पृष्ठ:पदुमावति.djvu/३५

34-36] PADUMĀWATI. 19 and citrons are ever ripe, and the glowing oranges are full of juice. Raisins ! and apples with fresh leaves, pomegranates and vines delight the sight. Pleasant appeareth the Indian gooseberry, and the clusters of plantains are humbly bent (by their excessive weight). There fruit the mulberry, the averrhoa, and the red currant, the corinda, the jujube and the cironji-nut. There is the sorrel, and the date, and other edible fruits both sweet and sour. They lead the water from the wells through irrigation channels with many a dam, and with the pulleys of the Persian wheel, water they the black currants. 35. Again, all around are flower-gardens, with trees imbued with sandal- odour. There bloometh the ghana-valli, with its many blossoms, the fragrant screw-pine, the fragrant yellow-flowered campaka, 6 and the Indian and Arabian jasmines.7 Beauteous are the basils, the kudums, 8 and the kūjā-roses, and scented are the Abelias, which only king Gandharva offered at the time of worship. The rose-chesnut, the marigold, the jasmine and the weeping- nyctanthes are in these gardens." The oleaster and the dog-rose bloom, the rūpa-mañjarī,ll and the clove-scented aganosma.12 There do men plant bunches 13 of the Spanish and of the Indian jasmine, and the flowers of the roseapple lend their charm. The manlasiri 4 creeper and the citron, all these bloom in varied hues. Blessed and fortunate is the man whose head is crowned with these flowers. Fragrant do they ever remain, like spring and its (fragrant) festival. 36. When a man seeth Simhala's city, and how it is inhabited, he crieth Blessed is the king whose kingdom is so fair.' High are the gates, high are the palaces, high as Kailāsa 15 the abode of. Indra. In every house each one, great or small, is happy, each one appeareth with a smiling face. They build their sitting platforms with sandal, and plaster them with aloes, mēdā 16 and saffron. Each pavilion hath its pillars of sandal, and therein sitteth, reclining, a lord with his councillors. Fair is the sight, as a council of the gods, as though a man gazed on the city of Indra. All the councillors are experient, wise, and learned, and all the words they utter are in the Sanskrit tongue. Fairies build the roads, so that the city is bright as the heaven of Çiva, and in every house are fair Padminis, whose beauty enchanteth the vision. 1 The poet does not seem to be aware that raisins are dried grapes. 2 Buchanania latifolia, Roxb. Its kernels are eaten like almonds. 3 The Çaykha-drara. 4 See Bihār Peasant Life, $ 919. 6 The dictionaries give Ghana-valli as a synonym of Amrta-sava. The latter they say is a certain plant.' Dr. G. King suggests that it is probably the Tinospora cordifolia, Miers. Its blossoms are small in size, but numerous, as the poet says. 6 Michelia champaca, L. 7 Jasminum pubescens, Willd. (kunda), and the jasminum sambac, Ait. (camel). 8 Anthocephalus cadamba, Miq. 9 Kuja is a kind of rose, Rosa Brunoniana, Lind. 10 Abelia triflora, Br. 11 Not identified. 12 Aganosma caryophyllata, Don. 13 Bakucā means a bundle or a bunch, and bakucanha is its obl. plur. 14 Mimusops blengi, L. 16 Again, Çiva's heaven is confused with Indra's. 16 A root like ginger.