Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

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

Page 355

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by the Kinnara-women, and in another place by Vidyādhara-women; in one place having cries made by parrots excited by the ripe fruit of grapes, in another place the fifth note uttered by cuckoos agitated by mango-shoots; here lively with the sound of the hansa stimulated by the taste of the fresh lotus-stalk, there talkative with the kren-call of the curlew excited by the river-bank; here filled with the ke-call of the peacocks exhilarated by the nearby cloud; there lovely with the sound of the crane going around the pool; in some places like a garment dyed with safflower 878 from the red aśoka-groves; in other places like the blue sky from the tamala, palm, and date trees; here like a yellow cloth from the palāśa trees studded with flowers, there like a white garment with forests of mālati and mallilzā. 874
The mountain offered a respectful reception and water for cleansing the feet, as it were, to the Master of the Three Worlds, in the guise of the water of cascades and also with the flowers scattered by the wind. Mt. Așțāpada, purified by the Master's feet, considered itself in no way inferior to Meru purified by his birth-bath. Mt. Aștāpada sang repeatedly, as it were, the merits of the Lord of the World, under the pretext of the warbling of the delighted cuckoo, etc. Instantly, the Vāyukumāras, like living brooms, took the grass, wood, etc., from the ground for a yojana. At once, the Meghakumāras made clouds like buffaloes carrying water and sprinkled the earth with perfumed water. The gods paved the whole ground with broad gold and jeweled slabs, so it was like the surface of a mirror. The Vyantara-gods rained flowers of five colors knee-deep like pieces of the rainbow. The Vyantaras made arches from fresh shoots, thieves of the beauty of the
373 99. Safflower, Carthamus tinctorius, yields both yellow and red dye, red being much more valuable. Watt, p. 279. A Westerner is likely to associate both safflower and saffron with yellow.
874 100. Two kinds of jasmine, Jasminum grandiflorum and Jasminum Zambac.