Canto 6 - Nala in the inner apartments of the royal palace at Kuṇḍina

1. Then starting on Indra’s mission, the king of Niṣadha, the repeller of enemies, made the capital of king Bhīma the destination of his chariot.

2. Just as the sage Agastya did not consider even the irresistible Ocean-fire as an obstacle to his drinking up the ocean, similarly the firm-minded king did not consider the loss of Damayantī a hindrance in the path of carrying out his mission.

3. The gods, wishing to drink the nectar of news about the lotus-eyed Damayantī coming to them through Nala, as through a conduit, remained as the ornament of that place, winkless as if to look at the direction in which he was going.^[1]

4. Just as a wish attains its fulfilment, similarly Nala’s chariot in a moment reached that city, the Amarāvatī of that Indra of the earth (king Bhīma), disguised under the mere name of Kuṇḍina.

5. “This is the city whose streets are hallowed with the touch of Damayantī’s feet”—overwhelmed with anxiety at this thought, Nala, looking wistfully at the city for a moment, heaved a deep sigh, his hopes destroyed by the gods.

6. His left eye, perspiring with a drop of joyful tears, while the eyelashes thrilled, as well as the other eye, quivering with throbs, felt the joy of the first union of lovers at the sight of that city.

7. Just as a mass of rays, going out of the solar disc, enters the lunar orb,^[2] similarly the king then descending from the chariot, occupied by the charioteer, went into the city.

8. Wonderful was it that the figure of Nala, when he entered the city, remained invisible;^[3] more wonderful was it that his figure still remained the one thing ‘visible’^[4] in the world.

9. Nala’s eyes, after long traversing the city, which, owing to its clever inhabitants and beautiful buildings, was like an (all-giving) Kalpa creeper of wonder, became at last the guest of the royal palace.

10. He held the armed sentinels in contempt, but was ashamed in his heart that he was going about unseen; he was delighted that he would see Damayantī, but became sad, remembering he was a messenger.

11. Then repeatedly turning his eyes in all directions, with the object of seeing Damayantī, he entered the palace without any hesitation, unseen through Indra’s (magical) feat by the guardsmen in the rooms of the palace.^[5]

12. The mighty sovereign, though he passed through the palace door, looked round, curving his neck, with eyes motionless with surprise, at the voice of the sentinels who were preventing other people from coming in, shouting, “Who is this?”

13. Having closed his eyes, on seeing in the inner apartment a young woman, who had uncovered her thighs to paint them, he was startled to have jostled another maid who was passing by.

14. Perhaps Nala had perceived Damayantī in the cycle of creation without a beginning or in pictures, or it was perhaps a magical illusion produced by Cupid that he saw in all the directions.^[6]

15. He had no liking for the nymph-like maidens owing to his seeing them along with the illusory figure of Damayantī; thanks to this very mistake^[7] about Damayantī, he mistook them not for Damayantī.

16. Nala was overwhelmed with grief at his beloved’s absence, the grief to which Cupid gave a helping hand in his heart despairing of Damayantī. Having seen there her illusory figure, he grieved, seeing her no more, having in a moment recovered from the illusion.

17. As he was delivering a little the message of the divine lords of the directions to the figure of his beloved called up by his imagination, he was brought to his senses by the shout of the many timid girls, who were frightened by the voice coining from an invisible source.

18. Seeing there a slender damsel’s breasts, from which the breeze had removed the cloth, as if to touch them, Nala, being ashamed, stood with his face turned aside, the face that did not brook the full moon’s presence.^[8]

19. Cupid, though he cast a net in the inner apartment, with the manifold charms^[9] of the multitude of maidens, was unable to catch that black antelope—the pair of Nala’s deep black eyes.

20. Seeing (first) the root of the arms as a girl was binding her hair, then the breasts as she was painting them, and then the navel as her clothing got loose, he thereafter closed his eyes, having had his eyes drawn here and there by degrees.

21. As he was standing with his eyes closed, he could not be tightly grasped by two women, coming towards each other, being kept apart by their bosoms; stepping aside, Nala afterwards reproached his own limbs; the two women were, however, thrilled to come in contact with the body of a man.

22. Harassed by this (alternate) closing of eyes and looking distinctly,^[10] and (hence) looking at the women with side-glances only, he was greatly ashamed, appearing (thereby) to look at them with passion;^[11] the good, indeed, feel shame much more before their own selves than before others.

23. The flowers serving as the arrows discharged at Nala by Cupid, who was misled by the glances he was casting at a woman whose body was thrilled,^[12] were not wasted, but served as offerings of worship to his steadfast character.

