महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

v. 12¹—] Bhavabhūti — Uttara-Rāma-Charita [76 then: to prevent loss of time I will, with my jṛimbhaka missile, throw this army meanwhile into a stupor. Remains meditating. Sumantra—Wherefore then, of a sudden, is all the hubbub in our army hushed? Lava—Now we shall have a meeting all to ourselves (sapragalbham). Sumantra, excitedly—Meseems, dear Prince, this young warrior has em- ployed the jṛimbhaka missile. Chandraketu—There is no doubt about it: Like some terrific blending as of darkness and of lightning, [the missile] renders ineffectual even a steadfast eye, now obscuring it and now giving it a free scope. And as if drawn in a picture is this army standing here without even winking! Verily it is the jṛimbhaka of unfailing potency that is at work here! 13 Wonderful! wonderful! Black like the darkness massed in some recesses in the interior of the Nether regions—blazing in the radiance of their flames that are yellow like some hot and glowing brass—these jṛimbhaka missiles fill the skies, as if they were the peaks of the Vindhya mountains tossed up by those harsh and dreaded whirlwinds that rise at the end of the kalpa,¹ [peaks] with their caverns flaring with lightnings issuing from some clashing clouds! 14 Sumantra—But from whom, I ask (punaḥ), has he had these jṛimbhakas? Chandraketu—From [Vālmīki,] the exalted son of Varuṇa, we ² think. Sumantra—No, dear Prince, it is not thus in the case of missiles, and especially the jṛimbhakas; for, They are the creations of [sage] Kṛiśāśva, and from Kṛiśāśva they went to [Viśvāmitra] the son of Kuśika; then the tradition was imparted to our dear Rāma, with whom it rests. 15 Chandraketu—But there may be even others, the ‘Seers of Mantras’ [so called], who, through the perfection of the light of their sattva, can ‘see’ things for themselves. Sumantra—Be on thy guard, dear Prince: thy heroic opponent has returned. The two Princes, the one to the other—Ha! how charming is this Prince to behold! Observing each other in cordial affection: Is it [merely] this chance encounter or is it the excellence of his qualities—is it some ancient and intimate friendship of an earlier birth—or is it some kinship between us that has remained

---

¹ Kalpa = 4,318,272,000 human years. At the    that, confident of his own valour,   end of a kalpa comes a dissolution of    Chandraketu was not at all dismayed   the universe.                by Lava's prowess. ² The ‘we’ is here to be noted. It shows