14. The loud lamentations of the friends of the dead, and the bitter cries of the dying, mixed with the clamour raised by the driving cars, elephants and horses, thickened in the air as a solid body of sound (pindagráhya). 15. Loud trumpets proclaimed the victory of Sindhu in every city, and announced his sole sovereignty all over the earth. 16. The high-shouldered Sindhu entered the capital as a second Manu (Noah), for re-peopling it after the all-devastating flood of war was over. 17. Then the tribute of the country poured into the city of Sindhu from all sides; and these loaded on horses and elephants, resembled the rich cargoes borne by ships to the sea. 18. The new king issued forthwith his circulars and royal edicts to all sides, struck coins in his own name, and placed his ministers as commissioners in all provinces. 19. His iron-rod was felt in all districts and cities like the inexorable rod of Yama, and it overawed the living with fear of instant death. 20. All insurrections and tumults in the realm, soon subsided to rest under his reign; as the flying dust of the earth and the falling leaves of trees, fall to the ground upon subsidence of a tempest. 21. The whole country on all sides was pacified to rest, like the perturbed sea of milk after it had been churned by the Mandara mountain. 22. Then there blew the gentle breeze of Malaya, unfurling the locks of the lotus-faced damsels of Sindhu’s realm, and wafting the liquid fragrance of their bodies around, and driving away the unwholesome air (of the carnage). CHAPTER LII. STATE OF MAN AFTER DEATH. Vasishtha said:—In the meanwhile, O Ráma! Lílá seeing her husband lying insensible before her and about to breathe his last, thus spoke to Sarasvatí: 2. Behold, O mother! my husband is about to shuffle his mortal coil in this perilous war, which has laid waste his whole kingdom. 3. Sarasvatí replied:—This combat that you saw to be fought with such fury, and lasting so long in the field, was neither fought in thy kingdom nor in any part of this earth. 4. It occurred nowhere except in the vacant space of the shrine, containing the dead body of the Bráhman; and where it appeared as the phantom of a dream only (in your imagination). 5. This land which appeared as the realm of thy living lord Vidúratha, was situated with all its territories in the inner apartment of Padma. (The incidents of Vidúratha’s life, being but a vision appearing to the departed spirit of Padma). 6. Again it was the sepulchral tomb of the Bráhman Vasishtha, situated in the hilly village of Vindhyá, that exhibited these varying scenes of the mortal world within itself. (_i.e._ As a panorama shows many sights to the eye, and one man playing many parts in the stage).