Buch lesen: «The Kādambarī of Bāṇa», Seite 16

APPENDIX

DESCRIPTION OF UJJAYINĪ

(102) There is a town by name Ujjayinī, the proudest gem of the three worlds, the very birthplace of the golden age, created by the blessed Mahākāla,³⁵⁷ Lord of Pramathas,³⁵⁸ Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of the Universe, as a habitation meet for himself, like a second earth. It is encompassed by a moat deep as hell – as by the ocean, mistaking it for another earth – and surrounded by fenced walls, white with plaster, like Kailāsa, with its many points showing clear against the sky, through joy at being the dwelling of Çiva.

It is adorned with large bazaars, like the oceans when their waters were drunk by Agastya, stretching far, with gold-dust for sand, with conch and oyster pearls, coral and emeralds laid bare. The painted halls that deck it are filled with gods, demons, Siddhas,³⁵⁹ Gandharvas, genii, and snakes, (103) and show like a row of heavenly chariots come down from the sky to behold fair women at ceaseless festivals. Its crossways shine with temples like Mandara whitened by the milk raised up by the churning stick, with spotless golden vases for peaks, and white banners stirred by the breeze like the peaks of Himālaya with the heavenly Ganges falling on them. Commons gray with ketakī pollen, dark with green gardens, watered by buckets constantly at work, and having wells adorned with brick seats, lend their charm. Its groves are darkened by bees vocal with honey draughts, its breeze laden with the sweetness of creeper flowers, all trembling. It pays open honour to Kāma, with banners marked with the fish on the house-poles, with bells ringing merrily, with crimson pennons of silk, and red cowries steady, made of coral, standing upright in every house. Its sin is washed away by the perpetual recitation of sacred books. (104) It resounds with the cry of the peacocks, intent on a wild dance with their tails outspread from excitement in the bathing-houses, wherein is the steady, deep sound of the drums, and a storm caused by the heavy showers of spray, and beautiful rainbows made by the sunbeams cast upon it. It glitters with lakes, fair with open blue water-lilies, with their centre white as unclosed moon-lotuses, beautiful in their unwavering gaze,³⁶⁰ like the thousand eyes of Indra. It is whitened with ivory turrets on all sides, endowed with plantain groves, white as flecks of ambrosial foam. It is girt with the river Siprā, which seems to purify the sky, with its waves forming a ceaseless frown, as though jealously beholding the river of heaven on the head of Çiva, while its waters sway over the rounded forms of the Mālavīs, wild with the sweetness of youth.

The light-hearted race that dwell there, like the moon on the locks of Çiva, spread their glory³⁶¹ through all the earth, and have their horn filled with plenty;³⁶² like Maināka, they have known no pakshapāta;³⁶³ like the stream of the heavenly Ganges, with its golden lotuses, their heaps of gold and rubies³⁶⁴ shine forth; like the law-books, they order the making of water-works, bridges, temples, pleasure-grounds, wells, hostels for novices, wayside sheds for watering cattle, and halls of assembly; like Mandara, they have the best treasures of ocean drawn up for them; though they have charms against poison,³⁶⁵ yet they fear snakes;³⁶⁶ though they live on the wicked,³⁶⁷ they give their best to the good; though bold, they are very courteous; though pleasant of speech, they are truthful; though handsome,³⁶⁸ content with their wives; though they invite the entrance of guests, they know not how to ask a boon; though they seek love and wealth, they are strictly just; though virtuous, they fear another world.³⁶⁹ They are connoisseurs in all arts, pleasant³⁷⁰ and intelligent. They talk merrily, are charming in their humour, spotless in their attire, (106) skilled in foreign languages, clever at subtleties of speech,³⁷¹ versed in stories of all kinds,³⁷² accomplished in letters, having a keen delight in the Mahābhārata, Purāṇas, and Rāmāyaṇa, familiar with the Bṛihatkathā, masters of the whole circle of arts, especially gambling, lovers of the çāstras, devoted to light literature, calm as a fragrant spring breeze, constantly going to the south;³⁷³ upright,³⁷⁴ like the wood of Himālaya; skilled in the worship of Rāma,³⁷⁵ like Lakshmaṇa; open lovers of Bharata, like Çatrughna;³⁷⁶ like the day, following the sun;³⁷⁷ like a Buddhist, bold in saying ‘Yes’ about all kinds of gifts;³⁷⁸ like the doctrine of the Sāṃkhyā philosophy, possessed of noble men;³⁷⁹ like Jinadharma, pitiful to life.

