Chapter 56

“Narada said, Usinara’s son, Sivi also, O Srinjaya, we hear, fell a preyto death. That king had, as it were, put a leathern girdle around theearth, making the earth with her mountains and islands and seas andforests resound with the clatter of his car. The vanquisher of foes,viz., king Sivi. always slew the foremost of foes. He performed manysacrifices with presents in profusion unto the Brahmanas. That monarch ofgreat prowess and great intelligence had acquired enormous wealth. Inbattle: he won the applause of all Kshatriyas.[95] Having brought thewhole earth under subjection, he performed many Horse-sacrifices, withoutany obstruction, which were productive of great merit giving away (assacrificial present) a thousand crores of golden nishkas, and manyelephants and steeds and other kinds of animals, much grain, and manydeer and sheep. And king Sivi gave away the sacred earth consisting ofdiverse kinds of soil unto the Brahmanas. Indeed, Usinara’s son, Sivi,gave away as many kine as the number of rain-drops showered on the earth,or the number of stars in the firmament, or the number of sand-grains or,the bed of Ganga, or the number of rocks that constitute the mountaincalled Meru, or the number of gems or of (aquatic) animals in the ocean.The Creator himself hath not met with and will not meet within the past,the present, or the future, another king capable of bearing the burdensthat king Sivi bore. Many were the sacrifices, with every kind of rites,that king Sivi performed. In those sacrifices, the stakes, the carpets,the houses, the walls, and the arches, were all made of gold. Food anddrink, agreeable to the taste and perfectly clean were kept in profusion.And the Brahmanas that repaired to them could be counted by myriads andmyriads. Abounding with viands of every description, nothing butagreeable words such as give away and take were heard there. Milk andcurds were collected in large lakes. In his sacrificial compound, therewere rivers of drink and white hills of food. ‘Bathe, and drink and eatas ye like,’ these were the only words heard there. Gratified with hisrighteous deeds, Rudra granted Sivi a boon, saying, As thou givest away,let thy wealth, thy devotion,–thy fame, thy religious acts, the lovethat all creatures bear thee, and the heaven (thou attain), be allinexhaustible.’ Having obtained all these desirable boons, even Sivi,when the time came, left this world for heaven. When, O Srinjaya, he diedwho was superior to thee, was much superior to thy son, thou shouldstnot, saying, ‘Oh, Swaitya, Oh, Swaitya’, grieve for thy son who performedno sacrifice and made no sacrificial present.'”