24. Leaving the foot-path, Nala, the light of the good, became the ornament of a quadrangle to have a look at the people, thinking, “Here it is easy to avoid the contact of passing women.”

25. The eyes of the king falling on the bosom of a woman, who was painting it, turned back at once, as if expelled by the crescent-shaped nail-marks on her breasts, owing to their enmity with lovers forlorn.^[13]

26. The eyes of the forlorn Nala, which speedily closed on meeting the moon that was the face of a slim damsel, confirmed two things—the fact of the face being the moon, and that of themselves being lotus blossoms.^[14]

27. Women coming from all sides would easily have caught hold of him, as he was standing on the quadrangle with his eyes closed, had they not themselves made way for him, turning back in terror on jostling his (invisible) figure.

28. Dragging away in his haste the scarf of a girl which got stuck to the points of the diamonds on his ornaments, as the girl knocked against him, and laying bare (by so doing) the hips of the slim damsel, the king felt grief at the resulting sin.

29. Struck on the way by one girl with a ball (which she was throwing at another girl), scratched with nails by another knocking against him, smeared by another with the saffron powder of her breasts—thus became he almost an object of dalliance to them.

30. Some one of the girls saw him in the form of a reflection on her pearlstring; then as he passed and was no longer seen, the slender damsel, thinking of him, decided well in her mind that the figure vanished into her own heart.

31. Cupid, unable to distinguish in any way his wife Rati among those damsels who greatly rivalled Rati in beauty, doubtless embraced each one of the girls, whose patience was exhausted by the beauty of Nala’s reflection.^[15]

32. Restless with the delusion produced by the beauty of his reflection, they were not too afraid even of his invisible figure: fair-eyed maidens who obey Cupid’s commands regard even their lives as straw.

33. The tremor, which came over the fair-eyed damsels when they saw his reflection, and which spread through them when they came to touch him, was greatly enhanced by the fear caused by the sound of his footsteps when he speedily ran away from them.

34. Let Cupid thrill with joy those limbs of the maidens which came in contact with Nala’s limbs or even their eyes which drank in Nala’s image; but when he made their hair stand—hair that is insensible even to cuts—he was making really stones dance.

35. A gazelle-eyed damsel went back to the place where she was thrilled to get a “touch”^[16] of Nala, and falling on his footprint on the dust of the earth, said in a low voice, “Please, (come back)

36. Languishing on account of Damayantī’s absence, Nala, tired of walking about in the place, frequently took rest in the grounds^[17] alongside the rows of buildings.

37. Who (among the women) was not astonished to see Damayantī (in a portrait), with Nala’s pearlstring presented to her by him, after having drawn her exactly in the same way as the swan had shown her to him, by drawing her on a lotus-leaf?

38. Nala looked at her, having drawn her in a portrait as a girl on the threshold of youth, being marked with a cane in the shape of the line of hairs on her body, and suppressing those habits which still smacked of childhood.^[18]

39. The circle in his footprints, a mark of emperors, which was visible on the way where a crowd of young princes was playing with a thick mass of camphor powder, caused amazement to the elderly ladies who were looking at it.

40. Stepping for a moment between two gazelle-eyed damsels, who were looking at each other’s beauty charming with youth, he caused their astonishment by this sudden hiding of each other’s figure.

41. At one place the women, wondering and wondering a thousand times, saw their own reflections appearing in the air on the invisible ornamental jewels of Nala standing in front of them.

42. Some maidens (playing the game of ball-throwing), their face fair like the moon, seeing that the ball dropped midway, having struck Nala in its course, and that it was tinted with the ornamental paint of his body, were lost in astonishment, remembering that the ball was being thrown at one another only among themselves.

43. The queens (in the harem), though they were devoted to the austerity of not looking at any man except their own consort, obtained the supreme joy of their eyes, by looking at his beauty in his reflections on the floor.

44. Looking at his shadow, they thought, “Just as we bear Cupid (i.e. love) in relation to our husband, so is the earth, too, in that way, in relation to her husband (the king), carrying this Cupid, turned blue by the flames of Śiva’s eyes?”^[19]

45. Although to their heart’s content they looked at his beauty, presented by his reflection, they did not see that beauty of his,^[20] which surpassed a lump of gold.

