?"

"'Saudasa said, "If it is proper (for me), O foremost of superior
Brahmanas, to say what thou askest, I should then, O best of regenerate
ones, tell thee that thou shouldst never come back to me. O perpetuator
of Bhrigu's race, by acting even thus, thou wilt attain to what is
beneficial to thee. If thou comest back, O learned Brahmana, thou wilt
surely meet with death."'

"Vaisampayana continued, 'Thus addressed by the intelligent king in
respect of what was beneficial for him, Utanka took leave of the monarch
and set out for the presence of Ahalya. Desirous of doing what was
agreeable to the wife of his preceptor, he took the ear-rings with him
and set out with great speed for reaching the retreat of Gautama.
Protecting them even in the manner directed by Madayanti, that is,
binding them within the folds of his black deer-skin, he proceeded on his
way. After he had proceeded for some distance, he became afflicted by
hunger. He there beheld a Vilwa tree bent down with the weight of (ripe)
fruits.[175] He climbed that tree. Causing his deer-skin, O chastiser of
foes, to hang on a branch, that foremost of regenerate persons then began
to pluck some fruits. While he was employed in plucking those fruits with
eyes directed towards them, some of them fell, O king, on that deerskin
in which those ear-rings had been carefully tied by that foremost of
Brahmanas. With the strokes of the fruits, the knot became untied.
Suddenly that deer-skin, with the ear-rings in it, fell down. When the
knot being unfastened, the deer-skin fell down on the ground, a snake who
was there beheld those jewelled ear-rings. That snake belonged to the
race of Airavata. With great promptness he took up the ear-rings in his
mouth and then entered an anthill. Beholding the ear-rings taken away by
that snake, Utanka, filled with wrath and in great anxiety of mind, came
down from the tree. Taking his staff he began to pierce that anthill.
That best of Brahmanas, burning with wrath and the desire for revenge,
ceaselessly employed himself for five and thirty days in that task. The
goddess Earth, unable to bear the force of Utanka's walking staff and
with body torn therewith, became exceedingly anxious. Unto that
regenerate Rishi then, who continued to dig the Earth from desire of
making a path to the nether regions inhabited by the Nagas, the chief of
the celestials, armed with the thunder, came there, on his car drawn by
green horses. Endued with great