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SETUBANDHA
85
105. While the host of apes was busy stationing themselves on the seashore, Death touched Rāvana's head with his left hand.62
106-7. While Rāma's power and that of Rävaņa, unparalleled in the region encompassed by the Lokāloka mountain,63 expanded and receded respectively, divided by the intervening wall of Lankā,64 and when Rāma, beloved of the gods, crossed the ocean, like the moon that rose from it: 65 the disturbed sea assumed a serene beauty accompanied with splendour, (as it once did when
ly wine emerged with the goddess of wealth from its waters while it was churned).66
62. Indicates the ease with which Rāvana would be destroyed.
63. i.e., in the entire world. The mountain belt, called Lokāloka, is the circular boundary between Loka (the region illumined by the sun and other luminaries) and Aloka, the region of perpetual darkness. As the Bhāgavata says, 'it was placed by Isvara on the limit of the three worlds; and its height and breadth are such that the rays of the heavenly luminaries, from the sun to the polar star, which spread over the regions within the mountain, cannot penetrate beyond it.' See Visnupurāna, Bk. II, chap. 4 and Wilson's Trans, and Bhagavata 5.20. 34 ff. and the comm. of Sridharasvamin. Kalidāsa refers to the mountain in a simile in Raghu 1.68.
64. i.e., Rama's power extended as far as the wall of Lankā, while that of Rāvana was confined within the limits of the city.
65. i.e., during the churning of the ocean by the gods and demons.
66. Acc. to Kulanātha: When Rāma, beloved of the gods, like the moon, crossed the ocean, accompanied by the goddess of victory, the disturbed sea assumed a serene beauty, (as it did when the moon emerged with the goddess of wealth while it was churned).
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