Harivamsha 36
English (machine translation) 36
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36.1
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: / Greatly rejoiced, saying 'So be it!', Śakra, who makes the thirty [gods] thrive, / ordered Soma before him to fight, whose weapon is cold:
36.2
"Go, Soma! Give aid to the bearer of the noose, / for the destruction of the Asuras and for the victory of the sky-dwellers.
36.3
You possess matchless power, and you are the supreme lord among the luminaries. / Those who know essence know that the essence of all the worlds consists of you.
36.4
Your decrease and increase are visible in the ocean and in the disk in the sky. / You revolve day and night, bringing time to pass in the world.
36.5
The mark in your lap resembling a hare, formed by the world's shadow, / is not understood by the gods, O Soma, nor by those joined with the asterisms.
36.6
You stand above the path of the sun and above the luminaries; / dispelling darkness with your body, you illuminate the entire world.
36.7
White-rayed, cold-bodied, king of luminaries, the hare-marked moon, / maker of the year, embodying the conjunctions of time, worthy of worship, the essence of sacrifice, imperishable,
36.8
lord of plants, origin of rites, born from the waters, endowed with mild coolness, / cold-beamed, receptacle of nectar, swift-moving, drawn by white steeds,
36.9
you are the beauty of lovely bodies, you are the soma of those who follow the soma-way, / gentle to all beings, slayer of darkness, king of asterisms.
36.10
Therefore, go with this armored Varuṇa, / and quell the Asura illusive magic by which we are being scorched in battle."
36.11
Soma said: / "Since you speak to me for the sake of battle, O king of gods, granter of boons, / here I shower down cold to dispel the Daitya's illusive magic.
36.12
Behold these hosts of Daityas in the great battle, scorched by my cold, enveloped in frost, / stripped of illusive magic, and drained of arrogance."
36.13
Then showers of snow released by the cold-maker, mixed with vapor, / enveloped those dread Daityas like masses of clouds.
36.14
Those two, bearing the noose and the white rays, Varuṇa and the moon, in the great battle, / struck down the Dānavas with descents of snow and falls of nooses.
36.15
The two lords of the waters in the battle, fighting with nooses and cold, / moved in the combat like two vast oceans agitated by water.
36.16
Submerged by the two, that Dānava army appeared / enveloped, as if by torrential clouds that bring about the destruction of the world.
36.17
With their rays and nooses raised, the two gods, the moon and Varuṇa, / quelled that illusive magic fashioned by the son of Diti.
36.18
Scorched by the waters of the cold-rayed one and bound with nooses in the battle, / the Daityas were unable to move, like mountains shorn of their peaks.
36.19
Struck down by the cold-rayed one, tormented by cold, those Daityas fell, / their whole bodies covered in snow, like fires that have lost their heat.
36.20
And in the sky, the wondrous aerial chariots of those Daityas, / with their radiance distorted, tumbled down and shot up.
36.21
Seeing those Dānavas in the sky bound by the hand with nooses / and covered with cold rays, Maya, the master of illusive magic,
36.22
fashioned on all sides a mountain illusive magic—hung with nets of rocks, laughing aloud with boulders, / its high mountain tops thick with trees, its forests dense with chasms,
36.23
crowded with lions, tigers, and elephants, echoing with elephant herd-leaders, / teeming with packs of predatory beasts, its trees shaken by the wind,
36.24
famous, able to go anywhere at will in the sky, fashioned by his own son Krauñca.
36.25
With roaring stones, rains of rock, and falling trees, / it crushed those hosts of gods and revived the Dānavas.
36.26
Then the illusive magic of the moon and of Varuṇa vanished, / as [the mountain magic] showered the hosts of gods in battle with rocks and dense masses of iron.
36.27
Rough with heaps of stones and crowded with trees and mountains, / the sky became immovable, like the earth with its mountains.
36.28
Not one god was seen in the battle who was not struck by stones, / not beaten by rocks, not obstructed by thickets of trees.
36.29
That army of gods became passive, its bows unstrung, / disordered by broken weapons—except for the wielder of the mace.
36.30
For in the midst of battle, the glorious Lord did not waver; / through patience, the lord of the world, the wielder of the mace, did not become angry.