46. It was wonderful that the forlorn king, by becoming invisible, by spreading out a series of bodies in the shape of his reflections on the bejewelled floors, and by entering the upper story of another’s mansion, shone like an ascetic (who also becomes invisible at will, assumes a plurality of bodies, and enters the body of another).^[21]

47. “I touched something like a man as I was passing”, “I saw something like the shadow of a man”, “I, too, noticed as if some one were talking”—he heard such words of women.

48. The beautiful Damayantī came across Nala on the way, as she was coining, after paying obeisance to her mother; but he could not distinguish her among the illusory Damayantīs (seen by him), nor did she see him owing to his being invisible.

49. A wreath of flowers, obtained from her mother as a favour, though thrown by her at Nala’s neck, having seen him in an illusion, did actually reach him as he was standing close by.

50. The king was astonished that this wreath—a favour from one whom he used to see in the train of his thoughts—was something real; the maiden, too, was surprised to see that the wreath thrown by her went out of sight.^[22]

51. Seeing each other, as if they were at different places, even at a place occupied by them both, they did actually come to embrace each other in the midst of the embraces of their illusory selves.

52. Again, Damayantī, though she felt his touch, thought it an illusion owing to her not seeing him, while the king, though he saw her, could not catch hold of her, being suddenly paralysed in his movements.

53. Starting (to touch each other) with the idea of the touches being real, owing to the great joy caused by a touch (that was real), but encountering a check owing to the falsity (of subsequent touches), they did not, being confounded, believe even when they actually touched each other again on the way.

54. Never interrupting each other,^[23] corresponding as they did in every respect to their real selves,^[24] and extremely pleasant as they were with the wealth of their beauty, they could not abstain from the joy of play, even on discovering each other to be unreal.^[25]

55. Just as the flame of a lamp, when too much oil is poured into it, goes out a little and then burns with twice as much light as before; similarly the grief of separation in their hearts, abating a little for a moment, blazed up with redoubled force owing to being drenched by a wave of affection caused by their mutual touches.

56. Damayantī entered her apartment, having repeatedly both right knowledge and delusion, owing to the union of her strength of mind and grief of separation, while Nala went about there in a frenzy, seeing before him the fair-browed damsel again and again.

57. Walking and wandering long with great fatigue, the king reached the sky-scraping palace, charming with Damayantī’s presence.

58. On a bejewelled terrace at the entrance of the palace, he saw Damayantī’s hall, which with the winsome gestures of hundreds of girl companions made one take it for Cupid’s harem.

59. There Nala inwardly praised a certain damsel who was talking sweetly, “Does her throat marked with three lines indicate that it has conquered three things—the cuckoo, the flute and the lyre”?

60. There he feared he was discovered, on hearing from the mouth of a sparrow perching on the hand of a woman, these words of consolation uttered by her friends, “Damayantī, look at this Nala, give up sorrow.”^[26]

61. There, before his eyes, a girl disguised as Damayantī was bashfully placing a wreath of Madhūka flowers, brought by the gardener, round the neck of a girl friend disguised as Nala.

62. There a damsel, as she was putting on a friend’s moon-like iace (on the forehead) a moon-like ornamental mark of mica, on which was reflected her own moon-like face with a similar ornamental mark of mica, seemed to produce a state of flux of the moon.

63. There on the inside of a petal of the golden Ketaka flower, using the finger-nails as a pen, Damayantī wrote her love-letter destined for himself, on which the sketching of the letters took an inky colour in a moment.

64. There one of the friends, though highly renowned (for her artistic skill), succeeded in depicting in Damayantī’s portraits the toy-lotus in her hand, but not the hand; the lotus-bud on her ear, but not the eye.

65. There Gandharva women, Nārada’s favourite disciples, whose lyres were equal (in sweetness) to her throat full of the honey of melody, came and sang to Damayantī to the accompaniment of lyres.

66. There a number of girls was saying to a friend, on whose breasts was a nail-mark resembling the half-moon in shape, “Is Cupid, hiding for fear of Śiva, sporting in a canoe on thy pitcherlike breasts?”^[27]

67. As flowers perturbed Damayantī’s heart by becoming Cupid’s arrows, a maiden there who was making a garland took vengeance upon them, by thrusting into them the point of her needle.

68. But Damayantī said to her in terror, “Friend, leave off, leave off this rashness: thou art thyself offering to Cupid flowery arrows, furnishing them with a string.”

