South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

(V. 26.) Through the excellencies of their householders prominent in the pursuit of the three objects of life, and having broken the pride of other rulers of the earth, the Kaliṅgas with the Kôsalas by His army were made to evince signs of fear.

(V. 27.) Hard pressed (pishṭa) by Him, Pishṭapura became a fortress not difficult of access ; wonderful (to relate), the ways of the Kali age to Him^[1] were inaccessible !

(V. 28.) Ravaged by Him, the water of Kunâḷa^[2]─ coloured with the blood of men killed with many weapons, and the land within it overspread with arrays of accoutered elephants─ was like the cloud-covered sky in which the red evening-twilight has risen.^[3]

(V. 29.) With his sixfold forces,^[4] the hereditary troops and the rest, who raised spotless chowries, hundreds of flags, umbrellas, and darkness,^[5] and who churned the enemy elated with the sentiments of heroism and energy, He caused the splendour of the lord of the Pallavas, who had opposed the rise of his power, to be obscured by the dust of his army, and to vanish behind the walls of Kâñchîpura.^[6]

(V. 30.) When straightway He strove to conquer the Chôḷas, the Kâvêrî, who has the darting carps for her tremulous eyes, had her current obstructed by the causeway formed by his elephants whose rutting-juice was dripping down, and avoided the contact with the ocean.^[7]

(V. 31.) There He caused great prosperity to the Chôḷas, Kêraḷas and Pâṇḍyas, he being the hot-rayed sun to the hoar-frost─ the army of the Pallavas.

(V. 32.) While He, Satyâśraya, endowed with the powers of energy, mastery and good counsel,─ having conquered all the quarters, having dismissed the kings full of honours, having done homage to gods and Brâhmaṇs, having entered the city of Vâtâpî─ is ruling, like one city, this earth which has the dark-blue waters of the surging sea for its moat ;^[8]

(V. 33.) (Now) when thirty (and) three thousand and five years besides, joined with seven hundred years, have passed since the Bhârata war ;

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^[1] Against Pâṇini, II. 3, 69, the genitive case is used in construction with durgama in accordance with the maxim khalartha-yôgê=pi śêsha-vivakshâyâṁ shashṭhîm=ichchhanti ; see e.g. Mallinâtha on Ragh. XVII. 70, where Kâlidâsa has tasya (instead of têna) durlabhaḥ.
^[2] I.e. the Kunâḷa (Kolanu, Kolleru) lake ; compare my introductory remarks, above, p. 2 f.
^[3] Compare Ragh. XVI. 58 (especially the words galit-âṅgarâgaiḥ saṁdhyôdayaḥ sâbhra iva) ; XI. 60 (sâṁdhya-mêgha-rudhira) ; and Kir. IX. 9. (sthagita-vârida-paṅktyâ saṁdhyayâ).
^[4] For the shaḍvidhaṁ balam see Ragh. IV. 26 and XVII. 67.
^[5] The darkness raised by the troops is the dust, the rajô-ndhakâra of Ragh. VII. 39. (In Kir. XVII. 20 we similarly have a śar-ândhakâra, and in the Vikramâṅkadêvacharita, I. 75, a khaḍg-ândhakâra). The poetical beauty here lies in the fact that darkness is enumerated together with such very different things as chowries etc.
^[6] Balarajassañchanna-Kâñchîpuraprâkârântarita is a Karmadhâraya compound. The splendour of the Pallava first (when he was defeated in the open) was only obscured ; afterwards (when he had to retire within the walls of his fortress) it entirely vanished. The poet of course wishes us to understand that the splendor of the Pallava is compared with the sun.
^[7] The verse clear was suggested to our author by Ragh. IV. 45 : Sa sainya-paribhôgêna gajadâna-sugandhinâ | Kâvêrîṁ saritâṁ patyuḥ śaṅkanîyâm=iv=âkarôt || By the fact that his soldiers used the water of the river for bating etc., and in doing so made it fragrant with the rutting-juice of their elephants, Raghu made the (river) Kâvêrî an object of suspicion for the ocean, her husband, who by the smell of her body would be led to believe that she had had intercourse with other men. Ravikîrti too mentions the rutting-juice, but does so in a mere epitheton ornans which he might as well have omitted, because in his verse the real reason for the Kâvêrî’s keeping away from the ocean is, that her current was obstructed by the bulky elephants on which Polekêśin crossed the river. Ravikîrti has spoiled Kâlidâsa’s verse by crowding into it an idea from Ragh. IV. 38 (sa tîrtvâ Kapiśâṁ saînyair=baddha-dvirada-sêtubhiḥ).─ The epithet of the Kâverî, druta-śapharî-vilôla-nêtrâ, apparently was suggested by the epithet śapharî-parisphurita-châru=dṛiśaḥ in Kir. VI. 16 (compare also ibid. IV. 3) ; praśchyôtan-mada occurs ibid. VII. 35.
^[8] Part of this verse was suggested by Ragh. IV. 85-87, describing the conclusion of Raghu’s dig-vijaya- With the end of the verse compare ibid. I. 30 : Sa vêlâ-vapravalayâṁ parikhîkṛita-sâgarâm | ananyaśâsanâm=uraśṁ śâśâs=aika-purîm=iva ||