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

of the host ¹ of stars ; when the district of Indra ² seemed to say with a laugh: ‘This Lord of the Twice-Born,³ increased by concourse with me, will fall ⁴ through union with the district of Varuṇa’⁵; when to his rising had climbed the sun,⁶ with his disc red, as it were, with streams of blood from the lordly elephant of darkness slain by the stroke of the paw ⁷ of a ruddy lion ; as if with streams of ruddle laved by the cataracts on the summit ⁸ of the mountain of the dawn ; with the lustre,⁹ so to say, of rubies cloven by the hard hoofs of lofty steeds ¹⁰ ; [253] flowing with blood, one might imagine, dripping from the heads of must elephants slain by the claws of lions ¹¹ ; with the beauty, to all appearance, of the China rose growing on the summit of the peak of the hill of dawn ; seemingly with the delightsome flavour of Him who gives prosperity ¹² to the affairs of the threefold world ; as if with his hand outstretched to seize the white lotuses ¹³ of the stars ; tawny with the saffron colour of a wanton beauty of the east ¹⁴ ; the jewel in the hood of the lordly serpent of the eastern mount ; the golden ¹⁵ bud in the sapphire-tree of heaven ; [254] the golden urn in the rampart ¹⁶ of the city of the sky ; like to a jar of molten iron ; a drop of safflower extract on the fore- head of the east ¹⁷ ; the single flower of the forest ¹⁸ creeper of

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¹ Tel. ed. omits ‘of the host.’ ² The east. ³ The moon. ⁴ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘is falling.’ ⁵ The west, with a punning allusion to Lakṣmī, the wife of Varuṇa. ⁶ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘the blessed sun.’ ⁷ Tel. ed., ‘by the fall of the hard claws.’ ⁸ Tel. ed., ‘streams from cataracts of ruddle on the summits.’ ⁹ Srirangam text, ‘dust.’ ¹⁰ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘galloping steeds.’ ¹¹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text transpose this after the following clause and make it read, ‘flowing with streams of blood, one might imagine, dripping from the heads of must elephants slain by the claws of lions of the eastern mount.’ ¹² Tel. ed., ‘red, as it were, with colour eager to prosper’; similarly the Srirangam text. ¹³ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘the forest of the white lotuses.’ ¹⁴ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘with rays tawny as saffron ; the golden mirror, as it were, of a wanton beauty of the east.’ ¹⁵ Tel. ed. omits ‘golden.’ ¹⁶ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘an urn full of gold in the eastern door.’ ¹⁷ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘a drop forming a sectarial mark of saffron set on the forehead of a damsel of the east.’ ¹⁸ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘young.’