The city seems possessed of rocks, with its palaces; it stretches like a suburb with its long houses; it is like the tree that grants desires with its good citizens; it bears in its painted halls the mirror of all forms. Like twilight, it shines with the redness of rubies;³⁸⁰ (107) like the form of the Lord of Heaven, it is purified with the smoke of a hundred sacrifices; like the wild dance of Çiva, it has the smiles, which are its white markets;³⁸¹ like an old woman, it has its beauty worn;³⁸² like the form of Garuḍa, it is pleasing in being the resting-place of Vishṇu;³⁸³ like the hour of dawn, it has its people all alert; like the home of a mountaineer, it has palaces in which ivory cowries³⁸⁴ are hanging; like the form of Çesha,³⁸⁵ it always bears the world; like the hour of churning the ocean, it fills the end of the earth with its hubbub;³⁸⁶ like the rite of inauguration, it has a thousand gold pitchers³⁸⁷ at hand; like Gaurī, it has a form fit to sit on the lion-throne; like Aditi, honoured in a hundred houses of the gods; like the sports of Mahāvarāha, showing the casting down of Hiraṇyāksha;³⁸⁸ like Kadrū, it is a joy to the race of reptiles;³⁸⁹ like the Harivaṃça, it is charming with the games of many children.³⁹⁰ (108) Though its courts are open to all, its glory is uninjured;³⁹¹ though it glows with colour,³⁹² it is white as nectar; though it is hung with strings of pearls, yet when unadorned³⁹³ it is adorned the most; though composed of many elements,³⁹⁴ it is yet stable, and it surpasses in splendour the world of the immortals.

There the sun is daily seen paying homage to Mahākāla, for his steeds vail their heads at the charm of the sweet chant of the women singing in concert in the lofty white palaces, and his pennon droops before him. There his rays fall on the vermeil floors like the crimson of eve; and on the emerald seats, as though busy in creating lotus beds; on the lapis-lazuli, as though scattered on the sky; on the circling aloe smoke, as though eager to break its dense gloom; on the wreaths of pearl, as though disdaining the clusters of stars; (109) on the women’s faces, as though kissing unfolding lotuses; on the splendour of crystal walls, as though falling amid the pale moonlight of morning; on the white silken banners, as though hanging on the waves of the heavenly Ganges; on the sun-gems, as though blossoming from them; on the sapphire lattices, as though entering the jaws of Rāhu. There darkness never falls, and the nights bring no separation to the pairs of cakravākas; nor need they any lamps, for they pass golden as with morning sunshine, from the bright jewels of women, as though the world were on fire with the flame of love. There, though Çiva is at hand, the cry of the haṃsas in the houses, arising sweet and ceaseless, at the kindling of love, fills the city with music, like the mourning of Rati for the burning of the God of Love. There the palaces stretch forth their flags, whose silken fringes gleam and flutter at night in the wind, like arms to remove the mark of the moon put to shame by the fair lotus-faced Mālavīs. (110) There the moon, deer-marked, moves, in the guise of his reflection, on the jewel pavement, cool with the sprinkling of much sandal-water, as though he had fallen captive to Love at the sight of the faces of the fair city dames resting on the palace roofs. There the auspicious songs of dawn raised by the company of caged parrots and starlings, though they sing their shrillest, as they wake at night’s close, are drowned and rendered vain by the tinkling of women’s ornaments, reaching far, and outvying the ambrosial voices of the tame cranes.³⁹⁵ (111) There dwells Çiva, who has pierced the demon Andhaka with his sharp trident, who has a piece of the moon on his brow polished by the points of Gaurī’s anklets, whose cosmetic is the dust of Tripura, and whose feet are honoured by many bracelets fallen from Rati’s outstretched arms as she pacifies him when bereft of Kāma.

DESCRIPTION OF TĀRĀPĪḌA.³⁹⁶

(112) Like hell, he was the refuge of the lords of earth,³⁹⁷ fearing when their soaring pride was shorn;³⁹⁸ like the stars, he was followed by the wise men;³⁹⁹ like Love, he destroyed strife;⁴⁰⁰ like Daçaratha, he had good friends;⁴⁰¹ (113) like Çiva, he was followed by a mighty host;⁴⁰² like Çesha, he had the weight of the earth upon him;⁴⁰³ like the stream of Narmadā, his descent was from a noble tree.⁴⁰⁴ He was the incarnation of Justice, the very representative of Vishṇu, the destroyer of all the sorrows of his people. He re-established justice, which had been shaken to its foundations by the Kali Age, set on iniquity, and mantled in gloom by the spread of darkness, just as Çiva re-established Kailāsa when carried off by Rāvaṇa. He was honoured by the world as a second Kāma, created by Çiva when his heart was softened by the lamentations of Rati.

