A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.136

v2.c19.s3.t2.136

The love of nature is also shown in many beautiful similes. The sage is compared to a rock, which stands firm, or to an elephant. The monk who is proud of his monk's robe is like the monkey in a lion's skin. The self-restrained monk sits like a lion in his den.² We find an elaborate accumulation of similes in one of the "Songs of the Lady Elders" (Therīg. 112ff.): As the peasant ploughs the field, sows the seed and reaps, so the nun desires to attain Nirvāṇa; while washing her feet she sees the water trickling down the rock, and, stimulated to reflection by this sight, she curbs her heart as one tames a noble steed; then she goes into the convent, takes the lamp, and with a needle, draws down the wick, and as the light of the lamp goes out, she attains Nirvāṇa. This artistic intertwining of similes already recalls the embellishments (alaṃkāras) of ornate poetry, and so do some very artificial word-plays which occasionally occur. A beautiful song, ascribed to Ambapālī, the former courtesan (Therīg. 252ff.) is also a very elaborate composition. Here the poetess, in the first two lines of each verse, describes the beauty of her body, and in the third line, the ravages which old age has made in the body which was so beautiful in youth, whereupon the refrain follows: "The word of the proclaimer of truth is not belied."