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TRANSLATION
65
then.'---BAKULIKA, understood her design and brought him to her house.
When LAVAŅYASUNDARI saw them coming, she was a little pleased and queried: "BAKULIKĀ, who is this guest?” When BAKULIKA answered, "My brother”, her doubts fled and while offering him a seat she thought she had gained her end. When BAKULIKA said: "Welcome my brother”, she gave him a warm reception by giving him a bath, meals etc. according to her wealth and love.
Evening passed and BAKULIKĀ went to her house. She led RATNADATTA to bed, and perceived then that his talents, charms and virtues were a hundred times more than his handsomeness. In that single night she was so pleased that abandoning all thoughts of another man she became attached only to him.
When the night came to an end, when the gloom (of the night) and the stars seemed to vanish at the command of the incompre. hensible Lord of Time; when the clusters of stars which outshone big pearls disappeared like hail-stones; when the red-glow of the moon on the setting mountain illuminated the sky; when the sky possessed the beauty of the sandy bank of the sea glowing with the rays of the pearls and then reddened by the flashing rays of the creepers of coral; when the directions which were dipped in the darkness of the night like the temples of the she-elephants, were rendered tawny by the rays of the sun piercing through the dense darkness now moving away; (60) when the sky in one quarter possessed darkness as grey as the wings of a pigeon, on the other side was variegated with the rays as red as the slightly ripe kuvalaya fruit, elsewhere was spread over by the thin rays of the moon which was as pale as the ripe leaves of the palmtree; on one side were the vanishing stars, and at some places were a few constellations shining, not concealed behind the lingering darkness; when the morning breeze blew softly, as if due to the fatigue of constant motion, occasionally faltering on the open Puņdarikas, turning grey with the pollen of the garden flowers, and drinking, due to thirst, the drops of the perspiration of exhaustion of the couples tired in love sport by gaining entrance through the windows of the mansions; when the crowing of the cocks which issued falteringly from the throats due to drowsiness, which was the drum of auspiciousness fell frequently on the ears, announcing the end of night and the entrance of the Glory of the Day, and which was a chant for breaking the knot of pride of the proud women when the loving couples with their hearts still attached to each other but their hands separated from embraces still desire to sleep due to the stupor produced by the pain of pitiless sexual intercourse; when the lotus
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