३ यौवनारम्भः

मूलम् अत्र, अत्र ।

Shlokas 1 to 20: The early training of Kampana. His bodily charm and qualities are also described. His marriage with Gangū Dēvī and other princesses is mentioned.

Shlokas 21 to 48: The mission of Kampaņa in the Tamil country is explained by Bukka. Here is another Polonius. Of special significance is the exhortation that Kampana must destroy the Sambuvarāya as a prelude to his conquest of Madhura from the Sultan.

1. The tonsure ceremony over, the prince be came proficient in all the arts and humanities without any external help, and tuition by gurus in his case was more or less a superfluity.

2. He was trained in military science by his own father who had acquired its secret from an excellent master. Thus tutored, he became a pastmaster in wielding the bow and the sword and in the use of all miraculous weapons.

3. He spoke the truth, had immense bodily strength and was an expert in handling the bow. A fine horseman and a master in sword-play, he possessed ail the accomplishments for each of which were the Pāndavas separately noted.

4. He now attained his youthhood which could be described as the sporting lake of the elephant called Manmatha, as the bunch of flowers called love, as the moon-light for the çaköra birds called women’s eyes.

5. His body shone distinctly in its full contours, now that boyhood had entirely passed away and youth hood had asserted itself, even as the sun shines in his total brilliance after the passing away of the dewy season.

6. His walking was graceful and stately. It looked as if the elephants dwelling in the mountain cave gave it as a present in advance to get themselves caught and kept by him—a favour for which they always longed.

7. In the excessively beautiful palm of his hands there was the auspicious fish-mark. Why should such a mark appear there unless it be that Kāma had surrendered his fish-banner by way of accepting his defeat by the beauty of the prince’s feet?

8. The loins of the beautiful prince, hard as stone with their golden band, resembled the base of the anjana hill encircled by a fresh streak of red coloured mineral.

9. His waist, shapely and slender, which greatly enhanced the beauty of his person, suggested the idea of the lions having yielded their monopoly, as a sort of hush-money in his favour, as they were extremely afraid of his strength.

10. His panel-like chest shone just so broad as to be able to hold in its expanse the breasts of beautiful women, breasts which can well compare with the frontal globes on an elephant’s head.

11. His beam-like hands with strong reddish fingers at their end hung up to his knees. They were attractive and immensely powerful. Springing as they did from his thickset shoulders, they were always a sight for people to see.

12. If the black spot in the moon could be removed from its place in the centre and drawn as a line at the edge of her orb, then it might be likened to his face, with the beard just making its appearance.

13. The redness that appeared in the corner of his lotus-like eyes suggested anger against the ears that set a limit to the freedom of their (eyes’) expansiveness.

14. The world thought of his long and lofty nose as a demarcating line that prevented each one of the eyes from encroaching on the province of the other.

15. The prince had his long tuft of his hair dressed with red blossom which looked like emblems expressing red hearts of beautiful women.

16. His body and prowess grew side by side. Side by side also did his eyes and fame become more and more white-coloured. His neck, along with his qualities, expanded increasingly. And both his mind and voice together gained in depth.

17. The king, seeing that the prince had attained his youthhood, married him to several princesses; and the unions partook the grandeur of the ocean receiving the rivers at the advent of the rainy season.

18. Like Sasi to Cakra (Indra), Ramā (Lakṣmi) to Sarñgin (Vișnu), and Sati (Pārvati) to śambhu (Śiva)…. (possibly, the name of the poetess who was his principal consort is introduced).

19. The prince enjoyed conjugal happiness with that beautiful-looking princess. They loved each other so well and their happiness was so perfect that even the gods could not but feel envious.

20. Perfectly disciplined as the prince was, the king one day wishing to make him famous by the conquest of the enemies began to give him pregnant words of advice.

21. “A darkness always infests youthful age, and wise men have found out that only the lamp of intelli gence lighted by proper advice is able to dispel it. So it behoves you to lend me your ears and listen to what I am about to say.

22. “Wise men consider instruction imparted by a guru, as a jewelled ear-ring bereft of hardness, a potent ointment without colour, and a wonderful form of penance involving no self-mortification.

23. “Perverse rogues do not mind the promptings of good leaders. They close their eyes in their intoxication. They are unclean because of the dust of sin they raise against themselves. They tie themselves to deep prejudices as if to firm posts. In all this they resemble elephants in rut.

