When people, driven by a sense of ownership, seized the wondrous trees that had once freely provided for them, they acted with selfishness and lost those great trees as a result of their misconduct. With the loss of those trees, the world changed: pairs of opposites arose—cold and heat, hunger and thirst, and other hardships. To shelter themselves from these new discomforts, people began to build dwellings for the first time. Seeking protection, they took refuge in many places: deserts, fortresses, mountains, caves, and strongholds, whether surrounded by woods, perched on mountains, or bordered by water. They even began to construct artificial fortresses, carefully measuring their structures with their own fingers and establishing standards of measurement for practical needs, just as they had done before. The smallest unit, a paramāṇu, was recognized as the finest particle, followed by a mote of dust, earth-dust, the tip of a hair, a nit, a louse, and then a barley-corn—each one eight times larger than the last. Eight barley-corns made an aṅgula, or finger’s breadth; six aṅgulas made a pada, or foot; and a vitasti, or span, was remembered as twice the length of a pada. Two vitastis made a hasta, or cubit—from the wrist to the tip of the fingers. Four hastas equaled a bow’s length, a staff, or the measure for a water-clock. Two thousand bows made a gavyūti, and four gavyūtis made a yojana—the supreme reckoning for distance, as declared by the wise. Of the four types of fortresses, three arose naturally, but the fourth—the artificial fortress—was built with great effort. Settlements took many forms: cities, small fortified towns, mortar-shaped settlements, branch-towns, and hamlets. Villages were arranged with cattle-pens and separate dwellings, protected by raised embankments and surrounded by moats. A city, it was said, should have a diameter of half a yojana, and its width should be one-eighth its length, with a gentle slope towards the east or north, and pure bamboo gates for entry and exit. A small fortified town was half that size; a hamlet, a quarter; and a mortar-shaped settlement was even smaller, measured by its narrow end. A city or hamlet without walls or moats was called a kharvaṭa. A branch-town was another kind of settlement, inhabited by ministers, vassals, and landholders. Villages were often populated by prosperous and skilled Śūdras, surrounded by fertile fields. Any other settlement, established for a particular purpose, was simply known as a residence. A hamlet, often lawless and lacking fields, occupied by powerful men in foreign lands, became a refuge for those favored by the king. A ghoṣa was a place where cowherds, with their goods loaded on carts, lived with their herds wherever they pleased, without a marketplace. Thus, after building cities and other settlements for themselves, people also constructed dwellings for pairs of families. As in earlier times, their houses were built near trees, and remembering their past, they continued this tradition. The branches of homes spread in all directions, just as the branches of a tree grow upward and downward. The branches that once belonged to the wish-fulfilling trees became the timber for their homes. After the destruction of those trees, people began to consider new ways to make a living, for with the loss of honey, the wish-fulfilling trees had vanished entirely. Distressed by hunger and thirst, and overwhelmed with sorrow, they suffered greatly. But at the dawn of the Treta age, fortune smiled upon them. When other means of survival failed, abundant rain began to fall. The rainwater collected in low places, forming streams and channels that brought water to the earth. From the union of earth and water, plants arose—fourteen kinds, both cultivated and wild, sprang up without being sown or plowed. Trees and shrubs bearing flowers and fruits according to the seasons appeared, and for the first time in the Treta age, medicinal plants grew. People lived by means of these medicinal plants, but soon, desire and greed crept into their hearts. Because of this, they began to claim rivers, fields, mountains, trees, shrubs, and medicinal plants for themselves—each according to their strength and means. As a result, many medicinal plants ceased to thrive and were lost. Once again, afflicted by hunger and confusion, the people turned to Brahma, the supreme lord, seeking refuge. Understanding their plight and seeing the earth depleted, Brahma made Mount Sumeru the calf and milked the earth, the mighty Lord himself. From this act, grains appeared upon the earth’s surface—seeds, both cultivated and wild, were produced anew. Seventeen groups of medicinal plants that ripen with fruit were thus created: rice, barley, wheat, millet, and sesame; priyangu, udara, koradusha, chinaka; masha, mudga, masura, nishpava, kulattha; adhaka and chanaka—these were the ancient varieties of cultivated medicinal plants. Fourteen kinds of medicinal plants, both cultivated and wild, were also produced: rice, barley, wheat, millet, sesame, priyangu, kulattha, shyamaka, nivara, yava, tila, gavedhuka, kuruvinda, markataka, and venu-yava. These were the plants remembered from that time, sustaining life and marking a new chapter in the world’s story.