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CHAPTER THREE practicing foolish penance, attacks my lord, considering him an enemy." Then the Nāga-king went with his wives to the Teacher of the World with speed, as if competing with the mind. Dharaṇa bowed to the Master and placed beneath his feet a tall lotus with erect stalk, resembling the seat of an omniscient. The serpent-king covered the Lord's back, sides, and breast with his own coils and made an umbrella with seven hoods over his head. The Blessed One, standing comfortably on the lotus with a stalk the length of the water, absorbed in meditation, looked like a rājahansa.
Dharaṇendra's wives, their minds penetrated by devotion, sang, danced, et cetera before Pārśva Svāmin. The loud sound of flutes and lutes, the intense sound of the drums spread there, imitating hand-clappings many-fold. A dance was displayed with various beautiful dance-steps, splendid with dramatic actions 346 of the hands, et cetera, with various angahāras and karaņas. Absorbed in meditation, the Lord remained indifferent to both the Nāga-lord Dharana and the Asura Meghamālin. This being so, when he saw Meghamālin raining angrily, the Nāga-king, angered, said to him with contempt:
“O villain, what is this undertaking for your own disadvantage, evil-minded wretch. I am the servant of the Compassionate. Henceforth, I will not tolerate it. What crime against you was committed by the Lord, when he showed the snake being burned inside the log, if you were prevented from sin at that time? Good advice then led to your hostility, villain, like rain-water on saline soil. You are an enemy for no reason to the Lord here who is a brother (to everyone) for no reason. Villain, if you have injured him in this way, you will die today.”
After hearing that speech, Meghamālin looked down and saw Pārśva standing so, attended by the Nāga-Indra. Terrified, he thought: “My power, great as it is, is useless against him, like that of the Payomucs (Meghamukhas), partisans
346 280. For abhinaya, see I, n. 235.
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