(113–115) Before him bowed conquered kings with eyes whose pupils were tremulous and quivering from fear, with the bands of the wreaths on their crest ornaments caught by the rays of his feet, and with the line of their heads broken by the lotus-buds held up in adoration. They came from the Mount of Sunrise,⁴⁰⁵ which has its girdle washed by the ocean waves, where the flowers on the trees of its slopes are doubled by stars wandering among the leaves, where the sandal-wood is wet with the drops of ambrosia that fall from the moon as it rises, where the clove-trees⁴⁰⁶ blossom when pierced by the hoofs of the horses of the sun’s chariot, where the leaves and shoots of the olibanum-trees are cut by the trunk of the elephant Airāvata; (114) from Setubandha, built with a thousand mountains seized by the hand of Nala,⁴⁰⁷ where the fruit on the lavalī-trees is carried off by monkeys, where the feet of Rāma are worshipped by the water-deities coming up from the sea, and where the rock is starred with pieces of shell broken by the fall of the mountain; from Mandara, where the stars are washed by the waters of pure waterfalls, where the stones are polished by the rubbing of the edge of the fish ornament of Kṛishṇa rising at the churning of ambrosia, where the slopes are torn by the weight of the feet moving in the effort of drawing hither and thither Vāsuki coiled in the struggles of Gods and demons, where the peaks are sprinkled with ambrosial spray; from Gandhamādana, beautiful with the hermitage of Badarikā marked with the footprints of Nara and Nārāyaṇa, where the peaks are resonant with the tinkling of the ornaments of the fair dames of Kuvera’s city, where the water of the streams is purified by the evening worship of the Seven Ṛishis, and where the land around is perfumed by the fragments of lotuses torn up by Bhīma.

CANDRĀPĪḌA’S ENTRY INTO THE PALACE

(188) Preceded by groups of chamberlains, hastening up and bowing, he received the respectful homage of the kings, who had already taken their position there, who came forward on all sides, who had the ground kissed by the rays of the crest-jewels loosened from their crests and thrown afar, and who were introduced one by one by the chamberlains; at every step he had auspicious words for his dismounting uttered by old women of the zenana, who had come out from inside, and were skilled in old customs; having passed through the seven inner courts crowded with thousands of different living beings, as if they were different worlds, he beheld his father. The king was stationed within, surrounded by a body-guard whose hands were stained black by ceaseless grasping of weapons, who had their bodies, with the exception of hands, feet, and eyes, covered with dark iron coats of mail, (189) like elephant-posts covered with swarms of bees ceaselessly attracted by desire of the scent of ichor, hereditary in their office, of noble birth, faithful; whose heroism might be inferred from their character and gestures, and who in their energy and fierceness were like demons. On either side he had white cowries ceaselessly waved by his women; and he sat on a couch white as a wild goose, and bright as a fair island, as if he were the heavenly elephant on the water of Ganges.

VILĀSAVATĪ’S ATTENDANTS

(190) Approaching his mother, he saluted her. She was surrounded by countless zenana attendants in white jackets, like Çrī with the waves of milk, and was having her time wiled away by elderly ascetic women, very calm in aspect, wearing tawny robes, like twilight in its clouds, worthy of honour from all the world, with the lobes of their ears long, knowing many stories, relating holy tales of old, reciting legends, holding books, and giving instructions about righteousness. (191) She was attended by eunuchs using the speech and dress of women, and wearing strange decorations; she had a mass of cowries constantly waved around her, and was waited upon by a bevy of women seated around her, bearing clothes, jewels, flowers, perfumes, betel, fans, unguents, and golden jars; she had strings of pearls resting on her bosom, as the earth has the stream of Ganges flowing in the midst of mountains, and the reflection of her face fell on a mirror close by, like the sky when the moon’s orb has entered into the sun.

ÇUKANĀSA’S PALACE

(192) He reached Çukanāsa’s gate, which was crowded with a troop of elephants appointed for the watch, obstructed by thousands of horses, (193) confused with the hustling of countless multitudes, visited day and night by Brahmans, Çaivas, and red-robed men skilled in the teaching of Çākyamuni, clothed as it were in the garments of righteousness, sitting on one side by thousands, forming circles, coming for various purposes, eager to see Çukanāsa, having their eyes opened by the ointment of their several çāstras, and showing their respectful devotion by an appearance of humility. The gateway was filled with a hundred thousand she-elephants of the tributary kings who had entered the palace with double blankets drawn round the mahouts who sat on their shoulders, having their mahouts asleep from weariness of their long waiting, some saddled and some not, nodding their heads from their long standing motionless. The prince dismounted in the outer court, as though he were in a royal palace, though not stopped by the guards standing in the entrance and running up in haste; and having left his horse at the entrance, leaning on Vaiçampāyana, and having his way shown by circles of gatekeepers, who hastened up, pushing away the bystanders, he received the salutes of bands of chiefs who arose with waving crests to do him homage, and beheld the inner courts with all the attendants mute in fear of the scolding of cross porters, and having the ground shaken by hundreds of feet of the retinues of neighbouring kings frightened by the moving wands, (194) and finally entered the palace of Çukanāsa, bright inside with fresh plaster, as if it were a second royal court.

