Argument. Lavana goes to the Vindhyan region, and sees his consort and relatives of the dreaming state.
Vasishtha continued:—Now Ráma, attend to the wonderful power of the said Avidyá or error, in displaying the changeful phenomenals, like the changing forms of ornaments in the substance of the self-same gold.
2. The king Lavana, having at the end of his dream, perceived the falsehood of his vision, resolved on the following day to visit that great forest himself.
3. He said to himself: Ah! when shall I revisit the Vindhyan region, which is inscribed in my mind; and where I remember to have undergone a great many hardships in my forester’s life.
4. So saying, he took to his southward journey, accompanied by his ministers and attendants, as if he was going to make a conquest of that quarter, where he arrived at the foot of the mount in a few days.
5. There he wandered about the southern, and eastern and western shores of the sea (i.e. all round the Eastern and Western Ghats). He was as delighted with his curvilinear course, as the luminary of the day, in his diurnal journey from east to west.
6. He saw there in a certain region, a deep and doleful forest stretching wide along his path, and likening the dark and dismal realms of death (Yama or Pluto).
7. Roving in this region he beheld everything, he had seen before in his dream; he then inquired into the former circumstances, and wondered to learn their conformity with the occurrences of his vision.
8. He recognised there the Chandála hunters of his dream, and being curious to know the rest of the events, he continued in his peregrination about the forest.
9. He then beheld a hamlet at the skirt of the wilderness, foggy with smoke, and appearing as the spot where he bore the name of Pushta Pukkasa or fostered Chandála.