69. There a fair-waisted damsel, drawing with her hand the figure of a female dolphin among the pictorial designs on her friend’s breasts, was saying to her, “Friend, here is a steed, I ween, for the celestial river—thy pearlstring.”^[28]

70. There that damsel was saying again to the same friend, “Let this sea animal—this female dolphin, staying on thy pitcherlike breasts as the wife of that dolphin, the emblem of Cupid residing in thy heart,^[29] serve as a panegyric of the fame of the expanse of thy breasts.”^[30]

71. Nala had a significant laugh at the plaint of a house sparrow which was frightened, thinking it was going to be killed, a girl having said while casting the die, “Friend, kill this moving ‘sparrow’ (die)” (as the expression goes).

72. There observing near Damayantī the beauty of a golden swan serving as a receptacle for betel, he was firmly mistaken that it was the (golden) swan which had done him a great good by acting as a messenger to his beloved.

73. Then in that throng of her friends a certain exuberance of beauty clearly announced her of itself, unasked, removing Nala’s doubt regarding her identity.

74. His reflection, though clearly appearing on the raised seat of jewels, was not noticed among his portraits, joyfully drawn on the floor by her friends for her diversion.

75. He brought back his hope of winning Damayantī, though it had receded far, on hearing her words while she was rejecting the messengers of Agni, Yama and Varuṇa, who had made piteous entreaties (on behalf of their masters).

76. He heard, however, with an inward fear and all too slender hopes, the declaration of the messenger of Indra to Damayantī, which was being cheered by her friends in the hall.

(The speech of Indra’s messenger)—

77. “While I declare my message, with thy attention do thou favour me, a messenger of Indra, who sends thee a verbal message, as the writing of the gods cannot easily be read on earth.

78. “Indra greets thee,^[31] gracefully pressing thee in his embrace: what remained (to be said) was conveyed to thee by the hair of his body, standing on end at the very mention of his embracing thee.

79. “When he comes to thy Svayaṃvara, do thou, with thy wreath of choice, quickly fetter Indra’s throat, which, though urged by the heart, was guilty of being shy in the matter of asking for thy hand.

80. “Forsake him not. Let not the gods who brought out Lakṣmī for his younger brother (Viṣṇu), by churning the ocean of milk, take pains to raise up another Lakṣmī for him, by churning the ocean of sugar-cane juice.^[32]

81. “In the cycle of worlds heaven is the greatest, in heaven the gods, and among the gods Indra: when Indra himself asks to be thy slave for love, is there a climax of glory even beyond this?

82. “Indra invites thee in flattering terms to that position which he acquired by performing a hundred sacrifices: do thou a favour, adorn it with the toil of moving thy eyebrows in token of acceptance.

83. “Thoughtful girl, in thy mind think of the happiness that is in pleasure walks along the celestial Gaṅgā and in the garden of Nandana, in having a goḍ as thy husband, Viṣṇu as thy husband’s younger brother, and Lakṣmī, the wife of thy husband’s brother, as a companion.

84. “Thou alone hast acquired the glory of this invitation from Indra,—‘Be happy in the sovereignty of the three worlds’, to attain which Viṣṇu humiliated himself by his begging of Bali, and is (still) called Dwarf.^[33]

85. “It is not meet for thee to make the gods ungrateful, to whom thou dost obeisance three times a day: be pleased to release them from debt who would fall at thy feet at dawn, noon and eve.”^[34]

86. The garland of Pārijāta flowers, a favour from Indra, presented by the woman saying this, and heartily accepted by Damayantī, filled, with its fragrance all Āśās (directions), excepting the Āśā (hope) of Nala.

87. Then one of the damsels said, “Madam, it is useless to think over the matter”; another said, “Well, friend, it will be proper (to choose Indra)”; and yet another said, “Let the reply ‘yes’ be the one thing propitious in the matter.”

88. “Am I at any time disobedient to you? But there remains something in particular to be said”—Damayantī having said thus, her friends and the messenger of Indra felt a limitless joy.

89. As Nala was thinking, ‘Neither have I won Damayantī nor executed my mission;’ if the day lotus that was his heart did not burst, the reason was solely the vision of the moon, Damayantī’s face.^[35]

90. Bowing in honour of Indra with that very garland (on her head), Damayantī, with the corners of her lips slightly brightened by a smile, replied to the messenger, after she had restrained each of her friends (from further speech), by making a sign with her eyes.

91. “Give up the audacity of praising Indra; if any one knows how to describe him, it is only the Veda to a slight extent: to him, a witness in the hearts of men, a reply on my part, which can enlighten only the ignorant, will be but futile.

92. “Whose tongue utters the discourtesy of a ‘No’ respecting his commands? Yet accepting his command as a garland on my head, I, a humble girl, offend him by individual utterances of my own.

