The Slaying of Śiśupāla 12
English (machine translation) 12
- Language
- English
12.1
Thus in the early morning, the host of kings riding chariots, horses, and elephants,
waiting outside the city gate,
beheld Acyuta, who had spent that time
putting on the attire suitable for the hour of departure.
12.2
Mounting [his chariot, which was like] Garuḍa, with sound axles, beautiful plumage [or wheels],
glowing with the brightness of gold, and far surpassing elephants [or serpents] in speed,
he proceeded along the road that possessed an even approach,
as if across the ground of the sky.
12.3
The kings, victorious over Hell [as Kṛṣṇa was over Naraka],
pursued by their virtues the Wielder of the Śārṅga Bow—
he who held unbroken mastery over the realm with his hand [as the Discus in his hand],
who was beloved of the lord among birds [and foremost of kings],
whose chest was embraced by royal fortune [and by Śrī],
and who was devoted to truth [and to Satyabhāmā].
12.4
At that time, simultaneously, dawn broke, like beds of night-blooming water lilies
with large, white blossoms closing up, their pericarp bright,
and the departure commenced, [accompanied] by women distressed
by the agony of separation, their large, white eyes, radiant with pupils, closing up.
12.5
Raising her body as if mocking Mount Sumeru towering aloft,
about to leap into the sky,
a female elephant, her bent knee marking the step,
allowed her mahout to mount.
12.6
Holding the reins and stirrup together with one hand,
the cavalrymen mounted their horses,
which had been gently caressed in play,
leaping forward and displaying their light and agile movements.
12.7
Before the rider, seated for the journey,
had even properly tightened his seat,
straightway the chain-hounds, rising swiftly
and of unbearable speed, set off unrestrained.
12.8
Some charioteer, eager to attain ease and skilled at driving,
yoked to the pole a chariot like a bride—
shining with cheeks [and axle-pins],
radiant with the beauty of a new womb [and interior seats],
and adorned with bright wheel-navels.
12.9
Longing to rise, held fast from the front by force
while the heavy burden-frame was placed upon it,
a camel, making a hoarse sound with half-ejected rumination,
brought true meaning to its name: ‘The Screamer’.
12.10
Held by the nose-rope, yet shaking its pair of horns,
its rump twisted as it made a hissing snort,
a young bull by no means consented
to the sack lifted by men to be laid upon it at that moment.
12.11
The ocean-like army bore a resemblance to the Sāmaveda,
having horse-drawn chariots [and Sāman chants] revealed in diverse ways,
possessing a thousand paths,
difficult to master due to fickle [movements],
and consisting predominantly of horses [and of musicians].
12.12
An elephant, with the circle of its tusks stretched high,
was checked by its mahout, who, swiftly moving onto another tusker,
threw away his blunt hook and took up another,
as [the beast] tossed its head.
12.13
As the Wielder of the Śārṅga Bow set out,
the sound of the drum, swelling with the unrestrained roar of conches,
cast exceeding distress upon both kinds of earth-holders—
upon the elephants [and upon the kings].
12.14
Diffusing the splendor of ointment made from saffron dust in every quarter,
glowing with sparkling brilliance,
the dust dug up from the golden ground beneath the mountain
by the hooves of the horses spread out far and wide.
12.15
By the deep rumbles of the wheels of the chariots,
the trumpeting of the elephants, of like tone, was completely drowned;
while by the shrill neighing of the horses,
it was brought into clear prominence through contrast of pitch.
12.16
Eager to follow, disregarding the prick of the elephant-hook,
turning his head sideways along with the hook,
a bull-elephant approached a cow-elephant walking in front,
extending the tip of his trunk with a massive stride.
12.17
Running as if not touching the earth with their feet,
with flywhisks tossed about on all sides by their speed,
the army’s horses were regarded by astonished folk
as if they were still possessing their wings uncut.
