Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

Solution of the great question 1122

On the consciousness or the intuitive knowledge of extraneous existences 1126

Reputation of the conception of a duality in unity 1132

Lecture on transcendent truth 1138

On ascertainment of truth 1143

Narration of Ráma’s prior pupilage under Vasishtha 1147

Description of the great jubilee of the assembly 1154

Eulogy on this work and the mode of its recital 1161

Conclusion of the celestial messenger’s message of liberation 1164

INVALIDATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT. Argument: - Arguments in proof of the intellectual vacuum, and the representation of the world therein. Ráma said: - Tell me again, O Venerable sir, how is intellectual vacuity which you say to be the entity of Brahma; because I am never satiate to hear the holy words, distilling as ambrosia from your lips. 2. Vasishtha replied: - I have fully explained to you that the two states of sleeping and waking imply the same thing; as the twin virtues of composure and self-controul are both the same, though they are differentiated by two names. 3. There is in reality none difference of them, as there is none between two drops of water; they are both the one and same thing, as the vacuous essence of Brahma and the Intellect. 4. As a man travelling from country to country, finds his self consciousness to be every where the same; so and the very same is the Intellect, which dwells within himself in its vacuous form, and is styled the intellectual sphere.

5. This intellectual sphere is as clear, as the etherial sky; wherein the earthly arbours display their verdure, by drawing the moisture of the earth by their roots. (This passage rests on a text of the Sruti; and means that the intellectual sphere of men as the sky of trees is always clear, though they live upon the sap of earth). 6. Again the intellectual sphere is as calm and quiet, as the mind of a man, who is free from desires and is at rest in himself; and whose composure is never disturbed by anything. 7. Again the intellectual sphere is like the quiet state of am; who had got rid of his busy cares and thoughts, reposes himself at ease; before he is lulled to the insensibility of his sleep. 8. Again as trees and plants growing in their season, rise in and fill the sky, without being attached to it; such also is intellectual sphere, which is filled by rising worlds after worlds, without being touched by or related to any. 9. Again the intellectual sphere, is as clear as the cloudless sky; and as vacant as the mind of the saintly man, which is wholly purified from the impressions of visibles, and its thoughts and desires are about any thing in the world.

10. The intellectual state is as steady as those of the stable rocks and trees; and when such is the state of the human mind, it is then said to have attained its intellectuality (or else its restless state is called the active mind and not the intellect). 11. The intellectual chasm, which is void of the three states of the view, viewer and visibles (or the subjective and objective); is said to be devoid also of all its modality and change. (It means the imperceptibility of soul). 12. That is called the intellectual sphere, where the thought of the various kinds of things, rise and last and set by turns, without making any effect of change in its immutable nature. 13. That is said to be the intellectual sphere, which embraces all things, and gives rise to and becomes everything itself; and which is permeated throughout all nature for ever. 14. That which shines resplendent in heaven and earth, and in the inside and outside of everybody with equal blaze; is said to be the vacuity of the intellect. 15. It extends and stretches through all, and bends altogether, connected by its lengthening chain to infinity; and the vacuity of the intellect envelops the universe, whether it rises before us an entity or non-entity.

16. It is the intellectual vacuum which produces everything, and at last reduces all to itself; and the changes of creation and dissolution, are all the working of this vacuity. (But how can the vacuous nothing produce any thing from itself or reduce any into it (Ex nihilum nihil fit, et in nihilo nihil reverti posse; there the whole universe is a void nothing)). 17. The vacuity of the intellect produces the world, as the sleeping state of the mind, presents its sights in our dream; and as the dream is dispersed in our deep sleep, so the waking dream of the world is vanished from view, upon dispersion of its fallacy from the mind. 18. Know the intellectual vacuum to be possessed of its intellection, and as quiet and composed in its nature; and it is by a thought of it, as by twinkling or winking of the eye, that the world comes to exist and disappear by turns. (Manu calls these the waking and sleeping states of the soul, and as causes of the existence and inexistence of the world).

19. The intellectual Vacuum is found in the disquisitions of all the sástras, to be what is neither this nor that nor any thing any where; and yet as all and everything in every place and at all times. (i.e. Nothing concrete, but every thing in the abstract). 20. As a man travelling from country to country, retains his consciousness untravelled in himself; so the intellect always rests in its place in the interim, though the mind passes far and farther in an instant. 21. The world is full of the intellect, both as it is or had ever been before; and its outward sight being dependent on its ideas in the mind, gives it the form and figure as they appear unto us. 22. It is by a slight winking of its eye, that it assumes and appears in varied shapes; though the intellect never changes its form, nor alters the clearness of its vacuous sphere. 23. Look on and know all these objects of sense, with thy external and internal organs, and without any desire of thine for them; be ever wakeful and vigilant about them, but remain as quite sleepy over them.

24. Be undesirous of any thing and indifferent in your mind, when you speak to any one, take any thing or go any where; and remain as deadly cold and quiet, as long as you have to live. 25. But it is impossible for you to remain as such, so long as you fix your eyes and mind on the visibles before you; and continue to view the mirage of the world, and look upon its duality rising as two moons in the sky. 26. Know the world to be no production from the beginning; because the want of its prior cause prevents its sequence; and there is no possibility of a material creation, proceeding from an immaterial causality. 27. Whatever appears as existent before you, is the product of a causeless cause; it is the appearance of the transcendent One, that appears visible to you. (The world is the visible form of the invisible One). 28. The world as it stands at present, is no other than its very original form; and the same undual and undivided pure soul appears as a duality, as the disc of the moon and its halo present their two aspects to us.

29. Thus the strong bias, that we have contracted from our false notion of the duality; has at last involved us in the error of taking the false for true, as to believe the shadow of a dream for reality. 30. Therefore the phenomenal world is no real production, nor does it actually exist or is likely ever to come to existence; it is likewise never annihilated, because it is impossible for a nihility to be nil again. 31. Hence that thing which is but a form of the serene vacuum, must be quiet, calm and serene also; and this being exhibited in the form of the world, is of its own nature quite clear and steady, and imperishable to all eternity. (The Beo-vyom or vacuum being a void, cannot be annulled to a nullity again). 32. It is nothing what is seen before us, nor aught that is visible, is ever reliable as real; neither also is there ever a viewer for want of visible, nor the vision of a thing without its view. 33. Ráma rejoined: - If it is such, then please to explain moreover, O most eloquent sir, the nature of the visibles, their view, and viewer; and what are these that thus appear to our view?

34. Vasishtha replied: - There being no assignable cause, for the appearance of the unreal visibles; their vision is but a deception, and yet it <is> maintained as true by the dogmatism of opponents. 35. Whatever there appears as visible to the vision of the viewer, is all fallacy and offspring of the great delusion of Máyá only. But the world in its recondite sense, is but a reflexion of the Divine mind. 36. The intellect is awake in our sleeping state, and shows us the shapes in our dream, as the sky exhibits the various in its ample garden; thus the intellect manifests itself in the form of the world in itself. 37. Hence there is no formal cause or self evolving element, since the first creation of the world; and that <which> sparkles any where before us, is only the great Brahma Himself (not in his person or formless form, but in his spirit or intellectuality). 38. It is the sunshine of the Intellect within its own hollow sphere, that manifests this world as a reflexion of his own person.

39. The world is an exhibition of the quality, of the unqualified vacuity of the Intellect; as existence is the quality of existent beings, and as vacuity is the property of vacuum, and as form is the attribute of a material substance. 40. Know the world as the concrete counterpart, of the discrete attribute of the transcendent glory of God; and as the very reflexion of it, thus visibly exposed to the view of its beholders. 41. But there being in reality no duality whatever, in the unity of the Divinity; He is neither the reflector nor the reflexion himself; say who can ascertain what he is, or tell whether he is a being or not being, or a something or nothing. 42. Ráma rejoined: - If so it be as you say, that the Lord is neither the reflector nor reflexion, and neither the viewer nor the view (i.e. if he is neither the prototype nor its likeness, and neither the subjective nor objective); then say what is the difference between the cause and effect, what is the source of all these, and if they are unreal why do they appear as realities?

43. Vasishtha replied: - Whenever the Lord thinks on the manifestation of his intellect, He beholds the same at the very moment, and then becomes the subjective beholder of the objects of his own thought. 44. The intellectual vacuum itself assumes the form of the world, as the earth becomes a hill &c. by itself; but it never forgets itself for that form, as men do in their dream. Moreover there is no other cause to move it to action, except its own free will. 45. As a person changing his former state to a new one, retains his self consciousness in the interim, so the Divine Intellect retains its identity, in its transition from prior vacuum to its subsequent state of the plenum. 46. The thought of cause and effect, and the sense of the visible and invisible, proceed from errors of the mind and defects of vision; it is the erroneous imagination that frames these worlds, and nobody questions or upbraids himself for his error. The states of cause and effect, and those of the visible and invisible &c., are mere phantoms of error, rising before the sight of the living soul and proceeding from its ignorance, and then its imagination paints these as the world, and there is nobody that finds his error or blame himself for his blunder.

47. If there be another person, that is the cause, beholder and enjoyer of these (other than the Supreme One) then say what is that person, and what is the phenomenal, that is the point in question; or it is liable to reproof. 48. As the state of our sleep presents us only, an indiscernible vacuity of the Intellect (which watches alone over the sleeping world); how then is it possible to represent the One soul as many, without being blamed for it? 49. It is the self-existent soul alone, which presents the appearance of the world in the intellect; and it is the ignorance of this truth, which has led to the general belief of the creation of the world by Brahmá. 50. It is ignorance of this intellectual phenomenon, which has led mankind to many errors, under the different names of illusion or máyá, of ignorance or avidyá, of the phenomenal or drisya, and finally of the world or jagat. 51. The manifestation in the intellectual vacuum, takes possession of the mind like a phantom; which represents the unreal world as a reality before it, as the false phantom of <a> ghost, takes a firm hold on the mind of an infant.

