[11]
The strata of the Kaimur range of sandstone hills, which runs
diagonally across the valley of the Nerbudda, are thrown up almost
perpendicularly, in some places many hundred feet above the level of
the plain, while in others for many miles together their tops are
only visible above the surface. These are so many strings of the oxen
which the arrows of Arjun, one of the five brothers, converted into
stone; and many a stream which now waters the valley first sprang
from the surface of the earth at the touch of his lance, as his
troops wanted water. The image of the gods of a former day, which now
lie scattered among the ruins of old cities, buried in the depth of
the forest, are nothing less than the bodies of the kings of the
earth turned into stone for their temerity in contending with these
demigods in battle. Ponds among the rocks of the Nerbudda, where all
the great fairs are held, still bear the names of the five brothers,
who are the heroes of this great poem;[12] and they are every year
visited by hundreds of thousands who implicitly believe that their
waters once received upon their bosoms the wearied limbs of those
whose names they bear.
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