CHAPTER CLVIII. Fall of the Huge Body of the Hunter.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
Argument:—The aerial body of the Hunter, and its downfall from the high heaven.
The sage resumed and said:—I have thus related these future events, as if they were past accounts unto thee; do now, O huntsman what thou wishest and thinkest best for thyself.
2. Agni the god of fire said:—Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman remained aghast in wonder for a while; and then rising with the sage, went to bathe themselves to the nearest pool.
3. In this manner they continued together, to conduct their religious austerities and discussions at the same spot; and remained in terms of disinterested friendship with one another.
4. After some time the muni met with his final extinction—nirvána, and by casting off his mortal body, obtained his last repose in the state of transcendent tranquility.
5. In course of time and the lapse of ages, it pleased the god Brahma to give him a call, in order to confer upon him the object of his desire.
6. The huntsman being unable to resist the impulse of his longing, begged to obtain the very same boon of his god which the sage had predicted to him.
7. Be it so, said the god, and he repaired to his favourite abode; and the huntsman flew aloft into the open air, in order to enjoy the fruition of his austere devotion.
8. He flew with incredible velocity, to the extensive vacuous space, which lies beyond the spheres of worlds; and it was in course of an incalculable duration, that the ever expanding bulk of his body, filled the regions of the upper sky, as a mountainous range is stretched along and across this lower world.
9. He fled with the force and swiftness of the great Garuda (the eagle of Jove), up and down and to all sides of heaven: until the huge bulk of his body, occupied the whole area of the open air, in the process of an indefinite period of time.
10. Thus increasing in his size with the course of time, and infatuated in the maze of his delusion, began to grow uneasy in himself.
11. From the great anxiety of his mind, he suppressed the respiration of his breath; until he breathed out his last breath of life in the air, and his body dropped down as a carcass in the nether earth.
12. His mind accompanied with his vital breath, fled through the air into the body of Sindhu, who became the ruler of the whole earth, and the great antagonist of Vidúratha.
13. His great body resembling a hundred mountainous ranges, became a huge mass of carcass; which fell down with the hideous clattering of thunders, as one earth falling upon another.
14. At a certain time, it shines as a Kesandraka, at others it appears as a covering of the huge range of buildings in sky.
15. I have already related to thee, O learned sir, how this huge carcass had fallen from above, and filled the surface of the globe of this earth.
16. The globe of the earth, where upon this huge carcass had fallen, resembled in every way this earth of ours, which appears unto us as a city in our dream.
17. The dry and big bellied goddess chandí, then devoured this carcass, filling her bowels with its flesh, and stuffing her entrails with its red hot blood.
18. The earth is called mediní or fleshy from the flesh of this corpse, which overspreads its surface with its prodigious bulky frame.
19. It was this huge fleshy body, which was reduced to the substance of the earth in time; and had the name of the earth given to it from the dust of this body.
20. This fleshy earth gave rise to forests and habitable parts; and the fossil bones rose high in the forms of mountains from underneath the ground, which grew everything useful to men.