An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s2.69.1

c5.s2.69.1

Baliḥ. § 264 (Sabhākriyāp.): II, 4a, 105 (among the ṛṣis and kings present when Yudhishṭhira entered his palace). [Bali-Vāsava-saṃvāda(h)] ("the discourse between Bali and Indra"). (α) § 671β (Mokshadh.): One day, after having subjugated all As., Indra asked Brahmán where Bali now was, he who was Vāyu, etc. (α). Brahmán said that Bali might now have taken his birth among camels or hulls, etc., and be staying in a deserted house; he told Indra not to slay him, but to ask him for instruction in morality. Indra roamed over the earth on Airāvata, and found Bali in a deserted house in the form of an ass. Indra scoffed at him, and asked if he did not grieve, and where his 42,000 Gandharvas had gone who in former days used to dance before him, and also about the garland given to him by Brahmán. Bali said: "When thou becomest like me, thou wilt not indulge in speech like this" (XII, 223). Bali said that D., men, P., G., snakes, and Rā. were under his sway in days gone by, and that all creatures used to flatter him; but he did not grieve at all; in reality it is Time that creates and destroys all things, though living creatures brag of doing this or that; "this royal glory (rājya-çrī) . . . does not dwell long in one place; she had dwelt in thousands of Indras before thee, who were very much superior to thee; . . . knowing thee to be full of vanity, she will very soon desert thee" (XII, 224).