Chapter 19
“Sauti said, ‘Then the Daityas and the Danauas equipped with first-classarmours and various weapons attacked the gods. In the meantime thevaliant Lord Vishnu in the form of an enchantress accompanied by Naradeceived the mighty Danavas and took away the Amrita from their hands.
“And all the gods at that time of great fright drank the Amrita withdelight, receiving it from Vishnu. And while the gods were partaking ofit, after which they had so much hankered, a Danava named Rahu was alsodrinking it among them in the guise of a god. And when the Amrita hadreached Rahu’s throat only, Surya and Soma (recognised him and) intimatedthe fact to the gods. And Narayana instantly cut off with his discus thewell-adorned head of the Danava who was drinking the Amrita withoutpermission. And the huge head of the Danava, cut off by the discus andresembling a mountain peak, then rose up to the sky and began to utterdreadful cries. And the Danava’s headless trunk, falling upon the groundand rolling thereon, made the Earth tremble with her mountains, forestsand islands. And from that time there is a long-standing quarrel betweenRahu’s head and Surya and Soma. And to this day it swalloweth Surya andSoma (during solar and lunar eclipses).
“Then Narayana quitting his enchanting female form and hurling manyterrible weapons at the Danavas, made them tremble. And thus on theshores of the salt-water sea, commenced the dreadful battle of the godsand the Asuras. And sharp-pointed javelins and lances and various weaponsby thousands began to be discharged on all sides. And mangled with thediscus and wounded with swords, darts and maces, the Asuras in largenumbers vomited blood and lay prostrate on the earth. Cut off from thetrunks with sharp double-edged swords, heads adorned with bright gold,fell continually on the field of battle. Their bodies drenched in gore,the great Asuras lay dead everywhere. It seemed as if red-dyed mountainpeaks lay scattered all around. And when the Sun rose in his splendour,thousands of warriors struck one another with weapons. And cries ofdistress were heard everywhere. The warriors fighting at a distance fromone another brought one another down by sharp iron missiles, and thosefighting at close quarters slew one another with blows of their fists.And the air was filled with shrieks of distress. Everywhere were heardthe alarming sounds,–‘cut’, ‘pierce’, ‘at them’, ‘hurl down’, ‘advance’.
‘And when the battle was raging fiercely, Nara and Narayana entered thefield. And Narayana seeing the celestial bow in the hand of Nara, calledto mind his own weapon, the Danava-destroying discus. And lo! the discus,Sudarsana, destroyer of enemies, like to Agni in effulgence and dreadfulin battle, came from the sky as soon as thought of. And when it came,Narayana of fierce energy, possessing arms like the trunk of an elephant,hurled with great force that weapon of extraordinary lustre, effulgent asblazing fire, dreadful and capable of destroying hostile towns. And thatdiscus blazing like the fire that consumeth all things at the end ofYuga, hurled with force from the hands of Narayana, and fallingconstantly everywhere, destroyed the Daityas and the Danavas bythousands. Sometimes it blazed like fire and consumed them all; sometimesit struck them down as it coursed through the sky; and sometimes, fallingon the earth, it drank their life-blood like a goblin.
“On the other hand, the Danavas, white as the clouds from which the rainhath dropped, possessing great strength and bold hearts, ascended thesky, and by hurling down thousands of mountains, continually harassed thegods. And those dreadful mountains, like masses of clouds, with theirtrees and flat tops, falling from the sky, collided with one another andproduced a tremendous roar. And when thousands of warriors shoutedwithout intermission in the field of battle and mountains with the woodsthereon began to fall around, the earth with her forests trembled. Thenthe divine Nara appeared at the scene of the dreadful conflict betweenthe Asuras and the Ganas (the followers of Rudra), and reducing to dustthose rocks by means of his gold-headed arrows, he covered the heavenswith dust. Thus discomfited by the gods, and seeing the furious discusscouring the fields of heaven like a blazing flame, the mighty Danavasentered the bowels of the earth, while others plunged into the sea ofsalt-waters.
“And having gained the victory, the gods offered due respect to Mandaraand placed him again on his own base. And the nectar-bearing gods madethe heavens resound with their shouts, and went to their own abodes. Andthe gods, on returning to the heavens, rejoiced greatly, and Indra andthe other deities made over to Narayana the vessel of Amrita for carefulkeeping.'”
And so ends the nineteenth section in the Astika Parva of the Adi Parva.
