CHAPTER CXIV. Description of the Prospects all around.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
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).