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4. YASASTILAKA AS A PROSE ROMANCE
83
The Rupakas used are not, all of them, equally successful. The courtesan whose dead body forms the subject of the verse description in Book I was 'the pleasure resort of the apish minds of all who are henchmen of the god of love'. The nights of the rainy season are 'the female buffaloes who nourish the child minds of the women going out to meet their lovers'. A young man who took the help of a nurse in his love affairs is described as having made her a field for the growth of the woodland of his project. A certain sage is called 'an elephant engaged in water-sports in the river of learning. A particularly bad example is the description of another sage as 'an enclosure for the capture of the elephant herd of religious merit'."
Neglect of proportion is a common characteristic of later Kavya style, and overelaboration of details often leads to the use of artificial conceits and hyperboles. Somadeva, for instance, devotes no less than twenty elaborate and mostly far-fetched epithets to Maradatta's sword (Book I, p. 161), and an almost equal number is applied to the dust raised by Yasodhara's troops (Book II, p. 337). The particles of dust are incidentally likened in an elaborate fashion to lovers enjoying the company of their beloved, because they enshroud and cling to the various limbs of the women accompanying the procession. The height of the temples of Rajapura is conveyed by saying that 'the showers of water streaming from the conduits made of moonstones, emitting moisture in contact with the rays of the moon, drench the bodies of the nymphs of heaven, withered by the fire of separation from their lovers'. Sometimes a conceit employed is exaggerated to the extent of producing something like a comic effect. In the description of the great hospitable tree in Book V, for example, the tree is fancied as mockingly addressing other trees in the forest on the subject of their being barren and useless for wayfarers.
1
'चेतोभवानुचरमानवमनोमर्कटक्रीडावनविहारवसतिः '.
2 'अभिसारिकाजनमनोऽपत्यपोषणगर्वर्यः शर्वर्यः '.
3
'स्वकीयाकूतकान्तारप्रवर्धनधरित्रीमकरोत्' Book VII, section 31.
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4 'सरस्वतीसरिज्जलकेलिकुअर: ' Book V.
5 'grafaqquit:' Book VI, section 19.
6 ततः सैन्यसीमन्तिनीच रणप्रणिपातप्रणयिमानसाप्रणीत प्रसृतासंवाहनविनोदकर्माणः कृत नितम्ब स्थलीखेलखेदा: संजनितना - भिदरकुहर विहरणाः ... ..." समाचरित सीमन्तप्रान्त चुम्बनाः सूत्रित सुरतसमागमाः प्रियतमा इव बलसंचरण रेणवः । '.
7
'अमृतकरांतपस्पर्शद्रव च्चन्द्रकान्तमयप्रणालोच्छलज्जलजालका सार सिच्यमानवियद्विहारिणीविरह वैश्वानरकर्ममर्मर शरीरयष्टिभिः". 8 यश्चानवरतमखिलजनोपसेव्यमानसर्वस्वः पवनवशविकाशधरेण पलवाधरेणोपहसतीव प्रतिवेशितरून् । ' अस्मिन् दुःसंचारे कान्तारे देवादवाप्यमानसमागमनस्यार्थिजनस्याविधाय कमप्युपकारमरे खदिर, किं तवान्तःसारतया । सरल, वृथेदं सरलत्वम् "पूतीक, अर्थिजनाशाभङ्गाय मार्गावस्थितिः ।"
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