24. “The darkness of intoxication such as of youthhood is akin to that of a starless night. Nothing like moon-light awakening can you expect during its sway. It marks the triumph of sex passion and is a bad period of life not easily overcome by one in embodied state.

25. “When the tree of egotism puts forth its shoots, it dries up the springs of mercy. The dawning of youthhood is really the vanishing of light from the intellect; and how can one have anything like proper perception at such a dark hour?

26. Youth deprived of discretion, and rulers blinded by prosperity, going their own way, soon became the favourites of danger which overtakes them as a night of eclipse does in the case of full moon.

27. Which wise man would trust women who are the abode of ail foibles and who are like nets ensnaring the mind resembling the frolic-blind deer?

28. “All that a gambler has—fruitful earth, valu ablc ornaments, riches, and even his own body, his strength, his wives and his sons—does not belong to him, but belongs to others.

29. “Which wise man will indulge in hunting wild beasts risking in vain his own life? Those that know characterise it as a bottomless pit into which kings, like rut-elephants, fall in their unguarded state.

30. “When the intoxication of youthhood is on, and when wealth is making one falter at every step, who could think of getting into the habit of drinking? It would be like getting a bad complication in typhoid fever.

31. “However much you may be wedded to doing good, popularity could never be gained if you are in the habit of bursting into harsh words. A cloud may give welcome showers; but, at the same time, no one will cease dreading its lightning and thunder.

32. “Subjects are the wealth of kings. When that is so, who could think of inflicting a reign of terror on them by having recourse to brutal punishments? Nobody would go up a tree and apply the axe to its roots.

33. “An idiot who, in blind ignorance, throws away wealth as gifts to the undeserving—wealth which is indispensable for the upkeep of dharma-really throws oblations that deserve to be used in holy sacri fices, into the fire that is consuming a dead body.

34. Ignorance-ridden monarchs overcome by vices such as thesevices, which, like consumption, eat into the body politic—become in course of time objects of contempt to their enemies.

35. “Those fools that are not able to preserve by their good qualities wealth begotten by them on account of merit in previous birth are to be likened to monkeys in whose hands a garland of flowers has been given. The former, like the latter in their unbalanced state, know only to destroy what they have been given.

36. “But youth like you who have their intelli gence duly shaped and purified by instruction received from proper gurus know how to keep away from vices and act always in the proper manner.

37. “It behoves you, therefore, to take courage in both hands, consider the pros and cons of everything deeply, and act in such a way that the goddess of pros perity, notorious for her fickle mind, does not turn aside from you even for a moment.

38. “Rulers of earth, who are men of action, and my hereditary friends, in whose heart no malice dwells, and who, though unostentatious, are famed in quelling rebellious spirits are now camping near you here by my command, my dear son!

39. “You know you are surrounded now by an ocean-like army. Horses in thousands act as its waves, elephants in rut appear in its midst like huge islands, and destructive weapons like sharks abound in its waters.

40. “So, I would ask you to exhibit your manli ness and ever increasing prowess and strike at your enemies and subdue them, even as the Lord of the Gods (Indra) did in the case of the (winged) mountains, enraged at their efforts to destroy the world.

41. “So, you had better march successfully to Tundīra (Tondaimandala) and overcome the people headed by the Champa (Sambuvarāya) who are pre paring for war. Then establish yourself at Kānci and rule there, with due regard to the wishes of the people, even like the Lord of Wealth (Kubēra) does in the city of Alaka.

42. “Then if you subdue all the Vanya kings, it would be easy for you to break the power of the Turuska. Would it be difficult for the fire that had consumed with its flames hundreds of branches of a tree, to destroy the trunk also?

43. “This Turuska is acting like Ravana in regard to the Southern Kingdoms. If you play the praise worthy part of Sri Rāma in reducing him you will be rendering a service to the world and allay affliction.”

44. Having delivered this speech, the king stop ped, even as the cloud does after pouring down its watery contents. The prince bowed low, and took to heart, like the good son he was, the advice of his father.

45. Then the king took off invaluable ornaments from his own person and adorned the prince with them. And, after fixing, that the latter should start on his vic torious expedition on the next day, he retired to his own apartments in an elated mood.

46. The sun, as if anxious to inform the serpent king who bore this earth (Sēṣa) that his burden would soon be lightened, sank in haste into the nether regions.

47. The prince, after finishing his daily worship of the sandhya, and after acquainting his eager attend ants with the commands of his father and dismissing them, entered his private apartments to enjoy the com pany of his beautiful princesses.