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88
SETUBANDHA
14. The broad expanse of its base was sustained by Ananta's heavy hoods by turns; 11 while the other mountains were dashed to pieces, when uprooted and blown on to its lofty slopes by the winds of the epoch of destruction.
15. The huge buffaloes on the mountain lay still and refreshed as the water-filled clouds pressed against them; and the pearls that were inside the temples of the elephants, killed (by lions), stuck fast as they dried on the blood-stained slabs of stone.12
16. The colour of the young leaves of the trees faded slightly in contact with the briny sea spray; and the deer ran away, scared by the roar of lions, but stopped short, bending a leg, and pricking up their ears.
17. The mountain seemed to encompass the regions of the sky, 13 which stood within its limits, enveloped by its slopes, and enclosed within its sunlit caves.
18. It was vast in extent, and at night the flaming lustre of its gems spread far into the sky. The antelopes, lying at ease, nibbled the tips of grass on its peaks. It was rocked heavily by the arrows, with which Rāma in his wrath had cloven the sea asunder.14 It was drenched with oozings of nectar from the orb of the moon15 resting upon its summit.
19. Its foundations reached into the depths of the sea, and it was invisible16 at the top which was beyond the range of the rays of the sun, So its dimensions were half hidden in the sky as they were in the waters of the sea.
20. It was enveloped in a dense mass of fragrant vapour rising from the friction of the sandal trees swayed by the wind. The clouds that had partly absorbed the waters of the sea held on to its peaks, being heavy-laden at the other end.17
11. i.e., Ananta used its thousand hoods in turn to bear the weight of the mountain.
12. See verse 24.
13. Lit. seemed to stand all around the regions of the sky.
14. See Canto V.
15.
Cf. verse 10.
16. Or, bereft of light.
17. The clouds are fancied as clinging to the peaks because they were dragged down by the load at the lower end.
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