A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s8.157

v3.c35.s8.157

We know about the greater portion of Indian love-lyrics only from the anthologies, in which there occur numerous stanzas of even poets (and occasionally also of poetesses) who are otherwise unknown. One of the better known lyric poets is Mayūra, a contemporary of Bāṇa. He exhibits his accurate knowledge of Kāmaśāstra in his Mayūrāṣṭaka (Eight Stanzas by Mayūra)¹. The story goes that in these verses Mayūra described the beauty of his daughter, the consort of Bāṇa, so minutely that she became very angry at her father and cursed him, and on account of this he became a leper. But later he was cured of this disease through the aid of the sun-god, whom he eulogized in his famous Sūryaśataka². The (eight) verses contain the description of a beautiful young woman who has secretly visited her lover and returns back from his bed-chamber. The allusions to the wounds caused by scratches and bites as well as the words "even an old man becomes of Cupid" might probably have given currency to this story.