DESCRIPTION OF DÁSÚRA’S KADAMBA FOREST.
Argument. Comparisons of the Kadamba tree, and its branches, leaves,
fruits and flowers and birds.
Vasishtha continued:—Thus Dásúra remained in the forest reaching to the
region of the clouds, and forming a stage for the halting of the tired
horses of the meridian sun at midday. (_i.e._ As high as to reach the
sphere of the sun at noon).
2. Its far stretching boughs spread a canopy under the vault of heaven
on all sides, and it looked to the skies all around with its full blown
blossoming eyes.
3. The gentle winds were shedding the fragrant dust from the tufts of
its hanging hairs, which studded with swarms of fluttering bees, and
its waving leaves like palms of its hands, were brushing over the face
of its fairy welkin.
4. The banks with their long shrubbery, and the crimson filaments of
their milk-white blossoms, were smiling like the fair faces of
beauties, with their teeth tinged with reddish hue of betel leaves.
5. The creeping plants were dancing with delight, and shedding the dust
from the pistils of their flowers, which were clustered in bunches and
beaming with the lustre of the full bright moon.
6. The earth with its thickening thickets, and the warbling chakoras as
amongst them, appeared as the milky path of heaven studded with stars
singing their heavenly strains.
7. Groups of peacocks sitting on the tops of branching trees, appeared
with variegated trains, like rainbows amidst the verdant foliage,
seeming as bluish clouds in the azure sky.
8. The white _chauri_ deer with half of their bodies hidden under the
coverts of the woods, and their fore parts appearing without the
thickets, appeared as so many moons with their dark and bright sides in
the sky.
9. The warbling of _chataks_, joined with the trill of _cuckoos_, and
the whistling of _chakoras_, filled the groves with a continuous
harmony.
10. Flocks of white herons sitting on their nestling boughs, seemed as
bodies of _siddha_ sylphs, sitting quietly beside their coverts in
heaven.
11. Waving creepers with their ruddy leaflets shaking with the breeze,
and their blooming blossoms beset by bees, resembled the Apsaras of
heaven, flapping their rosy palms and looking at the skies.
12. The clusters of Kumuda or blue lotuses, moving on the sky-blue
waters with their yellow filaments, and shedding their golden dust
around, appeared as the rainbow and lightings, darting their radiance
in the azure sky.
13. The forest with thousands of uplifted branches, seemed as the god
Visva-rúpa lifting his thousand arms on high, and dancing with the
breeze, with the pendant orbs of the sun and moon, suspended as the
earrings to both his ears.
14. The groups of elephants lying underneath the branches, and the
clusters of stars shining above them, gave the woodlands an appearance
of the sky, with its dark clouds moving below the blazing stars above.
15. The forest was as the store house of all sorts of fruits and
flowers, as the god Brahmá was the reservoir of all sorts of
productions.
16. The ground glistened with the falling florets and the farina of the
flowers, as the firmament glittered with the lustre of solar and
stellar light.
17. The flights of birds flying on the boughs of trees, and those
fluttering about their nests, and the flocks of fowls feeding on the
ground, made the forest appear as a city with its people above, below
and all about it.
18. Its bowers resembled the inner apartments of houses, with the
blossoms waving as flags over them, and strewn over with the white
farina of flowers, as they decorate the floors with flowers and
powders, and hung flowers over them, as upon the windows of houses.
19. There was the joint harmony of the humming bees and buzzing
beetles; the twittering of _chakoras_ and parrots, and cooing of
_cokilas_ in the deep coverts of the woods; and issuing out of their
holes like the music of songstresses, coming out in unison from the
hollows of windows.
20. Birds of various kinds hovered about the coverts of the sylvan
goddesses; as they were the only guests of their lonely retreats.
21. The bees were continually humming over the farinaceous pistils of
flowers, and sounding water-falls were incessantly exuding from the
high hills in its neighbourhood.
22. Here the gentle zephyrs were continually playing with the waving
flowers; and the hoary clouds overtopped the lofty trees, as they do
the tops of mountains.
23. The sturdy woods resembling high hills, were rubbed by the scabby
cheeks of elephants, and stood unmoved though they were incessantly
dashed by their huge legs and feet. (See kumára Sambhava).
24. Birds of variegated plumage that dwelt in the hollows of the trees,
were as the various races of beings dwelling in the person of Vishnu.
(Vishnu means the residence of beings like Viráta).
25. With the movements of their painted leaves, resembling the fingers
of their palms, the trees seemed to keep time with the dancing
creepers, and point out the modes of their oscillation.
26. They danced also with delight with their branching arms and
clasping armlets of the creepers, to think on the subsistence, that
every part of their body affords to all kinds of living beings. (The
produce of trees supplies the supportance of all living creatures).
27. And thinking how they are the support of thousands of creeping
plants, which entwine round them as their consorts, they sing their
joyous chime in the buzzing of the bees about them.
28. The flowers dropped down by the kind _siddha_ (sylphs) from the
trees, were hailed by the bees and cuckoos with their joyous notes and
tunes.
29. The _kadamba_ tree seemed by its blooming blossoms, to laugh to
derision, the five woody arbors on the skirts which do not bear their
flowers. (These are the banian, bata and ficus religiosus, the mango,
the fig tree and frondos. (_i.e._ বটাশ্বত্থ, অম্র, উডুম্বর, and পলাস called
বনস্পতি or lords of woods)).
30. With its uplifted head reaching to the sky, and the flight of birds
flying over it like the hairs on its head, it seemed to defy the
_párijata_ tree of Indra’s heaven.
31. The body of bees thronging all about its person, gave it the
appearance of the thousand eyed Indra, with whom it vied in the greater
number of its eyes.
32. It had a tuft of flowers on some part of its head, appearing as the
hood of a snake decorated with gems, and seeming as the infernal
serpent had mounted its top with his crowned head, in order to survey
the wonders of heaven.
33. Besmeared with the pollen of its flowers, it appeared as the god
Siva anointed with his powdered ashes; while its shady bowers overhung
with luscious fruits, refreshed the passing travellers with rest and
repast.
34. The _kadamba_ arbour appeared as the garden of paradise, having
alcoves under its thickening boughs, and grottos formed by the flowery
creepers below it; while the birds of heaven hovered about it as its
perpetual inhabitants.