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CHAPTER THREE of his own accord to the elephant-post and the gods rained flowers and jewels. After anointing his body with fragrant ointments and worshipping him with the choicest flowers, the king waved a light before him.
At the proper time the queen bore a daughter, like a bank of clouds bearing lightning, on a day unspoiled by the fault of evil portents, et cetera. A tilaka on her forehead, a rival of the sun, was present at birth, like the śrivatsa on the breast of a great man. She herself, shining especially with the tilaka, looked like a golden ring set with a jewel. By the power of her birth Bhīma's strength became unlimited and his powerful commands were carried on their heads by kings. Because the queen had seen the best of elephants coming terrified by a forest-fire in a dream while she was in her womb, when a month had passed the king of Kundina gave his daughter the name Davadanti, a depository for the wealth of joy.
With a row of bees buzzing around her fragrant breath, she grew day by day and became able to crawl. She, whose pleasant face was like a lotus, went from hand to hand even of her mother's co-wives, like a bee from flower to flower. The nurses, keeping time by snapping the thumb and middle finger at every step, amused her by playing a musical instrument, a vaktratimilā.112 Gradually, accompanied by the tinkling of her anklets, she began to take steps. Like Ramā in person she played, decorating the court-yard of the house. Verily by her power the king's treasures became visible.
. When she had reached her eighth year, the king entrusted the girl to the best teacher of the arts for her to learn them. The teacher was only a witness for her, intelligent. For the arts were reflected in her like an image in a mirror. She, intelligent, became proficient in the Karmapraksti,113 et cetera,
*112 299. Timilā is a 'musical instrument,' but I have been able to find nothing more. Could vaktratimilā be a mouth-organ'?
113 304. The Nature of Karma. Pandit L. B. Gandhi takes this to refer to a specific work by that name, which is widely studied, rather than the subject in general.
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