Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 146

125
ground hard with open hands, like men eager to make promise of battle. 184 Some made an uproar, as if they had won wagers; some played on their puffed-out cheeks, as if they were musical instruments on their shoulders. Some like clowns changed their appearance and made the people laugh; others bounded in front, at the sides, and at the back like balls. Some made a circle and, singing in a rusticdance-circle, gave a charming dance, like women giving the hallisaka. Some burned like a flame; some shone like the sun; some thundered like a cloud; some flashed like lightning. Some were transformed like pupils filled with boiled rice (i.e., satisfied). Who can conceal such joy arising from the Master's arrival ? Even while the gods were giving manifestations of joy in many forms, the Indra of Acyuta anointed the Lord. With flowers of the coral tree, etc., blooming like his own devotion, then the Lord of Acyuta himself made a pājā to the Lord of Jinas. Then having withdrawn a short distance, bent from devotion, Vāsava bowed and praised the Master, like a pupil. In the same way, the sixty-two other Indras, in order of seniority like brothers, made the bathing and anointing and pūjā to the Lord of the World.
The Indra of Aiśāna made himself five-fold, like the King of Saudharma, and took the Lord of the Three Worlds on his lap. Of these, one held over the Lord's head a camphor-white umbrella, giving a lāsya of the quarters, as it were, with its swinging pearl-pendants. Two others, fanned the Lord of the Jinas with chauris danring from joy, as it were, from the various movements of the body. Another, twirling a trident in his hand, went in front as if thinking to purify himself by the Master's glances. Then the Indra of Saudharmakalpa created four tall bulls from crystal in the four directions from the Lord of the World. The bulls, brilliant with lofty horns, looked like pleasure-mountains made of moonstone of the four
-104 563.
A form of challenge still in use among Indian athletes.