Skandapurana 1.4.14: adhyāyaḥ 16

Tāraka said: / "A man who, having gained a birth here, is infatuated with royalty that resembles a bubble, / with women, dice, and intoxicating drinks, abandons manly valour.

His birth is entirely in vain until the end of an aeon, there is no doubt.

The man who does not fulfill the desires of his parents, or who does not make his kinsmen sorrow-free, / or who acquires neither fame nor honour, though born, is dead in this world.

Therefore, for the defeat of the foremost immortals and for the swift seizure of the fortune of the three worlds, / let my eight-wheeled chariot be harnessed, along with my army, an invincible host of daityas!

And [bring] my banner bound with gold ribbons, and my parasol hung with nets of pearls! / Today I shall untie the braided chignons of these lovely celestial women!

Just as the monkey was formerly [rescued] by his mother, so by her truth may I be Tāraka [the rescuer]!"

Nārada said: / Having heard the words of Tāraka, the dānava named Grasana, / the commander-in-chief of the king of the daityas, immediately did so.

Striking the deep-sounding kettledrum and swiftly summoning the daityas, / the daitya prepared the chariot of the wise king of the daityas,

drawn by a thousand garuḍas whose lustre equalled that of Garuḍa. / For they, the sons of Suparṇa, who resided in the caves of Mount Meru,

had been conquered by the king of the daityas and assigned to serve as mounts. / The chariot had eight-times-eight wheels and was four yojanas wide;

furnished with various pleasure chambers, charming with singing and musical instruments, / it appeared like a city of the gandharvas.

And there arrived ten daityas of fierce valour, / with retinues of millions upon millions, and many others in battle.

Their leader was Jambha, and next was Kujambha, / Mahiṣa, Kuñjara, Meṣa, Kālanemi, and Nimi.

Mathana, Jambhaka, and Śumbha: these were the ten commanders, lords of Daityas. / The lords of Daityas had bodies like mountains, endowed with fierce prowess.

Equipped with various weapons and masters of all kinds of arms and missiles, / Tāraka had a banner of manifold shapes, terrifying to behold.

At times a dreadful Rākṣasa, a Piśāca, a crow, or a vulture: / thus the banner was seen to take on manifold forms.

The general Grasana shone with an alligator on his standard, / whereas on Jambha’s banner was a demonic face made of iron.

A donkey with a wagging tail was on Kujambha’s banner, / and for Mahiṣa a jackal, charming and made of gold, shone upon his.

A vulture was upon Kuñjara's [flag], and a Rākṣasa upon Meṣa's; / Kālanemi had Mahākāla, and Nimi had a great whale.

A Rākṣasī was for Mathana, and a crow for Jambhaka; / a great wolf was on Śumbha’s: such were their splendid standards.

Other banners too were formed in diverse shapes. / Yoked with a hundred swift-paced tigers adorned with golden garlands,

Grasana’s chariot shone, roaring like a great cloud. / And Jambha’s chariot was yoked with a hundred lions.

Kujambha’s chariot was yoked with Piśāca-faced donkeys; / Mahiṣa’s was yoked with as many camels, and Kuñjara’s with horses.

Meṣa’s was yoked with fierce leopards, and Kālanemi’s with elephants. / [Nimi] indeed mounted a mountain held firmly by elephants—

by four four-tusked, fragrant [elephants] resembling clouds. / Mounted on a black horse one hundred cubits long, adorned with golden ornaments,

embellished with white chowries and garlands of flowers, / the lord of Daityas named Mathana shone with a noose in his hand.

Jambhaka was mounted on a camel adorned with a garland of small bells, / and the Dānava Śumbha was mounted on a great cloud that rained death.

And other heroic Dānavas with various mounts and weapons, / wearing fierce, colourful armour, adorned with earrings and turbans,

with diverse upper garments, adorned with diverse garlands, / rich in diverse sweet fragrances, praised by hundreds of varied bards,

with great chariots leading the flow of diverse musical instruments, / great chariot-warriors in that army engaged in tales of varied heroism.

That army of the lion among Daityas appeared dreadful, / its horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers embracing the dust of the earth.

Enraged, that lord of Daityas mounted his great chariot. / He shone with the ten Daityas, like ten-armed Īśvara; / or as if setting out to destroy the world, he marched against the gods.

In the meantime Vāyu, the messenger of the gods, / having seen that army of Dānavas, went to the abode of the gods to report to Indra.

Having gone to the divine assembly of high-souled Mahendra, / he reported in the midst of the gods this crisis that had arisen.

Hearing that, the king of the gods closed his eyes; / then, in due time, the highly intelligent one addressed these words to Bṛhaspati:

Indra said: / “This fierce clash of the gods with the Dānavas has arrived. / Tell me what should be done here, bolstered by political expedients.”

Having heard these words of Mahendra, the lord of speech, / the illustrious Bṛhaspati of noble intellect replied:

Bṛhaspati said: / “Policy preceded by conciliation is remembered for those who wish to conquer / a fourfold army, O best of the gods; this is the eternal rule.