93. “This kindness of Indra, because it is the result of my religious austerities, does, indeed, engage me in (further) austerities. The sweetness of a result produces an impatience in the matter of proceeding to the means.^[36]

94. “Him will I therefore serve as my husband for happiness and for the fulfilment of my vows, but with this iota of difference that I will serve him in his mortal shape, partially incarnate in this world as a ruler of the earth.^[37]

95. “I have heard thy words in favour of Indra, sharp as being extremely prejudicial to the vow of a devoted woman: already in my mind have I given myself not to the immortal, but to a mortal Indra.^[38]

96. “Like as the fact of having spumed the pleasures of the world brings no repentance to a firm-minded man bent on his salvation, so let not this kindness of Indra cause me to repent; for it is after deliberation that I have chosen Nala in my heart.

97. “I am desirous of attaining that religious virtue, blended with waves of bliss, by serving my husband here in this Bharata, which the greatest among the good extol among lands, just as they do the family stage among the stages of life.

98. “Those who live in heaven have happiness, but no duties, while here in this land (of Bharata) exist both the former and the latter; the gods, too, can be pleased here by the performance of sacrifices; how can I thus wish for one,^[39] rejecting three?

99. “Even a virtuous man must come down from heaven, but when he departs from here (at his death), he goes to heaven: to one who thus reflects on the two types of future, do not the ultimate results of the two appear to be ‘gravel’ and ‘sugar’?^[40]

100. “What thoughtful man wishes to enjoy heaven that is like unwholesome food, and leads to transient happiness;^[41] and comes to men only when their span of life acquired through deeds reaches its end, and not while it lasts?”

101. Thus interrupting her reply to Indra’s messenger in the middle, she said to her friends, whose faces, by the beauty of the lips quivering in an attempt to speak, surpassed lotus blossoms with unfolding petals.

102. “Noble friends, a man has his mind dependent either on God or on the current of the chain of causes^[42] of the succession of individual souls wandering without a beginning: does such a man, therefore, deserve censure (for thinking or acting in a particular way)?

103. “Every one being subordinate to fate for ever, even a man who acts knowingly does not deserve any censure, nor does fate itself, being inanimate, deserve any reproach: on the other hand, he who speaks (by way of censure or reproof) only suffers from fatigue of the mouth.

104. “An animal that likes soft things scorns the camel, and the thorn-loving camel scorns the former; the satisfaction of both eating what they like being equal, a neutral attitude, and not ridiculing the one or the other is right.

105. “Indra’s merits, though charming, do not make me give up the man that pleases me: do you not see the world unwilling to give up the trio of virtue, wealth and desire, inferior though it is to final release?

106. “The sense of success on the attainment of one’s desired object is common to a worm as well as Viṣṇu; aversion or liking for particular objects, on the part of those who have different desires, is not subject to any established rule.

107. “It is proper to restrain a friend, if on his way a hidden pitfall of danger lies ahead; but let him who knows the present situation (that there is no such danger) remain silent: one should ask one’s own wish about the way to joy.”

108. Thus putting an end to the intention of her friends to speak something in opposition, by the force of her learning, the young maid said to Indra’s messenger, whose head was moving in wonder, though she was accustomed to hear the wise utterances of Indra’s minister—Bṛhaspati.

109. “So I repelled the messengers of Yama, Varuṇa and Agni who had come to me, resolute, with great spend—the messenger of Yama, as if on the mind,^[43] that of Agni, as if on the wind, and that of Varuṇa, as if on the three-streamed Gaṅgā.

110. “Indra’s curse on thee,^[44] if thou speakest to me about this matter again! I would rather efface this severe offence of mine against Indra with the inner vows of a devoted woman.”

111. The messenger of Indra having departed, owing to all opportunity of further speech being thus destroyed, life re-entered the throbbing heart of Nala, just as sanity returns to a staggering drunkard.

112. In this way could Nala drink in intense joy the honey issuing from the loving words of the maid, and carefully brought to him by the chalices of his ears, thanks to the device (of invisibility), obtained through the kindness of a lord of a cardinal point.^[45]

113. Epilogue. [The poet describes his epic as “more capable of standing criticism than even the brother work Khaṇḍanakhaṇḍa” composed by him].

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

A special reason is here fancied for the winkless character of the eyes of the gods, who by nature do not wink.

[2]:

The reference is to the idea that the moon shines by the reflected light of the sun, familiar to Hindu astronomers. Cf. Bṛhatsaṃhitā 4.1-4.

