(112) Like hell, he was the refuge of the lords of earth, [397]
fearing when their soaring pride was shorn; [398] like the stars, he
was followed by the wise men; [399] like Love, he destroyed strife;
[400] like Daçaratha, he had good friends; [401] (113) like Çiva,
he was followed by a mighty host; [402] like Çesha, he had the weight
of the earth upon him; [403] like the stream of Narmada, his descent
was from a noble tree. [404] He was the incarnation of Justice, the
very representative of Vishnu, the destroyer of all the sorrows of
his people. He re-established justice, which had been shaken to its
foundations by the Kali Age, set on iniquity, and mantled in gloom
by the spread of darkness, just as Çiva re-established Kailasa when
carried off by Ravana. He was honoured by the world as a second Kama,
created by Çiva when his heart was softened by the lamentations
of Rati.
(113-115) Before him bowed conquered kings with eyes whose pupils were
tremulous and quivering from fear, with the bands of the wreaths on
their crest ornaments caught by the rays of his feet, and with the line
of their heads broken by the lotus-buds held up in adoration. They
came from the Mount of Sunrise, [405] which has its girdle washed
by the ocean waves, where the flowers on the trees of its slopes are
doubled by stars wandering among the leaves, where the sandal-wood is
wet with the drops of ambrosia that fall from the moon as it rises,
where the clove-trees [406] blossom when pierced by the hoofs of
the horses of the sun's chariot, where the leaves and shoots of the
olibanum-trees are cut by the trunk of the elephant Airavata; (114)
from Setubandha, built with a thousand mountains seized by the hand
of Nala, [407] where the fruit on the lavali-trees is carried off by
monkeys, where the feet of Rama are worshipped by the water-deities
coming up from the sea, and where the rock is starred with pieces
of shell broken by the fall of the mountain; from Mandara, where the
stars are washed by the waters of pure waterfalls, where the stones are
polished by the rubbing of the edge of the fish ornament of Krishna
rising at the churning of ambrosia, where the slopes are torn by the
weight of the feet moving in the effort of drawing hither and thither
Vasuki coiled in the struggles of Gods and demons, where the peaks are
sprinkled with ambrosial spray; from Gandhamadana, beautiful with the
hermitage of Badarika marked with the footprints of Nara and Narayana,
where the peaks are resonant with the tinkling of the ornaments of
the fair dames of Kuvera's city, where the water of the streams is
purified by the evening worship of the Seven Rishis, and where the
land around is perfumed by the fragments of lotuses torn up by Bhima.