Conciliation, gift, sowing discord, and fourthly punishment: / these are to be applied in order in political counsel according to distinctions of time and place.

Among them, conciliation should be applied towards noble and virtuous people, / gift to the greedy, and discord among the suspicious: this is certain.

And punishment should always be applied against the evil-minded. / Conciliation cannot apply to the Daityas, since they are evil-minded and devoid of virtue.

And what need do they have of wealth, prosperous as they are? / Moreover, by the nature of their race they cannot be divided, even in the judgment of the Creator.

Therefore punishment is the single expedient here, if it pleases you. / A wicked person is never capable of becoming a good person.

Even if pampered or cared for, he does not abandon his innate nature. / This is what my intellect thinks; let you all decide.”

Thus addressed, the Thousand-Eyed [Indra] said, “So be it indeed!” / And having considered what ought to be done, he spoke in the assembly of the immortals:

“Hear my words with high regard, O dwellers of heaven!

You are the enjoyers of sacrifices, beloved of the virtuous, filled with sattva, / always established each in your own office, dedicated to the protection of the world.

And on account of you the lords of Dānavas harass [the world]. / For them conciliation and the rest do not apply; let punishment alone be ordained!

Fix your mind on battle; let the army be assembled! / Let the weapons be sounded, and let the deities of weapons be worshipped!”

Thus addressed, the foremost of the gods equipped themselves, / adorned with golden headbands for battle with ten thousand horses.

“Let my immortals yoke their mounts and aerial chariots! / Having made Yama the commander-in-chief, march out swiftly, O deities!”

Endowed with various wondrous qualities, invincible to gods and Dānavas, / the chariot of Mahendra, yoked by Mātali, was seen.

Yama, mounted on a buffalo, took position at the front of the army, / surrounded on all sides by a multitude of fierce little bells.

Filling the expanse of the sky with the blazing flames of the time of dissolution, / the Fire-god, mounted on a ram, spear in hand, stood in place.

Wind, an elephant-goad in his hand, his great speed spread wide, / was seen at the front of the army mounted on a great bear.

Mounted on the lord of serpents, the blessed Lord of Waters [Varuṇa] himself, / heroic, holding a great noose, stood in the army.

In a divine chariot drawn by men, the Lord of Wealth [Kubera] drove forth; / roaring like a great lion in battle, he stood with a mace in his hand.

Then Nirṛti, the lord of rākṣasas, was seen on a chariot with horses whose faces were those of rākṣasas, / holding a bow, surrounded by troops of rākṣasas, and roaring loudly.

The Moon and the Sun, the two Aśvins, the Vasus, the Sādhya deities, / the Viśvedevas, and the Rudras stood arrayed for battle.

Wearing upper garments of golden cloth, with variegated armor, weapons, and banners, / the gandharvas appeared, placing Viśvāvasu at their head.

Likewise, rākṣasas were seen with red upper garments, flawless iron ornaments, / vulture-standards, and red hair.

Likewise, yakṣas by the millions, led by Maṇibhadra and others, were seen there, / their hands holding terrifying thunderbolts, clad in black garments, great chariot-warriors.

The piśācas shone there, with bronze owl-standards, fierce, / clad in leopard skins, marching ahead with great speed.

Likewise, the kinnaras stood in battle, dressed in white garments, / having white silk banners, mostly riding rutting elephants.

Adorned with nets of pearls, radiant as a pearl necklace, / a swan shone as the gentle-looking banner of the lord of the ocean.

And Dhanada's standard, with an pinnacle of five-hued great jewels, / stood erect and shone as if desiring to fly into the sky.

The great standard of Yama was a crow made of black iron; / the standard of the lord of rākṣasas shone with the face of a ghost.

The two gods whose luster flashed like the moon and sun had golden lion-standards; / the standard of the two Aśvins was [marked with] a multicolored water-pot.

Śatakratu's standard was an elephant wrought of gold, adorned with variegated gems, / accompanied by white chowries.

And the banners of the others in that battle were of various forms; / along with nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, great serpents, and night-stalkers,

that army of the king of the gods, invincible, came into view, / consisting of thirty-three crores of diverse classes of gods.

Mounted upon that elephant named Airāvaṇa, resembling a mountain of gold, with white ear-chowries, wearing a lovely, spotless garland of golden lotuses, / adorned with radiant, charming saffron markings, with bees buzzing as they clung to his temples,

the mighty [Indra] was seated, dressed in splendid, variegated garments, / adorned with a vast canopy studded with diamonds, the foreparts of his arms bedecked with armlets,

the thousand-eyed Pākaśāsana, praised by thousands of bards, shone in the third heaven.

Thus ends the sixteenth chapter, entitled “Description of the Commencement of the Battle Between Tārakāsura and the Lord of the Gods,” in the Kaumārikākhaṇḍa of the first [section], the Māheśvarakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand verses.