A History of Sanskrit Literature c16.s2.7

c16.s2.7

‘Homage to the god that bringeth healing, who is made lovely by the moon kissing his lofty head and the yak’s tail, the foundation pillar of the structure of the city of the three worlds.’ Indian taste preferred to Bāṇa’s *Caṇḍīçataka* the work of his alleged father-in-law or brother-in-law Mayūra, of whom we have already learned as an erotic poet. The *Çataka*, which was doubtless composed as a compliment to the devotion of the grandfather and father of Harṣavardhana to the worship of the sun, whose deity was also revered by Harṣa despite his Buddhist leanings, celebrates in turn the rays of the sun, the horses, the charioteer, the chariot, and the great disk itself. There is distinct cleverness in many of the thoughts and Mayūra’s style is elegant. Aruṇa the charioteer is compared with the actor who speaks the prologue to the drama, the rays are the ships that carry men over the dread ocean of rebirth, the cause of human sorrow, the disk is the door to the final release, the sun himself nourishes gods and men, upholds cosmic order, and is one with Brahman, Viṣṇu, and Çiva.