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one stone of such a size. With a surface as smooth as the hand, very hard like a diamond, it appeared to be made from the doors of the cave's entrance. The Cakravartin with his army crossed the rivers, though difficult to cross, with perfect ease, in the manner of the rule for compounding words of connected meaning. 800
Gradually advancing with the army, the King arrived at the cave's north entrance resembling the mouth of the north quarter. The doors opened at once of their own accord as if terrified after hearing the noise of the blow on the doors of the south entrance. Opening, they made the sound 'sarat, sariti, as if hurrying the departure (saraņa) of the Cakrin's_army. The doors were joined with the side-walls of the cave so closely that they appeared not to be there. Then the cakra, preceding the Cakravartin, came out of the cave first like the sun out of a cloud. The supreme lord of the powerful departed by the cave-entrance, like Bali by the chasm to Pātāla. The elephants left the cave like a wood on the plateau of Vindhya with a fearless, easy gait. The horses left the cave prancing gracefully, resembling the horses of the sun leaving the ocean. The chariots also left the cave of Vaitāļhya, making the sky resound with their own noise, uninjured as if leaving a rich man's house. The infantry, very powerful, issued from the mouth of the cave like serpents from the mouth of an ant-hill suddenly burst open. Conquest of northern half of Bharatakşetra (335-459)
After traversing the cave fifty yojanas long, the King started to conquer the north half of Bharatavarşa. There
800 324. 'Samarthaḥ padavidhiḥ' is the name of a grammatical sūtra to the effect that complete words must have a connected meaning in order to be made into a compound. See. Haim. VII. 4.122 and Sid. dhānta Kaumudi, XVII. 647. The comparison does not seem very felicitous. The rivers represent two words which have been joined.
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