The Buddha-Carita or The Life of Buddha by Ven. Aśvaghoṣa

Buddha-carita, or The Life of Buddha - 98
janāśca harṣātiśayena vacitā janādhipātaḥpurasanikarṣagāḥ |
yathā hayaḥ kathaka eṣa heṣate dhruva kumāro viśatīti menire || 8.19
19. And the people, deceived by an excessive joy, who were in the neighbourhood of
the king’s inner apartments, thought in their hearts, ‘Since the horse Kathaka neighs,
it must be that the prince is coming.’
atipraharṣādatha śokamūrchitāḥ kumārasadarśanalolalocanāḥ |
ghādviniścakramurāśayā striyaḥ śaratpayodādiva vidyutaścalāḥ || 8.20
20. Then the women, who were fainting with sorrow, now in wild joy, with their eyes
rolling to see the prince, rushed out of the palace full of hope, like flickering
lightnings from an autumn cloud.
vilabaveśyo malināśukābarā nirajanairvāṣpahatekṣaṇairmukhaiḥ |
kṣṇā vivarṇājanayā vināktā divīva tārā rajanīkṣayāruṇāḥ || 8.21
21. With their dress hanging down, and their linen garments soiled, their faces
untouched by collyrium and with eyes dimmed by tears; dark and discoloured and
destitute of all painting, 1 like the stars in the sky, pale-red with the ending of night;
araktatāmraiścaraṇairanūpurairakuḍalairārjavakarṇikairmukhaiḥ |
svabhāvapīnairjaghanairamekhalairahārayoktrairmuṣitairiva stanaiḥ || 8.22
22. With their feet unstained by red, and undecked by anklets, — their faces without
earrings, and their ears in their native simplicity, — their loins with only nature’s
fulness, and uncircled by any girdle, — and their bosoms bare of strings of pearls as if
they had been robbed.
nirīkṣitā vāṣpaparītalocana nirāśraya chadakamaśvameva ca |
vivarṇavaktrā rurudurvarāganā vanātare gāva ivarṣabhojjhitāḥ || 8.23
23. But when they saw Chadaka standing helpless, his eyes filled with tears, and the
horse, the noble women wept with pale faces, like cows abandoned by the bull in the
midst of the forest.
tataḥ savāṣpā mahiṣī mahīpateḥ pranaṣṭavatsā mahiṣīva vatsalā |
praghya bāhū nipapāta gautamī vilolaparṇā kadalīva kācanī || 8.24
24. Then the king’s principal queen Gautamī, like a fond cow that has lost her calf, fell
bursting into tears on the ground with outstretched arms, like a golden plantain-tree
with trembling leaves.
1 Is añjanayā used here irregularly in the fem. to distinguish in from añjana, ‘the pinguent’?