52. Although the world is an unreality, yet we have a notion of it as something real in our empty intellect; and this is no other than the embodiment of a dream, which shows us the forms of hills and cities in empty air. 53. The intellect represents itself as a hill or a Rudra, or as a sea or as the God Virát himself; just <as> a man thinks in his dream, that he sees the hills and towns in his empty mind. 54. Nothing formal that has any form, can be the result of a formless cause (as God); hence the impossibility of the existence of the solid world, and of its formal causes of atomic elements, at the great annihilation both prior to creation, as also after its dissolution. It is therefore evident, that the world is ever existent in its ideal form only in the Divine Mind. 55. It is a mere uncaused existence, inherent in its vacuous state in the vacuous Mind; and what is called the world, is no more than an emptiness appertaining to the empty Intellect.

56. The minds of ignorant people are as glassy mirrors, receiving the dim and dull images of things set before their senses; but those of reasoning men are as clear microscopes, that spy the vivid light of the Divine Mind that shines through all. (This light is called Pratyagnánátma or the nooscopic appearance of Divine soul). 57. Therefore they are the best of men, who shun the sight of visible forms; and view the world in the light of intellectual vacuity; and remain as firm as rocks in the meditation of the steady Intellect, and place no faith or reliance on anything else. 58. The Intellect shows the revolution of the world in itself by its incessant act of airy intellection; as the sea displays its circuition throughout the watery world, by the continual rotation of its whirlpools. 59. As the figurative tree of our desire, produces and yields our wished for fruits in a moment, so the intellect presents every thing before us, that is thought of in an instant. (It is the subjective mind, that shows the objects of its thought within itself).

60. As the mind finds in itself, its wished-for gem and the fruit of its desire; in the same manner doth the internal soul, meet with its desired objects in its vacuous self in a minute. 61. As a man passing from one place to another, rests calmly in the interim; such is the state of the mind in the interval of its thoughts, when it sees neither the one nor another thing. 62. It is the reflection of the Intellect only, which shines clearly in variegated colours, within the cavity of its own sphere; and though devoid of any shape or colour, yet it exhibits itself like the vacuity of the sky, in the blueness of the firmament. 63. Nothing unlike can result from the vacuous Intellect, other than what is alike inane as itself; a material production requires a material cause, which is wanting in the Intellect; and therefore the created world is but a display of the Divine Mind, like the appearance of dreams before our sleeping minds.

THE NATURE OF IGNORANCE OR ILLUSION OF THE MIND. Argument: - Proof of the cosmos as the reflexion of the gem of the Intellect, and the Immateriality of the objective material world. Vasishtha continued: - The world is the subjective Intellect and inborn in it, and not the objective which is perceived from without. It is the empty space of the Intellect which displays the noumenals in itself, and here the tripart or the triple state of the Intellect, its intellection and the chetya or intellectual combine together. (i.e. The thinking principle, its thinking and thoughts all unite together). 2. Here in its ample exhibition, all living beings are displayed as dead bodies; and I and you, he and it, are all represented as lifeless figures in a picture. 3. All persons engaged in active life, appear here as motionless blocks of wood, or as cold and silent bodies of the dead; and all moving and unmoving beings, appear to be seen here as in the empty air. 4. The sights of all things are exposed here, like the glare of the chrystalline surface of the sky; and they are to be considered as nothing, for nothing substantial can be contained in the hollow mind.

5. The bright sun-beams and the splashing waves, and the gathering vapours in the air; present us with forms of shining pearls and gems in them, but never does any one rely on their reality. 6. So this phenomenon of the world, which appears in the vacuum of the Intellect; and seems to be true to the apprehension of every body, yet it is never relied on by any one. 7. The Intellect is entangled in its false fancies, as a boy is caught in his own hobby; and dwells on the errors of unreal material things rising as smoke before it. 8. Say ye boys, what reliance can you place on your egoism and meity, so as to say “this is I and that is mine.” Ah, well do I perceive it now, that it is the pleasure of boys, to indulge themselves in their visionary flights. 9. Knowing the unreality of the earth and other things, men are yet prone to pass their lives in those vanities and in their ignorance of truth, they resemble the miners, who instead of digging the earth in search of gold, expect it to fall upon them from heaven.

10. When the want of prior and co-ordinate causes, proves a priori the impossibility of the effect; so the want of any created thing, proves a posteriori the inexistence of a causal agent (i.e. there is no creation nor its creator likewise). 11. They who deal in this uncreated world, with all the unreal shadows of its persons and things; are as ignorant as madmen, who take a hobby to nourish their unborn or dead offspring. 12. Whence is this earth and all other things, by whom are they made, and how did they spring to sight; it is the representation of the Intellectual vacuum, which shines in itself, and is quite calm and serene. 13. The minds of those that are addicted to fancy to themselves, a causality and its effect, and their time and place; are thus inclined to believe in the existence of the earth, but we have nothing to do with their puerile reasoning. 14. The world whether it is considered as material or immaterial, is but a display of the intellectual vacuum; which presents all these images like dreams to our minds, and as the empty sky shows its hues and figures to our eyes.

15. The form of the vacuous intellect is without a form, and it is only by our percipience that we have our knowledge of it; it is the same which shows itself in the form of the earth &c., and the subjective soul appears as the subjective world to our sight.

DESCRIPTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE OF THE SOUL. Argument: - The Knowledge of the objective continuing with our ignorance of the subjective and the story of the wise prince Vipaschit, attacked by his rude enemies. Ráma rejoined: - He whose mind is bound by his ignorance, to the bright vividness of visible phenomenal; views the palpable scenes of the noumenal, as mere his idle dreams, and as visionary as empty air. 2. Now, O sage, please to tell me again, the nature and manner of this ignorance of the noumenal; and to what extent and how long, does this ignorance of the spiritual bind fast a man. 3. Vasishtha replied: - Know Ráma, those that are besotted by their ignorance, think this earth and the elementary bodies, to be as everlasting as they believe Brahma to be. Now O Ráma! hear a tale on this subject. 4. There is in some corner of the infinite space, another world with its three lokas of the upper and lower regions, in the manner of this terrestrial world. 5. There is a piece of land therein, as beautiful as this land of ours; and is called the sama bhúmi or level land, where all beings had their free range.

6. In a city of that place, there reigned a prince well known for his learning, and who passed his time in the company of the learned men of his court. 7. He shone as handsome as a swan in a lake of lotuses, and as bright as the moon among the stars; he was as dignified as the Mount Meru or polar pinnacle among mountains, and he presided over his council as its president. 8. The strain of bards, fell short in the recital of his praises, and he was a firm patron of poets and bards, as a mountain is the support of its refugees. 9. The prosperity of his valour flourished day by day, and stretched its lustre to all sides of the earth; as the blooming beauty of lotus blossoms, under the early beams of the rising sun, fills the landscape with delight every morning. 10. That respectable prince of Bráhmanic faith, adored fire as the lord of gods, with his full faith; and did not recognize any other god as equal to him (Because agni is said to be the Brahma or father of the gods).

11. He was beset by conquering forces, consisting of horse, elephants and foot soldiers; and was surrounded by his councillors, as the sea is girt by his whirlpools and rolling waters. 12. His vast and unflinching forces, were employed in the protection of the four boundaries of his realm; as the four seas serve to gird the earth on all its four sides. 13. His capital was as the nave of a wheel, the central point of the whole circle of his kingdom; and he was as invincible a victor of his foes, as the irresistible discus of Vishnu. 14. There appeared to him once a shrewd herald, from the eastern borders of his state; who approached to him in haste, and delivered a secret message that was not pleasing unto him. 15. Lord! may thy realm be never detached, which is bound fastly by thy arms, as a cow is tied to a tree or post; but hear me relate to you something, which requires your consideration. (The word go - Gr. ge. - Pers. gao - cow, means both the earth and a cow and hence their mutual simile).

16. Thy chieftain in the east is snatched away from his post, by the relentless hand of a fever where upon he seems to have gone to the regions of death, to conquer as it were, the god Yama at thy behest. 17. Then as thy chief on the south, proceeded to quell the borderers thereabouts; he was attacked by hostile forces who poured upon him from the east and west, and killed by the enemy. 18. Upon his death as the chieftain of the west, proceeded with his army to wrest those provinces (from the hands of the enemy). 19. He was met on his way, by the combined forces of the inimical princes of the east and south, who put him to death in his half way journey to the spot. 20. Vasishtha continued: - As he was relating in this wise, another emissary driven by his haste, entered the court-hall with as great a rush, as a current of the deluging flood. 21. He represented, saying: - O lord, the general of thy forces on the north, is overpowered by a stronger enemy, and is routed from his post, like an embankment broken down and borne away by the rushing waters.

22. Hearing so, the king thought it useless to waste time, and issuing out of his royal apartment, he bade as follows. 23. Summon the princes and chiefs and the generals and ministers, to appear here forthwith in their full armour; and lay open the arsenal, and get out the horrible weapons (of destruction). 24. Put on your bodies your armours of mail, and set the infantry on foot; number the regiments, and select the best warriors. 25. Appoint the leaders of the forces, and send the heralds all around; thus said the king in haste, and such was the royal behest. 26. When the warder appeared before him, and lowly bending down his head, he sorrowfully expressed: “Lord, the chieftain of the north is waiting at the gate, and expects like the lotus to come to thy sunlike sight”. 27. The king answered: - Go thou quickly there, and get him to my presence; that I may learn from his report the sterling events of that quarter. 28. Thus ordered, the warder introduced the northern chief to the royal presence; where he bent himself down before his royal lord, who beheld the chieftain in the following plight.

