A Heifer of the Sun: The Wax of a New Moon: Shríphala

SHRÍPHALA.

THEN he dreamed of Madhupamanjarí, all night long, and in the morning he rose before the sun, and went out. And as he stood listening to the joyous cries of the chakrawáka and his mate, meeting in the morning after a night of separation, the chétí came towards him through the trees, holding in her hand berries of the shríphala. And she said: My mistress sends her lord, by these unworthy

p. Did ye acquire merit in a former birth, that ye were privileged to be plucked from the tree and carried in her hand, while your brothers and sisters were left disconsolate and unhappy on the tree? And he went back to the temple, holding them in his hand, haunted by the memory of her lips, whose colour they resembled, to wait for another dawn.

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Footnotes

41:p Shríphala; i.e. the fruit of the goddess of beauty and good fortune.