Note 19 — Chapter CII

And the next morning Mṛigánkadatta sent off Guṇákara to bring his friend Śaktirakshita, the king of the Kirátas. He went and communicated the state of affairs to that sovereign; and in a very few days the king of the Kirátas returned with him, bringing a very large force. Ten hundred thousand footmen, and two hundred thousand horse, and a myriad of furious elephants on which heroes were mounted, and eighty-eight thousand chariots followed that king, who darkened the heaven with his banners and his umbrella. And Mṛigánkadatta, with his friends and ministers, went to meet him in high spirits and honoured him and conducted him into the camp. And in the meanwhile other friends and relations of the king of the Mátangas, and all those of king Máyávaṭu, having been summoned by messengers, came in.19 And the camp swelled like the ocean, giving joy to the heart of Mṛigánkadatta: with shouts rising up like the roar of the waves, and hundreds of battalions pouring in like rivers. And Durgapiśácha honoured20 those assembled kings with musk, and garments, and pieces of flesh, and spirits distilled from fruits. And Máyávaṭu the king of the Śavaras gave them all splendid baths, unguents, food, drink, and beds. And Mṛigánkadatta sat down to eat with all those kings who were seated in their proper places.21 He even went so far as to make the king of the Mátangas eat in his presence though at a little distance from him: the fact is, it is necessity and place and time that take precedence, not one man of another.