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CONQUEST OF BHARATAVARȘA BY SAGARA 139
Conquest of Māgadhatīrtha (29-82) Sagara went to the bath-house and bathed with pure water like Airavata 289 in the stream of the Gangā. His body polished like a jeweled pillar with a divine cloth, the King put on two divine spotless garments. Perfumers anointed the King with gośirşa-sandal essence clear as moonlight. The King adorned his ornaments by contact with his body. Even ornaments gain luster by being in the best place.
At an auspicious moment, after an auspicious ceremony had been performed by the family-priest, the King mounted the elephant-jewel, carrying the sword-jewel, for the expedition of universal conquest. Mounting the horsejewel, carrying the staff-jewel, the general-jewel set out in front of the King. The priest-jewel, resembling the sun for removing the frost of all calamities, set out with the King. The steward-jewel, able to provide meals for the army at every camp, like a living Citrarasa wishingtree, set out with them. The carpenter, resembling Viśvakarman turned into a jewel, possessing power competent to make cities, etc., at once, went along. The umbrella- and skin-jewels, which expand from a touch of the hand, like clouds from the touch of a favorable wind, went along. The gem- and cowrie-jewels,201 able to destroy darkness, resembling the suns of Jambūdvipa diminished in size, accompanied him. The women of his household, like the shadow of the Cakrin's body, went along, like a retinue of many slaves that had come from the Amazonian kingdom. The cakra, like the King's prestige, went ahead toward the east, its conquest of the heavens not repelled, lighting the sky from afar.
Causing the sky-elephants to flap their pricked-up
280 29. Or perhaps indrakunjara is an inverted cmpd. here, rather than Airāvata.
200 36. See I, p. 30. 201 39. See I, pp. 233 ff., and notes 295 and 296.
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