Then while they skirted yet the southward verge,
Lost in the halo of her musing brows
Night, splendid with the moon dreaming in heaven
In silver peace, possessed her luminous reign.
A little later on, while the procession is still travelling westward along the ‘southward verge’ – the south-facing border of the mountain range, Night falls, ending the momentous day on which ‘Satyavan must die’ and on which he has been brought back to life by Savitri.
The description of the position of Shalwa relative to the forest where Dyumatsena was living in exile is given in Book 5 as follows :
“In days when yet his sight looked clear on life,
King Dyumatsena once, the Shalwa, reigned
Through all the tract which from behind these tops
Passing its days of emerald delight
In trusting converse with the traveller winds
Turns, looking back towards the southern heavens,
And leans its flank upon the musing hills. …”
Satyavan is describing his situation to Savitri. He tells her that when King Dyumatsena had his sight, he was the Shalwa, the ruler of the Shalwa country, which he says corresponds to the tract or territory beyond the tops of these hills (we can see him gesturing to her to show her which hills he means). It seems to be a green country, with good rainfall, (at least that is what I understand from the ‘trusting converse with the traveller winds’ : the winds are not too strong, but give good rains) and facing southwards, leaning its flank on the hills … the very hills which he and Savitri are now seeing from the other side. The winds are the travellers, and it is the tract which turns southwards, and leans its flank against the hills – which seem to be musing, in a kind of trance.
In the light of the passage in Book 12, I understand that the hills run east to west, that the forest is on the southern side of the hills, while Shalwa itself is on the other side of them, to the North. Returning from the forest to the capital, they have first to leave the forest, turn westwards, skirting the edge of the south-facing hills, and then turn north to reach the Shalwa country.
[Shraddhava’s Answers to Queries]