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7. YAŠASTILAKA AS AN ANTHOLOGY OF SANSKRIT VERSE
165 by the king on their death, belong to a type rare in Sanskrit literature,
प्रासादमण्डनमणी रमणीविनोदे क्रीडावनीधरशिलातलचित्रलेखे।
को नाम केलिकरतालविधि वधूनां नृत्तानुगं स्वयि करिष्यति कीर्तिशेषे ॥ (Addressed to the peacock): Thou wast the oramental gem of the palace and the joy of the ladies, and gleamed like a picture on the rocks of the pleasure hill. Who will dance to the joyous clapping of hands by the damsels, since thou art dead?'
सिंहः सुखं निवसतादचलोपकण्ठे सोत्कण्ठमेणनिचयश्चरतात् स्थलीषु ।
सत्वाः परेऽपि विपिने विकसन्त्वशकं नाकं गतोऽयमधुना ननु विश्वकदुः॥ Verily this dog is gone to heaven. Let the lion now live happily on the mountain slope. Let the deer graze on the fields with zest. Let other animals, too, move about freely in the woods without fear (Book V, p. 192).
The commotion of the animals in the Siprā river, caused by the inroad of an army of fishermen, equipped with boats, nets and spears, is graphically described in the following verse :
उडीनाण्डजडिम्भमाकुलभवशालीकिनीकाननं कुलोत्तालबिलान्तरालचलनग्लानालगर्भिकम् ।
प्रायःपतिलगर्तगर्वरमिलहौलेयबालं मुहुस्तस्रोतः कलुषीबभूव विवशमाहं विगाहत्ततः॥ Then the rolling waters of the river became turbid ever more, with the alligators lying helpless. The young birds flew about, and the waterlilies swayed to and fro. The young water-snakes, briskly moving about on the bank, languished after running into the holes. The young turtles mingled with the buffaloes in the muddy hollows (Book V, p. 217).
III. Tax CREMATION-GROUND One of the most elaborate and comprehensive descriptions in Yasastilaka is that of the cremation-ground in the opening chapter, in which the sterner aspects of Nature are brought into play, and the entire description is of a kind not fully met with in Kāvya literature. The reader is at once reminded of the picture of the cremation-ground in Mālatimădhava, but the aim of Bhavabhūti is to evoke horror, while that of Somadeva is to excite pity, and the verses are appropriately put in the
1 Cf. the commemorative inscription mentioned in Chapter V, p. 123. It has been
pointed out that the preface to the Histories of Orosius (417-18 A. D.) 'has a charm of its own, for it is one of the few places in ancient literature where dogs are mentioned with feeling.' In early Greek poetry we have the epitaph of Simonides on the hound Lycas whose white bones lying in the tomb are still a terror to the wild beasts. The poet refers to the mountain landscape in which the hound ran while alive, “Thy worth is well-known to tall Pelion and far-seen Ossa and the lonely peaks of Cithseron," Fragment 142, Diehl: Anthologia Lyrica V, p. 113.
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