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

A SANSKRIT ROMANCE 67 of Love, somehow said slowly: ‘Good friend, my mind¹ is con- fused by a ⟨hundred afflictions⟩ as Diti was confused by ⟨Indra⟩.² This is no time for advice; my limbs seem to be on fire; [82] my faculties are boiling, so to speak; my vitals feel as if burst- ing³; my breath is almost leaving me; my senses are wellnigh eradicated; and my memory is destroyed.⁴ Now, therefore, if thou didst share the sorrows and joys of our playing together in the dust,⁵ then follow me.’ So speaking he went forth from the city with him, unnoticed by his retinue. Straightway, after going a distance of several hundred nalvas,⁶ a great mountain,⁷ called Vindhya, was seen with its thousand peaks bowed down to earth,⁸ restrained by Agastya’s word⁹; [83] with its sides¹⁰ thronged with hundreds of savages eager to slaughter hundreds of female yaks who had been delighted by hearing the songs of pairs of Vidyādharas (then) slumbering peace- fully¹¹ in the bowers within its caves; with its rocky sides cooled by breezes bearing the perfume of trickling yellow sandal-wood¹² broken and dragged down by the trunks of the elephants on its ridges¹³; [84] with the monkeys¹⁴ eager to lick their paws wet with the sap of the palmyra-palm fruit which had been broken by its exceedingly long fall; with its borders fragrant with the

---

¹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘the mind of folk like us.’ ² Cf. Rāmāyaṇa, 1. 46. ³ Tel. ed. omits this clause. ⁴ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘is, as it were, destroyed.’ ⁵ Alluding to their childhood days as playmates. Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘Now this is enough of this talk. If thou didst share the joys and sorrows of our laying in the dust, then let it be come together with me.’ ⁶ A nalva is equivalent to 400 cubits. Tel. ed., ‘then, having gone with him a journey measured by several hundred nalvas’; similarly the Srirangam text. ⁷ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit ‘great.’ With this description of the Vindhya Cartellieri (‘Subandhu and Bāṇa,’ in WZKM. 1. 132) compares that given by the Kādambarī, pp. 38–43, Bombay ed., 1890 (tr. Ridding, pp. 16–18, London, 1896). ⁸ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘to the chasms of the earth.’ ⁹ Cf. Mahābhārata, 3. 103–104. ¹⁰ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘with its sloping sides thronged with hosts of savages eager to slaughter herds of female yaks.’ ¹¹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit ‘peacefully,’ the latter having ‘awakened from sleep.’ ¹² Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘sandal-wood sap.’ ¹³ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘elephants come to its sloping ridges.’ ¹⁴ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘with hosts of monkeys.’ F 2