Matsyapurana 151
English (machine translation) 151
- Language
- English
151.1
Sūta said:
Seeing him, the enraged Dānavas moved about surrounded by their respective forces,
like bees everywhere in all directions when their honey is taken.
151.2
Upon [an elephant] rich with nets of black fly-whisks, with white tusks like sprouts,
with five variegated banners, whose temple-faces were flowing with rut,
151.3
a fierce, mountain-like elephant streaming with mada, unendurable—
mounted upon it in the battle, the mighty Daitya Nimi marched against Hari.
151.4
There were twenty-seven thousand fierce Dānavas
as foot-guards for that elephant, shining with diadems and armour.
151.5
Mathana mounted on a horse, Jambhaka riding a camel,
and Śumbha, having mounted a large ram, also advanced to battle.
151.6
Other lords of Dānavas, ready with various weapons in hand,
enraged in the fight, struck Viṣṇu of unwearied action.
151.7
The Daitya Nimi with an iron club, Mathana with a mallet,
Śumbha with a sharp trident, and likewise Grasana with a dart,
151.8
enraged Mahiṣa with a discus, Jambha with a spear in the great battle—
they all struck Nārāyaṇa, and the rest with sharp arrows.
151.9
Those weapons discharged entered the body of Hari
like instructions spoken by a teacher entering the hearing of a good pupil.
151.10
Unperturbed in battle, Viṣṇu then took up his bow
and arrows shaped like venomous snakes, washed in oil, flying straight.
151.11
Then, having aimed at those Daityas, with his bow drawn to his ear,
he charged furiously in battle against the Daitya army with manly vigour.
151.12
He pierced Nimi with twenty arrows having the splendour of fire,
Mathana with ten arrows, and Śumbha with five.
151.13
Enraged, he pierced Mahiṣa in the chest with a single feathered shaft,
Jambha with twelve sharp [shafts], and all [the rest] with eight each.
151.14
Seeing that dexterity of his, the Dānavas, wild with rage,
roaring loudly, waged a most wondrous battle with great effort.
151.15
Then the Dānava Nimi severed Viṣṇu's bow with a broad-headed arrow;
the Asura Mahiṣa severed the arrow being fitted to the string in his hand.
151.16
Jambha afflicted Garuḍa with sharp shafts;
Śumbha, who resembled a mountain, struck his arm forcefully.
151.17
His bow severed, Govinda seized a dreadful mace;
he hurled it with force at Mathana in the great battle.
151.18
Before it arrived, Nimi severed it into sesame-sized pieces in battle with his arrows.
Seeing it destroyed, like a request made before an unworthy person,
151.19
he seized a dreadful mallet adorned with divine gems;
he then released it with speed, aiming at the Dānava Nimi.
151.20
As it was coming in the very sky, three Daityas warded it off—
the Daitya Jambha with a mace, and Grasana with a spear-axe,
151.21
and the Daitya Mahiṣa with a spear, desiring victory for their own side.
Beholding it repelled, like affection shown to a wicked person,
151.22
He seized a spear of fierce point, ringing loudly with eight bells; / aiming it at Jambha, he who strikes terror into battle hurled it.
151.23
Gaja, son of the Dānavas, caught it as it stayed aloft in the sky; / seeing it caught like instruction [grasped] by discerning men,
151.24
he took up another bow, firm, capable of bearing great weight, and of supreme strength; / fixing the Raudra weapon, he unleashed an arrow at him.
151.25
Then the whole world of mobile and immobile beings was pervaded by the splendor of the weapon; / then the entire sky was seen to be filled with arrows.
151.26
The earth, the cardinal directions, and the intermediate quarters shone filled with a web of arrows. / Seeing the majesty of that weapon, the Asura general Grasana
151.27
dispatched the Brahmā weapon, which wards off all weapons; / by that, the world-devouring Raudra weapon was pacified.
151.28
When that weapon was repelled, Viṣṇu, slayer of the Dānavas, / invoked the Kāladaṇḍa weapon, causing terror to all the worlds.
151.29
As it was being fixed, a harsh wind blew, / Goddess Earth trembled, and the Daityas became bewildered in mind.
151.30
Seeing that fierce weapon, the Dānavas, maddened by battle, / hurled celestial weapons of various forms in the encounter.
151.31
Grasana took up the Nārāyaṇa weapon; Nimi released his excellent discus weapon; / and Jambha deployed the Aiṣīka weapon to ward off that Kāladaṇḍa weapon.
151.32
Before the lordly Daityas could even join in unison to ward off the weapon, / within a mere instant it struck down tens of millions of Daitya lords along with elephants and horses.
151.33
Immediately afterward, through the combination of the Daityas' weapons, that Kāladaṇḍa weapon was pacified. / Seeing his weapon thus pacified, Hari, his form filled with fury at their prowess,
151.34
seized his discus, radiant as ten thousand suns, with fierce spokes, like a second self; / aiming it at the general's fierce throat, which was as hard as an adamantine bolt, he hurled it.
151.35
Seeing that discus moving through the sky, the foremost Daityas with all their might / could not ward off the fierce [weapon], just as vain effort cannot ward off fate.
151.36
Causing an incomprehensible, invincible [terror], the discus fell upon Grasana's throat; / having cut Grasana's throat in two, its dreadful navel crimson with a stream of blood, / it returned once more to Janārdana's hand, shining like a blazing fire.
Translations (1)
- The Matsya Puranam — A Taluqdar of Oudh 1916, English
Linked texts (1)
- Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit