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## Chapter 2: Collection of Examples
189
He, with a stature exceeding forty cubits, attained youth from childhood, like a mortal ascending to heaven. ||11||
He had a great friend, the son of the Kalindi, named Mahendrasura, renowned for his valor. ||12||
On the arrival of spring, one day, he went with the son of Kalindi to the Makaranda garden, out of curiosity, to play. ||13||
There, he played with his friends, like Sanatkumara, the son of Girvana, in Nandana. ||14||
Then, the king's horse-master, Prahino, brought forth four horses, with five lines, marked with all auspicious signs. ||15||
One, named Jaladhikallola, as restless as the waves of the ocean, he gave to Sanatkumara. ||16||
Leaving his play, the prince mounted the steed. Among the princes, the fascination for elephants and horses is always great. ||17||
With one hand he raised the reins, and with the other he guided the horse, touching the seat with his thighs. ||18||
He raced with great speed, almost touching the earth with his feet, and he looked around to see the other horses. ||19||
As the prince pulled the reins, the horse, contrary to training, ran faster and faster. ||20||
Even while the other princes were racing, the horse, like a Rakshasa in the form of a horse, suddenly disappeared. ||21||
The horse, with the prince mounted, became invisible in an instant, like the moon disappearing in the clouds, even before the eyes of the kings. ||22||
The horse-army, with its horses, pursued the prince, who was carried away by the horse, like a boat carried by the river current. ||23||
"He goes, he goes, that horse! These are his footprints, and these are his foam-white marks," the people exclaimed. ||24||
Then, a fierce wind arose, like a full Brahmaanda-bhastika, a premature night, like a darkness that obscures everything. ||25||
The directions were covered with dust, like a swarm of locusts, and the armies were paralyzed, unable to move even a step. ||26||
The footprints of the horse, as it ran, were all erased by the dust-mountains. ||27||
Neither low, nor high, nor solid, nor trees, nothing was visible. The whole world seemed to have entered the underworld. ||28||
The foolish soldiers were bewildered, like travelers lost in a sea filled with water. ||29||
Mahendra Singh bowed to the horse-commander and said, "O Lord, this is the work of fate, the misfortune of this one. ||30||
Otherwise, where is the prince, and where is the horse in a distant land? And how could the prince have mounted this unknown horse? ||31||
Where is the prince, abducted by this wild horse? And where is the dust-covered path, where the wind blows? ||32||
Even though fate has conquered, like a king conquering his vassals, I will search for my friend, who is like my own self, and bring him back. ||33||
In the caves of the mountains, on the peaks, in the forests, in the strongholds, in the valleys, ||34||
In the holes of the earth, in the depths of the rivers, in the waterless lands, in the difficult places, ||35||