174. Search for Seetha is commenced.

                Sugreeva then turning to Rama said "Look! The entire force at my command has arrived. I hereby place it at your disposal without any reservation. They are ready for any action whatsoever
              "Oh, Rama, I would like to add that these vanaras are acclaimed for undertaking deeds considered impossible and accomplish them. They are powerful and have overcome weariness. They are renowned for their confrontation and noteworthy in their maneuvers. They can travel either on earth or on water  with equal dexterity. 

          "Please let me know what is the first next thing you want them to do. I will get it done with utmost promptitude."

       With effusive happiness, Rama hugged sugreeva and said "Oh, gracious Sugreeva, it is not known whether Vaidehi is alive or not. If she is alive we should find out where she is kept. Therefore, these two things are to be ascertained, at the outset. Our next course of action depends on these information."

              When Rama said so, Sugreeva thought for a while and decided to start the search in the east. Then he called and told one of the mightiest chiefs, named Vinata, who looked like a mountain and roared like thunders while fighting "Oh, Vinata, you are an acclaimed expert in determining the tasks in consonance with time, place and probity. Hence, you, along with the powerful vanaras under your control, go over the Eastern direction of the earth inclusive of its mountains, woodlands and forests.

         "There in the East, the forests, mountains and hiding places shall be searched for the princess of Videha, namely Seetha, the dear wife of my friend Rama. And also find out the residency of the rakshas Ravana.

        "You shall search on the mountains and in the townships that are steeped in the ocean. And you have to search on the peaks of mountains, where some extensive and unsightly beings are harbored, and at places where some other beings live with odd physical features. All the dwellings are to be searched in jambuu dwiipa. And you have to go beyond this to other easterly places that are reachable by mountaineering or by hopping or  by boat.

     "You strive hard in the island of Yava, as well as the Golden and Silver islands that are enwreathed with gold-mines, in and around Yava islands. On crossing over Yava Island, there is a mountain named Shishira, which touches heaven with its peak, and which is adored by both devas and asuras. You shall collectively rake through all these mountains, waterfalls, and forests in these islands for the glorious wife of Rama.
       "Search the hamlets, townships and the like along the river Shona, waters of which will be reddish with deep and speedy drift, and which is adored by siddhas and caranas (celestial singers). Do not omit those beautiful ghats  of that Shona River, and in the amazing forests along the shore. 
         "Then proceed to the island Plaksha Island. On that Plaksha Island very vast rivers emerge from mountains, but alongshore they have many pleasure gardens. You have to search in those gardens and at rivers together with cavernous mountains and forests of that island, and then proceed to Ikshu Island.

           "Then try at the terribly furious, tempestuous, blaring and tide-ripped ocean called ikshu samudra, as well as the ocean's islands which will be extremely ghastly. That ocean which mirrors a dark cloud and hallowed by great serpents, which blares blatantly is to be traversed only by it shores tactfully, to avoid being shadow-captured by its inhabitants. There you will see colossal bodied asuras with everlasting hunger inhabiting that ocean, capture prey by its shadow, as endued by Brahma. 
             "From there, go to the disastrous ocean named Lohita (meaning Red) Ocean, for its waters are red. There you shall see the colossal tree Kuuta-shalmali. This island is called shaalmali dwiipa (i.e. Shaalmali Island) because of this tree.

        "On that Shalmali Island you will be seeing the mansion of Vinata's son, namely Garuda, the Eagle-vehicle of Vishnu, which is decorated with numerous jewels, and which in sheen will be like Mt. Kailash, the abode of Shiva. This mansion is a construction of Vishvakarma, the Heavenly Architect. Thereabout huge-bodied, horrifying and merciless rakshashas of various shapes and similar to mountains in size, called Mandehas, will be dangling upside down from mountain peaks. Day after day those rakshashas will be falling in water when the sun always burns them at sunrise and fells them down, yet they will be resurfacing and start dangling on the mountaintops in the evening.

        "Then try the milk ocean, which will be like a whitish cloud in its shine, and would look like a pearly necklace while her ripples will be swaying. In the centre of that milk ocean there is a white mountain of colossal size, named Rishabha, surrounded with closely grown trees ever flowered with flowers of heavenly fragrance. And the renowned Lake Sudarshana is also there. That lake is replete with silvery lotuses whose fibrils are golden in sparkle, and in which kingly swans will be scampering about. Devas, chaaranas, yakshas, kinnaraas and hosts of apsara females will be coming to that lotus-lake Sudarshana joyously to enjoy frolicking in that Lake.

