the Trigartas, the Martikavatas, counting by thousand, slew them all by means of his whetted shafts.  Proceeding from province to province, fie thus slew thousands of crores of Kshatriyas.  Creating a deluge of blood and filling many lakes also with blood as red as Indrajopakas or the wild fruit called Vandujiva, and bringing all the eighteen islands (of which the earth is composed) under his subjection, that son of Bhrigu’s race performed a hundred sacrifices of great merit, all of which he completed and in all of which the presents he made unto the Brahmanas were profuse.  The sacrificial altar, eighteen nalas high made entirely of gold, and constructed according to the ordinance, full of diverse kinds of jewels and gems, and decked with hundreds of standards, and this earth abounding in domestic and wild animals, were accepted by Kasyapa as sacrificial present made unto him by Rama, the son of Jamadagni.  And Rama also gave him many thousand prodigious elephants, all adorned with gold.  Indeed, freeing the earth from all robbers, and making her teem with honest and graceful inhabitants, Rama gave her away to Kasyapa at his great Horse-sacrifice.  Having divested the earth of Kshatriyas for one and twenty times, and having performed hundreds of sacrifices, the puissant hero gave away the earth to the Brahmanas.  And it was Marichi (Kasyapa) who accepted from him the earth with her seven islands.  Then Kasyapa said unto Rama, ‘Go out of the earth, at my command.’  At the word of Kasyapa, the foremost of warriors, desirous of obeying the Brahmana’s behest, caused by his arrows the very ocean to stand aside, and repairing to that best of mountains called Mahendra, continued to live there.  Even that enhancer of the fame of the Bhrigus, possessed of such numberless virtues, that famous son of Jamadagni, of great splendour, will die.  Superior to thy son, (even he will die).  Do not, therefore, grieve for thy son who performed no sacrifice and made no sacrificial present.  All these, superior to thee as regards the four cardinal virtues and as regards also a hundred other merits, all these foremost of men, have died, O Srinjaya, and they that are like them will also die.’”

SECTION LXXI

“Vyasa said, ’Hearing this sacred history of sixteen kings, capable of enhancing the period of life (of the listener), king Srinjaya remained silent without saying anything.  The illustrious Rishi Narada then said unto him thus sitting silent, ’O thou of great splendour, hast thou heard those histories recited by me, and hast thou caught their purport?  Or, are all these lost like Sraddha as performed by a person of regenerate classes having a Sudra wife?’ Thus addressed, Srinjaya then replied with joined hands, ’O thou that hast wealth of asceticism, having listened to these excellent and praiseworthy histories of ancient royal sages, all of whom had performed great sacrifices with profuse presents unto the Brahmanas, my grief hath all been dispelled by wonder, like the darkness that is dispelled by the rays of the sun.  I have now been cleansed of my sins, and I do not feel any pain now.  Tell me, what shall I do now?’