Part 2: Incarnation as Candraprabha (introduction)

Now, in the zone Bharata in this Jambūdvīpa there is a city Candrānana, resembling the face of the earth. In it shines a row of shops, rich with many jewels, like a vessel of the ocean with its wealth of water increased.^[1] And there are houses of various shapes and colors, as if numerous twilight-clouds had descended to earth. In its gardens are seen flying-ascetics engaged in pratimā, motionless from head to foot, like mountains in the form of men. Women became angry with their lovers, thinking, “This is another woman,” from their own reflections in its houses made of jewels.

In this city Mahāsena, by whose army the earth was covered, was king, like the ocean with an invincible crest-jewel. Splendor became devoted to his power constantly, like a servant, doing his work, a sign of conquest over the earth. While he, whose command was not transgressed, was ruling the earth, the people desisted from birth from taking another’s property. He was lord, like the ocean whose center is inaccessible, beautiful as the moon, like a wishing-tree, like an Indra of liberality. On his breast, broad as the leaf of a door, Ramā (Lakṣmī) sported constantly with her mind devoted solely to him, like a haṃsī on a sandy beach of the Gaṅgā.

He had a wife, named Lakṣmaṇā, who had all the favorable marks, surpassing the moon in fascinating beauty of face. Though possessing a body which was an unequaled stream of loveliness,^[2] she rained only nectar with her eye and speech. Walking very slowly, she made blooming mallows grow at every step with her feet, as it were. Her brow and gait were curved, but her mind was not crooked; her waist was small, but not the wealth of her intelligence. The important virtue of proper behavior adorned like a general her entire army of virtues surpassing everything.