पृष्ठम्:विक्रमाङ्कदेवचरितम् - बिल्हण.pdf/४४

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INTRODUCTION.
After the wedding had been celebrated, the rejected suitors
departed. Many of them would have liked to give vent to
their anger by deeds; but fear of the great Châlukya restrain-
ed them. Vikrama and his bride, happy in each others com-
pany, enjoyed their newly found bliss and the pleasures of
spring. In the morning they took walks in the garden. Vi
krama pointed out to Chandralekha the beauties of the season.
He seated her in a swing and swung her with his own hands.
Later the whole harem was called out and the women amused
themselves and the king with gathering flowers from the trees
and creepers. Then, covered with the pollen of the blossoms,
they went to a tank to bathe and to sport in the water. Fi-
nally, in the evening, after enjoying the bright moonlight and
after making a fresh toilet, the whole party sat down to a
banquet at which Surâ or Madhu, a highly intoxicating liquor,
flowed in streams. The women were soon flushed by this drink
scription of the effects of spring on the passions and of its amusements
and by introducing a detailed description of Chandralekha's charm's
in the eigth Sarga, Bilhana has managed to fill nearly three cantos
with the narrative of Vikrama's marriage. He has also succeeded in
giving the story a very unreal appearance by imitating the Baghuvams'a
in the description of the Svayamvara. Nevertheless the main facts re-
lated by him may be taken to be historical. For the name of Vikra-
ma's wife Chandaladevi is preserved in the inscriptions vide Jour. As.
Soc. IV. 13. From the inscriptions of the S'ilaharas it is also certain
that this family ruled in Karahâta, the modern Karhad (Kurrar), see
ibid p. 282. Bilhana does not employ the name S'ilahâra, but he
calls Chandralekha twice, VIII. 8 and IX. 27 a Vidyâdhara. The
S'ilahâras bore this appellation by virtue of their descent from Jimuta-
vishana.
Tod's annals of Rajasthân and other works show that Svayamvaras
occurred among the Rajputs until a very late period. From the great
length and minuteness of the descriptions of Chandaladevi's beauty,
of her Svayamvara and of Vikrama's affection for her, it may be
concluded that she was still the favetrite when Bilhana wrote.
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