[3]:

See 5.137.

[4]:

Here, “worth seeing”.

[5]:

This Canto, it will be remembered, describes the adventures of Nala going about invisible in the inner apartments.

[6]:

Though Nala had never seen Damayantī before, he seemed to have her vision before him on all sides.

[7]:

i.e. illusion.

[8]:

i.e. Nala’s face was as beautiful as the full moon, but the face was pure, while the moon was marked with a stain.

[9]:

Means also: “with intertwined cords of hair.”

[10]:

In the first case there was the risk of being jostled by passing women; in the second the shame of surprising them in delicate situations.

[11]:

Side-glances being expressive of love and passion.

[12]:

Obviously by a chance contact with his own body.

[13]:

Moonlight being highly oppressive to forlorn lovers, the moon is regarded as their enemy. Now as the nail-marks resemble the half moon in shape, they are fancied as so many half moons, which are hostile to Nala owing to his being a lover in separation, and drive off his eyes when they come in contact with them.

[14]:

Nala closed his eyes in order to avoid looking at the girl. The closing of his eyes at the sight of the girl’s face is compared to the closing of the petals of a lotus at moonrise.

[15]:

i.e. Cupid took possession of the hearts of the damsels who fell in love with Nala’s reflection.

[16]:

“spṛṣṭakaḥ” [spṛṣṭaka]: a kind of light embrace.

[17]:

The reading “upatyakā” has been adopted.

[18]:

The line of downy hairs growing on her body at the approach of youth is fancied as a cane with which she was suppressing the last vestiges of childish conduct.

[19]:

The shadow is fancied as Cupid, turned back, when burnt by Śiva.

[20]:

i.e., his real beauty.

[21]:

An apparent contradiction is also implied. The king, though a “viyogī”: “separated”, “forlorn”, was acting like a “yogī”, lit. united.

[22]:

Because it was taken away by Nala.

[23]:

i.e., the vision of each other.

[24]:

i.e., the illusion was extremely lifelike.

[25]:

i.e., merely seen under an illusion.

[26]:

The bird had learnt these words frequently used by Damayantī’s friends as a make-believe.

[27]:

The crescent-shaped nail-mark on the breasts is compared to a miniature canoe. The phrase “payodhare kumme” means also “in a pitcher full of water,” which makes vivid the idea of rowing on a miniature scale. Cupid, being once burnt by Śiva, is fancied as hiding himself.

[28]:

The painted figure of the dolphin is to serve as a conveyance for the pearlstring which is fancied as the divine river Gaṅgā represented as riding a dolphin.

[29]:

As Cupid is in the heart of the girl, his emblem—the dolphin—Is also there, and now it is to be joined by its mate depicted on the girl’s breasts. Cf. 4. 35.

[30]:

As the dolphin is a big animal, its presence on the breasts would proclaim their bulk.

[31]:

Lit: enquires about thy health.

[32]:

i.e., in the case of Damayantī’s refusal, the gods will have to find for Indra a wife even more beautiful than Lakṣmī, by churning the ocean of sugarcane juice sweeter than milk.

[33]:

According to the story, Viṣṇu assumed the form of a dwarf.

[34]:

i.e., be pleased to allow them to repay their debt to thee by falling at thy feet etc. Damayantī is asked to become the queen of the gods and receive their homage.

[35]:

Nala’s heart was the lotus, and Damayantī’s face the moon. The day lotus, in the presence of the moon, does not open, but closes its petals; similarly Nala’s heart did not burst with grief, being to some extent consoled at the sight of Damayantī.

[36]:

She means that as her former austerities have brought on her the kindness of Indra, she is anxious to undertake further austerities which might bring her still happier results (i.e. the love of Nala).

[37]:

The body of a king is said to be composed of elements derived from the eight Lokapālas, and as Indra is one of them, marrying a mortal king would be almost equivalent to marrying Indra.

[38]:

i.e., a king who is called “the human Indra” or “the Indra of the earth.” She means Nala.

[39]:

i.e., happiness in heaven.

[40]:

“Gravel” in the case of life in heaven with ultimate expulsion as the result, and “sugar” in the case of life in the land of Bharata, promising at the end a life of bliss in heaven.

[41]:

See the preceding verse.

[42]:

i.e., the good and bad deeds of previous births causing the cycle of transmigration.

[43]:

i.e., using it as a conveyance owing to its great speed.

[44]:

Lit. thou dost touch the feet of Indra.

[45]:

i.e., Indra, the regent of the east. N. 12