29. His whole body and every part and member of it, was full of wounds and scars; it breathed hard and spouted out blood, and supported itself with difficulty. 30. While he with due obeisance, and faltering breath and voice, and contortion of his limbs, delivered this hasty message to his sovereign. 31. The chieftain said: - My lord, the three other chiefs of the three quarters, with numerous forces under them, have already gone to the realms of Yama (Pluto), in their attempt to conquer death at thy behest (i.e. to encounter the enemies on every side). 32. Then the clansmen finding my weakness, to defend thy realms alone on this side, assembled in large numbers, and poured upon me with all their strength. 33. I have with great difficulty, very narrowly escaped from them to this palace, all gory and gasping for life as you see; and pray you to punish the rebels, that are not invincible before your might. 34. Vasishtha continued: - As the yet alive and wounded chieftain, had been telling his painful story in this manner to the king; there appeared on a sudden another person entering the palace after him, and speaking to the king in the following manner.

35. O sovereign of men, the hostile armies of your enemies, likening the shaking leaves of trees, have all beset in great numbers, the skirts of your kingdom, on all its four sides. 36. The enemy has surrounded our lands, like a chain of rocks all around; and they are blazing all about with their brandishing swords and spears, and with the flashing of their forest-like maces and lances. 37. The bodies of their soldiers, with the flying flags and shaking weapons on them, appear as moving chariots upon the ground; while their rolling war-cars, seem as sweeping cities all about. 38. Their uplifted arms in the air, appear as rising forests of fleshy arbours in the sky; and the resounding phalanx of big elephants, seem as huge bodies of rainy clouds roaring on high. 39. The grounds seeming to rise and sink, with the bounding and bending of their snoring horses; give the land an appearance of the sea, sounding hoarsely under the lashing winds. 40. The land is moistened and whitened around, by the thickening froth fallen from the mouths of horses; and bears its resemblance to the foaming main, fell with its salt spray all over.

41. The groups of armed armaments in the field, resemble the warlike array of clouds in the sky; and likens to the huge surges, rising upon the surface of the sea, troubled by the gusts of the deluge. 42. The weapons on their bodies, and their armours and coronets, are shining forth with a flash that equals the flame and fire of thy valour. 43. Their battle array, in the forms of circling crocodiles and long stretching whales; resemble the waves of the sea, that toss about these marine animals upon the shore. 44. Their lines of the lancers &c., are advancing with one accord against us; and flashing with their furious rage and fire, are uttering and muttering their invectives to us. 45. It is for this purpose, that I have come to report these things to my lord, so that you will deign to proceed in battle array to the borders, and drive these insurgents as weeds from the skirts. 46. Now my lord, I take leave of you, with my bow and arrows and club and sword as I came, and leave the rest to your best discretion. 47. Vasishtha added: - Saying so, and bending lowly to his lord, the emissary went out forthwith; as the undulation of the sea disappears, after making a gurgling noise.

48. Upon this the king with his honorable ministers, his knights and attendants and servants; together with his cavalry and charioteers, the men and women and all the citizens at large were struck with terror; and the sentinels of the palace, trembled with fear, as they shouldered their arms and wielded their weapons, which resembled a forest of trees shaken by a hurricane.

FIGHTING WITH THE INVADING ARMIES AT THE GATE OF THE CITY. Argument: - Adopting ways and means to quell the disturbances of the hostile enemies. Vasishtha continued: - In the mean while, the assembled ministers advanced before the king, as the sages of yore resorted to the celestial Indra, being invaded by the Daityas - Titans around. 2. The ministers addressed: - Lord! We have consulted and ascertained, that as the enemy is irresistible by any of the three means (of peace, dissension and bribe or concession); they must be quelled by force or due punishment. 3. When the proffer of amity is of no avail, and the offer of hostages doth also fail; it is useless to propose to them, any other term for a reconciliation. 4. Vile enemies that are base and barbarous, that are of different countries and races, that are great in number and opulence; and those that are acquainted with our weakness and weak parts; are hardly conciliated by terms of peace or subsidy. 5. Now there is no remedy against this insurrection, save by showing our valour to the enemy; wherefore let all our efforts be directed, towards the strengthening of our gates and ramparts.

6. Give orders to our bravos to sally out to the field, and command the people to worship and implore the protection of the gods; and let the generals give the war alarm with loud sounding drums and trumpets. 7. Let the warriors be well armed, and let them rush to the field; and order the soldiers to pour upon the plains in all directions, as the dark deluging clouds inundate the land. 8. Let the outstretched bows rattle in the air, and the bowstrings twang and clang all around; and let the shadows of curved bows, obscure the skies as by the clouds. 9. Let the thrilling bow strings, flash as flickering lightnings in the air, and the loud war whoop of the soldiers, sound as the growling clouds above; let the flying darts and arrows fall as showers of rain, and make the combatants glare, with the sparkling gold rings in their ear. 10. The king said: - Do you all proceed to the battle, and do promptly all what is necessary on this occasion; and I will follow you straightaway to the battle field, after finishing my ablution and the adoration of Agni - the fiery god.

11. Notwithstanding the important affairs, which waited on the king; yet he found a moment’s respite to bathe, by pouring potfuls of pure Gangá water upon him, in the manner of a grove watered by a showering of rain water. 12. Then having entered his fire temple, he worshipped the holy fire with as much reverence, as it is enjoined in the sástras; and then began to reflect in himself, in the following manner. 13. I have led an untroubled and easy life, passing in pleasure and prosperity; and have kept in security all the subjects of my realm stretching to the sea. 14. I have subdued the surface of the earth, and reduced my enemies under my foot; and have filled the smiling land with plenty, under the bending skies on all sides. 15. My fair fame shines in the sphere of heaven, like the clear and cooling beams of the lunar orb; and the plant of my renown, stretches to the three worlds, like the three branches of Gangá.

16. I have lavished my wealth, to my friends and relatives, and to respectable Bráhmans; in the manner, as I have amassed my treasures for myself; and I quenched my thirst with the beverage of the cocoanut fruits, growing on edges of the four oceans. (That is to say: - his realms were चतुराब्धिसोमा or bounded by the four oceans on all sides). 17. My enemies trembled before me for fear of their lives, and they groaned before me as croaking frogs with their distended pouches, and my rule extended over and marked the mountains, situated in the islands amidst the distant seas. 18. I have roved with bodies of siddhas, over the nine regions beyond the visible horizon; and I have rested on the tops of bordering mountains, like the flying clouds that rest on mountain tops. 19. With my full knowing mind, and my perfection in Divine meditation; I have acquired my dominions entire and unimpaired, by cause of my good will for the public weal. (It means the prince’s high attainments in spiritual, intellectual as well as territorial concerns). 20. I have manacled the lawless Rákshasas, in strong chains and fetters; and kept my cares of religious duties, and those of my treasures and personal enjoyments within proper bounds, and without letting them clash with one another.

21. I have passed my life time, in the uninterrupted discharge of those triple duties of mine; and have relished my life with great joy and renown. But now hoary old age hath come upon me, like the snow and frost fallen upon the withered leaf and dried straw. 22. Now hath old age come, and blasted all my pleasures and efforts; and after all, these furious enemies have overpowered upon me, and are eager for warfare. 23. They have poured upon me in vast numbers on all sides, and the victory is doubtful; it is therefore better for me to offer myself as a sacrifice, to the god of this burning fire, which is known to crown its worshipper with victory. 24. I will pluck this head of mine, and make an offering of it to the Fire-god (as a fit fruit to <the> shrine; and say: - O Igneous god, I make here an offering of my head to thee). 25. I give this offering, as I have ever before given my oblations to fire; therefore accept of this also, O god, if thou art pleased with my former offerings. 26. Let the four urns of thy fiery furnace, yield four forms of mine, with brilliant and strong bodies, like that of Náráyana, with his mighty arms.

27. Thus will I be enabled, with those four bodies of mine, to meet my enemies on all the four sides; and be invulnerable like thyself, by keeping my thought and sight, ever fixed in thee. 28. Vasishtha replied: - So saying, the king took hold of a dagger in his hand; and separated the head from his body with one blow of it, as boys tear off a lotus bud from the stalk with their nails. (In many instances, the head is mentioned to be torn off by the nails). 29. As the head became an oblation, to the fire of dusky fumes; the headless trunk of the self-immolated sovereign, sprang and flew also upon the burning furnace. 30. The sacred fire, being fed with the fat and flesh of the royal carcass; yielded forth with four such living bodies, from amidst its burning flames; as it is the nature of the good and great, to make an instantaneous of fourfold, of what they receive in earnest. 31. The king sprang from amidst the fire, in his fourfold forms of his kingly appearance, and these were as luminous with their effulgence, as the radiant body of Náráyana, when it rose at first from the formless deep. (The spirit of god rising over the surface of the deep).

32. These four bodies of the king, shone forth with their resplendent lustre; and were adorned with their inborn decorations of the royal crown and other ornaments and weapons. (The fire born form allude to the Agniculas or fiery races of men). 33. They had their armours and coronets on, together with helmets, bracelets and fittings for all and every part of the body; and necklaces and ear-rings hung upon them as they moved along. 34. All the four princes were of equal forms, and of similar shapes and sizes in all the member of their bodies; and were all seated on horse back, like so many Indras riding on their Uchai-srava horses (having their ears pricked up, as in the plight of their heavenward flight). 35. They had their long and capacious quivers, full with arrows of golden shafts; and their ponderous bows and bowstrings, were equally long and strong with the god of war. 36. They rode also on elephants and steeds, and mounted on their war-cars and other vehicles in their warfare; and were alike impregnable by the arms of the enemy, both themselves as well as the vehicles they rode upon.

37. They sprang from the bosom of the sacred fire, as the flames of the submarine fire, rise from amidst the ocean, by being nourished with the oblations that were offered upon it. 38. Their flowery bodies on jewelled horses, made resplendent on all sides as four smiling faces of the moon; and their good figures looked like Hara-Hari, as if they have come out from fire and water.