           "And on crossing over the milky ocean, you will immediately be seeing the soft-water ocean which will be frightening. There exists a fantastically refulgent Fire in the form of Horse's Face that originated from the anger of the Sage Aurasa. The victuals to that Fire is said to be that highly speedy waves of the ocean, together with all of the mobile and immobile beings of the world at the close of each Era.

Comment.

        The name Aurasa is derived from the word उरु,(uru) meaning 'the thigh.' The mother of this sage hid him under her thigh when some kings came to kill him. Then with vengeance this sage started to burn the world with his yogic fire, but his manes pacified and asked him to release his yogic fire in the ocean water. When he did so, that fire remained underwater, ready to emerge from a cavity like that of a she-horse's mouth, from beneath the ocean from the South Pole. This fire is called vaDaba agni, or baDaba anala, referred here as Horse's Face. At the time of yuga anta, End of Era, that fire emerges out, and the whole creation, with all its stationary and mobile beings, become its fuel. This episode is detailed in aadi parva, First Canto, Maha Bharata.

End Comment.
        "There the high squealing sounds of oceanic beings dwelling undersea are audible. This is due to the fact  that they were incapacitated as well as tortured by the intense heat of the Fire from the Horse Mouth.

          "On the northern province of that soft-water ocean there is a hugely enormous mountain named Jaataruupa-shila (meaning Golden Mountain), the glitter of which is spread across thirteen yojanas. There you will see the lotus-petal, broad-eyed and thousand-hooded serpent god in black clothing, namely Ananta, sitting on the top of that mountain and sustaining the earth on his head, and is shining like moon in his brilliance and whom all beings hold in reverence.

       "A golden pylon resembling a palm tree with three branches as its heads is established on the peak of that mountain as the insignia of Ananta, and it will be lustrous with a golden podium. That  palm tree like pylon is constructed as the easterly compass by celestial gods, and beyond that is the completely golden mountain, namely the august Udaya Mountain (the Mt. Sunrise), beyond which it is all west. The pinnacles of Mt. Sunrise will be touching heavens for their height is hundred yojanas and that divine mountain greatly glitters for it is completely golden, and it is pedestalled with suchlike glittering mountains.

           "That Mt. Sunrise will be splendorous with well flowered and beautiful saala, palm, Tamaala, and Karnikaara trees which are completely golden in hue and which will be glittering similar to sun. On the apex of that Mt. Sunrise there is another pinnacle with one yojana width and ten yojanas height named Saumanasa, which is completely golden and very firm. Earlier while treading the three worlds in the incarnation of Trivikrama, the Supreme Person Vishnu made His first foothold on that pinnacle Saumanasa, and the second on the pinnacle of Mt. Meru to tread the heavens. The Sun is by far discernable in Jambu Dwiipa when he rises on this zenithal pinnacle Saumanasa, after he had circled the Jambu Dwiipa in a northerly route.

         "There the great-sages with the nomenclature of Vaikhanasas and Vaalakhilyaas will come into view with an ambience of luminosity, for those ascetics will be with the resplendence of the Sun.

             "In the presence of which resplendence the eyes of all living beings will become enlightened, and whereat that illuminating entity of universe, namely the Sun, will be sojourning, this is that Sudarshana Island, named so because it contains Sudarshana lake. On the top of that Mt. Sunrise, and even in its caves and forests of that island Ravana is to be searched, together with Seetha. The eastern aurora glows reddish because the golden hue of Mt. Sunrise imbricates the resplendence of the beneficent Sun.

            "In the beginning Brahma, the Creator, ordained this Mt. Sunrise to be the gateway for the earth to heaven, and even as the rising place for the Sun. As such this is verily said as the 'eastern quarter' of the compass.

          "Search thoroughly that mountain's peak, and also thereabout the rapids and caverns of that mountain for Vaidehi, and for Ravana. Beyond the Mt. Sunrise the eastern quarter is impassable. It will be hemmed in with gods since it is the gateway to heaven. Janaki should be scouted out on all those mountains, caverns and forests.  Also search those places omitted to be mentioned by me. 

          "You shall comeback within a month after finding out Vaidehi and the residency of Ravana."

===========================================================