पृष्ठम्:विक्रमाङ्कदेवचरितम् - बिल्हण.pdf/४५

INTRODUCTION.
and their odd behaviour and speeches served to amuse the king.¹
At the beginning of the hot season Vikrama proceeded to
Kalyana. His entry caused a great commotion, especially
the fair sex. The
among
women, one and all, fell in
love with their king and manifested their passion in
various extravagant ways. Arrived at his palace the
prince held a Darbâr and then retired to the inner apartments,
where, anointed with sandal oinment, he sought, in the com-
pany of his wives, refuge from the heat in bath rooms
cooled by flowing water. He again gave himself up to the
pastime of the Jalakrida.2 During the remainder of the hot sea-
1. IX. 1-XI. 95. The description of the king's amusemonts, to
which Bilhana, treating them apparoutly con amore, allois nearly throo
whole Sargas, may be considered a faithful picturo of the life in the
inner apartments of an Eastern king. Vikramaditya's son, Somes virs
III. surnamed Bhillokamalla wrote a curious handbook of amusomoni
for kings, entitlod Manasollåsa or Abhilashitachintamani. Ilo
enumerates twenty kinds of sports (vinoda) and twonty amun-
ments (kida) the latter of which appear chiefly destined for the
harem. They include those mentioned by Bilhana. The oxciting cle.
ments in them are mostly romping, equivoque, debauchory and drink.
ing. Drink has always been a favourito passion of the Rajputs. The
abstaining classes among the Hindus, the Brahmans and the Jaina and
Bauddha Vaniãs, have constantly struggled against this proponsity.
The first strongly condomn it in their works on Dharma and Niti
(see e. g. Manu VII. 50, and Kâmandaki XIV. 50) and both Jainas
and Bauddhas, whenever they gainod over a Rajputa, king tell us that they
made him renounce the use of spirituous liquors. Their efforts have not
had any great success. For the Rajputs of our day, even those who
are not debauchees, use various kinds of burnt waters which in
strength surpass anything, ever manufactured in Europe. I must, how-
ever, confess that the use of spirituous liquors by Rajput females was
unknown to me until I read of it in Bilhana's and Somes'vara's work.
2. XII. 1-78.-The description of the passionate behaviour of the
women at the entry of the king is merely conventional. It is repeated
on several occasions.-Bathrooms, (dharàgriha) of the kind mentioned
by Bilhana, are now in existence and in use. They are sometimen
attached to Vavs (vapi) or wolls and underground,