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ŚRĪ DHARMANĀTHACARITRA
147
Just then Niśumbha recalled the cakra, like Vajrin recalling the thunderbolt, voracious with its blazing row of flames, terrible with its sharp edge. Whirling it, which had appeared just from being recalled, on his finger in the air, Niśumbha made a terrifying speech arrogantly:
"You are to be pitied, you are a boy. What disgrace would it be to you if you retreat? So go, or serve me. Do you not have even a dog that gives advice to you split even mountains with this cakra when it is discharged, to say nothing of you tender as a young gourd."
I
Puruṣasinha said: "The strength of you who are roaring aloud in this way, and the strength of the cakra must be seen. What have you done with other weapons? This cakra is carried by you like a rainbow by a cloud. What will it do to me, fool! Throw it! I shall see its uselessness."
Niśumbha, to whom Puruşasinha had spoken such harsh words, hurled the cakra at him with all his strength, wishing to destroy him. Striking Hari's breast with the tip of the hub, like an elephant striking the slope of the Vindhya Mountains, it immediately became useless. Then Puṇḍarīkākṣa fell in a swoon, his eyes half-closed, and was sprinkled by Muśalāstra with gośīrṣa-sandal. Conscious again, he got up, took the cakra in his hand, and said to Niśumbha, "Do not stay! Go! Go!" Niśumbha said, "Throw it! Throw it!" and then he, the fifth Ardhacakrin, cut off his head with the cakra. At once a rain of flowers fell from the sky on the head of Hari, the chief of the bold, which resembled laughter of the Śrī of Victory.
Expedition of conquest (189–193)
Just by a procession of conquest, Visņu subdued the half of Bharata. For the purpose of the noble bears fruit a thousandfold. Returning from the expedition of conquest, Hari came to the Magadhas and lifted with his arm a stone, that needed a crore of men to lift it, as easily as a clay-dish. Covering the earth with his horses, Hari
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