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SETUBANDHA
41
33. Masses of other arrows, red with smokeless flames, entered the ocean in the wake of that arrow, half submerged in the waters; even as the rays of the sun that hath half gone down follow it into the sea.
34. Thereupon the ocean, pierced by the arrows, surged up, roaring like a lion that had been asleep without fear; and shook its flowing mane, the flames of the submarine fire.
35. The sky seemed to be divided in twain as the sea, rent by the vast oncoming mass of arrows, dashed high with the speed of a chip of rock torn off by a pick-axe,22 and returned again, after being driven far into the air.
36. When the farther side of the ocean was rent in the middle, and flung skyward by the impact of the arrows, the hither side2 dropped (into the gap), like a massive landslide down the Malaya mountain 24
37. The regions of the ocean, deep down to the nether world, and reddened by the minerals of the submarine mountains riven by the arrows, were convulsed, with the sea monsters confounded, and the totally severed wings of the mountains floating on the surface.25
38. The conches, with their mouths filled with the fiery arrows, and their white interior laid bare, moved to and fro, looking like white lotus buds opening by degrees in contact with the crimson rays of the sun.
39. White with the fangs of the sea monsters, lopped off by the arrows, the waters swirled, with the fish scattered; while the severed hoods of the serpents whirled about, totally weighed down by their gems.26
22. See Extracts for other explanations. Trans. follows Kulanātha.. 23. i.e., the side not disturbed by the arrows.
24. More literally like a massive side of the Malaya mountain that has cracked and slid down.
25. When Indra clipped the wings of the mountains with his thunderbolt, some of them escaped into the sea with their wings intact.
26. i.e., the gems supposed to be embedded in a serpent's hood. S. 6
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