BATTLE OF THE WISE PRINCES, WITH THE IGNORANT BARBARIAN. Argument: - Description of the warfare before the city gates, betwixt the Royal armies and the Rude Invaders of the Realm. Vasishtha continued: - In the mean time the battle was raging in its full fury, between the royal forces, and the hostile bands that had advanced before the city gates. 2. Here the enemies were plundering the city and villages, and there they set fire to the houses and hamlets; the sky was obscured by clouds of smoke and dust, and the air was filled by loud cries of havoc and wailing on every side. 3. The sun was obscured by the thickening shadow, of the network of arrows spread over the skies; and the disk of the sun now appeared to view: and was then lost to sight the next moment. 4. The burning fire of the incendiaries, set to flame the leaves of the forest trees; and the fire brands of burning wood, were falling as loosely all around, as the iron sleets of arrow breast were hurling through the air.

5. The flame of the blazing fire, added a double lustre, to the burnished and brandishing weapons; and the souls of the great combatants falling in battle, were borne aloft to the regions of Indra, where they were ministered by the heavenly nymphs. 6. The Thundering peals of fierce elephants, excited the bravery of bravados: and missile weapons of various kinds, were flung about in showers. 7. The loud shouts and cries of the combatants, depressed the spirits of dastardly cowards; and the hoary clouds of dust flying in the air, appeared as elephants intercepting the paths of the midway skies. 8. Chieftains eager to die in the field, were roving about with loud shouts; and men were falling in numbers here and there, as if stricken by lightnings in the battle field. 9. Burning houses were falling below, and fiery clouds dropt from above; flying arrows in the form of rocks, were rolling on high; and descending upon and dispatching to death, numbers of soldiers that were ready to die. 10. The galloping horses in the field gave it the appearance of wavy ocean afar; and the crashing of the tusks of fighting elephants, crackled like the clashing clouds in air.

11. The shafts of the arrows of the combatants, filled the forts and its bastion; and the flashing of the same on the top of it, made a glare of fire around. 12. The dashing of one another in passing to and fro, tore their garments into pieces, and the furling of flags in open air and the clashing of shield between combatants made a pat-pat noise all around. 13. The flash of the tusks of elephant, and the crash of weapons dashing on stony rocks, and the loud uproar and clangour of the battlefield, invited the elephants of heaven to join in the fray. 14. The flights of arrows, ran as rivers into the ocean of the sky; and the flying lances, swords and discuses, which were flung into the air, resembled the sharks and alligators, swimming in the etherial sea. 15. The concussion of the armours of the clamorous combatants, and the clashing of the arms in commingled warfare, represented the sounding main beset by islands. 16. The ground was trodden down to a muddy pool, under the feet of the foot soldiers; and the blood issuing out of their bodies from the wounds of the arrows, ran as river carrying down the broken chariots and slain elephants in its rapid course.

17. The flight of the winged shafts, and the falling of the battle axes, resembled the waves of the arrowy sea in the air; and the broken arms of the vanquished, floated as aquatic animals upon it. 18. The sky was set on fire, by the flames issuing forth from the clashing arms; and the celestial regions were filled with the deified souls of departed heroes, now released from the fetters of their wrinkled and decaying frames of earth. 19. Clouds of dingy dust and ashes filled the firmament, with flashes of lightnings flaming as arches amidst them; the missile weapons filled the air, as the tractile arms occupied the surface of the earth. 20. The contending combatants hooted at one another, and broke and cut their weapons in mutual contest; the cars were cleft by clashing at each other, and the chariots were reft by dashing together. 21. Here the headless trunks of the kabandhas (anthropophagi), mingled with the gigantic bodies of the vetála demons, were disastrous on every side; and there the demoniac vetála plucking their hearts for their hearty meal. 22. The bravos were tearing the arteries of the slain, and breaking asunder their arms, heads and thighs; while the uplifted and shaking arms of the Kabandhas, made a moving forest in the air.

23. The demons moving about with their open and jeering mouths, made their maws and jaws as caskets for carrion; and the soldiers passing with their helmets and coronets on, looked fiercely on all around. 24. To kill or die, to slay or to be slain, was the soldier’s final glory in the field; as it was their greatest infamy, to be backward in their giving or receiving of wounds. 25. He is the gladdener of death, who dries up the boast of soldiers and chieftains, and drains the flowing ichor of ferocious elephants (i.e. puts an end to them); and one who is entirely bent on destruction. 26. There were loud applauses given to the victory, of unboasting and unrenowned heroes; as there were the great censures, which were poured upon the nameless and dastardly cowards. 27. The rousing of the sleeping virtues of prowess and others, is as glorious to the great and strong; as the laying out of their treasures, for the protection of their protégés. 28. The proboscides of the elephants, were broken in the conflict of elephant riders and charioteers; and oozing of the fragrant fluid of ichor from their front, was altogether at a stop.

29. Elephants left loose by their flying leaders, fell into the lakes, and cried like shrill storks in them; and here they were pursued and overcome by men who inflicted terrible wounds upon them with their hands. 30. In some place the unprotected as well as the uninvaded people, being downtrodden and half dead in their mutual scuffle; fled to and fell at the feet of their king, as the daytime takes its shelter under the shining sun. 31. They being maddened by pride with the force of giddiness, became subject to death (i.e. they called death, to be re-born); as millionaires and traders seek a better place in dread of their life. 32. The red coats of soldiers, and the red flags lifted upon their arms as a wood of trees; spread a rubicund colour all around, like the adoration of the three worlds. 33. White umbrellas, resembling the waves of the Milky ocean, when churned by the Mandara mountain; covered the weapons of the soldiers under them, and made the sky appear as a garden of flowers.

34. The eulogies sung by the bards and Gandharvas, added to the valour of the warriors; and profluent liquor of the tall palma trees (i.e. the toddy juice), infused a vigour to their veins, as that of Baladeva (who fought dead drunk in battle). 35. There was the clashing of arms of the Rákshasas, who fought together in bodies; who were as big as lofty trees, and fed on carcasses, with which they filled their abodes in the caverns of mountains. 36. There was a forest of spears rising to the sky on one side, with the detached heads and arms of the slain attached to them; and there were the flying stones on another, which were flung from the slings of the combatants, and which covered the ground below. 37. There was the clapping of the arms and hands of the champions, resembling the splitting and bursting of great trees; and there was heard also the loud wailings of women, echoing amidst the lofty edifices of the city. 38. The flight of fiery weapons in the air, resembled the flying fire brands on high, with a hissing and whistling sound; and the people betook themselves to flight from these, leaving their homes and treasures all behind.

39. The lookers were flying away, from the flying darts all about, in order to save their heads; just as the timid snakes hide themselves, for fear of the devouring phoenix, darting upon them from the sky. 40. Daring soldiers were grinded under tusks of elephants, as if they were pounded under the jaws of death, or as the grapes are crushed in their pressing mills. 41. The weapons flying in the air, were repelled and broken by the stones, flung by the ballistics; and the shouts of the champions, resounded as the re-echoing yells of elephants, issuing out of the ragged caverns. 42. The hollow sounding caves of mountains, resounded to the loud shouts of warriors; who were ready to expose their dear lives and dearly earned vigour in the battle field. 43. The burning fire of firearms, and the flames of incendiarism flashed on all sides; these and mutual conflicts and chariot fightings, went on unceasingly all around. 44. The battle field was surrounded by the surviving soldiers, who were as staunch hearted as the Mount Kailása, with the strong god Siva seated therein.

45. The bravemen that boldly expose their lives in battle, enjoy a lasting life by their death in warfare, and die in their living state, by their flight from the field. (The text is very curt and says: - The brave live by dying, and die by their living). 46. Big elephants being killed in the battle field, like lotus flowers immerging into the waters of lakes; great champions were seen to stalk over the plains, as towering storks strutted on the banks of lakes. 47. Here showers of stones were falling in torrents, with a whizzing sound; and the showers of arrows, were running with a whistling noise around; and the uproar of warriors were growling in the skies. The flying weapons were hurtling through the air, and the neighing of horses, the cries of elephants and the whirling of chariot wheels, together with the hurling of stones from the height of hills, deafened the ears of men all about.

THE FLIGHT OF THE SOLDIERS ON ALL SIDES. Argument: - Description of the Discomfiture of the Royal army, and their use of pneumatic arms. Vasishtha continued: - Thus the war waged with the fury of the four elements, in their mutual conflict on the last doomsday of the world; and the forces on all sides, were falling and flying in numbers in and about the battle field. 2. The sky was filled with the stridor of the fourfold noise of drums and conch-shells; and the rattling of arrows and clattering of arms on all sides. 3. The furious warriors were violently dashing on one another, and their steel armours were clashing against each other, and splitting in twain with clattering noise. 4. The files of the royal forces, were broken in the warfare; they fell fainting in the field, and were lopped off as leaves and plants, and mown down as straws and grass. 5. At this time the trumpets announced the advance of king, with a peal that filled the quarters of the sky; and the cannons thundered with a treble roar, resounding with uproar of the kapa or doomsday clouds. 6. They rent asunder at the same time, the sides of the highest hill and mountains; and split in twain, the rocky shores and banks every where.

7. The king then issued forth to all the four sides, in the four fold or four parted form of himself; like the four regents of the four quarters of the sky, or like the four arms of Náráyana, stretching to so many sides of heaven. 8. Being then followed by his fourfold forces (composed of horse, elephants, war-cars and foot soldiers); he then rushed out of the confines of his city of palaces, and marched to the open fields lying out of the town. 9. He saw the thinness of his own army, and the strong armament of his enemies all around; and heard their loud clamour all about, like the wild roar of the surrounding sea. 10. Flights of arrows flying thickly through the air, appeared as sharks floating in the sea; and the bodies of elephants, moving in the wide battle field, seemed as the huge waves of the ocean. 11. The moving battalions wheeling circular bodies, seemed as the whirling eddies in the sea; and the coursing chariots with their waving flags, appeared as the sailing ships with their unfurled sails.

