CHAPTER XVI. Joy and Grief of the Princess.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. “The second is, that thou shalt hear my prayer, and appear before me, whenever I raise my voice to thee, for having thy sight and blessing.”
41. Hearing this, the goddess said, “Be it so;” and immediately disappeared in the air (whence she came); as the wave subsides in the sea whence it rises to view.
42. The princess being blessed by the presence and good grace of the goddess, was as delighted as a doe at the hearing of music.
43. The wheel of time rolled on its two semicircles of the fort-nights. The spikes of months, the arcs of the seasons, the loops of days and nights and the orbit of years. The axle composed of fleeting moments; giving incessant momentum to the wheel.
44. The perceptions of the prince, entered into the inner man within the body (lingadeha); and he looked in a short time, as dry as a withered leaf without its juicy gloss.
45. The dead body of the warlike prince, being laid over the sepulchre, in the inside of the palace, the princess began to fade away at its sight, like a lotus flower without its natal water (of the lake).
46. Her lips grew pale by her hot and poisoned breath of sorrow; and she was in the agony of death, as a doe pierced by a dart (in her mortal part).
47. Her eyes were covered in darkness at the death of her lord, as a house becomes dark at the extinction of the light of its lamp.
48. She became leaner every moment, in her sad melancholy; and turned as a dried channel covered with dirt in lieu of its water.
49. She moved one moment and was then mute as a statue; she was about to die of grief, as the ruddy goose at the separation of her mate.
50. Then the etherial goddess Sarasvatí, took pity on the excess of her grief, and showed as much compassion for her relief, as the first shower of rain, does to the dying fishes in a drying pond.