12. He had the name of Suraghu, and was mighty in quelling his brave and dreadful enemies; he was powerful as the sun, and as strong as the god of wind in his figure. 13. He surpassed the lord of the Guhyakas—Kuvera, in the extent of his kingdom, his dignity and riches; he was greater than the guru of the lord of gods in his wisdom, and excelled the preceptor of the Asuras in learning. 14. He discharged his kingly duties, by giving rewards and punishments of the deserts of his men as they appeared to him; and was as firm in the acquittal of these duties, as the sun in making the day and his daily course. 15. He considered in himself the pain and pleasure, that his punishments and rewards caused his people; and to which they were like birds caught in nets from their freedom of flight. 16. “Why do I perforce pierce the hearts of my people,” he said, as they bruise the sesamum seeds for oil; it is plain that all persons are susceptible of pain and affliction like myself? 17. Yes, they are all capable of pain, and therefore I will cease to inflict them any more; but give them riches and please all persons. 18. But if I refrain to punish the tormentors of the good, they are sure to be extirpated by the wicked, as the bed of the channel is dried up for want of rain. 19. Oh! the painful dilemma in which I am placed, wherein my punishment and mercy to men are both grievous to me, or pleasing and unpleasing to me by turns. 20. Being in this manner much troubled in his mind, his thoughts disturbed his spirit like the waters in the whirlpools. 21. It happened at one time the sage Mándavya met him at his house, as the divine sage Nárada (the Mercury or messenger of gods), meets Indra in his celestial abode, in his journey through the regions of the sky. 22. The king honoured him with reverence, and then asked that great sage to remove his doubt, as they cut down a poisonous tree in the garden, with the stroke of the axe at its roots. 23. Suraghu said:—I am supremely blest, O sage, at this call of thine at mine, which has made me as joyous as the visit of the spring on the surface of the earth, and gives a fresh bloom to the fading forest. 24. Thy visit, O sage! has really made me more blest than the blessed, and gives my heart to bloom, as the rising sun opens the closed petals of the lotus. 25. Thou oh lord! art acquainted with all truths and art quite at rest in thy spirit; deign, therefore to remove this doubt from my mind, as the sun displaces the darkness of night by his orient beams. 26. A doubt festering in the heart is said to be the greatest pain of man, and this pain is healed only in the society of the good and wise. 27. The thoughts of my rewards and punishments to my dependents, have been incessantly tormenting my heart, as the scratches inflicted by the nails of a lion, are always afflicting to the bruised body of the elephant.