334 The Birth of Uma— [Juny, 
3. 
While gems thus unnumber’d of bountiful Earth 
Encompass this favourite child from his birth, 
* Ev’n hoary dull frost, on his lofty brow seen, 
Takes nought from his bliss or his glory, I ween: 
* One fault may well merge in a flood of such praise, 
* Unmark’d, as one spot in the gentle Moon’s rays. 
4. 
For borne on his craigs, lo what rivals the grace 
* Of fairy light steps that ethereal nymphs trace, 
* The glitt’ring bright rock, all in broken streaks seen 
As belts of the shifting cloud gather between ; 
* And evermore wearing, from morn to still night, 
The rich blended hues of the ev’ning twilight. 
eS ES ES SS SS ES 
St. 3. Ev’n hoary dull frost, &c.—This idea of frost, as a mere blemish in the 
otherwise surpassing glory of the mountain, is characteristic of Hindu sentiment. 
Thus in a curious dialogue called Vishva-gunddarsana, written by an ingenious 
poet of the Deccan, named Venkatich4ari, describing the travels of two Gandharvas 
or celestial songsters over the world, one of whom praises, the other censures, every 
thing,—the praise of Badarika, the holy retreat of the sage Vyasa on Himalaya, by 
the one, is reckoned to be sufficiently censured by the other urging the frost, 
which he declares sufficient to prevent, if not destroy the merit of every pious 
exercise performed there. 
aes waif fared fea AGAMA AA STATA: 
SMATST TAAL TTT: | aaaqareara aa ferae t 
Ibid. As one spot in the gentle moon’s rays.—eeay facut Aare: The propriety 
of this expression is disputed by some Pandits, on the ground of the spot belonging 
not to the rays but to the dody of the moon. Of this the reader may judge accord- 
ing to his taste. 
St. 4. The glitt’ring bright rock.—The word UTA or mineral, which I 
have translated rock, is explained by Bharata-mallica to mean here simply mica 
— 1 1 Ss ~ 
or red chalk—by Mallinatha, a little more generally (area: farscaitareat 
ae aaa wa ar ), but still restricting the mineral or rocky strata here 
described to those of a red colour. Whence arises this determination of the Pan- 
dit commentators to give this special import to a word of general signification, — 
when the most various colouring which the word admits would both accord better 
with the actual appearance of the monntain, and add more grace to the author’s 
description,—it is not easy to point out. I shouldbe disposed to ascribe it to the 
comparison of evening twilight in this stanza, and the scholiasts’ passion for 
systematizing the loci communes of poetry, evinced in making the evening hue 
exclusively red :—did I not observe the same limited interpretation elsewhere, 
as in y. 104 of the Mégha Duta of our poet—where their interpretation of 
