Tilakamanjari

Author(s): Dhanpal, Sudarshankumar Sharma
Publisher: Parimal Publications

Page 83

DHANAPALA AS A PROSE WRITER
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appearance, had got up having left behind that dusty path cadaverous with dust raised up by many travellers--------- (he) started off through a different route of the forest bestrewn with clusters of leaves scared and. fallen. Having got some rest on the peak of a mountain and taken bath in a mountain spring he slept in a hill cavern.
Having gotup from the bed with sleep disturbed by the cries of the wild beasts, weapon in hand and following a tract extremely intractable, he started off through a sylvan terrain that had horrible grottos deep like the Hades; that was difficult of ingress for those lacking courage like a field of battle; that had its internal recesses rendered low-levelled by the hill streams creating a tumult indistinct owing to the clarion calls of Nähals (Mlcccha tribes) lying in covert in the under woods of reeds grown over shores having been splashed across and their shores or shoals shattered at intervals by the sand of stones overcast by the bushes of thickset Nirgundi creepers, with their waters having their currents resonant issuing out from many sources owing to their slipping on the heaps of stones with their tops upraised and their shores being difficult of fording, that had screened from sight the riing and the setting of sun, by the trees that mainly consisted of Śallaki, the Karanja potherb, Arjuna, Sarja and Sarala, clinging to the tops of the sky as if to bring to the state of floral bunches the clusters of stars by means of the groups of branches not stretched forth and as if to afford space to each. other by the networks of the fragile matted tendrils of loose roots etc. Apart from this the flesh of the wild beasts was being roasted on the spits and fire brands at certain places. Somewhere the tabor sounds on a drinking revelry were heard while elsewhere the young chaps were being taught the doleful ditties meant to attract the deer. At every pond squatted the fishermen. holding their fishing hooks and nets. Every day persons meant to be sacrificed at the alter of Candi were being searched out. At places it was uneven owing to the establishments of the sabaras brought into being.. Somewhere it had the crackling noise of the bamboos being heard burning as they were in the conflagration. Elsewhere it was variegated with the sheen of the eyes of the antelopes frightened by the ceaseless growls of the lions. Somewhere the śabaris were stringing the pearl wreaths out of the Gunja berries meant to prepare necklaces of the elephants. Elsewhere the huge trunks of the trees were being made to dance by the whooping sighs of the large boas. Somewhere the groups of terriers shattered by boars were being mourned after by the groups of hunters; Elsewhere the passers-by were throwing into peels of laughter the groups of foresters by uselessly pelting stones on the monkeys and the tame birds perching on the branches of the trees. Somewhere it had the track of leopards being marked by the hunters greedy for the skins. It was full of white (wild) donkeys, white bears