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SETUBANDHA
29. With its streams it was filling the ocean that had been dried up by the heat of the sun of the epoch of destruction; the wide ocean, with the earth lifted out of its waters, and extremely deep, because the ooze was carried away by the Primeval Boar.22
30. The roar of lions filled the caves, making the elephants in the woods prick up their ears; while the direction from which the sound came being unknown, the deer fled straight on, but turned back, scared by the echoes.
31. The mountain was tinged with red by the pollen of the lotus blossoms; and on its lakes were heard the geese with their melodious notes. It was the favourite resort of lions pouncing on their prey. It was verdant with woods drenched with spray wafted by the sea breeze.
32. It had caves that seemed to be divisions of the world, with portions of the sea entering them, the firmament visible inside, the ten regions of the sky included in them, and the sun rising and setting within their confines.
33. The brooks on the summit, issuing by degrees and growing in volume, were sweet at the source, and briny in their onward course, being overrun by the surging sea.
34. It was brightened by the lustre of its jewels, and shaken by the massive hoods of the serpent Ananta as it turned about
(under the weight).22 Lotus beds expanded on its lakes, and the rust from the wheels of the Sun's chariot adhered to the creepers on the slopes.
35. The sky-blue sapphire slopes, gleaming all around, and enveloped in a mirage, looked like lakes, with the buffaloes, oppressed with the heat, seeking a path for descending into them.23
36. There, the wild animals unleashed their fury on objects similar to themselves. The elephants crushed the Tamāla woods; the lions seized with their mouths fragments of the silver peaks; and the buffaloes hit the black rocks (with their horns).
21. i.e., the Boar incarnation of Vişnu while lifting the earth submerged in the ocean.
22. i.e., while sustaining the earth made heavier by the mountain. 23. i.e., the animals mistook the blue rocks for a sheet of water.
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