The Slaying of Śiśupāla 19
English (machine translation) 19
- Language
- English
19.1
Then there arose in that forest of battle, / crushing the ranks of royal infantry, / [a warrior] tearing his foes as bamboo, / like a fire breaking out from the friction of reeds in a grove of bamboo.
19.2
Bala, having demonstrated his prowess, / saw him rushing from afar, / as a lion watches / an advancing elephant.
19.3
The warrior, master of battle, born of the great, victorious in combat, / pierced him exceedingly, who was spread far and wide and was breaking his foes; / he, of fearful splendour, the enemy of his foes, dispeller of fear, possessing heavy splendour, / made the adversary tremble.
19.4
Causing prosperity to the worlds, making the earth's surface tremble, / his chariot descended, fearsome with a roar like a stroke of lightning.
19.5
Then that enemy, a great archer skilled in the battle-sacrifice, / shot out of anger sharp arrows at Rāma, who was watchful.
19.6
As [the sun carries] the sun to the southern quarter, his charioteer quickly carried away from the battle-sky / that fallen-into-a-swoon prince whose fiery splendour was dimmed.
19.7
Having rendered Śini's powerful army energetic, the son of Śālva, / whose mouth possessed the radiance of a blooming lotus, uttered a forceful speech.
19.8
Reaching the tree of battle with a burning torch, scattering fiery energy across the quarters, / his splendour flared up powerfully, as the foliage of his adversaries withered.
19.9
Rukmin, having lifted his weapons, mocked the broad-chested warrior with words / with which that well-armed hero was urged to flee.
19.10
The son of Kṛṣṇa alone met the armies of the kings / rushing from all sides at once, like the ocean receiving the rivers.
19.11
Resembling clouds with shining iron armor, / those kings hurled a lightning bolt of arrows endowed with the hue of gold.
19.12
Strewn with rays from his fingernails like flower-clusters, that prince shone aloft like a tree, / whose branch of a trembling bow was mounted by bees that were arrows.
19.13
Entering the dread combat, yet showing gentleness to one bowed down, / that slayer of hosts of foes did not cease piercing the enemies with arrows.
19.14
He shattered with arrows the manifold archery of Bāṇa / which had been set before them by all the earthly kings in the hope of victory.
19.15
Drawing his bow, he approached that army / which practiced many deceptions and possessed immense fortitude, without fatigue.
19.16
That hero of great vigour, having instantly eclipsed the vigour of Uttamaujas, / rendering him unimportant in the fight, bowed not to any pre-eminence.
19.17
The hosts whom the youth struck down from afar with broad-tipped arrows / were proud warriors; but they did not return to the fight.
19.18
Pressed with force and released by him at will without negligence, / the arrows did not miss the mark, but struck the enemies.
19.19
Because of his heroic deeds in the fight, which instantly caused horripilation, / his prowess was praised by the gods standing in the sky alongside the great seers.
19.20
Perfuming the quarters, bright, unfading flowers fell in abundance from heaven upon him; / from him, his fame soared straight up to heaven.
19.21
His foes, like small vessels, were unable to endure his combat, like a mountain; / and his fame veiled the sky like a cloud.
19.22
The battle, adorned with blooming flower-like crests, / encircled the heads of the multitude of warriors with luxuriant hair.
19.23
Though fighting with respect, that army, while being destroyed with relish / by him who honored other brave men, was led into fear.
19.24
Seeing him embraced by the Fortune of Victory like the fish-bannered god of love, / the king of Cedi was suddenly seized with fury, as if enraged.
19.25
That proud lord marched against the enemies with his fourfold army, / which was accompanied by leaping young elephants and horses.
19.26
Then, with the loud twanging notes sounding from taut bowstrings, / and with trumpets, it resembled the ocean agitated at the destruction of the world-age.
19.27
That army possessed arrows capable of exhausting bodies and a multitude of sounds; / its roaring was the roaring of a forest fire in the fierce battle-ground.
19.28
Dark with glittering iron mail, with flashing swords like a brood of Kālīya serpents, / she advanced like the sister of Yama himself, wishing to offer her assistance.
19.29
At the start of the march, that host advanced unceasingly with passion, / deafening people with high-pitched cries, fearless and free from disease.
19.30
Leaders of princes marched forward, waving polished swords; / for that is the touchstone of valour and loyalty for dependents.
