South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

rivalled the city of the gods, that fortress on land, having the surface of the earth all around covered with the great sea of his army, to the looker-on seemed at once converted into a fortress in the water.

(V. 19.) Although in former days they had acquired happiness by renouncing the seven sins, the Gaṅga and Âḷupa lords, being subdued by His dignity, were always intoxicated by drinking the nectar of close attendance upon him.^[1]

(V. 20.) In the Koṅkaṇas the impetuous waves of the forces directed by Him speedily swept away the rising wavelets of pools^[2]─ the Mauryas.

(V. 21.) When, radiant like the destroyer^[3] of Pura, He besieged Purî, the Fortune of the western sea, with hundreds of ships in appearance like arrays of rutting elephants, the sky, dark-blue as a young lotus and covered with tiers of massive clouds, resembled the sea, and the sea was like the sky.^[4]

(V. 22.) Subdued by His splendor, the Lâṭas, Mâḷavas and Gûrjaras became as it were teachers of how feudatories, subdued by force, ought to behave.^{[5 ]}

(V. 23.) Harsha, whose lotus-feet were arrayed with the rays of the jewels of the diadems of hosts of feudatories prosperous with unmeasured might, through Him had his mirth (harsha) melted away by fear, having become loathsome with his rows of lordly elephants fallen in battle.

(V. 24.) While He was ruling the earth with his broad armies, the neighbourhood of the Vindhya, by no means destitute of the lustre of the many sandbanks of the Rêvâ, shone even more brightly by his great personal splendor, having to be avoided by his elephants because, as it seemed, they by their bulk rivalled the mountains.^[6]

(V. 25.) Almost^[7] equal to Indra, He by means of all the three powers, gathered by him according to rule, and by his noble birth^[8] and other excellent qualities, acquired the sovereignty over the three Mahârâshṭrakas with their nine and ninety thousand villages.

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^[1] Though they had renounced the vice of drink together with the other six vices, they again became drunkards. The seven vices are enumerated e.g. in the verse (Böhtlingk’s Ind. Sprüche, 2994) : Dyûtaṁ mâṁsaṁ surâ vêśy=âkhêṭa-chaurya-parâṅganâḥ | mahâpâpâni sapt=aiva vyasanâni tyajêd=budhaḥ ||
^[2] Compare the Mâlavikâgnimitra, in the first act, atrabhavataḥ kila mama cha samudra-palvalayôr=iv= ântaram=asti ; the comparison apparently is a proverbial one.─ The juxtaposition of the two words chaṇḍa and daṇḍa also is most common ; compare e.g. Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. p. 415 (South-Ind. Inscr. Vol. I. p. 33), l. 11 of the text, Yama-daṇḍa-chaṇḍa-dôrddaṇḍa ; South-Ind. Inscr. Vol. II. p. 349, l. 55 (as corrected by Dr. Hultzsch), bâhu-daṇḍa-chaṇḍ-âśani ; Ep. Ind. Vol. II. p. 218, l. 40, chaṇḍ-âsi-daṇḍa ; etc. Compare also the very common title or epithet mahâprachaṇḍadaṇḍanâyaka, Ind. Ant. Vol. X. p. 127, l. 6 of the text, and elsewhere.
^[3] I.e. the god Śiva.
^[4] For a similar way of comparing heaven and earth with each other see Ragh. IV. 29, bhuvas=talam=iva vyôma kurvan=vyôm=êva bhûtalam.
^[5] Although the Lâṭas etc., impressed by his majesty and power, had voluntarily submitted to him or sought his protection, they behaved so humbly and obediently as by their conduct to set an example to others whom he had subjected by force. Compare Ragh. XVII. 81, where the daṇḍôpanata-charita of the gods Indra etc. towards the king Atithi is described. With âchâryâ abhavan one may compare âchâryakaṁ chakrê ibid. XII. 78.
^[6] Really the mountainous country of the Vindhya had to be avoided by the king’s elephants, because it was impassable for them ; but the poet’s reason is, that the elephants were higher than the Vindhya. If they had gone there, the Vindhya by the presence of these mountain-like elephants would have transgressed the command of the sage Agastya (the Vindhyasya saṁstambhayitâ mahâdrêḥ, Ragh. VI. 61 ; see also XII. 31) that it should not grow higher so long as Agastya remained in the south. In this way the very absence of the king’s elephants becomes an additional token of his might.─ With the whole verse compare Ragh. XVI. 31 ; for the use of avandhya see ibid. I. 86, âśaṁsit-âvandhya-prârthana, literally ‘ one whose prayer is not destitute of fulfillment.’
^[7] He was like Indra because, like that deity, he possessed certain śaktis ; but was inferior to him because his śaktis were only three (the powers of mastery, good counsel, and energy), while Indra possesses eight Śaktis (Indrâṇî etc.).
^[8] According to Pâṇini, IV. 1, 141, mâhâkula would mean ‘ born in a noble family.’