[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Epic, Poetry, Drama & Narrative](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit) › [Poetry (mahākāvya, lyric, messenger poems, stotra, Prakrit kāvya)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya) › [Court epics (sargabandha)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya) › [Śiva, Pārvatī, Skanda and Devī epics](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.saiva) › [The Birth of Kumāra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.saiva.kumarasambhava) › 2.16 # The Birth of Kumāra 2.16 Kumārasaṃbhava 2.16 - **Language:** Sanskrit ### [2.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.saiva.kumarasambhava.2.16) iti tebhyaḥ stutīḥ śrutvā yathārthā hṛdayaṅgamāḥ | prasādābhimukho vedhāḥ pratyuvāca divaukasaḥ || > Pleased with their truthful praise, his favouring eye > He turned upon the Dwellers in the Sky, > While from four mouths his words in gentle flow > Come welling softly to assuage their woe:— > "Welcome! glad welcome, princes! ye who hold > Your lofty sovereignties ordained of old— > But why so mournful? what has dimmed your light? > Why shine your faces less divinely bright? > Like stars that pour forth weaker, paler gleams. > When the fair Moon with brighter radiance beams. > say, in vain doth mighty Indra bear > The thunderbolt of Heaven, unused to spare? > Vritra, the furious fiend, 'twas strong to slay. > Why dull and blunted are its darts to-day? > See, Varun's noose hangs idly on his arm. > Like some fell serpent quelled by magic charm; > Weak is Kuvera's hand—his arm no more > Wields the dread mace it once so proudly bore; > But like a tree whose boughs are lopped away, > It tells of piercing woe, and dire dismay. > In days of yore how Yama's sceptre shone! > Fled are its glories, all its terrors gone; > Despised and useless as a quenched brand > All idly now it marks the yielding sand. > Fallen are the Lords of Light, ere now the gaze > Shrank from the coming of their fearful blaze; > So changed are they, the undazzled eye may see > Like pictured forms, each rayless Deity. > Some baffling power has curbed the breezes' swell, > Vainly they chafe against the secret spell— > We know some barrier checks their wonted course. > When refluent waters seek again their source; > The Rudras too—fierce demigods who bear > The curved Moon hanging from their twisted hair— > Tell by their looks of fear, and shame, and woe. > Of threats now silenced, of a mightier foe. > Glory and power, ye Gods, were yours of right,— > Have ye now yielded to some stronger might? > Even as on earth a general law may be > Made powerless by a special text's decree? > Then say, my sons, why seek ye Brahma's throne? > 'Tis mine to frame the worlds—'tis yours to guard your own. > — Ralph T. H. Griffith 1853, The Birth of the War-God (cantos 1–7) - [Previous: 2.15](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.saiva.kumarasambhava.2.15) - [Next: 2.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.saiva.kumarasambhava.2.17) - [Up: 2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.saiva.kumarasambhava.2) ## Translations (1) - [The Birth of the War-God (cantos 1–7)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.saiva.kumarasambhava~en-griffith.2.p2) — Ralph T. H. Griffith 1853, English --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.saiva.kumarasambhava.2.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.saiva.kumarasambhava.2.16) · Pramāṇa