Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

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

Page 167

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a rice-seed in a pond. With these two fair ones taken by both hands, the Lord looked like a tree with two creepers clinging to two branches. The eyes of the brides and groom sped toward each other, like the water of the rivers to the ocean on the auspicious occasion of the conjunction of the stars. Then glance was joined with glance, motionless as water free from wind, as mind was joined with mind. Reflected in the pupils of each other's eyes, they looked as if entering each other's hearts from love.
Now, the gods, Sāmānikas, etc., having become servants, stood at the Lord's sides, like Vidyutprabha, etc., at the sides of Meru. The two brides' women-attendants, clever in the art of ridicule, began to sing comic songs. “Eager to eat the sweetmeats, like a man with fever to drink the ocean dry; what, pray, is the intention of the best man ? His gaze fixed on the pastries, greedy like a confectioner's dog ; what is the intention of the best man? The best man is eager to eat cakes like a poor boy who has never seen them before in all his life; what is his intention ? The best man is greedy for areca nuts, like cātakas for water, like beggars for rich men; what is his intention ? Now the best man is longing for the leaves of the betel-creeper, like a calf for grass; what is his intention ? The best man is greedy for sandal-powder like a cat for fresh butter; what is the intention of the best man ? The best man longs for ointment like a buffalo for the mud of a field; what is the intention of the best man ? The best man, whose eye is wavering, desires the garlands, like a drunk man the remains of the sacrifice; what is his intention ?"
Listening to comic songs of this kind, the gods stood, their ears pricked up from curiosity, as if painted in a picture. Thinking, “This custom must be taught to the people," the Lord looked on indifferently like an umpire in
one, who gets the ring the majority of times, wins. In Kathiawar, the game is somewhat different.