Part 19: Sagara’s return to Vinītā (Ayodhyā)

The lord of the fourteen jewels and of the nine treasures, served by thirty-two thousand kings, possessing the same number of wives of royal birth and accompanied by the same number of women of the people, lord of thirty-two thousand peoples, ruler of seventy-two thousand excellent cities, overlord of ninety-nine thousand towns accessible by both water and land,^[1] lord of forty-eight thousand towns accessible by land or water, protector of twenty-four thousand poor towns and isolated villages, lord of fourteen thousand grain-warehouses, defender of sixteen thousand earth walled towns, and sole master of twenty thousand mines, leader of forty-nine poor dominions, protector of fifty-six island settlements, having won the suzerainty of ninety-six crores of villages, attended by ninety-six crores of foot-soldiers, covering the earth with eighty-four lacs of elephants, horses, and chariots each, following the path of the cakra-jewel, the Cakrin returned, like a boat filled with great wealth from an island.

Sagara reached the city Vinītā like a wife, hastening on comfortably with daily marches of a yojana, possessing a wealth of suitable articles produced by village-chiefs, governors of fortresses, and sovereigns on the road, like the moon of the second day;^[2] his arrival announced from afar by the dust from the soldiers in front which extended to the sky, like chamberlains; deafening the heavens, as it were, by neighings, trumpetings, proclamations by bards, and the noise of musical instruments streaming forth as if in rivalry. Establishing his camp on the edge of Vinītā, like the ocean at its boundary, the King remained, a mountain of power.