Staying in that mansion, that intelligent monkey, the offspring of the
Wind-god, beheld that splendid aerial car, beauteous with excellent
jewels, and furnished with windows of burnished gold. And the car,
embellished with transcendentally beautiful figures,--belauded by
Vicwakarma himself constituting the acme (of his art),--which, mounting
the welkin, looked like a mark of the Sun's orbit,--appeared .
resplendent. And there was nothing in that car which was not made
skilfully;--nothing that did not look like a precious jewel (sprung
spontaneously on its person),--and the style displayed in its various
parts surpassed anything that could be found in the cars of the
celestials themselves,--and everything in that car was executed in the
highest style of excellence--(that car) obtained (by Ravana) in virtue
of prowess sprung from asceticism and contemplation (of the Deity);
capable of repairing wherever (the owner) wished to wend; displaying
various kinds of constructive skill; composed of materials procured from
diverse sources,--such as were worthy of a celestial car; fleet-coursing
in consonance with the wish of its master; incapable of being
approached;[259] equal to the wind in celerity; the source of happiness
unto ious, high-souled, and pious ones--possessors of (word missing)
fineless'[260] and high rapture; coursing through the firmament in a
variety of ways,--the congeries of all wonderful things,--adorned with
ranges of chambers; captivating to the mind; stainless as the autumnal
Moon; furnished with splendid summits, like the crest of a mountain;
which was borne by rangers of the night, given to mighty meals, ranging
the sky, with faces graced with ear-rings; and by thousands of ghosts
possessed of terrible speed, having expansive, winkless and rolling
eyes. That heroic first of monkeys saw that excellent car, beauteous
with vernal blossoms,--fairer than the month of spring and furnished
with flowers.
[259] By the impious. Another reading is _duravaram_--incapable of being
approached by the enemy.--T.
[260] _Vide Othello_.--T.