36.31
Knowing the right time, resembling a dark rain cloud, observing the right time in the battle, / Janārdana was eager to watch the clash between the gods and Asuras.
36.32
Then, ordered in battle by the Blessed One to quell the heightened illusive magic created by Maya, / and roused mutually, rushing with heightened flames, / prompted by Viṣṇu's command, Fire and Wind repelled that illusive magic.
36.33
By the two, swollen like whirling clouds in the great fight, / that mountain illusive magic was burned to ashes and vanished.
36.34
That fire united with wind, and that wind filled with fire, / burned the Daitya army like two raging forces at the end of a yuga.
36.35
The wind rushed forward there, and the fire followed the wind; / wind and fire moved playing through the Dānava army.
36.36
When the aerial cars of the Dānavas were reduced to ashes, / falling and soaring all around,
36.37
when they were scattered by the currents of wind, and the fire had accomplished its task, / when the destruction of the illusive magic was completed, and the mace-wielder was being praised,
36.38
when the Daityas became motionless, and the three worlds were freed from bondage, / and when the gods rejoiced, crying 'Well done! Well done!' on every side,
36.39
at the victory of the thousand-eyed one and the defeat of Maya, / when all the quarters became pure, and the foundation of dharma was set in motion,
36.40
when the path of the moon was cleared, the sun was in its proper course, / the worlds were restored to their natural order, and men were bound to good conduct—
36.40x512
the gods, shining resplendently, then, together with hosts of sages,
36.41
when death's bindings were unbroken, the fire was fed with oblations, / the gods shone at sacrifices and revealed the path to heaven,
36.42
when all the world guardians moved on their journeys in the cardinal directions, / when the pure were established in ascetic heat, and evil-doers were destroyed,
36.43
when the side of the gods was delighted and the side of the Daityas despondent, / when dharma stood on three feet, and adharma stood on one foot,
36.44
when the great gate was thrown open, and the path of the virtuous prevailed, / and the classes and life-stages in this world were established each in their own dharma—
36.45
When kings were engaged in protecting their subjects and shone forth, / when songs were being sung in praise of the gods and the like, / when the world was freed of impurity and the dread darkness was stilled,
36.46
when that battle-deed of Fire and Wind had taken place, / the pure worlds, filled with their presence, celebrated rites for their victory.
36.47
Hearing of the terror of the previous gods and the great dread caused by Wind and Fire, / the Dānava known as Kālanemi appeared.
36.48
He wore a diadem shaped like the sun, with jingling ornaments and armlets; / he resembled Mount Mandara carved out, covered in pure silver;
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lofty with a hundred weapons, with a hundred arms and a hundred faces, / with a hundred heads, the glorious one stood like a mountain with a hundred peaks, / or like a summer fire grown vast in dry brush;
36.50
with smoke-colored hair, yellow beard, and a face of fanged lips, / bearing an immense body that filled the mid-space of the three worlds.
36.51
Weighing the sky with his arms, hurling mountains with his feet, / driving the rain-bearing storm-clouds before him with the breaths of his mouth,
36.52
with slanted, wide red eyes and a chest as towering as Mandara, / he advanced in battle as if about to burn all the hosts of gods,
36.53
threatening the troops of gods and covering the ten directions, / like proud Death arisen, thirsty, at the time of the universal dissolution.
36.54
With his beautiful-palmed, raised hand, endowed with large finger-joints, / filled with hanging ornaments, his armor shifting slightly,
36.55
with his raised, shapely right fore-hand, / he spoke to the Dānavas slain by the gods, saying, “Arise!”
36.56
All the gods, their eyes trembling with fear, / gazed at that Kālanemi in the fight, equal to Death for his foes.
36.57
The creatures watched Kālanemi striding forward, / like another Nārāyaṇa taking strides in his three paces.
36.58
Lifting his first foot, which stirred the sky with wind, / the Asura strode forward in battle, terrifying all the deities.
36.59
Embraced by Maya, the king of Asuras, as he strode in the combat, / the Daitya Kālanemi shone like Mount Mandara joined with Viṣṇu.
36.60
Then all the gods, with Śakra at their head, trembled with distress / upon seeing the terrifying Kālanemi advancing like Death.
Linked texts (1)
- Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit