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Return to Ayodhyā (588–668) One day, when all of Bharata had been conquered by the Lord of Bharata, the çakra set out in the sky toward Ayodhyā. After Bharata had bathed; had performed the oblation-ceremony; wearing a fine costume, had made the propitiatory rite of the tilaka and auspicious things; mounted on the shoulder of the best elephant like the king of the gods; his treasury filled by the nine treasures as if by wishing-trees; constantly attended by the fourteen jewels, like fruit of each of the dreams of Sumangalā; accompanied by thirty-two thousand women of the harem, daughters of kings married in turn, like family Śrīs; adorned by the same number of fair women of the people like exceedingly beautiful Apsarases; glorified by thirty-two thousand kings like footmen; made splendid like Mt. Vindhya by eighty-four lacs of elephants; and by the same number of horses and chariots as if summoned from all sides; surrounded by ninety-six crores of soldiers, who concealed the earth; sixty thousand years having passed from the day of the first march, he set out following the cakra. *Making even the Kheçaras as dusty from contact with the flood of dust raised by the soldiers as if they had rolled on the ground; terrifying the Vyantaras and Bhavanapatis living within the earth by making them fear that the earth would split from the weight of the soldiers; accepting fresh butter, that was like a priceless object because of devotion, at every cow-pen from the milkmaids with wide-open eyes; taking from the Kirātas in every forest gifts, such as pearls that had originated from elephants' temples ; 814 accepting many times the contents of jewel and gold mines brought to him by the mountainlords at every mountain; treating graciously at every
814 600. One of the 8 sources of pearls : clouds, elephants, fish, serpents, bamboos, conch-shells, boars, and oyster-shells. Sch. on Kir. XII, 40 (MW).
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