Chapter 211

“Vaisampayana said, ‘Hearing these words of Yudhishthira, Narada replied,’O son of Pritha, listen with thy brothers to me as I recite this oldstory, O Yudhishthira, exactly as everything happened. In olden days, amighty Daitya named Nikumbha, endued with great energy and strength wasborn in the race of the great Asura, Hiranyakasipu.

Unto this Nikumbha,were born two sons called Sunda and Upasunda. Both of them were mightyAsuras endued with great energy and terrible prowess. The brothers wereboth fierce and possessed of wicked hearts. And those Daityas were bothof the same resolution, and ever engaged in achieving the same tasks andends. They were ever sharers with each other in happiness as well as inwoe. Each speaking and doing what was agreeable to the other, thebrothers never were unless they were together, and never went anywhereunless together. Of exactly the same disposition and habits, they seemedto be one individual divided into two parts. Endued with great energy andever of the same resolution in everything they undertook, the brothersgradually grew up. Always entertaining the same purpose, desirous ofsubjugating the three worlds, the brothers, after due initiation, went tothe mountains of Vindhya. And severe were the ascetic penances theyperformed there. Exhausted with hunger and thirst, with matted locks ontheir heads and attired in barks of trees, they acquired sufficientascetic merit at length. Besmearing themselves with dirt from head tofoot, living upon air alone, standing on their toes, they threw pieces ofthe flesh of their bodies into the fire. Their arms upraised, and eyefixed, long was the period for which they observed their vows. And duringthe course of their ascetic penances, a wonderful incident occurredthere. For the mountains of Vindhya, heated for a long course of years bythe power of their ascetic austerities, began to emit vapour from everypart of their bodies. And beholding the severity of their austerities,the celestials became alarmed. The gods began to cause numerousobstructions to impede the progress of their asceticism. The celestialsrepeatedly tempted the brothers by means of every precious possession andthe most beautiful girls. The brothers broke not their vows. Then thecelestials once more manifested, before the illustrious brothers, theirpowers of illusion. For it seemed their sisters, mothers, wives, andother relatives, with disordered hair and ornaments and robes, wererunning towards them in terror, pursued and struck by a Rakshasa with alance in hand. And it seemed that the women implored the help of thebrothers crying, ‘O save us!’ But all this went for nothing, for firmlywedded thereto, the brothers did not still break their vows. And when itwas found that all this produced not the slightest impression on any ofthe two, both the women and the Rakshasa vanished from sight. At last theGrandsire himself, the Supreme Lord ever seeking the welfare of all, cameunto those great Asuras and asked them to solicit the boon they desired.Then the brothers Sunda and Upasunda, both of great prowess, beholdingthe Grandsire, rose from their seats and waited with joined palms. Andthe brothers both said unto the God, ‘O Grandsire, if thou hast beenpleased with these our ascetic austerities, and art, O lord, propitiousunto us, then let us have knowledge of all weapons and of all powers ofillusion. Let us be endued with great strength, and let us be able toassume any form at will. And last of all, let us also be immortal.’Hearing these words of theirs, Brahman said, ‘Except the immortality youask for, you shall be given all that you desire. Solicit you some form ofdeath by which you may still be equal unto the immortals. And since youhave undergone these severe ascetic austerities from desire ofsovereignty alone I cannot confer on you the boon of immortality. Youhave performed your ascetic penances even for the subjugation of thethree worlds. It is for this, O mighty Daityas, that I cannot grant youwhat you desire.’

“Narada continued, ‘Hearing these words of Brahman, Sunda and Upasundasaid, ‘O Grandsire, let us have no fear then from any created thing,mobile or immobile, in the three worlds, except only from each other!’The Grandsire then said, ‘I grant you what you have asked for, even thisyour desire’. And granting them this boon, the Grandsire made them desistfrom their asceticism, and returned to his own region. Then the brothers,those mighty Daityas, having received those several boons becameincapable of being slain by anybody in the universe. They then returnedto their own abode. All their friends and relatives, beholding thoseDaityas of great intelligence, crowned with success in the matter of theboons they had obtained, became exceedingly glad. And Sunda and Upasundathen cut off their matted locks and wore coronets on their heads. Attiredin costly robes and ornaments, they looked exceedingly handsome. Theycaused the moon to rise over their city every night even out of hisseason. And friends and relatives gave themselves up to joy and merrimentwith happy hearts. Eat, feed, give, make merry, sing, drink–these werethe sounds heard everyday in every house. And here and there arose louduproars of hilarity mixed with clappings of hands which filled the wholecity of the Daityas, who being capable of assuming any form at will, wereengaged in every kind of amusement and sport and scarcely noticed theflight of time, even regarding a whole year as a single day.'”