12. The uplifted umbrellas were as the foams of the sea, and the neighing of horses, likened the frothing of whales. The glaring of shining weapons, appeared as the flaring of falling rain under the sunshine. 13. The moving elephants and sweeping horses, seemed as the huge surges and swelling waves of the sea; and the dark Dravidian barbarians gabbled, like the gurgling bubbles of sea waters. 14. The big elephants with their towering and lowering bodies, seemed as they were mounting or dismounting from the heights of mountains, and breaking their hollow caves, howling with the rustling winds. 15. The battle field looked like the vast expanse of water, in which the slain horses and elephants seemed to be swimming as fragments of floating rocks, and where the moving legions, appeared as the rolling waves of the sea. 16. The field presented the dismal appearance of an untimely dissolution; appeared as an ocean of blood, stretching to the borders of the visible horizon. 17. The fragments of the shining weapons, showed themselves as the sparkling gems in the womb of the sea; and the movement of forces, resembled the casting of ballast stones into it.

18. The falling weapons, were as showers of gems and snow from above; and presented the appearance of evening clouds in some place, and of fleecy vapours in another. 19. Beholding the ocean like the battalion of the enemy, the king thought of swallowing it up, as the sage Agastya had sucked in the ocean; and with this intent, he remembered his airy instrument, which he thought to employ on this occasion; (and which would disperse the cloud of the hostile force like the wind). 20. He got the airy instrument, and aimed it at all sides; as when the god Siva had set the arrow to his bow on Mount Meru, to slay the demon Tripura. (This passage shows the slaughter of Tripura, when the Indo-Aryans had their habitation on Meru or the polar mountains). 21. He bowed to his god Agni - Ignis, and let fly his mighty missile with all his might; in order to repel the raging fire, and preserve his own forces from destruction. 22. He hurled his airy bolt, together with its accompaniment of the cloudy arms; both to drive off as well as to set down the fire of the enemy.

23. These arms being propelled from his octuple cross bow, burst forth into a thousand dire weapons, which ran to and filled all the four sides or quarters of the sky. 24. Then there issued forth from these, an abundance of darts and arrows; and currents of iron spears and tridents; and volleys of shots and rockets. 25. There were torrents of missiles and mallets, as well as currents of discs and battle axes. 26. There were streams of iron clubs, crows and lances; and floods of bhindipalas or short arrows thrown from the hand or through tubes; and also swashes of spring nets, and air instruments of incredible velocity. 27. There was an effusion of fire bolts, and a profluence of lightnings, as also showers of fallings shorts, and scuds of flying swords and sabres. 28. There were falls of iron arrows, and javelins and spears of great force and strength; and purling of huge snakes, that were found in mountain caves, and grew there for ages. 29. It was in no time, that the force of these flying arms, blasted the ocean of the hostile forces; which fled in full haste and hurry in all directions, as heaps of ashes before the hurricane and whirlwind.

30. The thunder showers of arms, and the driving rain of weapons, were driven away by the impetuous winds; and invading hosts hurried to all sides, as the torrent of a river breaks its embankment, and overflows on the land in the rains. 31. The four bodies of troops (consisting of horse, elephant, chariots and foot-soldiers), fled vanquished from the field to the four directions; just as the mountain cataracts precipitate on all sides during the rains. 32. The lofty flags and their posts, were torn and broken and hurled down as large trees by storm; and the forest of uplifted swords were broken to pieces, and scattered like the petals of mariche flowers over the ground. 33. The sturdy bodies of stout soldiers, were rolling as stones on the ground, and besmeared with blood gushing out of their wounds; while the groans of their agony, broke down the stoutest hearts. 34. Large elephants rolled upon the ground with their elevated tusks rising as trees; and roared aloud with their crackling sounds, vying with thunder claps and roaring clouds. 35. The clashing of the weapons against one another, was as the crashing of the branches of trees against each other; and the horses clashing on one another, sounded as the clashing of waves of the sea.

36. The crackling of war cars and their huge wheels, sounded as the rattling of the hail storm on high; and the mingled noise of the clashing of carriages, horse, elephants and foot-soldiers, sounded as the crashing of stones. 37. The harsh sound of war hoops and shouts, was loud on all sides; and cries of dying soldiers, crying “we die, we are slain,” swelled in the air all around. 38. The army appeared as a sea, and their march was as the whirling of an eddy with its gurgling sound; and the bloodshed on their bodies, exhibited the roseate hue of the evening sky. 39. The waving weapons, appeared as a lowering cloud moving upon the shore; and the ground besmeared in blood seemed as the fragment of a purple cloud. 40. The lancers, mace bearers and spearmen, seemed to bear the tall tala trees in their hands; while the cowardly crowds of men, were seen to cry aloud like the timid deer in the plain. 41. The dead bodies of horses, elephants and warriors, lay prostrate on the ground liken the fallen leaves of trees; and the rotten flesh and fat of the bruised carcasses, were trodden down to mud and mire in the field.

42. Their bones were pounded to dust under the hoofs of the horses; and the concussion of wood and stones under the driving winds, raised a rattling sound all around. 43. The clouds of dooms-day were roaring, and the winds of desolation were blowing; the rains of the last day were falling, and the thunders of destruction were clapping all about. 44. The surface of the ground was all muddy and miry, and the face of the land was flooded all over; the air was chill and bleak, and the sky was drizzling through all its pores. 45. The huts and hamlets, and the towns and villages, were all in a blaze; and the people and their cattle, with all the horses and elephants, were in full cry and loud uproar. 46. The earth and heaven, resounded with the rolling of chariots and rumbling of clouds; and the four quarters of heaven, reverberated to the twanging of his four fold bow on all the four sides. 47. The forky lightnings were playing, by the friction and clashing of the clouds; and showers of arrows and missiles fell profusely from them, with the thunder bolts of maces, and darts of spears.

48. The armies of the invading chiefs, fled in confusion from all the four sides of the field; and the flying forces fell in numbers like swarms of ants and troops of gnats and flies. 49. The myrmidons of the bordering tribes, were burnt amidst the conflagration of fiery arms; and were pierced by the fiery weapons, falling like thunderbolts upon them, from the darkened sky. The flying forces resembled the marine animals of the deep, which being disturbed by the perturbed waters of the sea, plunge at last into the submarine fire.

FLIGHT OF THE FOREIGN FOES. Argument. - Account of the routed soldiers, and the names of their countries and places of retreat. Vasishtha continued: - The Chedis of Deccan, who were as thickly crowded as the sandal wood of their country, and girt with girdles resembling the snakes about those trees, were felled by the battle axes, and driven afar to the southern main - the Indian Ocean. 2. The Persians flew as the flying leaves of trees, and striking against one another in their madness, fell like the vanjula leaves in the forest. 3. Then the demon-like Darads, who dwell in the caverns of the distant Dardura mountains, were pierced in their breasts, and fled from the field with their heart rending sorrow. (The Dardui is a people of Afghanistan). 4. The winds blew away the clouds of weapons, which poured down torrents of missile arms, that shattered the armours of the warriors, and glittered like curling lightnings. 5. The elephants falling upon one another, pierced their bodies and gored each other to death with their tusks; and became heaps of flesh, similar to the lumps of food with which they filled their bellies.

6. Another people of the same country, and of the Raivata mountains, who were flying from the field by night; were waylaid by the horrid Pisáchas, that tore their bodies and devoured them with voracity. 7. Those that fled to the tala and tamala forests, and to the old woods on the bank of the dasárná river; were caught by lions and tigers crouching in them; and were throttled to death under their feet. 8. The yovanas living on the coasts of the western ocean, and those in the land of cocoanut trees; were caught and devoured by sharks, in the course of their flight. 9. The sákas or Scythians being unable to endure the impulse, of the black iron arrows for a moment fled to all directions; and the Rumatha people were blown away and broken down, like the lotus bed by the blowing winds. 10. The routed enemy flying to the Mahendra mountain, covered its three peaks with their armours of black mail, and made them appear as mantled by the sable clouds of the rainy weather.

11. The legions of these hostile forces, being broken down by the arms of the king, like the large mines of gold, were first plundered of their raiments by the highway robbers, and then killed and devoured by the nocturnal cannibals and hobgoblins of the desert. 12. The surface of the land was converted to the face of the sky; by the broken fragments of weapons glistering on like the stars of heaven twinkling in myriads above. 13. The caverns of the earth, resounding to the noise of the clouds above, appeared as a grand orchestra, sounding the victory of the king both in earth and heaven. 14. The peoples inhabiting the islands, lost their lives under the whirling disks; as those dwelling in the watery marshes perish on dried lands for want of rain. 15. The vanquished islanders fled to the Sahya mountains, and having halted there for a week, departed slowly to the respective places. 16. Many took shelter in the Gandhamádana mountains, while multitudes of them resorted to the Punnága forests; and the retreating Gandharvas became refugees in the sanctuaries of the Vidyádhara maidens. 17. The Huns, Chins and Kirátas, had their heads struck off by the flying discuses of the king; and these were blown away by the opposite winds, like lotus flowers by the blast.

18. The Nilipa people, remained as firm as trees in a forest, and as fixed in their places as thorns on stalks and brambles. 19. The beautiful pastures of antelopes, the woodlands and hilly tracts on all sides; were desolated by showers of weapons, and the rush and crush of the forces. 20. The thorny deserts became the asylum of robbers, after they deserted their habitations to be over grown by thorns and thistles. 21. The Persians who were abundant in number, got over to the other side of the sea (the Persian Gulph); and were blown away by the hurricane, like stars blasted by the storm of final desolation. 22. The winds blew as on the last day of destruction, and broke down the woods and forests all about; and disturbed the sea by shaking its hidden rocks below. 23. The dirty waters of the deep, rose on high with a gurgling noise; and the sky was invisible owing to the clouds of weapons, which obscured its face on all sides. 24. The howling winds, raised a clapping and flapping sound all about; and there fell showers of snow also, which flowed on earth, like the waters of the sea.

