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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
and favours the growth of the day-lotus, so the Gûrjara─ on seeing how He, who made the lives
and wealth of relatives prosper, and was favoured by increase of fortune, and before whom warriors
desponded,[1] had come near, quickly placing on his bow the arrows aimed at himself─ in fear
vanished nobody knew whither, so that even in a dream he might not see battle.
(V. 16.) Seeing that the sole way to preserve his fortune was to bow down at His feet, the
lord of Mâlava, versed in policy, bowed to him from afar with folded hands. What wise man,
whose power is small, will compete with one powerful ? For that is the prime result of the rules
of policy, to know the superiority in strength of oneself and one’s adversary.
(V. 17.) Having heard through his spies that his camp was pitched on the ridges of the
Vindhya mountain, and apprehending that He was moving towards his own country like (the
comet) Dhruva,[2] king Mârâśarva, driven by fear, quickly went to conciliate[3] his mind by choice
heir-looms, such as He had never received before, and his feet by prostrations.
(V. 18.) Having passed the rainy season, when the sky is densely covered with thick clouds,
at Śrîbhavana, He thence went with his forces to the banks of the Tuṅgabhadrâ ; and staying
there, He, stranges[4] (to say), even by flinging it away, again completely drew to himself the
fortune of the Pallavas though it was already in his hand─ his enemies having submitted.
(V. 19.) Thither the lord of Vêṅgî repaired when (the king’s) letter-carrier had only half
uttered the command, and longing for his own comfort, steadily like a servant without ceasing did
such toil that the enclosure constructed thereby for His camp,[5] touching the summit of the sky,
at night seemed to assume a garland of pearls,[6]surrounded as it was the groups of stars
above it.
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[1] The word sannakshatra represents both san (i.e. sat) + nakshatra and sanna + kshatra ; compare Vâs.
p. 28, Triśaṅkur=iva nakshatrapatha-skhalitaḥ, where nakshatrapatha- is both nakshatra-patha-and na kshatra-patha-. San-nakshtra would of course be equivalent to vidyamâna-nakshatra ; and sanna-kshatra would
have to be dissolved by sannaṁ kshatraṁ yêna, and might also be translated by ‘ he by whom warriors were
humbled, or destroyed ;’ compare with it saṇṇa-śatru in the Raghuvaṁśa, VII. 61.
[2] Compare the Bṛihatsaṁhitâ, XI. 42, Prof. Kern’s Translation in Jour. Roy. As. Soc., New Series, Vol. V.
p. 71 : “ But the princes on whose warlike equipments, the countries on whose dwellings, trees, and hills, and the
householders on whose implements this luminary (viz. the comet Dhruva) is seen, are doomed to destruction.”
[3] In the Sanskṛit text the Present Participle is accounted for by Pâṇini, III. 2, 126.
[4] The strangeness in the first place lies in the fact that he drew to himself something by flinging it away
(vikshêpa) ; and secondly in the circumstance that this thing which he drew to himself already was in his hand
(kara). His action ceases to be strange as soon as we take the words vikshêpa and kara to mean ‘ raid ’ and
‘ tribute :’─‘ He by his raids completely drew to himself the fortune of the Pallavas which was tributary to him ’
(or, as we should say, who were his tributaries).─ On vikshêpa see the note on v. 14. The double meaning of
kara is most common ; compare e.g. Kâd. p. 10, akaram api hastasthita-sakalabhuvanatalam, ‘ although he had
no hands, the whole extent of the earth was in his hand,’ i.e. ‘ the whole extent of the earth was in his hand and
he took no tribute from it.’
[5] For the use of the word vâdhyâlî (or bâhyâlî) which I have translated by ‘ camp,’ I only can refer the
reader to the passages quoted in von Böhtlingk’s Dictionary. The word occurs in the Râjataraṅgîṇî (Dr. Stein’s
edition), VII. 392 ; 976 ; 986 ; and VIII. 46. Aśva-vâhyâlî we have in line 11 of the Uttamacharitra-kathânakam (Sitzungsberichte der Kgl. Preuss. Ak. der Wiss. 1884, Part I p. 276), meaning something like
‘ stabling for horses,’ or ‘ horse-barracks ;’ and its synonym (though explained differently by the commentator in
the Nirṇaya-sâgar Press ed.) turaṅga-vâhyâlî occurs in Kâd. p. 75, l. 1, uparachita-turaṅgavâhyâlî-vibhîgam
. . . vidyâ-mandiram.
[6] Pearls and stars are frequently compared with each other ; but while as a rule the stars are the upamâna
and pearls the upamêya, here the reverse is the case (viparyâsôpamâ). The stars which the enclosure seemed to
wear on its crest were like a pearl-garland. Compare Vâs. p. 85, muktâphala-śabalitaśikharatayâ śirô-lagnaṁ
târâ-gaṇam iv=ôdvahan ; ibid. p. 220, śikharagata-muktâjâla-vyâjêna . . . târâ-gaṇam iv=ôdvahadbhiḥ . . . prâsâdair=upaśôbhitam . . . Vâsavadattâ-bhavanam.
[7] I.e. they never before had rendered obeisance to any king. For the use of tatpûrva compare─ I take this
quotation from the St. Petersburg Dictionary ─ Raghuvaṁśa, II. 42, ishu-prayôgê tatpûrva-saṅgê, ‘ in the
discharge of the arrow which (discharge) then for the first time was checked ;’ and Kumârasambhava, V. 10,
atpûrva-nibaddha, ‘ then for the first time tied on.’
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