पृष्ठम्:विक्रमाङ्कदेवचरितम् - बिल्हण.pdf/२०

SENESTEN
16
INTRODUCTION.
my qualities I have conquered some rivals. Thus I have
toiled, in ignorance, for many worthless objects. Now my
heart filled with pure knowledge longs for the river of the
immortals.
(105.) Some pious favourites of Pârvati, with tranquil hearts
practising Yoga, pass in their age the remainder of their days
on the banks of the Mandakini, that are softened by wind-
raised murmuring. waves.
(106.) Princes of the earth! prosperity, the wilfully un-
stable lightning of the cloud of fate, cannot be enchained;
incessantly sounds the drum that announces the departure of
the breath of life; worship then those true poets, who work
the salvation of your bodies of glory through the nectar of their
verse, and renouncing pride make them your spiritual guides.
(107) Oye kings! abstain from opposing the attachment
of true poets; in sooth, pure fame comes to you through their
favour; pleased they composed that grave beautiful life of
Rama, angered they made ten-headed Râvana the conqueror
of the world, an object of derision.
(108) May the God, who is the first oreator of the revealed
texts, the dear husband of Parvati, give you intelligence to
understand the sayings of true poets-he, who imitating the ways
of the S'avaras frightened the moon-sickle placed on his crest,
so that she concealed her deer in some distant hiding place.
If this narrative is divested of its envelope of poetical bombast,
the main facts, which Bilhana reports of his own life, are per-
fectly credible. He was born at Khonamukha, three miles from
Pravarapura in a family of Madhyade'si Brahmans. His great-
grandfather Muktikalas'a, and his grandfather Rajakalas'a were
Agnihotris and able to recite the Vedas. His father Jyeshtha-
kalas'a was a grammarian who wrote a commentary on the
1. A Brahman of this name is mentioned. Râjatar. VII. 20 segg.