Page:The Harsa-carita of Bana (1897).djvu/21

 THE HAKSA-CARITA.

INTRODUCTORY VERSES 1.

[1] 1. Adoration to Cambhu, who is the main pillar in the building of the city of the three worlds, beautiful with the moon hung on him like a white royal chowrie 2, as it kisses his lofty brow.

[2] 2. I worship Uma, whose eyes are closed with the delight of grasping Hara's neck as if she were fainting at the touch of the Kalakiita poison which stains it.

3. Adoration to the omniscient Vyasa, the creator among poets, who made the Mahabharata holy by his speech as the Bharata continent is hallowed by the river Sarasvati.

4. Most commonly the poetasters of the world have their percep- tions ruled by desire, loquacious and wilful like red-eyed kokilas ;

[3] 5. Countless such there are like dogs, following their own vile nature from house to house 3, not many are there like Qarabhas, possessing creative power 4.

6. A poet is not reckoned among the good 5 and is detected as a

1 The Kashmir text inserts another verse at the beginning; " Hail to the holy Sarasvati, hail ! that goddess, who, having her power manifested as the enlightener of the all, through the gradually evolving faculties commencing with ' desire,' illuminates the nature of her mansion, the lotus-hearts of the sages, her, even Sarasvati, I praise."

2 Chowries and flags are hung on triumphal pillars ; cf. trailokyamahd- grihastambha (of Visnu), C. I. I. iii. 159 and 160. Note that this verse occurs entire in an inscript. Ind. Ant. xiii. p. 92.

3 Or " those are of no account who only give bald descriptions ( jati) from house to house."

4 There is a pun in utpadaka, which is also a synonym for the fabulous animal called the qarabha as having eight legs, four of which are said to grow on its back (Vdcaspatya lex.).

5 *0r " is counted as no man," a-na.