वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

116 VĀSAVADATTĀ our monarch is to be given in marriage by her father, [240] filled with alarm at the sin¹ of her passing youth, to Puṣpakētu, son of Vijayakētu, the supreme lord of the Vidyādharas. Thus she has reflected²: "If to-day Tamālikā comes not with that person,³ then inevitably must I lay me in the fire!⁴" Therefore, most fortunate prince, through the power of her good deeds thou art come to this land.⁵ Thy highness is criterion, now, of what is fitting here.' With these words she was silent. Then, as if terribly terrified, as if bathed in the billows of the ocean of the bliss of love,⁶ as if anointed to the sovereignty of the threefold world,⁷ Kandarpakētu, [241] taking counsel with Vāsavadattā (and) leaving Makaranda there in the city to search for tidings, set forth from the city with her⁸ by means of a horse named Manōjava,⁹ who <ever faced his course> as a serpent <faces the wind>.¹⁰ And¹¹ by degrees—having gone, even in the twinkling of an

¹ Tel. ed. omits 'the sin of.' On the seriousness, and even sinfulness, of permitting a daughter to reach the age of puberty without being married, cf. Jolly, Recht und Sitte, pp. 54-58, Strassburg, 1896; Schmidt, Beiträge zur indischen Erotik, pp. 645- 649, Leipzig, 1902. ² Tel. ed. adds 'having taken counsel with us'; similarly the Srirangam text. ³ Kandarpakētu, whom modesty forbade her to mention by name. ⁴ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, 'the fire must be my refuge.' ⁵ Tel. ed. omits this sentence; Srirangam text, 'and from the power of good deeds the full fortunate (pair) are met.' ⁶ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, 'bathed in the billows of the ocean of the ambrosia of the bliss of love.' ⁷ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit 'as if anointed to the sovereignty of the three- fold world.' ⁸ Tel. ed., 'with this Vāsavadattā.' ⁹ It is, perhaps, worth noting that manōjava occurs as an epithet of horses in Rig- Veda, 6. 62. 3, as well as in later literature (Böhtlingk and Roth, Sanskrit-Wörterbuch, 5. 531, St. Petersburg, 1868). ¹⁰ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text add 'who was adorned by <whorls on his neck> as a river-bank [Srirangam text, 'the ocean'] is adorned with <pearl oysters>; who was characterised by <curls on his breast> as the forests of Vindhya are characterised by <pipul-trees>; who went like <the mind> as a goose goes in <Mānasa> [Srirangam text adds 'who was adorned with <studs> as a forest is adorned with <rhinoceroses>']; who was decked with <shoulders> as a tree is decked with a <branch>; who had <black about his eyes> as the thunderbolt is the <weapon of Indra>.' ¹¹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, 'then by degrees, going a journey of a gavyūti [about four miles], departing through the enclosure of a cemetery, . . . going a journey of many hundred leagues even in the space of the twinkling of an eye, he again entered.'