South Indian Inscriptions

INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI

matchless beauty, he humbled the haughty pride of the mind-born (i.e., the god of love); and as the lord of the earth, he was praised at all places and times by the wise.

(V. 66) The pair of his lotus-like feet, which afforded a broad resting place for fortune, was adorned by the rays of jewels set on the broad sides of the diadems of princes as they bowed (to him). Fortune, which resorted to his ocean-like breast, had come to him as a heritage ;¹ not so, however, the glory of heroism which depended on the edge of that prince’s sword.

(V. 67) His younger brother was the illustrious king Yuvarajādēva (II), on whose feet princes bent down as bees hover on lotuses. Of him, who was an abode of devotion to truth, courage and pleasing speech, and the sole resort of fortune and valour, even a good man² will not probably be able to describe all excellences.

(V. 68) This prince overpowered with his arm and killed, which his hand which wielded a dagger, the radiant, fiercely roaring demon in the form of a tiger, whose mouth appeared terrible as it tore (animals) with its sharp teeth, the corners of whose eyes were blood-shot which rage, which used its paws as weapons of attack, and which sprang forward with its uplifted tail.

(V. 69) Though he delighted the eyes of women as a new god of love, he was otherwise the god of death who broke open the frontal globes of huge elephants with the edge of his sword and, strange to say, (though) he as fond of Sarasvatī, he devoted himself to the worship of Śiva, and clever as he was in discriminating between the four castes, he was a wish-fulfilling jewel to (all) suppliants.

(V. 70) When young women for their usual bath plunged into the water of the Rēvā, which was clear, but bitter, being mixed with the rutting juice which flowed into it at the bathing of his huge and excellent elephants, they innocently became perfumed with the strong fragrance of copulation³ as the multitudes of waves, dashing against their thighs and hips, surged up and down.

(V. 71) I fancy that his radiant fame, after wandering everywhere,––on the round breasts of women surely in the form of pearl-necklaces, on the spotless full disc of the moon in the guise of the moon-light, on the extensive waters of the Mānasa lake as a beautiful row of swans,––has found rest in the abode of Umā’s husband (i.e., in Kailāsa).

(V. 72) Having worshipped the god Īśāna (Śiva) with suitable (gifts of) his Wealth, the king composed the (following) hymn of praise, according to traditional works (āgamas) (and) scriptures :-

(V. 73) “Happy are those kings, O Lord, who with steady minds worship thee, spending their wealth on (charitable) works. For those who (on the other hand) are swayed by passion, and whose minds are solely engrossed in love, fortune becomes a cause of intoxication, O granter of boons !

(V. 74) “Of what use are these troops of rutting elephants (and) these women
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¹Kielhorn translates kramēŋ=āgatā by ‘come to him gradually’, but here the sense clearly is that of ‘obtained by succession’. Compare karma-prāpta in Vākāţaka seals. There is a contrast intended here between Lakshmī and Viraśri. Both of them resorted to Śankaragaŋa; but while he received the former as a heritage, the latter was attracted by his deft swordsmanship.
²The use of sajjana ‘a good man’ seems at first sight to be inappropriate here, as there is hardly any connection between the good nature of a man and his ability to describe the merits of a king. The poet has, however, used it here as his own name was Sajjana; see v. 78 below. So he means to say ‘Even I may not be able to describe all the merits of this king!’
³Kielhorn’s rendering ‘they truly become perfumed with the strong fragrance of the god of love’ does not bring out the intended sense clearly. The idea expressed in this verse occurs, though in a somewhat different form, in the Raghuvamśa also, see Canto IV, v. 45.