DESCRIPTION OF NIGHT

(196) The brightness of day approached the west, following the path of the sun’s chariot-wheels, like a stream of water. Day wiped away all the glow of the lotuses with the sun’s orb hastening downwards like a hand roseate as fresh shoots. The pairs of cakravākas, whose necks were hidden in swarms of bees approaching from familiarity with the scent of lotuses, were separated as if drawn by the noose of destiny. The sun’s orb poured forth, under the guise of a rosy glow, the lotus honey-draught, as it were, drunk in with its rays till the end of day, as if in weariness of its path through the heavens. And when in turn the blessed sun approached another world, and was a very red lotus-earring of the West, when twilight shone forth with its lotus-beds opening into the lake of heaven, (197) when in the quarters of space lines of darkness showed clear like decorations of black aloes; when the glow of eve was driven out by darkness like a band of red lotuses by blue lotuses dark with bees; when bees slowly entered the hearts of red lotuses, as if they were shoots of darkness, to uproot the sunshine drunk in by the lotus-beds; when the evening glow had melted away, like the garland round the face of the Lady of night; when the oblations in honour of the goddess of twilight were cast abroad in all quarters; when the peacock’s poles seemed tenanted by peacocks, by reason of the darkness gathered round their summits, though no peacocks were there; when the doves, very ear-lotuses of the Lakshmī of palaces, were roosting in the holes of the lattices; when the swings of the zenana had their bells dumb, and their gold seats motionless and bearing no fair dames; when the bands of parrots and mainas ceased chattering, and had their cages hung up on the branches of the palace mango-trees; when the lutes were banished, and their sound at rest in the ceasing of the concert; when the tame geese were quiet as the sound of the maidens’ anklets was stilled; (198) when the wild elephants had the clefts of their cheeks free from bees, and their ornaments of pearls, cowries, and shells taken away; when the lights were kindled in the stables of the king’s favourite steeds; when the troops of elephants for the first watch were entering; when the family priests, having given their blessing, were departing; when the jewelled pavements, emptied almost of attendants on the dismissal of the king’s suite, spread out wide, kissed by the reflection of a thousand lights shining in the inner apartments, like offerings of golden campak-blossoms; when the palace tanks, with the splendours of the lamps falling on them, seemed as if the fresh sunlight had approached to soothe the lotus-beds grieved by separation from the sun; when the caged lions were heavy with sleep; and when Love had entered the zenana like a watchman, with arrows in hand and bow strung; when the words of Love’s messenger were uttered in the ear, bright in tone as the blossoms in a garland; when the hearts of froward dames, widowed by grief, were smouldering in the fire transmitted to them from the sun-crystals; and when evening had closed in, Candrāpīḍa … went to the king’s palace…

THE REGION OF KAILĀSA

(243) The red arsenic-dust scattered by the elephants’ tusks crimsoned the earth. The clefts of the rock were festooned with shoots of creepers, now separating and now uniting, hanging in twists, twining like leafage; the stones were wet with the ceaseless dripping of gum-trees; the boulders were slippery with the bitumen that oozed from the rocks. The slope was dusty with fragments of yellow orpiment broken by the mountain horses’ hoofs; powdered with gold scattered from the holes dug out by the claws of rats; lined by the hoofs of musk-deer and yaks sunk in the sand and covered with the hair of rallakas and raṅkus fallen about; filled with pairs of partridges resting on the broken pieces of rock; with the mouths of its caves inhabited by pairs of orang-outangs; with the sweet scent of sulphur, and with bamboos that had grown to the length of wands of office.

PASSAGES PRINTED IN THE APPENDIX.⁴⁰⁸

102, 1 – 110, 6

111, 1–4

112, 6 – 115, 1

188, 4 – 189, 5

190, 6 – 191, 5

192, 11 – 194, 2

196, 4 – 199, 1

243, 4–10

PASSAGES CONDENSED OR OMITTED.⁴⁰⁹

11, 7 – 15, 2

*31, 10 – 34, 2

46, 7 – 48, 4

81, 3–10

83, 1–8

85, 3 – 89, 4

119, 3 – 124, 3

137, 7 – 138, 3

141, 6 – 155, 5

162, 8 – 164, 8

176, 6 – 188, 4

*199, 5 – 200, 9

203, 2 – 204, 2

*227, 4 – 234, 6

242, 6–10

*245, 4 – 248, 3

250, 3–8

*252, 7 – 256, 5

262, 1 – 266, 3

276, 9 – 277, 8

285, 2–4

*346, 7 – 348, 7

353, 6 – 355, 9

357, 1–10

359, 12 – 365, 2

369, 2–8

*383, 6 – 384,9

388, 5 – 390, 4

403, 6 – 410, 3

417, 1 – 426, 3