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South Indian Inscriptions |
INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI in every fight that crowds of goblins stalked about, headless trunks (of warriors) were running (here and there), carrying their own heads (which had been) cut off, small imps were howling, confronting goblins had fire blazing forth from the hollows of their mouths and (the battlefield) appeared dreadful with the terrific cries of ill-omened jackals howling in their desire for devouring flesh. (V. 21) The forests near the sea-shore where his forces were encamped during his expeditions, had their coral sprouts doubled on account of the foreparts of the hands of women moving (among them) to gather them.1 (V. 22) ‘Here the waves of the ocean are playing, here the wind is blowing which makes the women of Kērala sport, here the serpent is taking away the fragrance of the trees’.––Thus wandered his thoughts in the vicinity of the Malaya mountain ! (V. 23) Having conquered the rows of countries along the shore of the eastern ocean, and having taken the country of Pāli from the lord of Kōsala, he, who continually destroyed the abodes of (his) enemies, was the ablest master of the sword. (V. 24) From his was born that Kēyūravarsha2, who was guided by polity3; who fulfilled the ardent desire of the minds of the women of Gauda; who sported on the breasts of the ladies of Karnāta even as a deer does on a pleasure-hill; who applied the ornamental mark to the forehead of the women of Lāta; who enjoyed the pleasures of love with the women of Kāśmīra, (and) was fond of the excellent songs of the women of Kalinga.
(V. 25) Even when his forces marched for vanquishing the guardians of the quarters, sporting as at the time of world-destruction, so as to rouse the apprehension of the three worlds, no mass of dust could rise from the ground, inundated as it was with the streams of tears flowing from the eyes of the wives of (his) enemies who were again and again taken captive. (V. 26) In battle that king wielded his large sword, which, being covered with a multitude of pearls from the pitcher-like frontal globes of elephants which were clearly broken open, appeared, as it were, to be strewn with the particles of the enemy’s fame, which it had often drunk but subsequently emitted, under the pressure of the king’s firm grasp. (V. 27) Up to the Kailāsa mountain, the friedn4 of Pārvatī’s continuously charming sport, up to the excellent eastern mountain from where rises the luster of the sun, near the bridge (of the south) and then up to the western lord of waters (i.e., the western ocean) the valour of his armies caused unending oppression to his enemies. (V. 28) He strew the battlefields all over with the heads of his proud enemies who, exasperated with rage attacked him––(the heads), the skull-bones of which were falling off, being pressed by the machine-like hands of the exulting female goblins, eager for the blood dripping from (the parts) struck by his vibrating swift arrows, (and) which were honoured with side-glances of (heavenly) damsels moving in the sky.
(V. 29) “(Our) king is Rudra incarnate ; (our) king is the support of the mansion
of the three worlds; (our) king is an iron fetter for curbing the wayward princes:”––When
multitudes of excellent bards continuously uttered such brilliant words of flattery, the minds
of his enemies who were present in his hall of audience were incomparably afflicted. 1The idea suggested is that the fingers of the women were like coral. |
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