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SETUBANDHA
64. Having long battered the sides of the causeway, and thrown up the trees, the waves, tinged with the colour of the minerals, 41 died away after rolling far into the sea.
65. The deer (on the mountains of the causeway) looked at the ocean, and the people at Nala, all together, with eyes full of fear lest the mountains should topple down; and the waters of the streams 2 that cascaded far into the sea rose aloft as they
shed (against the waves) to the music provided by the jubilation of the apes.43
66-70. Thus did they build Nala's Way. Its mighty structure was built with heaps of mountains uprooted from the entire earth; and, in contact with its reflection was darkened a part of the waters even in the depths of the sea.
The tail fins of the fish were lopped off, violently hit by the rocks falling sideways from the causeway; while the serpents, rent in twain by a rock, split it with the pressure of their coils. (67)
The lions chased the elephants who, when seized, ran away in the confusion caused by the uprooting of the mountains; 44 while torrents of water poured down from the rumbling clouds, settling on the peaks of the mountains, and wafted to the causeway, because they were pressed by other mountains that followed.45 (68)
The cascades46 gushed forth in twin streams, because their outlets were blocked by the elephants that fell beside them; while the sections of the Malaya peaks could be distinguished by the sandal groves standing in between the mountains.47 (69)
.
41. Those embedded in the mountains of the causeway. 42. Those on the mountains of the causeway.
43. Ramadāsa refers to a belief that water rises to the sound of niusical instruments.
44. i.e., while the mountains were uprooted and brought to the causeway..
45. The clouds are fancied as accompanying the mountains carried to the causeway through the air, closely followed by other mountains, as described in Canto VI.
46. Those on the mountains of the causeway.
47. i.e., sandal trees were visible on the peaks of the Malaya mountain interspersed in the causeway.
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