The earth said:—O hero, forsooth shall I carry out all that you have said. If works are undertaken along with the means they always prove a success (8). So do you resort to the means by which all the subjects may be protected. Behold this my calf. Being attached to it I shall give milk (9), O you foremost of the pious, do you level my surface all over, so that my milk may reach everywhere (10). Vaishampāyana said:—Thereupon Vena’s son, with the end of his bow, uprooted thousands of hills for which they multiplied greatly (in number) (11). Vena’s son Prithu then levelled the surface of the earth. In the past Manwantara she was of uneven surface (12). The earth was by nature both even and uneven; such was her state in Chakshusha Manwantara (13). The earth having been uneven in the previous Manwantara there existed no regular division of the cities and villages (14). There was no corn, no rearing of kine, agriculture or trade. There was neither truth, untruth, avarice nor pride (15). O king, now with the advent of Vaivaswata Manwantara, agriculture, trade and the keeping of kine have originated from Vena’s son Prithu (16). O sinless one, at that time people desired to makes their habitations at all those places of the earth which were levelled (17). Then with great difficulty people could live upon fruits and roots. This I have heard (18). Having converted the Manu Swayambhuva into a calf the powerful son of Vena, Prithu, the foremost of men, milched the earth for all sorts of corns with his own hands (19). On that food, O my child, the people are daily living even now. I have heard the earth was again milched by the Rishis. Soma became their calf; the son of Angiras, the highly energetic Vrihaspati, milched her. The Vedas were the vessels, O descendant of Bharata, and the eternal devotion to Brahman was the incomparable milk (20-21). I have heard she was again milched by all the celestials headed by Purandara with golden vessels (in their hands) (22). Then Maghavān (Indra) became the calf and the lord Sun milched her. A continued flow of milk came out on which the Devas are living (23). I have heard the earth was again milched by the ancestral manes of unlimited prowess, with silver vessels (in their hands) (24). The powerful son of Vivaswat became the calf and Antaka, the destroyer of Lokas (worlds), milched her (26). O foremost of men, I have heard, that making Takshaka the calf, the Nāgas milched her with the cavity of their palms as vessels and got poison for the milk (26). O foremost of Bharatas, O king, the powerful Airavata Dhritarashtra became the milcher when the Nāgas and serpents milched her (27). By that poison the huge serpents of deadly venom are living their dreadful lives. They live on poison, they give out poison and poison constitutes their energy (23). I have heard that the earth was again milched by Asuras with iron vessels for the illusory power capable of over-powering the enemies (29).