________________
256
like ornaments of the sky, with golden mirrors like stars that had come from curiosity, with choice cloths like handkerchiefs of the Khecaras, with wreaths of various jewels like girdles of Sris on pillars that had been erected. Rows of tinkling bells and banners were put up, giving the appearance of the autumn-season with cranes with sweet cries. Every day at every house the people made pearl-svastikas in the courtyards smeared with yakṣakardama ointment and cow-dung. At every step there were incense-jars filled with aloe-powder, their smoke going high enough to perfume even the sky surely.
je moderat
Eager to enter the city, at an auspicious moment, the Cakrin, an Indra on earth, mounted the elephant roaring like a cloud. Beautifying the sky with only one umbrella white as camphor-powder, like the moon-ornament; attended by Ganga and Sindhu, as it were, who had approached, contracting their bodies from devotion, in the guise of chauris; adorned with white clothes, fine, soft, firm, as if made by some one who had peeled the essence of the slabs of Mt. Sphatika; his whole body covered with various jeweled ornaments, as if the ground of Earth had given her own essence from affection; escorted by kings crowned with jeweled diadems, like the Naga-king by Nagakumāras having their hood-jewels; his wonderful virtues celebrated by delighted bards with cries of "Hail! Hail!" like Sutraman by celestial singers; with auspicious sounds made frequently by heaven and earth in the guise of an echo of the sounds of auspicious musical instruments; a Bidaujas in splendor, like a store-house of strength, urging on the elephant a little by spurring with his feet, the King set out.
The people came from the villages, etc., to see the King who had come after a long time, as if he had descended from the sky, as if he had risen from the earth. The entire army of the King and the people became mixed. All the people appeared to be made into one ball in one place. There was so little space between the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
