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SETUBANDHA
. 133 on account of their vehement speed, dropped on the ground only after they had passed.
73. The apes surmised from the banners rising high in the sky from within the city wall that the demons were mounted on the armoured elephants arrayed in battle formation.43
74. The sound of the approach of the host of apes, spreading as their feet rose and fell, followed the course of the wind; harsh with the crash of trees, 44 and growing louder as it reverberated from the earth.
75. The moats of Lankā looked like the brooks streaming down the damaged Suvela mountain45 and meardering on all sides, because their bejewelled embankments were smashed down by the apes, and the water poured into the neighbouring hollows. 46
76. The long-preserved footprints of Indra, who had fled from battle (with Rāvana) could only be effaced by the apes, who swiftly demolished the interior of the fortified gate of the city.47
77. The city of the demons, with the remaining banners flying inside the wall, was reduced to a state in which the flame of Ravana's might seemed to be quenched by the waters of the moat, which was encircled in a moment by the apes.
78. Beleaguered by the serried ranks of the apes, resembling massive mountain peaks, the city of the demons seemed to have the moat lying between twin walls.48
79. The host of apes, vast as it spread out, formed a circle round Lanka's wall, massing close together, and allotting the wide gates to the leaders).
43. The banners were held up on the back of the elephants.
44. i.e. the trees carried as weapons and broken during the march, Cf. verse 72.
45. i.e. trampled by the apes. 46. Lit, the apes made the moats look like etc.
47. The footprints were preserved at the place from where Indra had fled. Krşna interprets the phrase as the captured royal insignia of Indra preserved inside the structure as a trophy. See Extracts.
48. i.e., the existing wall and the surrounding apes on the other side of the moat, looking like another wall,
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