39-42.] PADUMAWATI. 21 Agile thieves, knaves, robbers and pick-pockets all are there and dance their dance; and only the pockets of those escape, who are wide awake, and look ahead in this bazar. 40. And then a man approacheth Simhala's fort ; how can I describe what seemeth to reach to the sky ? Below, it reacheth down to Vasuki's ' back ; above, it gazeth upon Indra's heaven. SiuTounded is it by a jieep and zigzag moat, so deep that no one dareth to peep (over its edge) or his limbs will tremble. Impassible, deeper than one can see, its very sight causeth fear. Who falleth therein, down down to the seven Hells will he go. Nine crooked gate- ways hath the fort, and nine stories. Who climbeth the nine will approach (the limit of) the mundane egg.^ The golden bastions are studded with glass, and look like lightning filled with stars. That castle seemeth taller than that of Laqka, and wearieth the sight and soul that gazeth on it. The heart cannot contain it. The sight cannot grasp it. It standeth upright like Mount Sumeru. How far can I describe its height ? How far shall I tell of its circumference ? 41. The sun and moon (cannot go over it but) make a circuit round it, or else the steeds and their chariots would be broken into dust. ^ The nine gate- ways are fortified with adamant, and a thousand thousand foot soldiers sit at each. Five captains of the guard * go round their watch, and the gate- ways tremble at the trampling of their feet. At each gateway of the fort is a molten image of a lion, filling the hearts of kings with fear. With great ingenuity were these lions cast, in attitude as if roaring and about to leap upon thy head. With lolling tongue they lash their tails. Elephants are filled with terror at them, lest they should fall upon them with a roar. A stau'case fashioned of gold and lapis-lazuli, leadeth up into the castle, which shineth above, up to the very sky. The nine stories, have nine portals, each with its adamantine gates. Four days' journey is it to the top, to him who climbeth honestly (without 42. Above the nine portals is the tenth doorway, at which ring the hours of the royal water-clock^ There sit the watchers and count the hours watch by watch, each in his own turn. As the clock filleth he striketh the gonCT and ' the hour, the hour,' it calleth forth. As the blow falleth, it warneth the whole world. 'Te earthen vessels,' it crieth, 'why sleep ye void of care ? 1 King of the serpents. He lives in hell. S The universe, shaped like an egg. 8 In the preceding stanza, the poet has compared the fort with Sameru, the central mountain peak round which the heavenly bodies revolve. He now carries the simile further. 4 In the esoteric meaning of the poem, this city means the human body. The nine gates are the nine openings of the body, the mouth, the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, and the excretory organs. The five guardians are the five vital airs, the prdna, the air expired up-wards, apdna, that expired downwards, samdna, that which circulates round the navel and is essentia^ for digestion, vydiia, that which is diffused through the body, and uddna that which rises up the throat and passes into the head. The adamantine gates are the bones, the warriors are the downy hairs of the body, and the King is the soul. 5 A kind of clepsydra. It is an empty bowl of a fixed weight and specific gravity with a hole of a fixed size in its bottom. It is set floating in a larger vessel, gradually fills, and sinks after the lapse of a ghart or twenty-four minutes. A gong is then struck. On the expiry of each pahara (of eight ghan) a chime (gajara) is rung.
