The name of Ku?a reigned of yore.

Just, faithful to his vows, and true,

He held the good in honour due.

His bride, a queen of noble name,

Of old Vidarbha's172 monarchs came.

Like their own father, children four,

All valiant boys, the lady bore.

In glorious deeds each nerve they strained,

And well their Warrior part sustained.

To them most just, and true, and brave,

Their father thus his counsel gave:

Protection is a prince's debt:

The noble work at once begin,

The youths, to all the people dear,

Received his speech with willing ear;

And each went forth his several way,

Foundations of a town to lay.

Ku?Ámba, prince of high renown,

Was builder of Kau?ÁmbÍ's town,

And Ku?anÁbha, just and wise,

Bade high Mahodaya's towers arise.

AmÚrtarajas chose to dwell

In DharmÁra?ya's citadel,

And Vasu bade his city fair

The name of Girivraja bear.173

This fertile spot whereon we stand

Was once the high-souled Vasu's land.

Behold! as round we turn our eyes,

Five lofty mountain peaks arise.

See! bursting from her parent hill,

SumÁgadhÍ, a lovely rill,

Bright gleaming as she flows between

The mountains, like a wreath is seen,

And then through Magadh's plains and groves

With many a fair mÆander roves.

And this was Vasu's old domain,

The fertile Magadh's broad champaign,

Which smiling fields of tilth adorn

And diadem with golden corn.

The queen GhritÁchÍ, nymph most fair,

Married to Ku?anÁbha, bare

A hundred daughters, lovely-faced,

With every charm and beauty graced.

It chanced the maidens, bright and gay

As lightning-flashes on a day

Of rain time, to the garden went

With song and play and merriment,

And there in gay attire they strayed,

And danced, and laughed, and sang, and played.

The God of Wind who roves at will

All places, as he lists, to fill,

Saw the young maidens dancing there,

Of faultless shape and mien most fair.

“I love you all, sweet girls,” he cried,

Forsake, forsake your mortal lot,

And gain a life that withers not.

A fickle thing is youth's brief span,

And more than all in mortal man.

Receive unending youth, and be

The hundred girls, to wonder stirred,

The wooing of the Wind-God heard,

Laughed, as a jest, his suit aside,

And with one voice they thus replied:

All life pervadest, through and through,

Thy wondrous power we maidens know;

Then wherefore wilt thou mock us so?

Our sire is Ku?anÁbha, King;

And we, forsooth, have charms to bring

A God to woo us from the skies;

But honour first we maidens prize.

Far may the hour, we pray, be hence,

When we, O thou of little sense,

Our truthful father's choice refuse,

And for ourselves our husbands choose.

Our honoured sire our lord we deem,

He is to us a God supreme,

And they to whom his high decree

He heard the answer they returned,