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Shlokas 1 to 11: Kampana installed himself Governor of his father at Marakatanagara (Kanci) and established good government.

Shlokas 12 to 76: The song of the seasons. The amors of the Prince.

1. Then in the great city called Marataka which was like an ornament of this earth, king Kampaņa established himself and ruled the earth peacefully and well.

2. His subjects thought that he was another incarnation of Viṣnu that had come down to this earth, . because he was so victorious, and such a favourite of gods and virtuous men.

3. His prowess was recognised everywhere; his actions were always fruitful. He increased the scope of negotiation among other strategems in achieving his purpose. Highly intelligent and politic, he was. There was something original in his statecraft, which showed he was a real master.

4. Even as the sun with his bright rays unveils every object on earth, the king, by his skilful employ ment of spies, knew everything that was being done by friends and foes alike.

5. The system of light taxation which he practised pleased his subjects in his kingdom, and earth herself showed a great satisfaction by her excellent yield of corn and other produce.

6. Earth, by finding rest on his strong, attractive, ornamented and liberal hands, lightened the burden of Sēṣa who was her prime support.

7. The threshold of his palace was ever thronged with elephants, and also kings waiting for audience. The former made it muddy with their flowing ichor, while the latter made it dry with gem-dusts falling down from ornaments broken as a result of jostling.

8. Every day kings that had cast off their old enmity rubbed their forehead against his royal foot stool. And their resultant change of fortune suggested the idea that new letters of prosperity were written on their foreheads (in lieu of those that were already there from their birth).

9. The royal threshold was always beseiged by crowds of kings, such as of Magadha, Māļava, Sevuna, Simhala, Dramila, Kērala and Gauda, waiting for an opportunity to pay their homage.

10. On both sides beautiful damsels waved the chowri, and in the jingling of their golden bracelet, the voice of court bards singing panegyrics was almost drowned.

11. Kampaņa loved very much to listen to com positions of good poets in his court, compositions which were sweet like the sounding of Saraswati’s anklets as she practised graceful walking.

12. The ladies of the court played on the Vīna with their slim fingers, singing songs that told his world known acts of glory. Sweet notes of gamaka thạt wafted from the music made it most attractive.

13. Very often the ladies of his hárem entertained the king with dancing, perféct in every respect, beat ing time, making gestures and movements.

14. In his hunting expeditions, the king cleared the forest by killing hyenas, wounding buffaloes, scat tering deer, and slaughtering wild boars. He also subdued rhinoceroses and caught elephants.

15. Then summer set in. It made women have recourse to scented snows, fans and sandal. They also loved moonlit nights.

16. Days enjoyed bright and long sun-shine, and nights were short; young women loved to enjoy water sports. Gentle winds, fragrant with the smell of full bloomed patala flowers, blew.

17. By the decree of eternal law, the sun had to leave the southern region, in order to obtain, as it were, the cooling influence of the ice-clad Himālayas.

18. To the delight of the çakravāka birds, the days became longer and longer. In the unbearable heat of summer, it seemed that even the horses of the sun tottered and had to move with less speed.

19. The elephant Cupid, getting scorched in the sun, found shelter in the breasts of beautiful ladies, which were wet with pastes of sandal and had the cooling contact of pearl strings.

20. Day by day, waters in the pleasure-lakes in the palace-grounds of the king were found receding further and further from the shores. This made one fancy that they were getting more and more afraid of receiving knocks from the breasts of Kuntala damsels who delighted in sporting in them.

21. The king was delighted with the unadorned faces of his beautiful ladies with the sirīṣa wreaths placed on the ear, and pearl-like drops of sweat appearing on them (the faces).

22. The king could not contain his emotion when his eyes became transfixed to the braids of hair on the heads of his charming women, which wafted sweet fragrance emanating from the evening-blossoming kutaja flowers with which they were decked.

23. The king got over the heat of the day by retiring with the choicest ladies to his summer-house where water-particles sparkling like stars were being sprayed incessantly.

24. After summer, came winter which the cataka hirds welcomed with delight, and which, by the flowering of nicula reeds, produced the illusion of chowries.

25. Thick clouds began to appear here and there. They looked like the sporting pavilions of women called lightnings; and the thunder that was heard resembled the sounds of mridanga drums.

