পাতা:Vanga Sahitya Parichaya Part 1.djvu/৮৮

80 INTRODUCTION. Rāma “This season calls forth in the hearts of men and women strange desires, difficult to resist.” (14) Nature had given her a form of surpassing beauty. Now the dawn of youth made her a marvel. Her colour exceeds the lustre of gold. And when she stands, her flowing tresses touch her very ankles. Her face is like the full-moon and her eyes are soft and playful like those of the gazelle. Her feet have the beauty of lotus buds. Thrice blessed is that art of the Creator which can mould to such a shape the human form. She binds her dark hair into a knot in such a way that it looks like the flower Kanera. Ringlets of hair cluster round her ears, and a golden 7hapa tied to a braid hangs behind her. The vermilion-mark on her forehead decorated with alaka shines softly like the moon. The diamond ear-drops from behind the hair look as though the sun were peeping through the clouds. A recklace of large-sized pearls adorns her breast, and her bracelets are studded with diamonds. She looks like a flash of lightning surrounded by clouds; for with a blue coloured sar; she covers herself. Says the poet Phakira Rāma “Even a Yogi will find all the toil of his life and his asceticism gone for naught, when he beholds such a lovely thing.” (15) The clouds thickly overcast the sky and the whole land becomes dark at the hour of noon. With great speed they rattled and marched and the lightning flashed, unveiling the world for a moment. “ hura” “hura” “guru” was the sound of the storm that blew—driving the clouds, smashing the straw-roofs of the poor and raising foamy waves on the sea. Old houses fell with shutters and windows blown down And even the big temples quaked as the great wind passed over them. Truly it was a cyclone. The trees of Cuttack were carried down to Hinglat. The very pinnacles of the temples were blown off. Goats and cows were forced to fly on the high air like winged things. Hail-stones big as palm-fruits rattled down. The Kotowāl's son and the fair princess were in the wilderness at the time. Says Phakira Rāma “they prayed to Shiva to save them from the danger from which they themselves could find no escape.” (16) Seldom from her palace did the princess walk abroad on foot, and when from one room to another she passed, the maids spread a rich carpet on the court-yard. Shoes embroidered with gold and jewels she wore, and when