red Mahanada, the Laghanti, the Gomati, the Sandhya, and also the Trisrotasi—­these and other rivers which are all sacred and are world-renowned places of pilgrimage, as also other rivers and sacred waters and lakes and wells and springs, and tanks, large or small, in their personified form, O Bharata, wait upon and worship the lord Varuna.  The points of the heavens, the Earth, and all the Mountains, as also every species of aquatic animals, all worship Varuna there.  And various tribes of Gandharvas and Apsaras, devoted to music, both vocal and instrumental, wait upon Varuna, singing eulogistic hymns unto him.  And all those mountains that are noted for being both delightful and rich in jewels, wait (in their personified forms) in that Sabha, enjoying sweet converse with one another.  And the chief minister of Varuna, Sunabha by name, surrounded by his sons and grandsons, also attend upon his master, along with (the personified form) of a sacred water called go.  These all, in their personified forms, worship the deity.  O bull of the Bharata race, such is the assembly room of Varuna seen by me before, in the course of my wanderings.  Listen now to the account I give of the assembly room of Kuvera.’”

SECTION X

“Narada said,—­’Possessed of great splendour, the assembly house of Vaisravana, O king, is a hundred yojanas in length and seventy yojanas in breadth.  It was built, O king, by Vaisravana himself using his ascetic power.  Possessing the splendour of the peaks of Kailasa, that mansion eclipses by its own the brilliance of the Moon himself.  Supported by Guhyakas, that mansion seems to be attached to the firmament.  Of celestial make, it is rendered extremely handsome with high chambers of gold.  Extremely delightful and rendered fragrant with celestial perfumes, it is variegated with numberless costly jewels.  Resembling the peaks of a mass of white clouds, it seems to be floating in the air.  Painted with colours of celestial gold, it seems to be decked with streaks of lightning.  Within that mansion sitteth on an excellent seat bright as the sun and covered with celestial carpets and furnished with a handsome footstool, king Vaisravana of agreeable person, attired in excellent robes and adorned with costly ornaments and ear-rings of great brilliance, surrounded by his thousand wives.  Delicious and cooling breezes murmuring through forests of tall Mandaras, and bearing fragrance of extensive plantations of jasmine, as also of the lotuses on the bosom of the river Alaka and of the Nandana-gardens, always minister to the pleasure of the King of the Yakshas.  There the deities with the Gandharvas surrounded by various tribes of Apsaras, sing in chorus, O king, notes of celestial sweetness.  Misrakesi and Rambha, and Chitrasena, and Suchismita; and Charunetra, and Gritachi and Menaka, and Punjikasthala; and Viswachi Sahajanya, and Pramlocha and Urvasi and Ira, and Varga and Sauraveyi,