Soundarya Lahari - Part 277

(Continued...)

In several places in the Soundaryalahari, we find the same descriptions as in Lalita SahasranAma almost in the same words.

The forehead of ambaal is like an inverted half-moon :

dvitIyaM tan-manye makuTa-ghaTitaM chandra-kalashaM (shloka 46);

ashhTamI-chandra-vibhrAja-daLika-sthala-shobhitA (L.S.)

If She opens Her eyes, it is Creation; if She closes them, it is Dissolution:

nimeshonmeshAbhyAM praLayam-udayaM yAti jagatI (shloka #55);

unmeshha-nimishhotpanna-vipanna-bhuvanAvaLiH (L.S.).

Not even a tree bearing precious gems (vidruma-latA) can equal the enchanting lips of ambaal:

dantachhada-rucheH pravakshye sAdRshyam janayatu phalaM vidrumalatA (shloka #62);

nava-vidruma-bimba-shrI-nyakkAri-radanacchadA (Lalita-sahasranama).

The jingling of the gems in the anklets of ambaal.s feet is described in both almost in the same words:

Subaka-maNi-manjIra raNita- ... charaNa-kamalaM (shloka #91);

sinjAni-maNi-manjIra-maNDita-shrI-padAmbujA (L.S.)

The idea that ambaal.s very speech can beat the sweetness of the vINAmusic of Goddess Sarasvati, epitomised in the Lalita-shasranama line

nija-sallApa-mAdhurya-vinirbhatsita-kacchapI, is developed in a whole shloka #66 of Soundaryalahari.

While giving examples and analogies to various parts of the form of ambaal, when it comes to the chin of ambaaL, both the Lalita sahasranama and the Soundaryalahari, say that it is devoid of all analogies:

Katham-kAram brUmas-tava chubukam-aupamya-rahitaM (shloka 67);

anAkalita-sAdRshya-chubuka-shrI-virAjitA (L.S.)

Before the radiance of the pair of lotus feet of ambaal, the real lotus pales into insignificance, according to the Lalita-sahasranama line:

pada-dvaya-prabhA-jAla-parAkRta-saroruhA.

(Continued...)