Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/189



Victory to the conqueror of obstacles,* who marks with a line like the parting of the hair, the principal mountains † by the mighty fanning of his ear-flaps, pointing out, as it were, a path of success !

Then Udayana, the king of Vatsa, remaining in Kauśámbi, enjoyed the conquered earth which was under one umbrella; and the happy monarch devolved the care of his empire upon Yaugandharáyana and Rumanvat, and addicted himself to pleasure only in the society of Vasantaka. Himself playing on the lute, in the company of the queen Vásavadattá and Padmávatí, he was engaged in a perpetual concert. While the notes of his lyre were married to the soft sweet song of the queens, the rapid movement of his executing finger alone indicated the difference of the sounds. And while the roof of the palace was white with moonlight as with his own glory, he drank wine in plenteous streams as he had swallowed the pride of his enemies ‡ ; beautiful women brought him, as he sat retired, in vessels of gold, wine flaming with rosy glow, § as it were the water of his appointment as ruler in the empire of love; he divided between the two queens the cordial liquor red, delicious, and pellucid, in which danced the reflection of their faces; as he did his own heart, impassioned, enraptured and transparent, in which the same image was found; his eyes were never sated with resting on the faces of those queens, which had the eyebrows arched, and blushed with the rosy hue of love, though envy and anger were far from them; the scene of his banquet, tilled with many crystal goblets of wine,