19.31
Who, wielding a creepers-like sword to ascend to heaven in battle, / did not obtain spotless and supreme glory along with tender, faultless fortune?
19.32
Making great haste all at once, the warriors sought to vanquish / the rival side with their bolt-like arms and with their legs.
19.33
Then, in the battle-yard filled with mounts, honor was maintained in combat; / a tumult of men arose amid rutted, powerful royal tuskers.
19.34
That host of proud men, having drawn darkness through their battle-passion, / resounded with rushing, swift steeds and engaged in combat.
19.35
Vigorously bent by warriors arrogant in youth, / the creeper-like bows, their mid-sections grasped firmly in the fist, creaked aloud.
19.36
Many an elephant was agitated, and dust rose around thousands of bells; / spray was produced by an elephant's trunk, and the dust was settled by it.
19.37
Even by elephants bearing the fresh red hue of passion, / only the furious aesthetic flavor was maintained in battle amid angry tumult.
19.38
In the foot-soldiers who had received honor and gifts from their lord, / devoted solely to battle, no mental fear found a place.
19.39
With archers like trees possessing hollows in the form of quivers filled with arrows, / their branch-like arms bound with bowstring-guards, the battle-forest became dreadful.
19.40
That hostile force, dense with the splendour of vast crowds of men, / met destruction here at the hands of those endowed with disciplined conduct.
19.41
With its arrays shaped as sarvatobhadra, cakra, and gomūtrikā, / that complex army appeared like a court epic with its intricate verse-patterns.
19.42
With its shining army, the coalition of the Sātvatas / turned spontaneously to fight against the king of Cedi, equal to the challenge.
19.43
Vast, elongated, crowded with moving people, / the hostile force descended like a chariot rushing onto the king's highway.
19.44
Deep like mountain-elephants, resounding with hosts of bold warriors, / that army, having caused the slaughter of foes, could not be restrained by its adversaries.
19.45
Swift, charming with spread feathers, lethal javelins / resembling peacocks fell upon the elephants.
19.46
As battle commenced, even without despair among the unflagging warriors, / a sounding shower of rut was rained down by the tuskers reaching combat.
19.47
Carried on by advancing, purified infantry moving at the vanguard, / that battle shone like the art of music executed by fluid, precise musical steps.
19.48
One hero, by his sword, blamelessly cut down the curved swords of others, / and gained fame that overflowed the edge of the world's horizon.
19.49
To slay the foes, a fierce warrior drew out his sword and detached himself / at the same time from his tightly grouped circle of comrades.
19.50
By another warrior, brandishing his weapon and sporting with exceeding boldness, / the enemy host was swiftly thrown into utter confusion.
19.51
A certain warrior who had slain a thousand, though his head was severed by an enemy's sword, / remained upright and performed the dance of a headless trunk.
19.52
Adorned with the splendid ornaments of weapon-wounds, / another warrior appeared like Rāvaṇa, adorned with magnificent jewels.
19.53
Another warrior, whose pair of thighs was severed in the slaughter of foes / and who was drenched with arrows on both sides, became red-bodied like the dawn.
19.54
In that great battle resembling an ocean, another [warrior] displayed ferocity, / just as Śiva's wrath grew into great fury at Dakṣa's sacrifice.
19.55
Infantrymen whose swords were severed by the swords of their enemies / tore at the opposing army with their teeth in fury, like elephants [with tusks].
19.56
In that battle, brilliant with the skill of elephants split open in impetuous clash, / not a single coward burst forth in flight.
19.57
Before those honoured [warriors] wishing to repay their master's affection [could do so], / the others, out of indignation, abandoned their lives in battle.
19.58
In a battle that is the abode of fury, an ignominy-shattering light [appeared]; / for the fragile in the world, what abode of fury [is there] without death?
19.59
Never faltering because of sharpness, bearing an unbent tip, / the spear forged of iron—not the power born of the body—was hurled by the mighty.
19.60
The kings fought, deploying their strategy in such a way, / that the divine host attained wonder along with the people.
19.61
Having drawn them by their virtues/bowstrings until reaching the fruit/arrowhead, like courtesans [drawing lovers], / the bowmen suddenly released their reed arrows, like lovers.
19.62
The horses of the enemy army, commencing a fresh advance, / and the swift-feathered arrows entered into their midst.
19.63
Attained by having put forward the tip, splendid with resort to good feathers, / the arrows, fitted with notches, swiftly hit even the target [just as seekers reach a mark].
