4/2 Analysis of the Rayhu Vans'a. [No. 6. 



A descendant of his Ahinagus was noted for sweet words able to carry 

 captive the stags. Visbasah another descendant left the kingdom to his 

 son and clad himself in a dress of bark ; Dhruvasandha, a successor, 

 ruled like the polar star : with stag eyes and lion's heart like the new 

 moon he delighted the eyes ; to him succeeded a youthful monarch, 

 the kingdom resembled the sky when the moon has just risen or a 

 forest inhabited by young lions, or a lake not yet having the expanded 

 lotus. As a small emerald is still an emerald, so the King though 

 only six years old was still a King ; before he had learned his letters, 

 he was instructed by wise men in Ethics, with years his body and 

 virtues received increase. He entered on the stage of youth, the flower 

 on the tree of love growing on the stalk of continual delight, a wine 

 to be observed by maiden's eyes, an ornament diffused over the whole 

 body. 



But after a time he appointed his son Agnivarna, shining as fire, to 

 the throne where with holy water and sacred grass he forgot his 

 former state — the son resigning his kingdom to his ministers delivered 

 himself over to the enjoyment of women, buried day and night in the 

 interior of his palace, exhibiting at times only his feet to the gaze of 

 his subjects, which resembled a lotus tinged with the rays of the 

 rising sun. In tanks amid sport with his women he spent the day 

 quaffing with them large draughts of wine amid the sound of harps 

 and maidens of fair eyes. In the houses the lamp at night unmoved 

 by the wind became witnesses to his deeds. His passions enfeebled by 

 success were stimulated by drinking mango juice and the flowers of 

 the Bignonia. Decay began, he saw destruction before him from his 

 excesses, yet regarded not his physician's advice, he became enfeebled 

 by consumption, with ghastly look, of low voice, leaning on others, his 

 family became like the moon in its last quarter or a summer lake with 

 only mud banks left, or a lamp with languishing flame — no son was 

 born, though attached to so many women ; the diseases baffled the 

 skill of the physicians as the wind a lamp. Soon in a grove near his 

 house the ministers performed his last funeral rites, while his wife 

 pregnant was invested with the royal dignity. His child on birth was 

 warmed with tears shed at so melancholy an end of the father and 

 was then refreshed with cold water drawn from golden vessels to in- 

 augurate his line. 



