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Then the Lord of Varadāma, like the Lord of Māgadha, saw the words there on the Cakrin's arrow. When he had seen these words, the Lord of Varadāma at once became calm, like a snake that had seen a nāgadamaniplant,288 and spoke as follows: “Like a frog eager to give a slap to a black snake; like a ram desiring to strike an elephant with its horns; like an elephant wanting to throw down a mountain with its tusks; I, feeble-minded, wish to struggle with the Cakravartin Bharata. May nothing of ours be destroyed today.” Saying this, he ordered his people to bring divine gifts. Then taking the arrow and wonderful gifts, he went to the son of Rşabha, as Indra went to Sri Rşabha-bannered. Bowing, he said to him, “Today I have come here summoned by the arrow as if by your messenger, O Indra of the earth. That I did not come of myself to you come here, O King, pardon me, ignorant, for that. Ignorance covers a fault. Now you have been attained as master by me who had no master, like a refuge by a tired man, like a full pond by a thirsty man, O Master. From today, O Lord, established here by you, I shall remain guarding your boundary, as a mountain guards the ocean-shore.” With these words, feeling intense devotion to the Lord of Bharata, he handed over the arrow like a deposit previously made. He gave the King a jeweled girdle which lighted up the sky radiantly as if woven from the light of the sun. Before the Lord of Bharata he made a shining heap of pearls, like his own glory collected over a long period. He gave the King a heap of jewels which had a dazzling, spreading light like the ocean's wealth. The King took all that, and favored the Lord of Varadāma and established him in that very place like a monument to himself. After speaking graciously to the Lord of Varadāma and dismissing him,
Supposed to
288 178. The Artemisia vulgaris, or wormwood. be an antidote for snake-bite.
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