The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.325.2

v1.c10.325.2

Three nights and three days, Nāsatyas, have you conveyed Bhujyu in three rapid, revolving cars, having a hundred wheels, and drawn by six horses, along the dry bed of the ocean to the shore of the sea. This exploit you achieved, Aśvins, in the ocean, where there is nothing to give support, nothing to rest upon, nothing to cling to, that you brought Bhujyu, sailing in a hundred-oared ship, to his father's house".¹⁶⁶ This story of Bhujyu is repeated in a subsequent hymn where the "tossing ocean and swift ships" are again alluded to.¹⁶⁷ Again, "you constructed a pleasant, substantial, winged bark, borne on the ocean waters for the son of Tugra, by which, with mind devoted to the gods, you bore him up, and quickly descending (from the sky), you made a path for him across the great waters. Four ships, launched into the midst of the receptacle (of the waters, sent by the Aśvins) brought safe to shore the son of Tugra, who had been cast headlong into the waters (by his foes), and plunged in inextricable darkness".¹⁶⁸ Agni is [116] prayed in one place "to bestow a boat fitted with oars", The great sage Vaśiṣṭha declares, "When (I, Vaśiṣṭha) and Varuṇa ascend the ship together, when we send it forth into the midst of the ocean, when we proceed over the waters with swift (sailing vessels), then may we both undulate happily in the prosperous swing.