25. The charioteers of Vidura country, fell down from their cars, with the loud noise of waves; and were driven to fall into the waters of the lake, like bees from lotuses. 26. The routed foot soldiers who were as numerous as the dust of the earth, and well armed from head to foot; were yet so overpowered under the showers of darts and discs, that they were blinded by the tears of their eyes, and disabled to beat their retreat. (i.e. They were as dust, set down by the showers of darts from above, and tears of their eyes below). 27. The Huns were buried with their heads and heels, in their flight over the sandy deserts of the north; and others were as muddied as the dirty iron, by their being fastened in the miry shores of northern seas. (The Huns had been the progenitors of the present Hungarians, residing beyond the Baltic. They are said to have been as dark complexioned as their cognate Dravidians of Deccan in Southern India). 28. The Sáks (Saccae or Scythians), were driven to cassia forests on the bank of the eastern main; there they were confined for some time, and then released without being despatched to the regions of death.

29. The Madrasees were repulsed to the Mahendra mountains, whence they lightly alighted on the ground as if fallen from heaven; and there they were protected by the great sages, who preserved them there with tender care as they bear for the stags of their hermitage. 30. The fugitives flying to the refuge of the Sahya mountains, found in lieu of their imminent destruction, in the subterranean cell, the two fold gain of their present and future good therein. Thus it comes to pass that, many times good issues out of evil, where it was least expected. (We know not what were the two great gains made at this place, except it be made to mean, that the hidden cell of sahya or patience is the door to prosperity and success). 31. The soldiers flying to Dasárná at the confluence of the ten rivers, fell into the Dardura forest like the fallen leaves of trees; and there they lay dead all about by eating the poisonous fruits thereof. 32. The Haihayas that fled to Himálayas, drank the juice of Visalya-karaní or pain killing plants by mistake; and became thereby as volant as Vidyádharas, and flew to their country.

33. And then the people of Bengal, who are as weak as faded flowers, showed their backs to the field, and fled to their homes; from which they dare not stir even to this day, but remain as Pisáchas all along. 34. But the people of Anga or Bihar, that live upon the fruits of their country; are as strong as Vidyádharas, and sport with their mates, as if it were in heavenly bliss. 35. The Persians being worsted in their bodies, fell into the tala and tamala forests; whereby drinking their intoxicating extracts, they became as giddy as drunken men. (The addictedness of Persians to their delicious drinks, is well known in their Ána Cronatics). 36. The light and swift mettled elephants of the swarthy Kalingas, pushed against their four fold armies in the field of battle, where all lay slain in promiscuous heaps. 37. The salwas passing under the arrows and stones of the enemy, fell into the waters which girt their city, wherein they perished with the whole of their hosts, that are still lying there in the form of heap of rocks.

38. There were numbers of hosts, that fled to different countries in all directions; and many that were driven to the distant seas, where they were all drowned and dead, and borne away by the waves. 39. But who can count the countless hosts, that fled to and lay dead and unnoticed in every part of the wide earth and sea, on the fields and plains, in forests and woods, on land and water, on mountains and dales, on shores and coasts and on the hills and cliffs. So there is nobody who can tell what numbers of living beings are dying every moment, in their homes and abodes in cities and villages, in caves and dens, and every where in the world.

DESCRIPTION OF THE OCEAN. Argument: - Relation of the cessation of arms, and description of majestic ocean. Vasishtha continued: - The hostile forces of the enemies thus flying on all sides, were pursued to a great distance by the four forms of Vihaschit as said before. 2. These four forms of almighty power, and of one soul and mind; went on conquering the four regions on every side, with one intent and purpose. 3. They chased the retreating enemies without giving them any respite, to the shores of the seas on all sides; as the currents of rivers keep on their course without intermission, to the coast of the far distant ocean. 4. This long course of the royal forces, as well as of the enemies, soon put an end to all their provisions and ammunitions, and all their resources and strength were exhausted at last, as a rill is lost under the sands ere it reaches the lake. 5. The king beheld his forces and those of his enemies, to be as exhausted at the end; as the merits and demerits of a man are lost up on his ultimate liberation.

6. The weapons ceased to fly about, as if they were at rest after they had done their part in the sky; and as the flames of fire subside of themselves, for want of fuel and the combustibles. 7. The horses and elephants went under their shelters, and the weapons stuck to trees and rocks; and they seemed to fall fast asleep, like birds upon their spray at night fall. 8. As the waves cease to roll in a dried up channel, and the snows to fall under the clouded sky; and as the clouds fly before the storm, and the fragrance of flowers is borne away by the wind. 9. So the flying weapons were submerged like fishes, under the falling showers of rain; and the dripping drops of darts, were thwarted by the thickening showers of snow (i.e. the dropping arrows were driven away, by the drifts of snow). 10. The sky was cleared of the whirling disks, that were hurled by hundreds, and hurtling in the hazy atmosphere; and it got a clean sweep of the gathering clouds, that were soaring up in surges, and pouring down in floods of rain.

11. The firmament presented the appearance of an immense ocean, composed of the limpid fuel of the vast void; and containing the sparkling gems of the stars in its bosom, and the burning submarine fire of the sun in the midst of it. 12. The great vacuum appeared as extensive and deep, and as bright and serene, and devoid of the dust of rajas or pride, as the minds of great men (which are of equal extent and depth of knowledge &c.). 13. They then beheld the oceans, lying as junior brothers of the skies; being of equal extent and clearness, and stretching to the utmost limits of the horizon. 14. These with their deep sounding waves and foaming froths, are as gratifying to the minds of people; as the roaring clouds with their showers of snow, are ravishing of human hearts. 15. They having fallen down from high heaven, and stretching wide their huge bodies on the earth below; seem to be rolling grievously on the ground, with their deep groanings and breathings, and raising up their billowy arms, in order to lift themselves on high.

16. They are gross and dull bodies, yet full of force and motion, and though they are mute and dumb, yet full of noise and howling in their hollow cavities; they are full of dreadful whirlpools, as is this world with all its dizzy rounds. 17. The gems sparkling on the banks, add to the brightness of the sun beams (in the morning); and the winds blowing in the conch shells, resound all along the coast. 18. Here the huge waves are growling, like the big clouds roaring loudly on high; and the circling eddies are whirling around, as the shattered corallines were scattered along. 19. The hoarse snorting of sharks and whales, is howling in the bosom of the deep; and the lashing of the waters by their tails, sounded as the splashing of the oars of vessels in them. 20. Here are the horrid sharks and alligators, devouring the fleecy mermaids and marine men in numbers; and a thousand suns shining in their reflexions on the rising waves. 21. Here are seen fleets of ships floating on the surface of the waters, and rising aloft on the tops of the waves; and driven forward by the blowing winds, howling horribly through the furling sails and cracking cordage.

22. The ocean with his hundreds of arms of the heaving waves, handles the orbs of the sun and moon; and displays varieties of sparkling gem, with reflexions of their ’beams in them. 23. Here were the shoals of sharks, skimming over the foaming main; and there were the water spouts, rising like columns of elephants’ trunks to the skies, and representing a forest of bamboos. 24. In some places, the rippling waves were gliding, like curling creepers, with hairy tufts and frothy blossoms on them; and in others, little rocks resembling the backs of elephants and bearing the vernal flowers, were scattered in the midst of the waters. 25. Some where were the heaps of froth and frost and hills of icebergs, resembling the edifices of the gods and demigods; and else where were the groups of sparkling little billows, that laughed to scorn the clusters of shining stars in the skies. 26. Here are branches (chains) of rocks concealed in its depth, like little gnats hidden in the hollows underneath the ground; and there are the huge surges, which make pigmies and dwarfs of the high hills on earth.

27. Its coasts are spread over with sparkling gems, like beds of gemming sprouts and shoots of flowers on the ground (or) as the ground strewn over with the germinating shoots and sprouts of gemming blossom; while the glistening pearls bursting out of their silvery shells sparkle amidst the spreading sands. 28. The sea seems to weave a vest of silken stuff, with its fleecy waves; and decking it with all its floating gems and pearls; while the rivers flowing into it from all directions, serve to colour it with their various waters. 29. The coasts studded with gems and pearls of various hues, display as it were the beams of a hundred moons, in the versicoloured nails of its feet. 30. The shadows of the beaching tali forests, falling on the swelling waves of the sea, were imbued with the hues of the marine gems; and appeared as moving arbours with their variegated foliage, fruits and flowers. 31. There are seen the shadows of sundry fruit trees, reflected in the waters gliding below; and as rising up and falling down with their reflexions in the moving waves and billows. The false and falling shadows, gathered numbers of marine beasts under them, for gorging the falling fruits. (This is pursuing a shadow).

32. Again the greedy fishes were collected some where, and leaping to catch the birds that were sitting on the fruit trees, and seen in their reflexions on the waves. 33. Here are seen many sea monsters also, that break the embankments, and rove about at random in the watery maze, as birds fly freely in the vacuous air. 34. The ocean being a formless deep, bears the image of the three worlds impressed on its bosom; it bears also the image of the pure vacuum in itself, as it bore the image of Náráyana in its breast. 35. Its great depth, clearness and immeasurable extent, gives it the appearance of the majestic firmament, which is reflected in its bosom, as it were imprest upon it. 36. It bears the reflexion of the sky and of the flying birds thereof, as if they were the images of aquatic fowls swimming on its surface, or resembled the blackbees fluttering about its lotus like waves. 37. Its boisterous waves are borne to the skies by the violent winds, and washing the welkin’s face with their briny sprays; and the deep sounding main, resounding from its hollow rocks, is roaring aloud like the diluvian clods.