12.18
Stretching their necks and holding them straight,
their crests shaking, with low, gurgling cries,
the camels covered even vast expanses of ground
in a mere moment, with unslackened stride.
12.19
Driven quickly by its driver who shouted aloud,
a carriage yoked to a pair of mules fled along the road,
as though terrified of being overwhelmed
by the dense mass of earth-dust stirred by its own wheel-rims.
12.20
With their faces turned back, gazed upon for a moment
by all the foot-soldiers marching alongside,
the women of the harem rode on horses,
their bodices trembling over their high, bouncing breasts.
12.21
First torn open by the feet of the horses,
and then heavily trodden on the surface by elephants,
the grounds, with their broken crests and subsequently filled depressions,
appeared as if plowed and leveled.
12.22
Laughing aloud with cries of distress, the people watched a horse,
which had thrown its rider after stumbling ill,
running away in one direction,
with the saddle slipped and dangling from its chest.
12.23
Unchecked even by high mountains,
and swallowing up even broad rivers,
that army marched by countless roads,
whilst only the river Gaṅgā is called ‘Three-Pathed’ by its conventional name alone.
12.24
Frightened by the snorting of a nearby cow-elephant,
when their driver dropped the reins in bewilderment,
two young camels, throwing off the women of the inner apartments,
strayed from the road, leaped over low ground, and bolted.
12.25
When the chariot had its joints loosened, losing its fitness for the journey,
sadly broken by distress,
its trusted master immediately undertook a remedy
beginning with a jump [and a fast], like a skilled physician.
12.26
When the camel-bag was torn open by the shock of the broken yoke,
and honey flowed, drenching the path far away,
a merchant, having purchased goods for profit,
grieved for a moment beside his wagon caught upon a tree stump.
12.27
With the mouths of its vast caves filled with the cries of kettle-drums,
its thickets of plantain trees threatened by fluttering banner-cloths,
its great stones surpassed by lofty elephants,
that mountain was left behind by the troops.
12.28
Unbearable through smelling the wind laden with the rut of wild elephants,
their fury temporarily diverted by smashing trees,
the wild tuskers, seeking to run amok,
were somehow led away from the distance by their mahouts.
12.29
Because of those vast armies,
radiant with rows of banner-forests,
possessing great elephants resembling mountains,
and swarming with hundreds of rivers of moving troops,
the grounds were made to suffer vast obstacles.
12.30
Seeing eyes resembling their own,
the deer stood still for a moment with the eyes of female gazelles;
but then, seized with fear at the diverse coquettish gestures
and amorous movements of the women, they fled away.
12.31
Brought down the slopes with difficulty by riders
who steadily drew back their whips,
the troops of horses, their reins relaxed,
swiftly climbed up, with the loud clatter of their hooves.
12.32
Kept in check repeatedly on the path by someone who was waiting for his companion,
a young camel straightway devoured the foliage of trees in front;
for promptness in action indeed brings immediate fruit.
12.33
Because of the kings who bowed in humility through reverence,
brought into submission by the fiery energy of the descendant of Śūra,
coming together from here and there,
the army, under a single royal parasol, was free from having multiple parasols.
12.34
Hearing the sound of the bells of an approaching rogue elephant,
the camp-followers, their women thrown into turmoil,
hastily made way from the path,
turning their pack-animals far aside.
12.35
Possessing brilliant poetic metres endowed with vigorous syllables,
clear and keeping in mind the lineage [being praised],
bards repeatedly recited verses before Upendra,
pointing out his many virtues.
12.36
Even the ocean, having completely overrun the surface of the earth with its waters,
moving, transgresses its proper bound;
[yet] Keśava, though on the move, did he bring about any disorder
in the villages with his unchecked armies?
12.37
With faces glowing like clusters of yellow sponge-gourd flowers,
their eyes like widened, striking arrows from sleeplessness,
the village wives, unnoticed by their folk,
looked for a long time at him who was higher than the dead [or: riding on tall mounts].
