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ADMINISTRATION AND STATECRAFT
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in the Autumn season when his armies marched off with a desire to wrest the fortunes of his entire enemy-folk-the armies, that created an apprehension of the return of the first advent of the rainy season; that brought into being the entire texture of the cluster of rainbows by means of the circle of rays from the gems on the crests of the rows of kings marching ahead; that created a fever throughout the world or Universe by the shrill patter of the hooves of the steeds resonant during their stepping up and down (or prancing) like the fall of the heaps of hailstones steered on through terrible squall; that made the interiors of the atmosphere jagged with the stretches of the streaks of lightning in the form of swords balanced on the palms of the hands of the pedestrians swooping on in hauteur; that had the creaking noise of the chariots reeling about like the grinning rumble of the clouds; that had the spaces of the eight quarters rendered dark by the whirls of clouds in the form of arrays of tuskers emitting out sprays of the water of ichor - the sleep of the hosts of kings of the islands vanished away like that of the enemy of Kaṁsa even when abiding in the midst of unfathomable ocean.
The narration of Vijayavega before Meghavāhana as to how Vajrāyudha started off for his campaign against Kusumasekhara, the king of Kāñcï, also contains a reference to the Autumn season deemed suitable for an armycampaign.
'Desirous of uprooting the king named Kusumasekhara, the crest ornament of the enemy kings proud of the prowess of their arms, trampled under his feet, the army-in-chief started off, surrounded by his entire army facing the Kāñcï mandala from Kundinapura, on an auspicious day, with decision arrived at on the issue along with the counsellors having their intellects polished by their consulting the Arthaśāstra, on the setting in of the Autumn season affording incentive to the kings desirous of conquests, when the borders of the villages created obstacles by way of the sheaves of grass standing up, the fields of ripened red rice assumed a crimson hue and the spates of waters in the streams subsided down and when the rains having showers carrying profuse sprays had vanished away, in the year that passed
by'?
1. मुक्तमदजलासारकरिघटासहस्रमेघमण्डलान्धकारिताष्टदिग्विभागेषु घनस्तनितघर्घरघूर्णमान रथनिर्घोषेषु दपोत्पतत्पदाति
करतल तुलि ततगवारि तडिल्लता प्रतान दन्तुरित न्तरिक्षकुक्षिषु, प्रचण्डनिल प्रणुनकरकोपलप्रकरपात मुखर सप्ति खुरपुटध्वानजनित रजगज्वरेषु प्रसर्पन्नृप श्रेणि चूडामणि भरीचिचक्रविरचितेन्दूचापक लापेषु प्रत्यावृत प्रथमजलधरसमयशंकाविधायिषु लोकस्य यदीयसेन्धेषु सकल प्रतिपक्षलक्ष्मीजिघृक्षया शरत्समये समन्ततः प्रचलितेषु fa94affen af misfo Gufe diurait faep FAST &191797 TM Vol. I pp. 69-70. इतः समनन्तरमतीतवर्षे निवृत्तास्वविरलजलासारवर्षासु वर्षासु प्रवृत्ते संवर्तितसिन्धुपूरपयसि परिणमत्कलमकपिलाय मानकैदारिके बद्धस्तम्ब्तृणसंबाधग्रामसीम्नि जनितविजिगीषुपार्थिवजनोत्साहे शरत्समये सेनापतिरर्थशास्त्र परामर्शपूतमतिभिरमात्यैः सह कृतकार्यवस्तुनिर्णयः प्रशस्तेऽहनि समस्तबलपरिवृतचरणतलभृद्रित
12.
