Note 73 — KĀDAMBARĪ.

(61) ‘And in the midst of that great host of Çabaras I beheld the Çabara leader, Mātanga by name. He was yet in early youth; from his great hardness he seemed made of iron; he was like Ekalavya73 in another birth; from his growing beard, he was like a young royal elephant with its temples encircled by its first line of ichor; he filled the wood with beauty that streamed from him sombre as dark lotuses, like the waters of Yamunā; he had thick locks curled at the ends and hanging on his shoulders, like a lion with its mane stained by elephant’s ichor; his brow was broad; his nose was stern and aquiline; his left side shone reddened by the faint pink rays of a jewelled snake’s hood that was made the ornament for one of his ears, like the glow of shoots that had clung to him from his resting on a leafy couch; he was perfumed with fragrant ichor, bearing the scent of saptacchada blossoms torn from the cheeks of an elephant freshly slain, like a stain of black aloes; (62) he had the heat warded off by a swarm of bees, like a peacock-feather parasol, flying about blinded by the scent, as if they were a branch of tamāla; he was marked with lines of perspiration on his cheek rubbed by his hand, as if Vindhya Forest, being conquered by his strong arm, were timidly offering homage under the guise of its slender waving twigs, and he seemed to tinge space by his eye somewhat pink, as if it were bloodshot, and shedding a twilight of the night of doom for the deer; he had mighty arms reaching to his knees, as if the measure of an elephant’s trunk had been taken in making them, and his shoulders were rough with scars from keen weapons often used to make an offering of blood to Kālī; the space round his eyes was bright and broad as the Vindhya Mountain, and with the drops of dried deer’s blood clinging on it, and the marking of drops of perspiration, as if they were adorned by large pearls from an elephant’s frontal bone mixed with guñja fruit; his chest was scarred by constant and ceaseless fatigue; he was clad in a silk dress red with cochineal, and with his strong legs he mocked a pair of elephants’ posts stained with elephants’ ichor; he seemed from his causeless fierceness to have been marked on his dread brow by a frown that formed three banners, as if Durgā, propitiated by his great devotion, had marked him with a trident to denote that he was her servant. (63) He was accompanied by hounds of every colour, which were his familiar friends; they showed their weariness by tongues that, dry as they were, seemed by their natural pinkness to drip deer’s blood, and which hung down far from tiredness; as their mouths were open they raised the corners of their lips and showed their flashing teeth clearly, like a lion’s mane caught between the teeth; their throats were covered with strings of cowries, and they were hacked by blows from the large boars’ tusks; though but small, from their great strength they were like lions’ cubs with their manes ungrown; they were skilled in initiating the does in widowhood; with them came their wives, very large, like lionesses coming to beg an amnesty for the lions. He was surrounded by troops of Çabaras of all kinds: some had seized elephants’ tusks and the long hair of yaks; some had vessels for honey made of leaves closely bound; some, like lions, had hands filled with many a pearl from the frontal bones of elephants; some, like demons, had pieces of raw flesh; some, like goblins, were carrying the skins of lions; some, like Jain ascetics, held peacocks’ tails; some, like children, wore crows’ feathers;74 some represented Kṛishṇa’s75 exploits by bearing the elephants’ tusks they had torn out; (64) some, like the days of the rainy season, had garments dark as clouds.76 He had his sword-sheath, as a wood its rhinoceroses;77 like a fresh cloud, he held a bow78 bright as peacocks’ tails; like the demon Vaka,79 he possessed a peerless army; like Garuḍa, he had torn out the teeth of many large nāgas;80 he was hostile to peacocks, as Bhīshma to Çikhaṇḍī;81 like a summer day, he always showed a thirst for deer;82 like a heavenly genius, he was impetuous in pride;83 as Vyāsa followed Yojanagandhā,84 so did he follow the musk deer; like Ghaṭotkaca, he was dreadful in form;85 as the locks of Umā were decked with Çiva’s moon, so was he adorned with the eyes in the peacocks’ tails;86 as the demon Hiraṇyakaçipu87 by Mahāvarāha, so he had his breast torn by the teeth of a great boar; (65) like an ambitious man,88 he had a train of captives around him; like a demon, he loved89 the hunters; like the gamut of song, he was closed in by Nishādas;90 like the trident of Durga, he was wet with the blood of buffaloes; though quite young, he had seen many lives pass;91 though he had many hounds,92 he lived on roots and fruits; though of Kṛishṇa’s hue,93 he was not good to look on; though he wandered at will, his mountain fort94 was his only refuge; though he always lived at the foot of a lord of earth,95 he was unskilled in the service of a king.