19.64
A certain warrior made the enemy's flow of blood equal the colour of a hibiscus flower, / and made his arrows pierce into the foes before him with passion for battle.
19.65
Two lords desiring battle approached from afar with great speed, / [and] a dead elephant between them became like a protective parapet.
19.66
Vast, massive, fearless, heavy burdens of the earth, / resembling clouds, sounding like kettle-drums, fearless elephants attacked elephants.
19.67
Fighting elephants were not so incapacitated / by their trunks severed by sharp sword-blades as by their broken tusks.
19.68
As if from pressing against one another, temporal fluid incessantly trickled all around / from the elephants' bodies because of their ruthless charge.
19.69
The battleground, flooded with rut-fluid like a lake, / an elephant stirred up, having pulled out a lotus with its large trunk.
19.70
When an elephant was pierced by arrows, dejected with poison, / the bees, as it sank in agony, wept under the guise of buzzing.
19.71
In that battle, which was like a wide bed for Death, / the elephants, suffering destruction of their tusks, attained the state of bedbugs.
19.72
In the battle ignited by the sharp [sword], destroying the chariot of the terrified, / with a shining, lustful army, destroying the bow-wielder devoid of love—
19.73
Though constantly maintaining a demonic/fearful temperament in battle, / [warriors] slain facing the enemy attained the state of gods.
19.74
He whose body was struck with wounds, matching [the gods] in brilliance, / attained equality with the immortals on account of his sword's hilt shining brightly.
19.75
Where friends, masters, paternal uncles, brothers, and maternal uncles were laid low, / that battlefield was seen by the steadfast like [the grammar of] Pāṇini.
19.76
The dust was swept away by a river whose blood-water resembled twilight clouds, / so that the men eager to fight were indeed delighted to hinder the enemy's sight.
19.77
Strewn with splitting elephant trunks/lotuses, filled with falling conch-shells, / with drifting chariots/aquatic birds, rivers of blood flowed onward.
19.78
Blood-smeared people suffered injury from weapons, sinking in fat; / the demon-goblins rejoiced at the meal of fresh marrow and fat.
19.79
With unstrung bows painted with variegated colours, flashing with a hundred red lightnings, / that sight, an omen for heroes, shone like a mass of rainclouds.
19.80
When a kinsman perished, by many a man near him here / he was lamented; [yet] in the army with slaughtered elephants, [the death was lamented] by bells, not with dust.
19.81
Strewn with severed tusks and limbs of elephants, the earth shone / as if with the pestles and mortars of Death crushing the lives of creatures.
19.82
Having thus entered the battle, shaking off the assault of other mortals, / the king of Cedi defeated his enemies through exertion of pride.
19.83
Then [appeared Kṛṣṇa], his yellow garment overlaid with the lustre of the jewel on his chest, / like a lightning-bearing cloud whose lightning is broken by a flashing rainbow,
19.84
Dark blue, having trembling bees clinging to stemless lotuses, / cherishing women, delighting [the world], playfully wavering,
19.85
Gazed upon with side-glances by the Royal Fortune of Victory / with a kingly form, as if desiring union at that very moment for the first time,
19.86
The illuminating, prosperous, splendid-faced, free of non-splendour, bird-riding, fearless, / overcoming worldly existence, protecting states of being, devoid of rebirth, lord of the earth,
19.87
By supreme yogins, resolved to reach the further shore, / making effort to abandon the body, the Supreme Spirit was seen.
19.88
Resorted to by Śrī, dense with unbroken splendour, essential, / approaching swiftly, possessing beautiful breasts, faultless,
19.89
Beholding him, his enemies hated him, yet became free of sin; / medicine, even if distasteful, destroys illness by its very nature.
19.90
Known in heaven: which combatant on earth, who does not bow to us, / could obstruct him, the victorious warrior, moving unhindered in the army?
19.91
Appointed to an exceedingly heavy task before him, / strung with a great cord/endowed with high virtue by its master, the bow bent down.
19.92
There very sharp, handsome arrows were fixed [upon the bow]; / to the enemies, the twang of that drawn [bow] was exceedingly harsh.
19.93
Just as with men who are degraded, so among his arrows: / whichever was joined with the string/virtue reached right to the ear/ear of honour.
19.94
The beautiful, stainless one, supreme in ancient times, the protector, / filled before with boundless arrows, filled the front against the enemies.
