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THE RECOVERY OF DRAUPADI
275 terrified, thought, “ Is this a dream or sorcery?” Padmanābha said: “Do not fear, doe-eyed lady. I had you brought here. Enjoy pleasures with me. This is the continent Dhātakikhanda, the city Amarakankā. I am Padmanābha, king here. Now I wish to become your husband.” Draupadi, quick-witted, said: “If none of my people come after a month, I shall do as you say.”
Reflecting, “ It is impossible for men living in Jambadvipa to come here,” Padma deceitfully agreed to that speech. “I, made husbandless, shall not enjoy pleasures at the end of a month," Draupadi vowed, very rich in wifely fidelity.
The Pāņdavas, when they did not see Draupadi in the house at dawn, made a thorough search in water, on land, in forests, et cetera. They did not find news of her and their mother told Sārngin. He alone is their refuge and a brother to the distressed. While Krşņa was still bewildered by the business, Muni Nārada came there to see the trouble caused by himself. Asked by Vişņu, “Have you seen Draupadi any where?” he said: “I went to the city Amarakankā in Dhātakikhanda. There I saw Drupada's daughter in the house of King Padma.” With these words, he flew up and went elsewhere.
Kșşņa said to the Pāņdavas: “ Draupadi has been kidnaped by Padma. I will get her back. Do not worry at all.” Then Vişņu, surrounded by a great army, went with the Pāņdavas to the shore of the Eastern Ocean, called Māgadha. The Pāņdavas said to Kșşņa: “Master, this ocean, violent, very terrifying, is uncrossable like worldly existence. In some places in it mountains are submerged like clods; in some places there are sea-monsters like mountains. In some places there is a submarine fire by which a promise to dry it up has been made; in some places there are Velandhara-gods, like fishermen. In it vessels 264 resembling water-jars are lifted up by
264 30 Ghana. Exactly what ghana means here, I do not know. I can find no authorized meaning that makes sense, but they are surely the same objects described in II, p. 114.
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