This page has not been fully proofread.

MADHURAVIJAY AM
 
45. The city was also surrounded by ramparts on
all sides which were high as the Cakrāçala mountains;
and it had the beauty of a water-trench round the
creeper Lakṣmi and looked like the navel of goddess
Earth.
 
46. Lofty and gem-set towers like the peaks of
the Sumēru emitting rainbow colours adorned the city.
 
47. The city was also surrounded by pleasure-
groves which looked like abodes of Spring and which
were full of flowering trees like campaka, asōka, nāga
 
and kēsara.
 
7
 
48. The pleasure-hillocks in the city were fre-
quented by the musk deer that sought the shade of the
plantains and karpūra plants in them. These hillocks
looked like the veritable hiding places of the God of
Love.
 
49. The city had sporting-lakes, fragrant with the
smell of lotuses. Those lakes had gem-set steps and
were always inhabited by beautiful swans.
 
50. The elevated portions of the city had high-
built palaces which were white like the clouds of
autumn. One wondered if they were so many shapes
which the fame of the king's conquest of world-cities
itself had taken.
 
51. The city looked like the stage set for flowering
female beauty to display its charms; or it may even be
pictured as the mark of fashion and loveliness adorning
the forehead of the lady known as Earth's Southern
Quarter.