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Shlokas 1 to 50: Day and Night described. Gangā Dēvi’s description of Night to her husband.

1. Then the sun, as if afraid of the offence he had given to the queens by making lotuses imitate the beauty of their faces, sunk into the caverns of the western mountains.

2. From there he submerged into the waters of the Western Ocean as if to replenish his heat from the submarine fire there-heat which had been spent in the day in making lotuses blossom.

3. The ladies of Varuna’s harem fancied the globe of the sun to be the golden ear-ring which the Goddess of Day had dropped down in her haste to depart.

4. The cheeks of Varuna’s ladies reddened with the rays of the setting sun; and this change of colour came to them (cheeks) even when no intoxicating wine had been drunk.

5. The sun, getting drunk with the honey in the lotuses, abandoned ambara (meaning ‘sky’ and ‘appa rel’) and in that state touched the western region revered as Varuna’s queen. Who is there that is immune to the injurious influence of drinking?

6. The sun at one stage seemed to be afflicted with the heat of separation from the eastern quarter; but now he was seen enjoying himself in company with the opposite quarter, his heat gone, on reaching her. The minds of lovers are certainly inscrutable!

7. The lotus ponds with closed fowers of lotuses looked as if offering their prayer with folded hands for the return of the sun who had left them for another hemisphere.

8. The ocean, with the folds of evening clouds reflected in the waves raised by the wind, looked as if putting up steps of gems for the sun to descend from the sky.

9. The globe of the setting sun, as it touched its own reflection in the waves of the western ocean, raised in one’s mind the idea of the Golden cymbals, for the evening dancer, Śiva.

10. Cakravāka couples with their pitiful looks at the setting sun, and with bits of lotus-stalk dropping down from their beaks, looked very miserable on the eve of their mutual separation at nightfall.

11. A few streaks of light still lined the sky even after the sun had sunk in the ocean waters. These looked like the remnant branches of the tree of Day which the elephant Time had uprooted.

12. The ocean, with the beams of the setting sun, reminded one of the time-honoured anecdote of its having been stained with the blood of Madhu and Kaitabha.

13. The globe of the sun, with its lustre gone, rolled, scattered by the ocean waves. Sea-fishes licked it often and often, mistaking it for the broken remains of a fruit.

14. Small remnants of light caused hundreds of dark shadows of trees to be cast on the ground. And these looked like the forces of darkness overpowering the army of the sun fleeing in fear.

15. The sun, setting out on a journey at the end of the day, entrusted his paritāpa (heat, also distress) to be kept by the hearts of women separated from their lovers, and his brilliance to be safeguarded by herbs (that used to glow at night time.).

16. Taking a warning as it were, from the fall on one khaga (the sun, also a bird) because of his over stepping Visnupāda (the feet of Viṣnu, also sky), the other khagas (birds) quietly hid themselves in their nests in trees.

17. Within closed petal-doors of lotuses which are considered as Lakṣmi’s dwelling houses, the black bees going round and round, humming, enacted the role of night-watchmen.

18. The Goddess of Day, sealed, as it were, the closed lotuses with the lac of black-bees sitting close on their surface, with a view to guard the fragrance treasure of honey within.

19. The evening twilight was fancied by people as the screen of the stage where the dancer Time, was about to act the part of Night having taken off his dis guise as Day.

20. The same twilight raised the momentary vision of a red doublet worn by the region of Varuņa; one also fancied that it should have got its characteristic colour by coming into contact with the dust raised by the hoofs of the sun’s horses as they trod on the red layers of the western mountains.

21. Red clouds travelled in the evening sky, and their colour was imitative of the hue of the red dye adorning the face of the Damsel, Night, who was about to set foot on the horizon.

22. The reddish hues of twilight, as of tender leaves, began to show themselves in the western horizon like coral reefs revealed by the western ocean in the agitation caused by the rapid fall of the sun into its depth.

23. 23 to 25. Then darkness began to set in. now obscuring trees, now the sky, now the regions; and it gave rise to various fancies such as: that they were tender leaves of tamāla with which the regions deco rated their ears; or that they were musk-paste draw ings on the face of the lady called Night; or that they were smokes rising from the quenching of the sun’s heated surface; or that they were black bees disguised as darkness filling the regions after leaving the closing lotuses, or the black waters of the Jumna rising up, tall as trees, when disturbed by Sri Krsna.

