306 The Mahimnastava, or a Hymn to Shiva. [May, 



How vast the difference between my understanding, capable of 

 grasping only little objects and subject to the perturbations of the 

 passions, and between thy everlasting glory, whose properties know no 

 boundary ! — Hence my faith having led me, who am fearful of thee, 

 to this profitable exercise, casts me at thy feet with this verbal offering, 

 as with that of flowers. 



O Lord, even if there were a heap of ink like a black mountain, 

 were the ocean itself the inkstand, and did Saraswati herself conti- 

 nue to write for ever with the twigs of the Kalpataru* as her pens, hav- 

 ing the earth itself for her paper, {even if there were such a writer 

 with such stationery, and to write for so long a time~] still would it 

 be impossible to express the limits of thy qualities. 



Kushuma Dashana (Pushpadanta, or flower-teethed) the chief of 

 all the Gandharvas, and the servant of the god of gods, who bears on 

 his head the crescent of the moon, being in consequence of his wrath de- 

 prived of his greatness, composed this excellent hymn of the lord's glory. 



If a man, having worshipped the chief of gods, read with his hands 

 closed together, and his attention fixed, this hymn, composed by Push- 

 padanta, and of certain efficacy as the one only means of emancipa- 

 tion in heaven, he will join the company of Shiva, and will be ador- 

 ed by the Kinnaras.i 



* A fabulous tree of mythological celebrity, which yields any fruits that are desired 

 by any one. 



f The Kinnaras were a species of celestial beings. 





