Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 3

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

Page 63

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CHAPTER ONE
Glistening with fragrant sandal-ointment like a statue of sapphire, Tripṛṣṭha mounted a fine elephant and, surrounded by princely friends who had become attendants, went from his house to the house of Jvalanajațin. The younger brother of Bala stopped beneath the festoon on the front of the house, like the sun in the east, waiting for the collection of offerings.47 Auspicious songs being sung by highborn women, Hari broke the fire-cup and went with his best man to the shrine. 48 Then Hari saw Svayamprabhā like Śaśiprabhā incarnate, dressed in a white fringed garment, delighting the eye. Then they both sat down on one auspicious seat, Svayamprabhā and Tripṛṣṭha, like Citra 49 and the Moon. When the auspicious moment had been indicated by the sound of a gong, the priest joined their lotus-hands like two hemispheres. They both made a conjunction of the pupils of their eyes which resembled the sprinkling of the newly-appeared tree of affection. Svayamprabha and Tripṛṣṭha united in that way like a creeper and a tree, went to the room with the fire-pit. With fuel from the pippal, et cetera, the Brahmans lighted the fire accompanied by the burning of the oblation on the altar. They circumambulated the altar-fire with auspicious blazing of the flame, the Brahmans reciting mantras from the Vedas.
After marrying Princess Svayamprabha in this way, Bala's younger brother mounted an elephant with her and
47 484. See I, n. 187. The 'arghamandala' is described by Muni Śri Jayantavijayaji as follows: When the bridegroom waits at the door of the father-in-law, the mother-in-law goes to welcome him with a dish full of offerings. She marks his forehead with vermilion and applies rice to it and showers rice and flowers on him. She welcomes him by showing him a plough, a pestle, a churn, and a spindle, all in miniature. A small earthen cup with live charcoal in it is covered with another earthen cup and set on the floor. The bridegroom tramples on it and enters the father-in-law's house.
48 485. Mātṛgṛha. See I, n. 183 and pp. 141-147. Anuvara is to be read here.
49 487. One of the nakṣatras, 'asterisms.
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