“’And then when the universe become one dead expanse of water, when all mobile and immobile creatures have been destroyed, when the gods and the Asuras cease to be, when the Yakshas and the Rakshasas are no more, when man is not, when trees and beasts of prey have disappeared, when the firmament itself has ceased to exist, I alone, O lord of the earth, wander in affliction.  And, O best of kings, wandering over that dreadful expanse of water, my heart becometh afflicted in consequence of my not beholding any creature!  And, O king, wandering without cessation, through that flood, I become fatigued, but I obtain no resting place!  And some time after I behold in that expanse of accumulated waters a vast and wide-extending banian tree, O lord of earth!  And I then behold, O Bharata, seated on a conch, O king, overlaid with a celestial bed and attached to a far-extended bough of that banian, a boy, O great king, of face fair as the lotus or the moon, and of eyes, O ruler of men, large as petals of a full blown lotus!  And at this sight, O lord of earth, wonder filled my heart.  And I asked myself, “How doth this boy alone sit here when the world itself hath been destroyed?” And, O king, although I have full knowledge of the Past, the Present, and the Future, still I failed to learn anything of this by means of even ascetic meditation.  Endued with the lustre of the Atasi flower, and decked with the mark of Sreevatsa, he seemed to me to be like the abode of Lakshmi, herself.  And that boy, of eyes like the petals of the lotus, having the mark of Sreevatsa, and possessed of blazing effulgence, then addressed me in words highly pleasant to the ear, saying, “O sire, I know thee to be fatigued and desirous of rest.  O Markandeya of Bhrigu’s race, rest thou here as long as thou wishest.  O best of Munis, entering within my body, rest thou there.  That hath been the abode assigned to thee by me.  I have been pleased with thee.”  Thus addressed by that boy, a sense of total disregard possessed me in respect both of my long life and state of manhood.  Then that boy suddenly opened his mouth, and as fate would have it, I entered his mouth deprived of the power of motion.  But O king, having suddenly entered into the stomach of that boy, I behold there the whole earth teeming with cities and kingdoms.  And, O best of men, while wandering through the stomach of that illustrious one, I behold the Ganga, the Satudru, the Sita, the Yamuna, and the Kausiki; the Charmanwati, the Vetravati; the Chandrabhaga, the Saraswati, the Sindhu, the Vipasa, and the Godavari; the Vaswokasara, the Nalini and the Narmada; the Tamra, and the Venna also of delightful current and sacred waters; the Suvenna, the Krishna-venna, the Irama, and the Mahanadi; the Vitasti, O great king, and that large river, the Cavery; the one also, O tiger among men, the Visalya, and the Kimpuna also.  I beheld all these and many other rivers that are on the earth!  And,