44 ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF KAVYA LITERATURE
' Why dost thou not save me that am sunk in a broad ocean of woe, whose coronal of waves is horror, and in which dwell the crocodiles of despondency ? '
Much happier is the famous simile :
sagaram cambaraprakhyam ambaram sagaropamam Ramaravanayor yuddkam Ramaravanayor iva.
' Ocean peer of sky, sky ocean's counterpart ; Rama and Ravana alone could match their mortal combat.' A later commonplace is foreshadowed in :
tvam krtvoparato manye rupakarta sa vigvakrt na hi rupopamd hy anya tavasti gubhadargane.
' When he had made thee, I ween, the All-maker stayed from his making of lovely forms, for there is no beauty on earth to match thine, o fair-faced one.' As later, we find as prognostications of good the wind that blows free from dust, the clear skies, the flowers that are rained down to earth, and the resonance of the drums of the gods. Indra's banner, erected and then taken down at the festival in his honour, affords material for similes ; eyes expand with joy (harsotphullanayana) ; men drink in faces with their eyes (locanabhyam pibann iva) ; breasts are like golden bowls {kucau suvarnakalagopamau) ; before men's wondering eyes the host stands as if in a picture ; the Ganges shows her white teeth as she smiles in the foam of her waves {pkenanirma- lahdsini) ; winds blow with fragrant coolness ; the clouds rumble with deep and pleasant sound (snigdhagambhiraghosd) ; the action of the fool is like that of the moth that flies into the flame ; man leaves his worn frame as the snake its old skin. The love of alliteration is already present, as in daksina daksinam tiram ; we find even an example of the figure, concise expres- sion {samasokii), in which the dawn is treated on the analogy of a loving maiden :
cancacccwdrakaraspargaharsonmilitataraka aho ragavati samdkya jahatu sv'ayam ambaram.
• Ah that the enamoured twilight should lay aside her garment of sky, now that the stars are quickened to life by the touch of the rays of the dancing moon.' The Ramdyana ifc not given to erotic descriptions ; its tone is serious and grave, but such pas-