26. The bee-black clouds looked like dark colour ed petticoats; flashes of lightning that appeared now and then glittered like borders of gold-lace, and rain drops like pearl-countings.

27. The rain-bow with its colours, green, red and white, shone like the girdle, set with emerald, coral and pearl of the Beauty Goddess of sky.

28. Red insects looking like blood drops, began to swarm the earth. They looked like the sparks of the lightning fire that had dropped down on earth when clouds clashed with clouds in a violent manner.

29. Frozen rain drops fell from clouds that whirled round with the blowing of the eastern wind. Looking at them, one wondered if they were not pearls which were taken along with the sea-water during the latter’s formation.

30. In mountainous plateaus peacocks danced singing sweet notes of shadja at the appearance of clouds that were their favourites.

31. Travellers with desperate courage heard the thundering of clouds in the sky which sounded like celestial kettle-drums which Cupid beat with sticks of lightning

32. For some days the forest presented this appearance: Plantains put forth new shoots. Arjuna trees blossomed and also the kadamba and kētaka. Cātaka birds were in great glee, and also the peacocks.

33. Through winds, as if with hands, clouds sprinkled kētaka dusts resembling holy ashes. The murmuring of thunder was like the uttering of hum. And all this was effective in exorcising the evil-spirit of love-anger which sometimes possessed the ladies of the harem.

34. The mind of the king was very much attract ed by pleasure-hillocks. Eyes in the tails of dancing peacocks rendered them very picturesque, and camphor deposits in them exuded the most agreeable odour. The numberless kadainba trees there were in full blossom.

35. The king was also attracted by his beautiful ladies whose curling locks were decorated with the evening-blossoming mālati flowers. Their clothes were scented with agaru fumes, and they were sweet smelling like musk.

36. The king’s love passion was very much excit ed by gem-set pavilions, by fragrant breezes wafting the smell of kutaja and kētaka flowers and by the musical notes of intoxicated peacocks.

37. The advent of the cloudy season enacted the role of a “romance’ confidant to the king in the night time, as it made even the newly married shy girls embrace him at every sound of thunder-murmurings.

38. Then came the autumn, the jester that made lotus-clusters laugh, the thief that stole Indra’s bow (rain bow), and the treasury officer that set his seal on the mouths of peacocks.

39. The season resembled a lion in dispersing the elephant-like clouds. His face was the sun. The kaśas were his manes and the blossoming China roses, his red eyes.

40. It was no empty saying that the sun and the moon are the eyes of Viṣnu. Now that He has woken up from sleep, these two also opened in their proper splendour.

41. By reason of the rise of the brilliant Agastya star, the waters were cleared of their muddy condition, and shone as clear as the minds of men that had received proper instruction from a merciful guru.

42. White clouds lined the sky, and lightning dis appeared. In that state the sky resembled the watery expanse of the sea with clusters of foam here and there and coral reefs gone.

43. The clouds in winter seemed to have acted like a whet-stone and a wash in the case of the sun and the moon, respectively, for they both shone now with increased brightness and splendour.

44. The rivers were rid of impurities and looked slimmer. And by uniting them with the swans, their lovers, the season really enacted the role of a dear female friend effecting reconciliation between angry lovers.

45. Everywhere there were heard sweet sounds from swans resembling the music of Laksmi’s fcet wan dering on lotus-beds or the auspicious sounding of Cupid’s tūrya (musical instrument).

46. Autumn, like a beautiful lady with lotus eyes, desired as it were to see her face every now and then in the mirror of the sun whom she, therefore, frequently drew out from his wrapper of white clouds.

47. The king enjoyed the autumnal nights fully; for in their contents they resembled his ladies in every respect; blue water-lilies had the beauty of their eyes, the moon of their face, white water-lilies of their smile and stars of the pupil of their eyes.

48. The young women guarding rice fields sang the spotless fame of the king, decked as their persons were with garlands of pearls that had come out of the bursting of ripe red sugarcane.

49. Elephants in rut, again and again, pulled the chains with which they were fastened, as forest winds laden with the smell of blossoming saptaparna trees blew over their bodies.

50. Everywhere forest grounds were adorned with blossoming Cina roses. And as the latter stirred in the wind, it seemed as if, by orders of the king, they were waving auspicious flame to his victorious horses before any others did.