12.38
He saw the rustic folk who had formed seated assemblies in the cowpens,
rising repeatedly with noisy shouts and gambolling about,
eager to drink [the spectacle], tawny in hue,
their souls thrilled by the loud chanting of his lineage.
12.39
The cowherd women, though their desires were fulfilled as they gazed,
did not attain freedom from longing for the lord of the people,
with their eyes famed for their breadth,
their amorous gestures not yet understood because of utter innocence.
12.40
Licking the suckling calves set before them with affection,
holding the milk-pail firm between both knees,
he long watched the milkers milking the red cows,
amidst the sound of the swelling streams of milk.
12.41
As he drove the calves arriving in haste,
wishing to milk in front, tethering-rope in hand,
the Foe of Madhu saw the finest of cows
emerging pleasantly from the herd of cattle with lowing grunts.
12.42
While the cowherd women went to chase the parrots away from the rice-fields,
whose splendour was overrun by wild deer in the meantime,
he smilingly looked at them as they were distraught all around
upon the borders of the fields.
12.43
Listening to the cowherd maiden's songs, thinking, 'Before this one moves,
intent on shooting us,'
Hari watched the herd of deer,
surely not eating the winter rice.
12.44
Gentle like the tinkling of anklets slipping
upon women's lotus-red feet moving gracefully,
the cry of an impassioned Indian crane, coming from near the water,
stole the mind of Śauri away from other sounds.
12.45
Some bore upon their heads the mass of dust from the army
that rose aloft, unimpeded and mighty as he marched even far away;
and other kings bore upon their heads his supreme command.
12.46
Generally, people ascend even low hills
only by an even path;
but that army of Murāri caused its troops to climb
even mighty mountains from every path around.
12.47
With heads raised, having pierced clouds with the tips of their tusks,
elephants ascended the towering mountains,
the hollows of their ears being filled by rivers of rut-water
overflowing their broad temples.
12.48
By a certain huge mountain, radiant like a mass of clouds,
dripping small drops of rut-water [and] possessing broad tusks—
the path was blocked aloft for the travelers.
12.49
Breaking the trees, the elephants threw the quarters into disarray
with flutterings of their brilliant banners,
and crushing the backs of the mountains by force,
they rendered the lands difficult to cross with their moving mountain-like bodies.
12.50
Hari beheld hundreds of elephants
ascending the mountains,
like huge boulders falling against the mountain slopes
cast by a tempestuous gale.
12.51
Dwelling in the groves of āmalakī trees,
the mountain maidens, their breasts held higher still from the habit of mountain-climbing,
gazed at him with glances made wider with blooming flirtatiousness.
12.52
Opening his eyes disdainfully once for a moment,
the king of beasts, desiring to sleep again,
went not even alongside the army, nor was he disturbed;
or how could he have distress when he had become a true king?
12.53
Whose trees were shaken down by the army's heights, whose fast-flowing river-rush
was checked by the banners and troops of men,
and upon which great boulders were hurled down repeatedly by elephants,
that army spread across the mountains.
12.54
When a beehive hanging like a beard on a tree was shaken
by an elephant rubbing its cheek,
the folk, bitten all over by small yet far from petty [bees],
fled in panic.
12.55
When the leafy tree, like a mortal body,
was brought to an end by the elephant whose tusks ended intoxication,
the monkeys swiftly jumped to another tree,
just as souls pass into another body.
12.56
Stooping very low in some places, mounting high in others,
exposed in some parts and deep in chasms in others,
the army of Hari then crossed even the formidable mountains
that lacked all evenness.
12.57
With that army of his which traversed every road
and covered even pathless tracts all around,
he made rivers to be called 'adversely turned',
their high banks overtopped by their waters.
12.58
Before the troops of elephants could plunge into the rivers,
the dust stirred up by the hooves of the horses,
cast forward by the winds and falling into the waters of the streams,
turned them into mud.
