula»; she exhibits fleeting fancy like the rainy season in which lightning is seen»; with whom all desire to sleep
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