38. The gurgling noise of the whirlpools, resembles the loud thunder claps of heaven; and the submarine fire is sometimes seen to burst out of the deep, like the latent flame of Agastya, that consumed the waters of the main. 39. The watery maze presents the picture of a vast wilderness, with its waves as the waving trees; the billows as its branch boughs, its surfs as blossoms, and the foams and froths as flowers. 40. The high heaving surges with the shoals of fishes skimming and skipping upon them; appear as fragments of the sky fallen below, and carried away by the gliding waters. 41. Thus the hostile forces were driven afar to the shores of the salt seas; extending far and wide and bounding the earth on every side; while the lofty mountains rising to the skies with their verdant tops, intercepted the sight on all sides.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROSPECTS ALL AROUND. Argument: - Description of the forest trees, the hills and seas, the forest and hill peoples, and clouds on high. Vasishtha continued: - Then the royal army beheld whatever there was on sides of them; namely, the forests and hills, the seas and the clouds, and the foresters and hill people, and the trees of the forest. 2. They said: behold, O lord, that high hill, which lifts its lofty top to the sky, and invites the clouds to settle upon it; while its midmost part is the region of the winds, and the base is composed of hard and rugged stones. 3. See, O lord, how they abound with fruit trees of various kinds, and the groves whose fragrance is wafted around by the gentle winds. 4. The sea breaks down the peninsulas with its battering breakers, and disperses the stones of the rocks on its banks; it shatters the bordering forests with its wavy axes, and scatters their fruits and flowers all over the waters. (The gloss explains the peninsula to mean the maritime lands of Madras). 5. Behold the sea-breeze wafting away the clouds, settling on the tops of mountains, by the sufflation of the leafy boughs of trees dancing over them; in the manner of men, blowing away the smoke with their fans.

6. Here are arbours on its coasts, like the trees in the garden of paradise; whose branches are as white as the conch-shells growing in the full-moon-tide, and whose fruits are as bright as the disk of the moon. 7. Lo, these trees with their spouses of the creepers, are honouring you with offerings of gemming flowers, from the rosy palms of their rubicund leaves. 8. There is the Rikshabana rock, howling as a ferocious bear; and devouring the huge sharks and swallowing the swelling waves, in its cavern-like mouth, and under its stony teeth. 9. The Mahendra mountain with loud uproar, growls at the roaring clouds (moving below its height); as the stronger champion hurls defiance against his weaker rival. 10. There the enraged Malaya mount lifts his lofty head, decorated with forests of sandalwood; and threatens the loud ocean below, rolling with its outstretched arms of the waves on the shore. 11. The ocean rolling incessantly, with its gemming waves on all sides; is looked upon by the celestials from high, as if he bore away the treasured gems of the earth. 12. The wild hillocks, with woods and ruddy rocks on the tops, and waving with the wafting gales; appeared as huge serpents, creeping with their crescent gems, and inhaling the breeze.

13. There were the huge sharks and elephants, moving and grappling with each other upon the surges; and this sight delights the minds of men, as that of a rainy and light cloud opposing and pursuing one another. 14. There is an elephant fallen in a whirlpool, and being unable to raise itself from the same, it left its proboscis on the water, and dies with sputtering the water from snout on all sides. 15. The high hills as well as the low seas, are all equally filled with living beings; and as the oceans abound with aquatic animals, so are all lands and islands full of living beings. 16. The sea like the earth and all the worlds, are full of whirlpools and revolutions of things, and all these are mere falsities, that are taken for and viewed as realities. 17. The ocean bears in its bosom the liquid waves, which are inert in themselves, and yet appearing to be in continual motion; so Brahma contains the innumerable worlds, which seem to be solid without any substantiality in them. (The worlds are as empty and unstable waves).

18. It was at the churning of the ocean, by the gods and giants of yore; that it was despoiled of all its bright and hidden treasures, which have since fallen to the lot of Indra and the gods. 19. It has therefore adopted to wear on its breast, the reflexions of the greatest and brightest lights of heaven, as its false and fictitious ornaments. These are seen even from the nether worlds, and of these no one can deprive it. 20. Among the shining sun is one, whose image it bears in its bosom, with equal splendour as it is in heaven. This bright gem is daily deposited as a deposit in the western main, to give its light to the nether world. It is called the gem of day दिनमनि, because it makes day wherever it shines. 21. There is a confluence of all the waters from all sides to it, and assemblage of them in its reservoir, gives it the clamorous sound, as it is heard in the crowds of men in mixed processions. 22. Here is a continued conflict of the marine monsters in their mutual contentions, as there is a jostling of the currents and torrents of the waters of rivers and seas, at the mouths of gulfs and bays.

23. There the large whales are rolling and dancing on the rising waves; and spurting forth spouts of water from their mouth; and these shedding showers of pearls, are borne aloft and scattered about by the blowing winds. 24. The streams of water, flowing like strings of pearl, and bearing the bubbles resembling brilliant pearls (abdas) amidst them; adorn the breast of the ocean as necklaces, and whistling by their concussion. 25. The sea winds serve to refresh the spirits of the siddha and sádhya classes of spirits, that dwell in their abodes of the caverns of Mahendra mountains; and traverse the howling regions of the sounding main. 26. Again the winds exhaled from the caves of the Mahendra mountains, are gently shaking the woods growing upon it, and stretching a cloud of flowers over its table lands. 27. Here is the Mount Gandhamádana, full of mango and kadamba trees; and there the fragments of clouds, are seen to enter into its caves like stags, with their eyes flashing as lightnings. 28. The winds issuing from the valleys of Himálaya mountains, and passing through the encircling bowers of creeping plants, are scattering the clouds of heaven, and breaking the breakers of the sea.

29. The winds of the Gandhamádana mountain, are exhaling the fragrance of the kadamba flowers growing upon it; and ruffling the surface of the sea with curling waves. 30. After twisting the fleecy clouds, in the form of the curling locks of hair, on the pinnacles of Alaka (the residence of Kubera); the winds are passing by the alleys of the Gandhamádana groves, and forming <a> cloud or canopy of flowers at this place. 31. Here the odoriferous airs, bearing the sweet burthen of fragrant flowers and gums, and moistened by the admixture of icy showers, are creeping slowly amidst the alleys. 32. Lo there the nálikera creepers, diffusing their sourish scent to the breezes, which being acidulated by their sourness, are turning towards the regions of Persia. 33. Here the winds are wafting the odours, of the flowery forests of Ísana on the Kailasa mountain; and there they are breathing with the perfume of the lotuses of the mountain lakes; and blowing away the camphor-white (fleecy) clouds from the face of the sky. 34. The fluid ichor which flows from the frontal proboscis of elephants, is dried and stiffened by the breezes issuing out of the caverns of the Vindhya mountain.

35. The females of the savara foresters, covering their bodies with the dry leaves of trees, and accompanied by their swarthy males, in leafy apparel, have been making a town of their jungle, by extirpating the wild animals, with their iron arrows. 36. Behold, great lord, these seas and mountains, these forests and rivers, and these clouds on all sides, look as if they are all smiling under your auspices, as under the brightness of sun-beams. 37. Here they also describe the flowery beds, of the Vidyádhari wood nymphs; and their sports (which <is> omitted on account of their uselessness).

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. Argument: - Description of the hills and forests, rivers and other objects on all sides. The Royal companions related: - Hear, O high minded lord! the Kinnara females from their abodes of leafy bowers, where they enjoy themselves with singing their songs; and the Kinnara also being enrapt with the music, listen to it attentively by forgetting their business of the day. 2. There are the Himálaya, Malaya, Vindhya, Krauncha, Mahendra, Mandara, Dardura and other mountains; which from their distant view, appear to the sight of the observer, to be clothed in robes of hoary clouds, and seen as heaps of stones covered with the dry leaves of trees. 3. Those distant and indistinct chains of boundary mountains, appear to stretch themselves like the walls of cities; and those rivers which are seen to fall into the ocean with their gurgling noise; appear as the woof and texture threads of the broad sheet of waters of the ocean.

4. The ten sides of the sky, which are spread over the tops of mountains; appear as the royal consorts, looking on thee from their lofty edifices, and smiling gladly at thy success. The many-coloured and roaring clouds in the sky, resembling the variegated birds of air, warbling their notes on high; and the rows of trees which are dropping down the showers of flowers from high, appear as the arms of heavenly nymphs, shedding their blessings upon thy head with their hands. 5. The high hills overgrown with rows of trees, and stretching all along the sea shore; appear as ramparts; and these being beaten by the surges, seem as mere moss gathered on the coast. 6. O! the extensive, all sustaining and wondrous body of the ocean, that supported the body of Hari sleeping upon it; contained the unrighteous creation at the great deluge, and it covered all the mountains and rocks and the submarine fire under it. 7. There is the northern ocean, to which the Jambu river, pours all the gold of the Meru or polar mountain, and it contains numerous cities and forests and mountains and countries. It washes the face of the sky and all its lights, and is therefore adored by gods as well as men.

8. Here is this polar mountain, reaching to the solar sphere, and presenting the trees on its top as its cloud-capt head; may the earth extending to this mountain be thine, and may not this mount which hides the sun under its clouds, obstruct the extension of thy realm. 9. Here is this Malaya mount on the south, growing the fragrant sandal wood, which converts all other woods to its nature. Its sweet paste decorates the persons of gods, men and demons, and is put as a spot on the forehead like the frontal eye <of> Siva; and is sprinkled over the body belike the bedewed persons of females with sweat. 10. The waves of the ocean are continually laving the coast, overgrown with forests of the sandal wood, and encircled by folds of snakes; while the woodland nymphs wandering on this mount, throw a lustre about it by the beauty of their persons.

11. Here is the hill called Krauncha, with its groves resonant with the cooing of cuckoos; and its rugged caves and rivers resounding harshly to one another; while the bamboos are crackling with their mutual friction, and the humble bees have been humming about; among these is heard the warbling of emigrating cranes on high, and the loud screams of peacocks, which are terrific to the serpent tribe. 12. Behold here, O great lord, the sport of woodland nymphs, in the groves of their soft leafy bowers; and listen to the tinkling sound of their bracelets, which are so sweet to the ears of hearers. 13. There behold the drizzling ichor, exuding from the foreheads of elephants, and the swarming bees giddy with the drink; which has made the sea to melt in tears, on account of its being slighted by them. 14. Lo there the fair moon, with his train of fairy stars, sporting in their reflexions, in the lap of his sire, the milky ocean, from which it was churned as its butter or froth.