12.59
Breaking the high sloping banks to disport themselves,
becoming repeatedly intoxicated with excitement,
the elephants, tearing away the moss-garments with their trunks,
churned the rivers running to the ocean into mud.
12.60
Having broken the broad banks, filled the waters,
and levelled the old rivers into plain ground,
the elephants caused other rivers to flow with currents that scraped the banks,
using their streams of rut.
12.61
With lotuses not matching the beauty of the women's faces,
and with swans failing to rival the splendour of their parasols,
the rivers fell behind as the circle of the Bhoja armies advanced,
their elephants resembling past mountains.
12.62
With high lines of elephants
dark-bodied like glossy collyrium and without gaps,
that army set off to advantage the multitude of cities
endowed with mansions washed with lime-plaster.
12.63
The lord's residences along the way, made of cloth tents
surpassing the beauty of palaces, shone brightly;
surely the splendour of the city too went forth before him,
distraught with the grief of separation from him.
12.64
Loudly buzzing, the bees alighting on tree trunks running with fluid
from the flow of rut rubbed from temple-hollows,
long proclaimed to the forest dwellers
the massive size of the elephants.
12.65
Having surpassed the rows of lofty towers
with hundreds of vast troops of elephants,
and outstripping tall buildings with their tents,
that army moved past numerous cities.
12.66
The dust, raised high by the armies,
scorched by the near rays of the sun,
fell ahead into the waters of the Yamunā
struck by refreshing breezes fragrant with kahlāra water-lilies.
12.67
She who, though the daughter of the hot-rayed sun, is cool;
though the sister of Yama, gives life to men;
and though black, is very skilful in washing away sins
with waters that effect purification above all.
12.68
Having drunk of her [waters] like melted terraces of sapphire,
the clouds, white like balls of snow,
go along resembling lines of split collyrium in an instant,
as if dyed by black nights that had been cast off.
12.69
Clearly, if logical reason were stronger than tradition, / that Jāhnavī would not have filled the ocean; / for how else could its water have the same color as Śambhu's throat, / which was turned black by the spray of the Gaṅgā's flood?
12.70
As he prepared to traverse the earth with speed, / dark as a tamāla tree, possessing length of reach, / that great river appeared for a moment before him / like the boundary of that vast ocean of troops.
12.71
By boats speeding on every side, / as if on trembling oars for feet, / carrying women who closed their eyes from dizziness caused by the bobbing, / that river was crossed by the people.
12.72
First the lordly elephants playfully plunged on all sides into that [water], / which was only up to their shoulders; / instantly they crossed it, after the water was increased / by their continuously flowing stream of rut.
12.73
With snorting mouths, with necks held steady and raised, / ears pricked up, tails streaming long and wide, / the horses crossed ahead, their gaze fixed on the opposite bank.
12.74
The people crossed that extremely impassable river, / as if it were a solemn vow hard to fulfill; / then resounded the loud lowing of the hump-backed bulls, / tearing at the high banks with their horns.
12.75
Furrowed by the forces of the Yadu kings crossing by boats, / possessing the dark luster of a buffalo's horn, / and marked by elephants tinted with vermilion, / the river shone like a long braid of hair of the earth.
12.76
Unchecked in their swift movement, / holding their faces high, never giving up their pride, / some men crossed the navigable water, exceedingly broad, / with their arms casting away waves as if with other waves.
12.77
Having crushed its high banks with the blows of the bulls' horns, / their fierce traders dragging along the crocodiles with their strong legs, / that army of the Lord of Śrī, breaking through the large circle of chariots, / instantly crossed over that river and marched on.
Commentaries (2)
- Sarvaṅkaṣā — Mallinātha Sūri, Sanskrit
- Śiśupālavadhaṭīkā — Mallinātha, Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Śiśupālavadha — Māgha, Sanskrit