if Kama had placed a thorny ketaka flower as arrow on his bow.*
v
His matted hair are its filaments, the Ganges its nectar, the garland of skulls the seeds out of which it sprouted, and the poison in his throat the mud in which it grows: Victory to Shiva’s face, which is indeed a lotus!*
Victory to Shiva! Vijaya made fun of him when he did not even realize that the snake—his bracelet—was drinking the handful of water he was offering to Dawn, since his mind was engrossed in Gauri’s face.*
He spilled it as his hands broke contact when the sight of Gauri’s reflected face made him tremble; but his profuse sweat filled them up again. Victory to Shiva’s handful of water!*
His moon is beautified by contact with the dawn that is the lac on the foot of his angered beloved; his rock-like neck has a golden line, as if it were a touchstone, from the gold of her bracelet. Victory to Shiva!*
Victory to the digit of Hara’s moon! It filled out the half-moons of Gauri’s toe-nails, added a second anklet to her ankle, and turned into a chain of love around her lower leg.*
x
May you receive blessings from the eye of Lotus-Eyed! It was covered by Shri’s hand, but in the form of the lotus it re-emerged from the hollow of his navel, as if to look at her thighs.*
Victory to Vishnu’s chest! Black, it acquires a redness from the saffron of Shri’s breasts, and since it is decorated by the sun-like kaustubha, it looks like the sky at dawn.*
Victory to Vishnu’s chest! It bears the kaustubha and thus reflects the body of his beloved; when Lakshmi looks into it as if into a mirror, she seems to be making love topsy-turvy.*
Victory to Vishnu’s foot! When with its teasing toes it was tickling Lakshmi’s navel, it made her look like Him-with-the-lotus-in-his-navel.*
May the line of hair on Vishnu’s abdomen shelter you against affliction! Since its upper part joins the shri·vatsa tuft of hair, it looks like the shade of the lotus rising from the navel on its long stalk.*
Victory to Vishnu with the horse’s head! He took possession of the Veda that enjoins seven sacrifices as if it were a vina which uses seven strings and sang as sweetly as the horse-faced kinnaras.*
xv
Victory to the great Boar! He dragged the Earth out of the ocean’s belly, although she had been immersed there for a long time, and with her, like its entrails, the mass of serpents.*
I worship Vishnu in Serpent form, the potter of the universe! On his expansive circle ⋮ wheel of hoods, the Earth appears like an earthen pot.*
Victory to the pole that is the leg of wrathful Chandi! When her lover touches its ⋮ her foot with his head, it appears like the victory column of Kama who defeats all, even Shiva.*
Victory to the face of Parvati! When she makes love in the male position, it makes Shiva too look as if he had a long lotus growing from his navel.*
xx
Victory to the breasts of Parvati! Smilingly Shiva had put his hand on them, and then Skanda, being upset by a suspicion that Ganesha was sitting on her lap, pulled off the cloth covering them.*
Victory to that wrathful Chandi! Before her feet has fallen, though used to embracing her, the moon-crested one, repelled by a mere “hm.” Thus he resembles an arrow of Kama at whose tip a half-moon shaped blade has been fixed, which was aimed at her throat, shot with a twang of the bow, and has fallen at her feet.*
Victory to Lakshmi! Out of embarrassment she looked askance when the gods and demons made fun of her, since her trickster husband, on whom she had placed the garland of selection, turned into Mohini.*
I praise those demons and that Vishnu in the form of the deceitful Mohini! In their lust for the honey of her bimba-red lips, they even let go of the nectar.*
Victory to the love games of Lakshmi when she is blinded by passion! A serpent serves as her bed, Garuda is ignored, Brahma gets hit by her necklace, and she inhales the fumes of the serpent’s hundred hoods.*
xxv
Victory to Lakshmi’s passionate visualizing of Mohini while making love in the male position! It was inferred by Vishnu, who smiled ⋮ from her smiling face since he was familiar with outward signs.*
Victory to Brahma! Inside the lotus from the navel, cooled by spray and the breathing of Lakshmi, whose eagerness for sexual play has been satisfied, with the humming of numerous bees as his snoring, he lies asleep.*
Victory to you with the single tusk, two mothers, beyond the three gunas, with four arms and yet with five hands, respected by Him with Six Faces, with ichor that is fragrant like the seven-leaved tree, and son of Him with Eight Bodies!*
Be devoted without arrogance to Him with the Elephant’s Face! He has two frontal lobes that resemble auspicious vessels, and the bees, agitating for his ichor, become like sesame seeds.*
Prostrate yourselves before lovely women and Kama, for both are skilled in crooked behavior: by them Love, the bodiless, is provided with a body ⋮ equipped with helpers, and by him women are provided with weapons ⋮ turned into men!*
xxx
I pay my respects to the poet who arose from an anthill; his poem abounds in manifold ornamentation, radiates with many sound effects and is oblique in expression, like the rainbow, Indra’s bow which appears as an ornament for the clouds, shines forth with many colors, is curved and arose from an anthill.*
I honor the Maha·bharata, which is the concentrate of Vya- sa’s words and the essence of the universe; since Bharati’s name bears its imprint, she holds that name to be her ornament.*
When there is the Ramayana filled with poetic sentiment that elevates the lineage of Kakut·stha, what use do we have for any other? Why should a rivulet spring up, when there is the mighty flow of the Ganges with its abundant water?*
Alas! Vyasa ruined his reputation because he made the mistake of living too long. Otherwise, who would not think that he had acquired a new body as Gunadhya?*
We salute the poets of the Ramayana, Maha·bharata and the Brihat·katha. It is due to them that the Sarasvati, with abundant water, shines forth as if it had become the three-streamed Ganges ⋮ that sacred speech, filled with poetic sentiments, appears to be broken up into three traditions.*
xxxv
The game of making love and the words of Kali·dasa give delight even as one is learning them: they are like the sounds in the throats of beautiful women, tender and sweet in their implications.
Through her connection with Bhava·bhuti, Speech manifests herself as a river; for otherwise how would “the stones weep” in the tragedy he composed?*
I suppose that just as Shikhandini was reborn as Shikhandin, Speech was born as Bana to enhance her powers as a male.*
I pay my respects to my father Nilambara, who is reckoned right after the teacher Prabhakara, after whose death righteousness and ritual have lain dormant, who was a poet like Ushanas, who is honored right after the teacher of the gods, Brihas·pati, at whose setting religion and ritual
