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148
CHAPTER FOUR with half his army. The general, his hands folded in submission, accepted the King's command on his head like a wreath. Famous in Bhāratavarşa, bold and powerful like wind, with intense splendor like the sun, knowing the dialects of all the Mlecchas, learned in all the alphabets, possessing varied and beautiful speech like the son of Sarasvati, knowing the entrances and exits of inaccessible places in land and water of all the divisions 804 present in Bharatakşetra, skilled in all weapons like embodied Dhanurveda, having bathed, having performed the propitiatory rites of the tilaka and auspicious things, wearing a few pearl ornaments like the bright fortnight constellations, resolute, carrying a bow like a cloud with a rainbow, carrying the jewel called ' skin' like the ocean with a mass of coral, and adorned besides with the raised staff like a pool with a white lotus, shining with chauris like tilákas of sandal on his shoulders, making the sky resound with sounds of musical instruments, like a cloud with thunder, accompanied by the fourfold army, the general mounted the best elephant and went close to the river Sindhu.
Then the general touched the skin-jewel with his own hand, and it grew and became the shape of a boat on the Sindhu. The general with his army crossed the Sindhu by it as easily as the chief of yogis crosses the boundless ocean of existence by yoga. As a rutting elephant leaves an iron pillar, the powerful general left the bank of the Sindhu, unstumbling. The general invaded the Sinhalokas, the Barbarakas, Tankaņas and others, and Yayanadvipa. At will he made the Kālamukhas, the Jonakas, and various Mleccha-tribes living on Vaitādhya pay tribute. The
also follows the Jamb. The general conquers first the north division, then they march through Khandaprapātā, subdue the nine tre and then the general conquers the south Gangāniskuta. In the second parvan, Sagara follows the same route, though the description is much briefer.
304 157. Cf. I. 4. 252. In this case the use of nişkuța is not so inappropriate as in the former. Cf. I, n. 291, and G.G.A., 32, p. 295.
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