Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 3

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

Page 68

SREYANSANATHACARITRA
39
great occasion for fear that the speech of the astrologer is true because of its proof from the killing of the lion and the attack on Caṇḍavega. In this case it is fitting for the lord to observe the policy of encamping from among the six kinds of policy. For even a great elephant, running without ascertaining (the road), mires in the mud. Moreover, the boy,57 acting rashly, will jump up quickly some place like a sarabha 58 and perish and you, though encamped, will derive the benefit. But if you cannot endure such a thing, then give orders to your army to fight, O king. Who can withstand your army?"
The king scorned this truthful and suitable advice. How can men have any common sense in anger, as in drinking wine? Insulting the minister with the words, "You are a coward," he, angry, had the marching-drum sounded at once by his servants. All the soldiers came with all their forces immediately at the sound of the drum even from a distance, just as if they had been at his side. Hayagriva went to the bath-house and bathed with water from pitchers, like a swan with high spotless waves of the Gangā. His body dried with fine cloth and perfumed with divine perfumes, his body made white with gośīrṣa-sandal taken from Nandana, wearing a fringed white garment, carrying a knife, wearing a tilaka made by the priest, he, the tilaka of kings, being praised by the bards, with a white umbrella and chauris mounted a great elephant, whose ichor wet the surface of the ground.
Hayagriva set out, attended by irresistible elephants, horses, and chariots, shaking even the mountains. As he went along, the handle of his umbrella, shaken by a cruel wind that rose suddenly, was broken like a tree. Like a flower from a tree, like a star from the sky, the umbrella fell from Hayagriva's head. Then the elephant's ichor
57 553. Tripṛṣṭha.
58 553. The belief is that śarabhas leap up at clouds under the delusion that they are elephants and so perish.