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THE TENTH TALE OF THE SNAKE
(73) Moreover child, when men are harassed very much there is nothing they would desist from doing out of anger. Listen, my child:
In the city of Kauśambi, which was like a jewel on the parting of the hair of the Lady Earth, there lived a rich śrotriya named ŚRUTADHARA who had mastered all the lores. He who followed the path laid down by the śrutis and the smṛtis, begot a son in the middle age who was named VINAYADHARA. Since boyhood the boy was initiated into the study of Vedas and by the time he was sixteen he had learnt all the sastras.
Now, once upon a time, when spring, the sovereign of seasons set in, enkindling the sun which was like its greatness incarnate, after pushing aside out of compassion the winter season which afflicted the whole world by extreme cold; when the orb of the moon posssessed the beauty of a white umbrella with the cloth in the form of the moonlight, with the ribs in the form of the bright rays and which was held high by the umbrella bearer in the form of the night; where here and there leaves of excellent saffron were swayed by the softly blowing wind; when the white lotuses bore the beauty of white chowries; when the rows of aśoka trees flashed forth sprouts in every forest like banners (woven) by the shuttle dyed in lac of the Fish-bannered One who conquered the whole world; when the campaka trees had not even put forth buds, when sprouts had not cropped up, when the fragrance of the kesara had not spread, when the trees and the creepers had not become even mature, when the directions were not even clear, when the wind was not even slow and when the humming of the swarms of the bees was not even heard, then, at the first appearance of spring, even without cause, the world was agitated; when gradually the spring matured; it first agitated the world and then the forests of lotuses; it first revealed the rapturous hearts of lovers and then the rows of aśoka trees flashing redness; it first made the lovers close their eyes towards their sweet-hearts and then the clusters of lotuses; it first cleaved the hearts of the separated ladies and then the buds of creepers; it foremost darkened the hearts of the passionate and then the forests of flowers with swarms of bees; when unnoticed the nights became shorter, the tanks of lotuses gave up their dryness brought about by frost, and the rays of the moon and the trees gave up smokiness. When the rays of the sun and the arrows of Smara increased, then the spring, a dear friend of the Splendour of the Forest, kept ready for her as it were on all sides
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