पृष्ठम्:विक्रमाङ्कदेवचरितम् - बिल्हण.pdf/१७

INTRODUCTION.
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(84.) His elder brother, Ishtaráma, the pleasing ornament of
the balls of a hundred kings, reached the summit of all learn-
ing. Those who were able to taste the flavour of the nectar
of poetry saw the Goddess, who is the mother of true poets,
acting as guardian of the well in his mouth.
(85.) After that vessel of fame (Bilbapa) was born a young-
er brother, Ananda, a hatchet to cut off in sport the pride of
poets eager for the contest. When Sarasvati was displeased
with her seat on Himalaya's table-land on account of its hard-
ness, methinks, she selected his soft tongue for her dwelling.
(86.) When (Bilhana) took from Kashmir the puro lore of
all S'astras, he, forsooth, made the qualities of the snowy
mountains bis own. Else, how could he, when angored, havo
reduced, in every land, the faces of disputants to the likeness
of lotuses blighted by hoar-frost?
(87.) Conquering playfully in disputes the Pandits of Ma-
thurd, he passed some days in the precincts of Vrindârna,
where, broken by Radhâs broad hips tremulous in the swing,
the trees of Krishna's garden even now are not recovered.
(88.) When crowds of pupils fevered the blood of his rivals
by tales of the excellence of his unequalled learning and loudly
spread his fame in every quarter of the world, the musical hum
of the bee-swarms, drunk with the taste of the ichor that flowed
from the temples of the elephants guarding the points of horizon,
caused the only interruption.
(89.) In villages, in provincial and in royal cities, in forosta
and groves, in all lands sacred to Sarasvatt, the wise and tho
fools, the old and the young, men and women, everywhero ench
and all recite his verses with tremors of joy.
(90.) His fame, when, entering the gates of Kanyakubja it
chid murmuring Ganga, subdued that town, where colostial
Fortune descends with ease from the city of the gods on stairs
formed by high jewel-built palaces.