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TRANSLATION
55
leaves were constantly plucked by the women of the Sabara king tipsy with drinking wine, for covering their ears; which were fragrant with the sweet scent of the ripe fruits hanging on the small swaying branches slightly crushed by the frolicking monkeys, whose shades were continuously resorted to by the Kirāta women exhausted in pitiless sensual sport, whose bowers of creepers resounded with the shrill singing of the Sidhha women intoxicated by the honey of the flowers and which (trees) have clusters of fruits and flowers that could be gathered by hands. (The forests) where creepers of black pepper were powdered by the unalarmed female cakoras; where parts of the pūga trees intermingled with the glossy lavanga creepers; where the sky was in part decorated by a rainbow made up of the plumages of the flying peacocks; where the amorous sport of the Sabara women which had slackened in the interval of sexual intercourse was enkindled by the cackling of the gallinules intoxicated by drops of water of the streams flowing from mountain caves and which were drunk by the clever cātakas with their beaks; where on the earth covered with the pollen of the priyangu flowers spread by the frisks of the patridges, the footprints of the sylvan deities were seen; where due to its denseness some regions were occupied by groups of Sabaras running helter-skelter intent on hiding....and their eyes tremulous being startled by fierce tigers; which at places was scented with the fragrance of crushed mustā plants uprooted by the wild boars; somewhere monkeys were seated on the high branches as if due to the fear of the leaves being cut off by the young ones of the elephants; where at the foot of the mountains lakes were formed by rivers flowing from the thickets, which (lakes) were indicated even from a distance by the twitterings of the tiţtibhas and whose embankments were concealed behind giant trees; where at a place a solitary aged monkey seeing a portion of the tree being consumed by the flames of the forestconflagration, and finding no other shelter, glancing in the directions piteously, swaying his neck, contracting his body in wonder, with his pair of ears drooping backwards, with his tail let loose, blinking frequently after momentarily fixing his eyes out of distress, with his palate dry, his mouth open, his rows of teeth visible, his face pitiful, with his eyes irritated and closed due to smoke, for a moment thinking himself to be burnt, quickly opening his eyes and looking sideways, holding fast to a branch out of fear of falling down, losing grip and falling down being perturbed, and getting up again, his body fainting due to fear, and screeching inaudibly, was climbing atop an old tree, branch after branch; (31) where the banks ... full of green trees were resorted to swiftly by herds of elephants, among (the herds) here the young ones slowly grouped together because a portion of the land was encircled by flames of the forest
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