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SETUBANDHA 32. The mountains dropped into the sea, with the lotus beds at the summit withered, because the water of the lakes had run out through the bottom split by the commotion; while the peaks, with the panic-stricken elephants clinging to them, cracked and collapsed.
33. Rent by the impact of the mountains, the sea roared and overflowed its shore and swirled, dashing over the rugged ground. It was reduced to the condition of being churned; only did not bring forth nectar.19
34. Lo, even the preparation to reach the city of the demons caused formidable efforts. Mountains were uprooted and cast into the sea, and the ocean uttered terrible groans in peril of its life,
35. Pushed by the apes, the mountains, covered with the fragrant pollen of the flowers, tumbled into the sea as their slabs of gold, shattered by the impact, rose aloft, flashing across the sky.
36. The cries of the apes swelled, and the sea rolled with the submarine fire rolling; while the mountains dropped, with the cascades shooting up, and the trees stretched out by the wind.
37. Exhilarated by the sap of the broken and crushed sandal trees, the fish of the large streams,20 returning after being thrown far into the sea, and briskly splashing about, tasted the brackish water of the sea.
38. Green at the top because of the trees, and tinged with red by the gems embedded in the hoods of the serpents, and bereft of sunlight in the caves, the mountains tumbled into the sea, with their rugged slopes crumbling to pieces.
39. As the earth slanted swiftly, and became unsteady all of a sudden, when the waters of the ocean were flung up by the impact of the mountains, it was somehow held up by the lord of the serpents by changing its posture.21
19. As in days of old. 20. i.e., the streams of the mountains thrown into the sea.
21. The serpent Ananta bears the earth poised on its numerous hoods. It is fancied that at the moment when the waters of the sea rushed upward, leaving the bed empty, the earth, becoming lighter on one side, lost its equilibrium, which was restored by Ananta by adjusting its hoods.
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