________________
SETUBANDHA
63
9. The volume of water that rushed skyward, thrown up by the mountain peaks (plunging into the sea), looked like a conglomeration of stars as it came down with the gems.
. 10. Swiftly flung by the apes, the mountains, encircled by their massive swirling cascades, seemed to move round in whirlpools even before reaching the sea.
11. Even before a group of mountains, brought together in an instant and thrown down, dropped into the sea, with the apes flying out5 empty-handed through the gaps between the peaks, another group of mountains gathered in the sky.
12. When the mountains were speedily thrown into the sea, their long, winding and broad tracks, deep down to the bottom, rumbled as they filled with wind,
13. Lifted and released by the apes, thousands of mountains, crumbling as they dashed against one another in the sky, plunged into the sea, as if stupefied with terror of the thunder-bolt.6
14. Grey with the pollen of the flowers swirling from the trees, the mountains, with the rocks and peaks torn asunder, dropped first, and thereafter their great streams stirred up by the wind.
15. Watched by the apes as they stood still, the mountains slowly disappeared in the sea, with their winding course distinctly visible amidst the clear waters.
16. The gems, rising to the surface, with their quivering filament-shaped rays emerging through the flower-like foam, showed that the ocean was stirred to its depths.
17. The sea rocked the earth as it did the shore; shattered the mountains as it broke the customary law;7 resorted to the sky
4. i.e., the gems that had gone up with the waters. 5. Lit. going out.
6. i.e., like the mountains of old, which had plunged into the sea to save their wings from the thunder-bolt of Indra. See 5.37.
7. That of not overflowing its shore. §. i.e., rose sky-high.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
