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Watched by the soldiers and the gods filled with terror at these thoughts, the King hit the Cakrin on the head with the staff. As a result of this violent blow with the staff, the Cakravartin entered the ground up to his neck like a nail struck by a hammer. The Master's (Bharata's) attendants, sorrowful, fell to the ground, as if thinking, "Give us the same kind of a hole that was given to our master." The Cakravartin being buried in the ground, like the Sun devoured by Rāhu, a great tumult arose from men on earth and gods in the sky. His eyes closed, his face dark, the Lord of six-part Bharata remained in the ground for a moment, as if from shame. After a moment he left the ground, shining with light, like the sun at daybreak. Then he reflected, "I have been defeated by him in all the contests, like a blind gambler in gambling. Why should Bharatakṣetra have been conquered by me for his benefit, like durvā-grass consumed by the cow for the benefit of the milkman ? Two Cakravartins at the same time have never been seen nor heard of in this Bharatakşetra, like two swords in one scabbard. Indra is conquered by the gods and the Cakravartin by kings! Formerly, this was as unheard of as a horned donkey. Am I, defeated by him, not to be Cakravartin ? Unconquered by me, invincible to all, he will be Cakravartin."
As he was thinking this, the cakra was brought and put into his hand by the Yakṣa-kings, as if they had been wish-jewels. Thinking himself a cakrin from confidence in the cakra, he whirled it in the sky, like a whirlwind a circle of pollen from lotuses. Like an inopportune fire at the end of the world, like another submarine fire, like a sudden fire from a thunderbolt, just like a mass of meteors, like a falling sun, like a wandering ball of lightning, terrifying from its mass of flame, the cakra appeared in the sky. When he perceived
868 699. See below, n. 410.
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