Chapter CLVIII - Fall of the huge body of the hunter

Argument:—The aerial body of the Hunter, and its downfall from the high heaven.

The sage resumed and said:—

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I have thus related these future events, as if they were past accounts unto thee; do now, O huntsman what thou wishest and thinkest best for thyself.

Agni the god of fire said:—

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Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman remained aghast in wonder for a while; and then rising with the sage, went to bathe themselves to the nearest pool.

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In this manner they continued together, to conduct their religious austerities and discussions at the same spot; and remained in terms of disinterested friendship with one another.

After some time the muni met with his final extinction said:—

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nirvana, and by casting off his mortal body, obtained his last repose in the state of transcendent tranquillity.

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In course of time and the lapse of ages, it pleased the god Brahma to give him a call, in order to confer upon him the object of his desire.

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The huntsman being unable to resist the impulse of his longing, begged to obtain the very same boon of his god which the sage had predicted to him.

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Be it so, said the god, and he repaired to his favourite abode; and the huntsman flew aloft into the open air, in order to enjoy the fruition of his austere devotion.

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He flew with incredible velocity, to the extensive vacuous space, which lies beyond the spheres of worlds; and it was in course of an incalculable duration, that the ever expanding bulk of his body, filled the regions of the upper sky, as a mountainous range is stretched along and across this lower world.

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He fled with the force and swiftness of the great Garuda (the eagle of Jove), up and down and to all sides of heaven: until the huge bulk of his body, occupied the whole area of the open air, in the process of an indefinite period of time.

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Thus increasing in his size with the course of time, and infatuated in the maze of his delusion, began to grow uneasy in himself.

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From the great anxiety of his mind, he suppressed the respiration of his breath; until he breathed out his last breath of life in the air, and his body dropped down as a carcass in the nether earth.

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His mind accompanied with his vital breath, fled through the air into the body of Sindhu, who became the ruler of the whole earth, and the great antagonist of Viduratha.

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His great body resembling a hundred mountainous ranges, became a huge mass of carcass; which fell down with the hideous clattering of thunders, as one earth falling upon another.

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At a certain time, it shines as a Kesandraka, at others it appears as a covering of the huge range of buildings in sky.

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I have already related to thee, O learned sir, how this huge carcass had fallen from above, and filled the surface of the globe of this earth.

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The globe of the earth, where upon this huge carcass had fallen, resembled in every way this earth of ours, which appears unto us as a city in our dream.

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The dry and big bellied goddess chandi, then devoured this carcass, filling her bowels with its flesh, and stuffing her entrails with its red hot blood.

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The earth is called medini or fleshy from the flesh of this corpse, which overspreads its surface with its prodigious bulky frame.

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It was this huge fleshy body, which was reduced to the substance of the earth in time; and had the name of the earth given to it from the dust of this body.

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This fleshy earth gave rise to forests and habitable parts; and the fossil bones rose high in the forms of mountains from underneath the ground, which grew everything useful to men.