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50
SETUBANDHA
14. "Wise one, my fortitude12 hath caused me a greater woe than even my physical suffering13 in that I have thereby somehow ruffled thy countenance, serene by nature.
15. "So save these waters, capable of inundating the world, and stored up for the deluge, that also allay thy fatigue caused by a thousand such tasks on behalf of the gods.14
16. "The sea floor is impassable not only when I am full of water,15 but even when I am dried up, because its foundation is unstable, and the ground splits wherever it is trodden.
17. So after a causeway composed of mountains hath been built, let the god of death anyhow plant his foot on Rävaņa;16 it hath been held back for long, after it had slid off his partly severed tenth head.'17
18,19. When the ocean, unfathomable in the world, became calm, subdued by Rāma with his arrows, because the latter was wroth against Rāvana, even as the invincible Vālin was chastised in the presence of Sugrīva; then Rāma's command (to build a causeway), proclaimed by Sugrīva, lay heavy on the apes; even as the earth, heavy-laden with the riches of the universe, rests on the serpents, when it is shifted from the hood of Ananta. 18
20. Thereupon the apes moved forward, shaking their massive hair, which first bristled with joy, and was parted by the speed of their march, spreading out with the hairs distinct.
21. As the peaks of the Malaya, which were shaken when the earth was convulsed by the apes, tumbled into the waters the
12. As seen in his resistance to Rāma. 13. Lit. condition.
14. The ocean is the resting place of Vişnu with whom Rāina is identified.
15. The reading salila-nibbhara ccia is followed. See Extracts. 16. Lit. let the foot of the god of death rest on Rāvana.
17. Rāvana had cut off nine of his heads to please Śiva, and was slashing the tenth when he was deterred by the god with a boon. Yama, balked of his prey, is waiting for another opportunity which will be provided when the suggested bridge to Lankā is built.
18. The great serpent that sustains the weight of the earth. Here, it is fancicd as sharing the burden with other serpents.
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