FIRE OF BEAUTY
(Salutation to Ganesa the Lord of Wisdom, and to Saraswate the
Lady of Sweet Speech!)
This story was composed by the Brahmin Visravas, that dweller on
the banks of holy Kashi; and though the events it records are
long past, yet it is absolutely and immutably true because, by
the power of his yoga, he summoned up every scene before him, and
beheld the persons moving and speaking as in life. Thus he had
naught to do but to set down what befell.
What follows, that hath he seen.
I
Wide was the plain, the morning sun shining full upon it,
drinking up the dew as the Divine drinks up the spirit of man.
Far it stretched, resembling the ocean, and riding upon it like a
stately ship was the league-long Rock of Chitor. It is certainly
by the favour of the Gods that this great fortress of the Rajput
Kings thus rises from the plain, leagues in length, noble in
height; and very strange it is to see the flat earth fall away
from it like waters from the bows of a boat, as it soars into the
sky with its burden of palaces and towers.
Here dwelt the Queen Padmini and her husband Bhimsi, the Rana of
the Rajputs.
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