15. See there the tender creepers, dancing merrily on the table-lands of the Malaya mountain; displaying their red petals as the palms of their hands, and winking with their eyes formed of fluttering bees. The blooming flowers bespeak their vernal festivity, and the warbling cuckoos fill the groves with their festive music. 16. Here the rain-drops produce the pearly substance of vansa-lochana, in the hollows of bamboos; and the gaja-mati or frontal pearl, in the skull of elephants; and large pearls in the womb of pearl-shells. So the words of the wise, are productive of unlike effects in different persons. 17. So the gems are productive of various effects, according as they are produced in varied forms in different receptacles; as in men and stones, in seas and forests, in frogs, clouds and elephants. They gladden and distract the mind, cause fear and error, fever and death, and many other preternatural and supernatural effects. 18. Lo here the city smiling under the rising moon, and singing in praise of that ambrosial luminary, through all its windows, doorways and openings, as it were from the mouths of its females; and responsive to his eulogy sung by the Mandara mountain, from the many mouths of its caves and caverns, and the pipes of hallow bamboos.

19. The wondering women of the siddhas, behold with their astonished and uplifted faces and eyes, a large body of cloud borne away by the winds; and dubitate in their minds, whether it is a mountain peak carried away by the winds, or is it a forest of the snowy mountain flying upward in the air, or is it a column to measure the distance of the earth and sky, or a balance to weigh their weight. 20. See the moorlands at the foot of the Mandara mountain, how cool they are with the cooling breezes wafting the coldness of the waves of Ganges; and see its footlands inhabited by the fair Vidyádhara tribe; and behold its flowery woodlands all around, overtopped by shady clouds of flowers above. 21. See the forests and groves and the hursts spread there abouts, with the huts and hamlets and habitations of men scattered therein. Look at the holy shrines, and the sacred brooks and fountains lying in them, the very sight of which, disperses our woes, poverty and iniquities. 22. Mountain craigs and ridges, overhung on all sides of the horizon; the dales and caverns, and the groves and grottos, are overshadowed by clouds; the limpid lakes, resemble the clear firmament; such sights are sure to melt away masses of our crimes.

23. Lo here my lord, the ravines of the Malaya mountain, redolent with the odour of the aromatic sandal wood; and there the Vindhyan hills, abounding with infuriate elephants; the Kailása mount yielding the best kind of gold, in its olden laureate lore; and the Mount Mahendra, fraught with its mineral ore (aguru - agallochum); the summits of the snowy mountain are plenteous, with the best kind of horses and medicinal plants; thus while every place <is> found to abound with richest productions of nature, why does man set to repine in his time worn cell, like an old and blind mouse in its dirty hole. 24. Behold the dark and rainy cloud on high, appearing as another world, to submerge the earth under its flood; and threatening it with its flashing and forky lightnings, and gliding as frisky shrimp fishes in the etherial ocean. 25. Oh! the bleak rainy winds, blowing with the keen icy blasts of frozen snows, poured down profusely by the raging rainy clouds on high. They are now howling aloud in the air, and now chilling the blood, and shaking the body with horripilation.

26. Oh! the cold winds of winter are blowing, in their course with the dark clouds of heaven; and scattering cluster of flowers, from the twigs and branches of trees. And there are the drizzling rain drops dropping in showers, amidst the thick forests, redolent with the odours of kadamba blossoms. 27. There the winds are bearing the fragrance of the breaths of languid females, as if it were the celestial odour of ambrosia, stolen by and borne on the wings of zephyr. 28. Here the gentle breezes are breathing, with the breath of the new blown lilies and lotuses of the lake, and sweeping their tender odours to the land; and the blasts are bursting the flakes of the folded clouds, and wafting the perfumes from the gardens and groves. 29. Yonder the mild airs are lulling our toils, cooled by their contact with the evening clouds of heaven; and resembling the vassal florists, perfumed all over in their culling the flowers from the royal gardens.

30. Some of these are perfumed with the odours of different flowers, and others with the fragrance of lilies and lotuses; in some places they are scattering showers of blossoms, and shedding the dust of flowers at others. Some where the air is blowing from the hoary mountain of frost, and at others from those of blue, black and red minerals. 31. The sun is scattering his rays, as firebrands in some places, and these are spreading a conflagration with loud cluttering in the woods, like the riotous rabble in a country. 32. The winds like wicked attendants on the sun, are spreading the conflagration caused by the solar rays; and carry their clattering noise afar. 33. The cooling winds blowing from the woods, and bedewed by the gentle beams of the moon, or moistened by the watery particles of heaving waves; though cheering to the souls of others, appear yet as fiery hot to separated lovers. 34. Lo here, O lord! how the savara women, on the low lands of the eastern main, are covered in their rude and rough leafy garments, and wearing their sounding bracelets of brass; and see how they are strutting about, in the giddiness of their prime youth.

35. See how these newly loving lasses, are clinging round the bodies of their mates, for fear of darkness of the approaching night; in the manner of timid snakes twining about the trunk of sandal wood trees. 36. Struck with fear by the alarm, given by the sounding bell at day break; the loving consort leans on the bosom of her lover, as the darkness lingers in the enclosed room. 37. There is a furze of kinsuka flowers, blooming as firebrands, on the border of the southern sea, which is continually washing them with lavations of its waves, as if it wanted to extinguish them. 38. The winds are wafting their fuming farina, which are flying upwards like mists of hazy clouds to heaven; the flowers are falling about like flames of fire, and the birds and black-bees are hovering over them as extinguished cinders of fire. 39. Behold there on the other side, the real flashes of living wild fire, blazing in the forests on the east; and to their flames are borne above the mountain tops, by the flying winds of the air.

40. See the slow moving clouds, shrouding the lowlands lying at the foot of the Krauncha mountain; and observe the crowding peacocks dancing under them, and screaming aloud with their grave and shrill cries to the clouds. Lo there the gusts of rain-winds rising high, and blowing the fruits and flowers and leaves of trees afar on all sides. 41. Behold the sun setting mountain in the west, with its thousand peaks of glittering gold; shining amidst the dusky hue of the evening sky; and the sloping sun descending below in his chariot whirling down with its rattling wheels in the rustling of evening winds. (But the solar car is a velocipedes with a single wheel only). 42. The moon that rises upon the eastern mount of Meru like a full blown flower, in order to give light to the darkened mansion of this world; is itself accompanied by its black spots, sitting as black-bees upon the blossom. Hence there is no good thing in this perverted world, which is free from its fault and frailty.

43. The moon light is shining like the laughter of the god Rudra, amidst his dome of the triple world; or it is as the white wash of the great hall of the universe, or it likens <to> the milky fluid of the milky ocean of the sky. 44. Look on all sides of the sky, tinged with the evening twilight, and the variegated hues of mountain tops; and filled with the milky beams of the moon, that was churned out by the Mount Mandara from the milky ocean. 45. Look there, O incomparable lord! those hosts of Guhyka ghosts, that are as hideous as the large tála or palm trees; and also those puny Vetála younglings are pouring upon the ill-fated dominions of the Hunas; and devouring troubled inhabitants at night. 46. The face of the moon shines brightly like the beauteous face of a fairy, so long as it does not appear out of its mansion at night; but it is shorn of its beams, and appears as a piece of fleecy cloud, by its appearance at day light; as the fairy face becomes disgraced, by appearing out of the inner apartment.

47. Look at the lofty peaks of the snowy mountain, covered with the fair vesture of the bright moon beams; and see its craigs washed by floods of the falling Ganges; behold its head capped by perpetual snows, and begirt by creepers of snowy whiteness. 48. Behold there Mandara mountain touching the sky, and crowning the forest with its lofty ridges; here the winds are wafting the cradle chimes of Apsara nymphs, and there the mountainous mines gemming in various hues. 49. See the high hills all around, abounding with blooming flowers like offerings to the gods; see the thickening clouds round their loins, and resounding hoarsely within their hollows, while the starry heaven shines over their heads. 50. There is the Kailása mountain on the north, vying with firmament in its brightness; below it there is the hermitage of Skanda, and the moon shines in her brilliance above. 51. Lo, the god Indra has let loose his winds, to break the branches of trees, and demolish the huts on the ground, the fragments of which they have been carrying afar. 52. The winds are wafting the profuse fragrance of flowers after the rains, and filling the nostrils of men with their odours; while the flights of bees are floating as clouds in the azure sky.

53. Methinks the goddess Flora has chosen for her abode, the blooming flowers in the forests; limpid waters in the marshy grounds, and in villages abounding in fruitful trees, and flourishing fields. 54. The windows are overgrown with creeping plants in the rains, and the house tops are decorated with the flowers of the climbing creepers upon them. The ground is strewn over with the dropping flowers up to the heels, and the breezes are blowing the dust of the flowers all about. All these have made the woodlands the seats of the sylvan gods. 55. The rains have converted the rustic village, to a romantic paradise or fairy land; by the blooming champaka flowers, the swinging of the rural nymphs in their cradles, of creepers, by the warbling of birds and gurgling of water-falls, the blossoming of the tall palm trees in the skirts; the tender creepers blooming with clusters of snow white blossom, the dancing of peacocks on the tops of houses, and the borders shaded by the sal trees; and the rainy clouds hanging over the village and the bordering hills.

56. Again the soft and sweet breathing breezes, the variegated leaves of the plants and creepers, the verdure of the village, the cries of cranes and other fowls, and the wild notes of the foresters; these together with the jollity of the swains, and the merriment of the pastoral people, over their plenty of milk, curd, butter and ghee, and their glee in their peaceful abodes, add a charm to this hilly tract.