Yantras or Mechanical Contrivances in Ancient India c2.112

c2.112

Other artificial works here are figures of celestial trees, *Kalpavṛkṣas*,²⁴ with celestial damsels seated on them along with their lovers and figures of cloud-damsels (*payodhara-purandhrī* or *Meghaputtalikā*) giving shower-baths from their bosoms, figures of monkeys spouting water, statuettes of water-damsels, (*jaladevatās*); there are wind-damsels (*pavana-kanyakās*), wafting breezes with fly-whisks; and figures of ladies, scattering cool sandal-water all around. Somadeva Sūri says of such a figure that if her hands were touched, she would emit sprays through her nails; if her face, through the eyes and so on, a description which, as we shall see presently from its corroboration in every detail in Bhoja's treatise,²⁵ pertained clearly to fact and not to mere imaginative fiction.