Matsyapurana 174
English (machine translation) 174
- Language
- English
174.1
Matsya said: / You have heard the extent of the Daitya army, O son of the Sun; / hear now the extensive army of the Suras belonging to Viṣṇu.
174.2
The Ādityas, Vasus, Rudras, and the two Aśvins of great might, / with their armies and their followers, armed themselves in due order.
174.3
Puruhūta, the guardian of the world with a thousand eyes, / the leader of all the gods, mounted the celestial elephant in front.
174.4
And in its center was a chariot drawn by swans, the best among all winged creatures, / with beautiful wheels and undercarriage, adorned with gold and diamonds,
174.5
followed by hosts of gods, Gandharvas, and Yakṣas by the thousands, / and praised by radiant assembly members and brahmin seers;
174.6
accompanied by flashes of lightning bolts and the rising of rainbow arcs, / joined with masses of storm clouds like mountains moving at will;
174.7
mounted upon which the Blessed One traverses the entire universe; / [upon which] the brahmins, standing at the head of sacrifice, sing in the Havirdhāna sheds;
174.8
where, as Śakra was followed in heaven amid the resounding of divine musical instruments, / groups of beautiful Apsarases danced about by the hundreds;
174.9
shining like the sun with the king of serpents as his banner, / yoked with a thousand horses endowed with the speed of mind and wind.
174.10
That excellent chariot shone, then guarded by Mātali, / like the whole of Mount Meru enveloped by the brilliance of the sun.
174.11
Yama, raising his staff, accompanied by Kāla and a mallet, / stood in the army of the gods, terrifying the Daityas with his roar.
174.12
Accompanied by the four oceans and licking serpents, / wearing armlets of conches and pearls, bearing a watery body,
174.13
swinging the nooses of death, with horses resembling moonbeams, / water-like, stirred by the wind, performing playful feats by the thousands,
174.14
wearing white, fluttering garments, with splendid armlets of coral, / his supreme body dark as sapphire, bearing the weight of tawny steeds, that excellent [god],
174.15
Varuṇa, holding the noose, took his stand in the center of the divine army, / eager for the moment of battle like an ocean overflowing its shore.
174.16
Accompanied by an army of Yakṣas and Rākṣasas, and hosts of Guhyakas, / and joined by the treasures Śaṅkha and Padma, the sovereign lord,
174.17
the glorious king of kings, holding a mace in hand, was seen, / fighting from his aerial chariot, the giver of wealth standing on the Puṣpaka.
174.18
That king of kings, desiring battle, having men for his vehicle, shone / like Śiva himself in person mounted on a bull in battle.
174.19
The thousand-eyed one was the eastern wing, and the king of the ancestors the southern; / Varuṇa held the western wing, and the one whose vehicle is man the northern.
174.20
Assigned to the four [directions], those four mighty guardians of the world / defended each their own quarter in that divine army.
174.21
The Sun, with a chariot yoked with seven horses and moving without limit, / blazing with splendor and shining with rays,
174.22
whose wheels are sunrise and sunset, moving over Mount Meru, / whose wheel is the gate to heaven, warming the imperishable world,
174.23
endowed with a thousand rays, blazing with brilliance, / the lord of day of twelvefold nature moved through the midst of the worlds.
174.24
Soma of cooling rays shone in a chariot drawn by white horses, / gladdening the world with his rays filled with water like snow.
174.25
Him, followed by a multitude of stars, the cool-rayed lord of brahmins, / his body marked by the silhouette of a hare, the destruction of nocturnal darkness,
174.26
the lord of the celestial lights in the sky, the giver of essence to the essences, the master, / the storehouse of thousands of medicinal herbs and of nectar,
174.27
the first share of the universe, gentle, [seated in] a chariot made of truth, / the Dānavas saw Soma standing with snow for his weapon.
174.28
He who is the breath of all beings, which is divided into five among men, / entering the seven bodily constituents, supported the three worlds and circulated.
174.29
Whom they call the creator of fire, the all-originating sovereign, / and who, entering the seven musical notes, is continually proclaimed with words;
174.30
whom they call the supreme element, whom they call bodiless, / whom they call sky-traveling, swift-moving, joined with sound;
174.31
that Vāyu, the life of all beings, arisen by his own radiance, / blew against [them] with rainclouds, terrifying the Daityas.
174.32
The Maruts, together with celestial Gandharvas and hosts of Vidyādharas, / sported with gleaming swords like sloughed snakes.
174.33
Emitters of intense watery venom, serving as arrows for the sky-gods, / the lords of serpents moved in the sky with gaping mouths.
174.34
With mountains, rocky peaks, and hundreds of trees, / the hosts of Suras approached to strike the Dānava army.
174.35
That god Hṛṣīkeśa, Padmanābha, Trivikrama, / resplendent as fire at the end of the cosmic age, lord of the whole universe,
174.36
origin of all, slayer of Madhu, consumer of offerings, present in sacrifices, / self of earth, water, and sky, dark-complexioned, bringer of peace, slayer of foes,
174.37
Gadādhara, taking the discus that slays the enemies of the immortals and the rest, / raised it with supreme splendor, like the sun rising from the mountain Nāga.
174.38
Holding with his left hand the great mace / that destroys all Asuras, black in form, bringing death to enemies,
174.39
the mighty lord, having the serpent-enemy on his banner, / held blazing varieties of weapons—the Śārṅga bow and others—with his other arms.
174.40
Upon Kaśyapa's son, the bird who feeds on serpents, / whose flight surpasses the wind, who shakes the sky,
174.41
resplendent with the king of serpents held in his beak, / towering like Mount Mandara when freed from the churning for nectar,
174.42
whose valor was seen many times in the clashes between gods and Asuras, / marked by Mahendra with the thunderbolt for the sake of nectar,
174.43
crested and strong, adorned with heated earrings, / clad in variegated feathers, like a mountain full of minerals,
174.44
hanging over his broad breast, equal in splendor to the cool-rayed moon, / clinging to the hoods of serpents, shining with a jewel-gem,
174.45
playfully covering the sky with both wings of beautiful plumage, / like two clouds with rainbows at the end of the cosmic age,
174.46
adorned with blue, red, and yellow banners, / covered in standard attire, an abode of immense body—
174.47
mounting Aruṇa's younger brother, the beautiful Suparṇa, best of sky-farers, / who possessed a body of golden hue, the glorious lord entered the battle.
174.48
The hosts of gods and concentrated sages followed him, / and praised Janārdana with words of supreme mantras.
174.49
United with Vaiśravaṇa, preceded by Vaivasvata, / surrounded by the moon, adorned by the king of the gods,
174.50
vast with moonlike splendors, the army advanced to fight, / with its roar stirred by the wind, like a blazing fire.
174.51
Through the splendor of victorious and radiant Viṣṇu, enveloped in darkness, / the army, mighty and violent, advanced to fight.
174.52
“May it be well with the gods!” Bṛhaspati said. / “May it be well with the Dānava host!” Uśanas proclaimed.
Translations (1)
- The Matsya Puranam — A Taluqdar of Oudh 1916, English
Linked texts (1)
- Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit