Chapter LXXIV: Section I: Description of the Night-Fall

Válmíki related:—

While Vasistha—the leading sage, was thus going on with his lecture without interruption, the whole assembly was intent upon listening to it with a fixed tone and tenor of their minds.

2. The string of bells (tied to the waists of warriors) ceased to jingle, every one was motionless, and even the parrots in the cages ceased to warble and flutter.

3. The ladies forgot their dalliance and were quietly attentive to the sermon: and all in the royal hall, were fixed in attention as they were paintings and statues.

4. There remained but an hour to the closing of the day, and the sun-beams became agreeable to all. The busy bustle of the world was dwindling away with the glimmering light of the setting sun.

5. The beds of full-blown lotuses exhaled their fragrance all around, and soft Zephyrs were playing about, as if to attend the audience.

6. The sun glided away from his diurnal course, and advanced to the top of his solitary setting mountain, as if he meant to reflect on all that he had heard.

7. The shades of night began to cover the landscape, and the frost to overspread the forest-lands; as if they were cooled by the cooling lectures on philosophy.

8. Now failed the concourse of the people in all directions, as if they had availed themselves of the instructions of the sage to abate the fervour of their exertions.

9. All objects on earth cast their lengthened shadows, as if they stretched their necks to hear the preaching of Vasishtha.

10. The chamberlain then advanced lowly to the monarch of the earth, and begged to inform, that the time for evening ablution and service, was about to expire.

11. Upon this the sage Vasishtha, curbed his sweet speech and said:—Let thus far, mighty king! be your hearing of this day, and I will resume my lecture, and speak of other things to-morrow.

12. Here the sage held his silence, when the king responded “Be it so as you will,” and rose from his seat.

13. He honoured for his own good, that godly sage and the other seers and Bráhmans, with due respects and offerings of flowers, water, worthy honorariums, fees, gifts and homage.

14. Then rose the whole assembly with the king and the assemblage of sages; and the gems and jewels that decked the persons of the princes and people, shed their lustres on the faces of all.

15. There was a commingled tinkling of the bracelets and armlets of the throng caused by the collision of their bodies (in their egress), and mixed flashing of the necklaces and brocades that decorated their persons.

16. The jewels attached to the tufts and crests of hair on the tops of their heads, emitted a jingling sound resembling the humming of bees amidst their flowery braids.

17. The face of the sky on all sides, that shone with a purple hue reflected by the golden ornaments on their persons, seemed as it was pleased with the wise sayings and sense of the sage.

18. The aerial visitants vanished in the air, and the earthly guests repaired to their respective habitations on earth where they all performed their daily (evening) services in their own residences.

19. In the meantime sable night made her appearance on earth, and like a bashful young lady, withdrew to the closet apart from the rest of mankind.

20. The lord of the day passed to other lands to shine upon them, for verily it is the avowed duty of every good person to give the benefit of equal light to all.

21. The shade of evening veiled all sides, and uplifted the canopy of the starry sphere on high, which like the vernal atmosphere, was emblazoned with the starlike flowers of _kinsuka_.

22. The birds of air took to their repose in the hollows of mango trees, or on the tops of Kádamba arbours, as honest people of fair dealing, find their rest in the purity of their minds, and contriteness of their inward hearts.

23. The skirts of the clouds tinged with red by the slanting beams of the setting sun, and with a shade of yellow hue upon them, decorated the western hills with vests of yellow garb while the sky crowned their heads with gemming wreaths of starry groups.

24. The Goddess of evening (Vespera), having departed after receiving her homage (by the vespers of mankind), was followed by her train of dark night shades, appearing as black-bodied fiends—Vetálas (night roving _nisácharas_ of deserts).

25. A gentle and cooling breeze was blowing softened by the dew drops of night, and opening the petals of the Kumuda flowers (nylumbium), and bearing their fragrance all around.

26. A thick gloom covered the face of nature, and the stars were hid under the mists of night, and all the quarters of the skies, seemed with their overhanging loose and hairy mists, as the faces of widows shrouded by the dark dishevelled hair of mourning (for their departed lord the sun).

27. Now appeared the moist orb of the moon in her ambrosial form in the milky ocean of the sky, to moisten the mundane heat with her milk-white beams (sudhá-subhra-dídhiti).

28. On her rising, the thick mists of darkness fled from the eastern hemisphere, and became invisible in the air; as the darkness of ignorance is put to flight from the minds of monarchs, by their attendance to the sayings of wisdom.

29. Then the sages and seers, the rulers and priests of the people, took their rest in their respective beds, as the words of Vasishtha which were full of meaning, reposed in the recesses of their hearts.

30. As the thick darkness of night, resembling the dark complexion of death, receded from the arena of the skies, there followed close on its foot-steps the dewy dawn of the day with her slow moving pace.

31. The twinkling stars now disappeared from the sky, as the flowers on the trees were blown away by the breeze, and strewn on the ground as the fallen stars of heaven.

32. The sun became visible to the eyes, which his rays had roused from their sleep, as the new-rising faculty of reason becomes conspicuous in the minds of enlightened great souls.

33. Fragments of clouds shining with solar gleams, spread a yellow mantle over the eastern hills, which were still decorated with strings of stars, pendant on the crests of their lofty heads (like strings of pearls suspended to the crowns of kings).

34. All the terrestrial and celestial congress assembled again at the royal hall, in the order and manner (of their meeting) of the day before, after the performance of their morning services. (Originally _prátastanáh_ matins or matutinal ceremonies).

35. The whole assemblage took their seats as on the previous day, and sat unmoved in their places, as a lotus-lake in its calmness after a storm.