14 PADUMAWATI. [24-25 Musalmāns. From beginning to end, just as the story runs, so wrote he it in the language of the people, and told it in verse. The poet, the bard, and the lotus full of nectar, are near to what is far and far from what is near. That which is near is yet far, like the flower and the thorn (so near and yet so different), and that which is far is near, like sugar and the ants (who dwell so far from it, yet find it out). So the bee? cometh from the distant) forest, and findeth the odour of the lotus-nectar, while the frog ne'er findeth the odour, though he dwelleth (in the pond) close to the flower). CANTO II. SINHALA. 25. Now sing I the tale of Simhala-dvipa, 3 and tell of the Perfect Woman. My description is like an excellent mirror, in which each form is seen as it really is. Happy is that land where the women are lights, 5 and where God created that (famous) Padmini (Padmāvati). All people tell of seven lands, but none is fit to compare with Simhala. The Diyā-land 6 (or land of lamps) is not so bright as it. The land of Saran? cannot bear comparison with it. I say that Jambū-land is nowhere like it, and that Larka-land cannot even fill (the excellence of) its reflection. The land of Kumbhasthalaº fled to the forest (before it), but the land of 1 Kabi is one who makes poems, biasa (vyāsa) is one who recites them. 2 1.e., a prophet has no honour in his own country. The author means that he is aware that his own country-folk, and his own people (the Musalmāns) will not care for his poem, for it is in a Hindu dialect and not in Urdū; but, on the other hand men of distant lands and of other religions (the Hindūs) will be attracted by it, as the bee is attracted by the distant lotus. There is a tradition that Malik Muhammad commenced. the composition of the poem in his own village, where it was not thought much of. One of his disciples wandered to Jāyas and began to sing there the particular canto (Nagmāti's song of the twelve months), which he had been taught. The Raja of Jāyas was so pleased with what he heard, especially with the dõhā commencing kawala jo bigasata mānasara, binu jala gaeu sukhai, that he invited Malik Muḥammad to his city, and encouraged him to complete the work. 3 Ceylon. The word dvīpa means both island and continent. 4 A Padmini is one of the four classes of women and is supremely the best. The Singhalese women are all supposed to be Padminis, omne ignotum pro mirifico. 6 Here there is a pun on the word (dipa = dvipa), a continent or island, and dipaka, a light. 6 The poet now proceeds to compare Simhala, not with the seven continents of tradi- tion, referred to in line 4, and catalogued in the note to stanza i, 5, but with half-a-dozen imaginary continents named after parts of the human body. Diya-dipa, the land of lights, means the land of fair women's eyes. Sarana-dipa (cravana-dipa) means the land of their exrs. Jambū-dīpa, Rose-apple-land, is the land of their raven hair, to which the black rose- apple is often compared. Lanka-dipa, is the land of waists. Kumbha-sthala, jar land, is the land of their rounded breasts; a. v. 1. is gabha-sthala (garbha-sthala) the land of wombs ; and finally mahusthala (madhu-sthala), is the land of secret parts. Under this highly figurative langnage the poet signifies that the women of Simhala surpassed all these imaginary lands, each in its own peculiar excellence. 7 The poet does not seem to be aware that Sarana-dipa (Saran-dip, Serendib) is actually Ceylon itself. Here, as pointed out above, the words also mean "ear-land.' 8 Hindustan, or bosom-land. 9 Or perhaps Gabhasthala, one of the nine divisions of Bhārata-varsa (India); here used as equivalent to garbha-sthala, the land of wombs. The forest whither the bogoms fied is, of course, the necklaces, bodices, &c., under which they lay concealed.
