(Astika Parva continued)
Sauti said, "And then Indra, the king of gods, having the best of horses
for his bearer, thus adored by Kadru, covered the entire firmament with
masses of blue clouds. And he commanded the clouds, saying, 'Pour ye, your
vivifying and blessed drops!' And those clouds, luminous with lightning,
and incessantly roaring against each other in the welkin, poured abundant
water. And the sky, in consequence of those wonderful and terribly-roaring
clouds that were incessantly begetting vast quantities of water, looked as
if the end of Yuga had come. And in consequence of the myriads of waves
caused in the falling torrents, the deep roar of the clouds, the flashes
of lightning, the violence of the wind, and the general agitation, the sky
looked as if dancing in madness. The sky became overcast, and the rays of
the Sun and the Moon totally disappeared in consequence of that incessant
downpour.
"And upon Indra's causing that downpour, the Nagas became exceedingly
delighted. And the Earth was filled with water all around. And the cool,
clear water reached even the nether regions. And there were countless
waves of water all over the Earth. And the snakes with their mother
reached (in safety) the island called Ramaniyaka."
And so ends the twenty-sixth section in the Astika Parva of the Adi Parva.