19.95
Pervading the quarters, sharp, booming, piercing the vital parts, / in a single instant he hurled arrows and struck down his enemies.
19.96
Raining arrows, roaring loudly, with flashing bow as its standard, / dark of hue, Keśava shone like a cloud disguised.
19.97
Not only was his bow seen by the people drawn into a circle to the ear by him, swift in aiming, / but the enemy army was also seen encircled to the limits of its camp.
19.98
Viewing the worlds, sweet-voiced, pure and unconfused, his locks like swarms of bees, / Death at the time of cosmic dissolution, whole, undisputed, sporting playfully as a boar,
19.99
He pierced the armoured foes in their vital spots; / for his hitting large targets/liberality belonged to gifts, not to archery.
19.100
The best slayer, having no chink, obstructing enemies, roaring like the ocean, / the hero, best like the sun on fertile land, warded off hostility.
19.101
Discharging countless arrows, his bow stole the lives of many foes; / indeed, it could not tolerate another being strung/alive.
19.102
The unborn, unaging, pure one shattered rows of kings on the battlefield; / the radiant one, breaking the arrogance of foes, shone forth invincible and unassailable.
19.103
As he slew the arrogant foes, two things went forth: / blood went into the earth for drinking, and arrows went into the world for protection.
19.104
Causing cruelty to cruel foes, making parrots cry, causing torment, / holding hail the size of buds, dry as a karīra bush, hard, shining like the sun—
19.105
Though he had descended to lessen the burden of the earth,
he made many a host of enemies an increase to the soil.
19.106
The tearer of foes, possessing a modest cave, noble destroyer of enemy trees, tearer of distant mountains,
feared from afar, terrifying from awe, his belly cleft slightly, destroyer of trees, honoring his enemies—[he shone].
19.107
Cleaving with a single arrow numerous foes as though they were trees,
he acted in a manner worthy of himself as Rāma in another birth.
19.108
Heroic Śauri, with his hot, sky-cleaving arrows, swiftly, in heaps,
hurtful, lord of the body of Śrī, cut off the heads of enemies with his shafts.
19.109
It was manifested that their arrows were truly his, since then, repeatedly,
though drawing away their hearts, they did not stick fast in their hearts.
19.110
Lest there be a staining of the letters of their master’s name,
the arrows plainly did not seize another woman’s vital breaths or blood.
19.111
Snatching away all the vital breaths of the host of warriors,
the swift arrows, like burglars, vanished from afar into the earth.
19.112
The conqueror, making a dreadful battleground, covered with blood
the earth belonging to that army which possessed dread missiles and ranks of banners.
19.113
Rendering the enemy army empty and inactive with shafts whose tips were fit to pierce flesh,
and the sky pervasive with birds, [he dominated the field].
19.114
The giver of gifts, giver to the distressed, high giver, giver to the charitable, painful to enemies, giver of a staff,
giver in battle, non-injurer of the non-giving, non-injurer—he took up the weapon.
19.115
With tears born of wounds in the heart, fallen on the breasts and jars of bathed elephants,
he set flowing rivers of blood of the foes and of tears of their wives.
19.116
Abounding in pride and strength, possessed of exalted sentiment,
renowned in prowess, glorious, he shone like another captivating lion.
19.117
Beholding that single hero twofold, threefold, and fourfold,
his enemies, through rivalry, instantly went to fivefold dissolution [death] themselves.
19.118
Ever possessed of a flourishing body in battles, filling the bodies of fortunate warriors,
he bore immense splendour that threw down foes, like the great ocean surpassing the splendour of the stars.
19.119
Having accomplished the desired object, the feathered arrows of the Bow-Handed One, swiftly entering the earth with faces turned downward—
this alone is proper for those endowed with purity, thrown by their master into the midst of enemies.
19.120
Resorting in the swiftness of battle to true courage marked by pride, auspicious, having formerly attained purity by destruction of sins, raising aloft the mark of Śrīvatsa with joy,
the hunter of enemy deer, having cast off fear, having raised a roar like Hari's, covered the rising cloud of shafts with arrows shot in a single volley.
Commentaries (2)
- Sarvaṅkaṣā — Mallinātha Sūri, Sanskrit
- Śiśupālavadhaṭīkā — Mallinātha, Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Śiśupālavadha — Māgha, Sanskrit