51. Then making the nights long, as if to please the amorous king who loved to enjoy night sports very much, there came the dewy season.

52. Lotus clusters were hit hy snow and the moon became pale in colour. Only the faces of the king’s beloved consorts gained unmatched charm.

53. The royal ladies, as they shivered in cold, seemed to be in an uninterrupted state of love passion: the hairs in their breasts always standing on end, and their mouths always uttering murmuring sounds.

54. The king’s beloveds made him fancy that they were decking their hair with pearls, in season and out of season, as the cluster of their curls were always dressed with the white blossoms of jasmine.

55. The king loved to remain in his inner apart ments, sweetly scented with agaru fumes, in company of his beautiful consorts whose breasts were warm and painted with saffron paste.

56. The king who incarnated Cupid in point of personal charm, thus enjoying the comforts of the cold season desired to sport with his ladies in the nights in spite of the chilly weather.

57. He very much liked to lie down on beds strewn with fresh foliage of clove plants, beds that were also dotted with particles of agaru fallen from the fore head of his ladies in their amorous practices.

58. His ladies presented a particularly attractive appearance to the king, with their faces white with the dust of lõdra flowers and with their foreheads anointed with musk paste.

59. Young girls who got horripilation by reason of their proximity to their royal lover ascribed it to cold. But they felt ashamed, as beads of sweat, sug gestive of their unmistakable love passion, began to collect on their persons.

60. Young ladies feigning anger, but glad at heart, looked at the king, as he practised acts of love passion, such as biting the lips, drawing by the hair, and kissing all over.

61. The breasts of his ladies warm with blossom ing youthfulness drove away the cold of the season when the king cast longing looks on them; they were very attractive also in their semi-covered state with marks of nail scratches, and without the strings of pearls on them.

62. Then spring came, with trees full of flowers as if for an offering, with sprouting foliage like hands folded in veneration. With the cooings of cuckoos, as if uttering humble words of obeisance, the season seemed to have come to pay homage to the king.

63. The gentle southern breezes that blew scatter ing fragrant mango leaf-dust seemed like sorcerers turn the mind of anger-ridden dam sels that spurned their lovers.

64. Kimśuka trees with buds of dazzling red shone like lions with blood-stained nails—lions that had torn the deer of lovely travellers.

65. Rows of campaka clusters with collyrium like bees settling on them looked like lamps lighted by the spring in commemoration of Cupid’s festival.

66. The sweet odour of wine in the mouths of beautiful-eyed ladies travelled to the vakula flowers from which the southern breeze took it. Thus it had its spreading in an appropriate manner.

66. The sweet odour of wine in the mouths of beautiful-eyed ladies travelled to the vakula flowers from which the southern breeze took it. Thus it had its spreading in an appropriate manner.

67. Asökas, with bees humming around in thick rows, indicated a sort of appropriateness to the manure which the tree had by the touch of the tender feet of Kuntala ladies resounding with ornaments.

68. The kuravakas that looked like hairs stand ing on end in the act of mutual embrace of lovers, raised love passion even in the hearts of insentient beings.

69. The sweet pançama notes of cuckoos delighted the world immensely. Lonely travellers that heard it felt as if they heard sounds of Cupid’s bow shooting arrows at them.

70. Wild creepers that were the beloved of the black bee attracted the latter very much as clusters of buds looking like breasts sprouted in them, in the flower ing season of spring.

71. In the spring festival ladies wanted to paint forms of Cupid on picture-boards. But they ended by painting the form of king Kampaņa who was always in their heart.

72. Certain ladies smeared the Cupid-like person of the king with sandal paste, and their hands evidenced love passion by sweat drops and horripilation that marked them in the act.

73. The tinkling of bracelets, the tossing of girdles, the dropping of garlands and the wying of curis that marked the practice in swinging play, looked like a rehearsal on the part of lovely ladies of love sports with their lover.

74. Some queens felt ashamed before their female companions; and in singing songs in praise of Kāma they often introduced the name of the king in their for getfulness.

75. They desired to splash on the king paste of saffron, but they were not aware that the substance had already leaked out of their sweat-bathed hands.

76. King Kampaņa thus rendered the third end of life (Kāma) fruitful by sporting to his heart’s con tent with the ladies of his harem whose passion was not dimmed even in unbroken union.