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The twenty-sixth chapter. The Shikhandi, like laughing swans, were making a loud noise. Oh, you are *jadapriya* (fond of the inert, i.e., water) - how pure your forms are! || 16 || The peacocks, with their variegated colors, their desires fixed on the clouds, and dwelling in the mountains, along with the rainbows, abandoned their own prosperity. || 20 || Did not the *bandhuka* flowers, shining like drops of betel juice spat out by the goddess of autumn, enhance the beauty of the *indragopas* (red insects of the rainy season) in the forests? || 21 || Just as a virtuous woman, with a pure heart, free from sin, and wearing clean clothes, appears outside her home, and embraces love for her relatives, so too, the pure autumn, with a clear sky free from mud, appeared and embraced the *bandhujeevas* (flowers of the afternoon) - she caused them to flourish. || 22 || The sounds of the swans were like drums, the *kash* flowers in the forests were like bright *chamaras* (fly whisks), and the lotuses in the ponds were blooming like the sun. And from all this, the autumn seemed to have a desire to conquer the directions. || 23 || The autumn adorned the directions with *banasana* (flowers of the *bana* and *asana* species). Indeed, it is fitting for a king who desires to conquer to take up the *banasana* (bow). || 24 || The clouds, abandoning all hope (i.e., desire for union), became thin and pale. It seemed as if they had become so due to the anxiety caused by the separation from the rainy season. || 25 || The sky, adorned with stars, was so beautiful that it seemed to be laughing like a lake with lotuses. || 26 ||