National Epics | Page 7

unsuccessfully, they proceeded to dig into the lower regions.
Cloven with shovel and with hoe, pierced by axes and by spades,
Shrieked the earth in frantic woe; rose from out the yawning shades
Yells of anguish, hideous roars from the expiring brood of hell,--
Serpents, giants, and asoors, in the deep abyss that dwell. Sixty
thousand leagues in length, all unweary, full of wrath, Through the
centre, in their strength, clove they down their hellward path. And
downward dug they many a rood, and downward till they saw aghast,
Where the earth-bearing elephant stood, ev'n like a mountain tall and
vast. 'T is he whose head aloft sustains the broad earth's forest-clothed
round, With all its vast and spreading plains, and many a stately city
crowned. If underneath the o'erbearing load bows down his weary head,
't is then The mighty earthquakes are abroad, and shaking down the
abodes of men. Around earth's pillar moved they slowly, and thus in
humble accents blest Him the lofty and the holy, that bears the region
of the East. And southward dug they many a rood, until before their

shuddering sight The next earth-bearing elephant stood, huge
Mahapadmas' mountain height. Upon his head earth's southern bound,
all full of wonder, saw they rest. Slow and awe-struck paced they round,
and him, earth's southern pillar, blest. Westward then their work they
urge, king Sagara's six myriad race, Unto the vast earth's western verge,
and there in his appointed place The next earth-bearing elephant stood,
huge Saumanasa's mountain crest; Around they paced in humble mood,
and in like courteous phrase addrest, And still their weary toil endure,
and onward dig until they see Last earth-bearing Himapandure,
glorying in his majesty.
_At last they reach the place where Vishnu appears with the horse. A
flame issues from the mouth of the indignant deity and destroys the six
myriad sons of Sagara, The adventure devolves on their brother
Ansuman, who achieves it with perfect success. He is permitted to lead
away the horse, but the ashes of his brothers cannot be purified by
earthly water; the goddess Ganga must first be brought to earth, and
having undergone lustration from that holy flood, the race of Sagara are
to ascend to heaven. Brahma at last gives his permission to Ganga to
descend. King Bhagiratha takes his stand on the top of Gokarna, the
sacred peak of Himavan (the Himalaya), and here_--
Stands with arms outstretch'd on high, amid five blazing fires, the one
Towards each quarter of the sky, the fifth the full meridian sun. Mid
fiercest frosts on snow he slept, the dry and withered leaves his food,
Mid rains his roofless vigil kept, the soul and sense alike subdued. High
on the top of Himavan the mighty Mashawara stood; And "Descend,"
he gave the word to the heaven-meandering water-- Full of wrath the
mandate heard Himavan's majestic daughter. To a giant's stature
soaring and intolerable speed, From heaven's height down rushed she,
pouring upon Siva's sacred head, Him the goddess thought in scorn
with her resistless might to sweep By her fierce waves overborne, down
to hell's remotest deep.
Down on Sankara's holy head, down the holy fell, and there, Amid the
entangling meshes spread, of his loose and flowing hair, Vast and
boundless as the woods upon the Himalaya's brow, Nor ever may the
struggling floods rush headlong to the earth below. Opening, egress
was not there, amid those winding, long meanders. Within that
labyrinthine hair, for many an age, the goddess wanders.

_By the penances of the king, Siva is propitiated, and the stream, by
seven channels, finds its way to the plains of India_.
Up the Raja at the sign upon his glittering chariot leaps, Instant Ganga
the divine follows his majestic steps. From the high heaven burst she
forth first on Siva's lofty crown, Headlong then, and prone to earth
thundering rushed the cataract down, Swarms of bright-hued fish came
dashing; turtles, dolphins in their mirth, Fallen or falling, glancing,
flashing, to the many-gleaming earth. And all the host of heaven came
down, spirits and genii, in amaze, And each forsook his heavenly
throne, upon that glorious scene to gaze. On cars, like high-towered
cities, seen, with elephants and coursers rode, Or on soft swinging
palanquin, lay wondering each observant god. As met in bright divan
each god, and flashed their jewell'd vestures' rays, The coruscating
aether glow'd, as with a hundred suns ablaze. And with the fish and
dolphins gleaming, and scaly crocodiles and snakes, Glanc'd the air, as
when fast streaming the blue lightning shoots and breaks: And in ten
thousand sparkles bright went flashing up the cloudy spray, The snowy
flocking swans less white, within its glittering mists at play. And
headlong now poured down the flood, and now in silver