24. See previous shloka 23.

25. See previous shloka 23.

26. People’s eyes suddenly lost their power (of seeing). It seemed as if the burning lamp of the sun was put out, and from the lamp-pot of sky, lamp-black was being scattered all round.

27. The stars began to show themselves in the dark sky, and people fancied that God Śiva was letting go his elephant-skin clothing dotted with drops of blood (after his dance was over).

28. The stars looked as if they were beads of perspiration appearing on the blue sky as a result of its suffering from the burning heat of the sun during the day.

29. Time was certainly the ploughman; the stars were well-washed seeds of grain; the dark skies were fields rendered muddy, wherein those seeds were sown by him in order to raise the crop of moon-light. Such was the fancy in the mind of all.

30. Fancy the horizon as a tree. Twilight was the tender shoot to appear first. Darkness was the full grown leaf. The regions were its branches wherein one saw the numberless buds of little stars.

31. Girls went to meet their lovers at rendezvous. But friends forbade them by their very sighs; that were made aware by the fragrance of breath in the darkness.

32. Lamps lit in houses, which were the children of mother night were tended with great care which took the form of oil-fed wicks. (‘Snēha’ means oil also, and dasa’ wick).

33. Lady Darkness decking her plait of hair with flowers of stars waited for a short time for her lover, the moon, smiling, as it were, with the blossoms of the white lily.

34. Then a few rays of the moon, like glittering ocean-waves, were to be noticed in the eastern horizon.

35. The eastern quarter, hiding the moon about to rise, with her pale appearance, looked like a woman big with child of whom she was about to be delivered.

36. A portion of the reddish orb of the moon appeared on the eastern region like the mark on the forehead of a beautiful maiden whom that region (of Indra) might be imagined to incarnate.

37. The reddish globe of the rising moon looked like the victorious umbrella of Cupid made of red sandhyaka flowers.

38. Just as a new king who after the departure of the powerful personality of an old monarch ministers consolation to the world by his gentle levies, so also, the moon, after the splenderous sun had disappeared, pleased the world with his cool pleasant rays.

39. Then the dutiful king Kampaņa duly per formed the worship of sandhya, and afterwards, addressed his queen who was near and whom the world was delighted to call Gangā; thus:

40. “Oh, my lotus-eyed dear, let this hour be honoured by your sweet description. This servant of yours eagerly waits to drink the nectar of your expres sion with his ears.”

41. Thus spoken to by her Lord, the queen slightly lowered her lotus-like face in bashfulness, and slowly began to give utterance to her charming words.

42. “Oh, my dearest, see how pleasant is this hour and how propitious to Cupid, with fragrant breeze gently blowing and with the charming moon just rising.

43. “The lord of night hugs the eastern region to his bosom in an ardent embrace, and with his nail-like rays unties her braid of hair which incarnates darkness.

44. Having got up the eastern mountain, the moon looks as if sucking darkness from the cup of sky, his rays acting as lotus stalks to suck through.*

45. The moon who is the lord of miraculous herbs, practises alchemy, as it were, by transforming the ‘iron called darkness into the ‘silver’ called moonlight, by subjecting the former to a fire-process called udaya rāga (redness of dawn).

46. The damsel called the Eastern Region draws out her white silk of moonlight presented to her by Night from the conch-white box of moon-globe and dresses herself with it, and looks splendid.

47. The moon embraces with his hands of rays the damsel of Eastern Region, and at the same time, also touches another called Kumudvati (bed of night lotuses). This shows, that lustful men ought not to be trusted.

48. Though the moon touches incessantly with his rays, as with hands, the lotus clusters, the latter do not look up to him nor return his attentions. That proves how virtuous women are firm in their vow of chastity.

49. The sun enters the moon every new-moon, and so, the latter is also endowed with the heating qua lity of the former. And this, he exhibits in the case of lovers in separation.

50. The bee-black spot that is observed in the centre of the moon’s globe is not the sign of deer as some suppose. But what it evidences is the applica tion of lamp-black which he had while being used as one of the wheels of Rudra’s chariot at the time of Tri pura destruction. * In Sanskrit, unlike in English, ‘moon’ is masculine.

51. Or, you may even consider that spot blue as indra-nāla gem, as night herself who is his beloved lying there is love’s repose.”