Page:The Sanskrit Drama.djvu/236

Rh Happy also is another erotic stanza:

abhimukhapatayālubhir lalāṭa –: çramasalilair avadhūtapattralekhaḥ

kathayati puruṣāyitaṁ vadhūnām: mṛditahimadyutidurmanāḥ kapolaḥ.

'Its painted mark obliterated by the moisture which streams from the wearied brow over the face, the cheek reveals the longing of women, melancholy as the wan moon.'

udeṣyatpīyūṣadyutirucikaṇārdrāḥ çaçimani –

sthalīnām panthāno ghanacaraṇalākṣālipibhṛtaḥ

cakorair uḍḍīnair jhaṭiti kṛtaçan̄kāḥ pratipadam

parācaḥ saṁcārān avinayavatīnāṁ vivṛṇate.

'Footprints on pavements of moonstone, marked with the lac that dyes deep the feet, wet with drops that have the radiance of rising cream, made with anxiety at every step as the Cakoras fly up disturbed, mark the departure of ladies who violate decorum.'

A further stanza in some manuscripts of the poem occurs in the drama, while elsewhere it seems to be treated as a verse about Murāri:

deviṁ vācam upāsate hi bahavaḥ sāraṁ tu sārasvatam

jānīte nitarām asau gurukulakliṣṭo Murāriḥ kaviḥ

abdhir lan̄ghita eva vānarabhaṭaiḥ kiṁ tv asyā gambhīratām

āpātālanimagnapīvaratanur jānāti manthācalaḥ.

'Many serve the goddess speech, but the essence of eloquence Murāri alone knows to the full, that poet who long toiled in the house of his teacher; even so the monkey host leapt over the ocean, but its depth the Mount of Churning alone knows, for its mighty mass penetrated down even to the realms below.'

4. The Date of Rājaçekhara

Rājaçekhara, with the usual prolixity of bad poets, is voluble on his personality; he was of a Mahārāṣṭra Kşatriya family of the Yāyāvaras, who claimed descent from Rāma; son of the minister Durduka or Duhika, and of Çīlavatī; grandson of Akālajalada, and descendant of Surānanda, Tarala, and Kavirāja, all