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EIGHTH INCARNATION AS VAJRĀYUDHA
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themselves, become messengers themselves in this matter. Hail to this power of Spring! Noise like that of bards to awaken King Smara asleep is made by cries of cuckoos and humming of bees. Young men here wear ear-ornaments of flowers, necklaces of flowers, amulets and bracelets of flowers, like a heresy devoted to Puspeşu. Queen Lakşmivati informs you, Your Majesty, through me that Spring (Vasanta), resembling Vasantasakha (Kama), is present. Today we wish to see the fresh beauty of Spring by going to the garden Sūranipāta which is like Nandana.”
The prince said, “Very well,"? to her speech and went immediately with his retinue to the garden, the abode of Ananga. Seven hundred queens, Lakşmīvati, et cetera, follow the prince, like stars the moon. With the women of his household the prince, sometimes straightening up, sometimes bending, like a yogi entering a fissure, wandered over the garden which had only one umbrella, as it were, from the spreading shade-trees, which was like an empire of pure fragrance from its blossoming trees, with its waterbasins muddy from the particles of falling pollen, the surface of its ground touched by the branches bending with the weight of fruit. Tired by this wandering over the garden and his wives being tired, he went to the tank Priyadarśanā for water-sports. The prince and his wives entered the beautiful tank, which was like a tank in Nandīśvaradvīpa, to destroy fatigue. Then Vajrāyudha began water-sports with his wives there, like an elephant in a mountain-stream. No difference could be seen between drops of mist and the pearls of necklaces which were lifted up by slaps in the water-sports. The meeting of the faces of the women of the harem with the golden lotuses was like that of friends after a long time. Puşpāyudha then had a weapon of water, I think, from the handfuls of water, the syringes, the mouthfuls of water of the women. The dangling braids of hair of the fair women looked like fish prepared for a banner by Minadhvaja (Kāma). Tired out by the games in the water, the
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