Skandapurana 1.4.18: adhyāyaḥ 20

Nārada said: / Seeing him, all the Dānavas, enraged and surrounded by their respective forces, / hemmed him in on all sides, like bees around honey.

Upon a fearsome elephant resembling a mountain, streaming with rut, untameable, / bearing white variegated banners, its temple-cheeks split [with mada],

which was adorned with golden color like a mountain enveloped by forest fire, / the mighty Daitya Nimi mounted and advanced against Hari in battle.

The terrifying Dānavas who guarded that elephant / numbered twenty-seven crores, radiant with diadems and armor.

[One] rushed against Hari having mounted a horse resembling a mountain; / Jambhaka, having mounted a camel with a neck five yojanas long;

Śumbha advanced mounted upon a ram twelve yojanas long; / and other Dānava lords, prepared and with various weapons in hand,

enraged, advanced in battle against Viṣṇu of effortless deeds: / the Daitya Nimi with an iron bar, and Mathana with a club;

Śumbha with a sharp trident, and Grasana likewise with a dart; / the enraged Krathana with a discus, and Jambha with a spear in the great battle.

The rest struck Nārāyaṇa with arrows that pierce the vitals. / Those weapons discharged entered the Supreme Person,

like the manifold instructions of a guru entering a good pupil. / Then enraged Hari, taking up his bow and copious arrows,

crushed the Daitya army, just as discourse on wealth [crushes] righteousness. / He pierced Nimi with twenty arrows brilliant as fire;

enraged Mādhava pierced Mathana with ten, Śumbha with five, / and Mahiṣa on his chest with a hundred;

and Jambha with twelve sharp [arrows], and each one of the rest with eight. / Seeing his lightness of hand, the Dānavas, faint with rage,

made a still greater effort, covering Hari with arrows. / Then the Dānava Nimi severed the bowstring with a broad-headed arrow,

and Mahiṣāsura passionately sliced the bow from his hand. / Jambha afflicted Garuḍa with thirty thousand arrows,

and Śambha pierced his two arms with ten thousand arrows. / Then, with an astonished mind, Mādhava seized his mace.

He hurled it with speed at Mathana in the great combat. / Before it reached him, Nimi struck it with thousands of arrows resembling pestles,

and knocked it down, roaring like a storm cloud at the end of time. / Then in the sky arose the cries of beings, saying "Alas! Alas!"

There was clearly no strength here [equal to] where that mace was shattered. / Hari, seeing it fallen like a plea made in the wrong place,

seized a terrible club adorned with divine gems. / He hurled it with exceeding speed, aiming at the Dānava Nimi.

As it came flying through the sky, three Daityas intercepted it: / the Daitya Dambha with a mace, Grasana with a sharp-edged spear,

and the Daitya Mahiṣa with a lance, roaring with a tremendous cry. / Seeing it repelled, as a virtuous man is by the wicked,

he seized a spear exceedingly fierce, with the great resonance of a hundred bells. / Aiming it at Jambha, he hurled it in that terrifying battle.

Seeing it arriving, Jambha quickly leapt down from another's chariot / and caught it playfully, like an impassioned man seizing a lovely woman;

and laughing, the mighty one struck Garuḍa on the head with that very [spear]. / Then, having mounted his chariot again, he seized his bow and strung it.

Garuḍa became unconscious in battle, afflicted by the spear. / Then Viṣṇu, smiling, said to him: "Well done! Well done!", O Bhārata,

and dispelled the delusion of Vinatā's son with the touch of his hand. / Comforting him with words and seeing that the spear had proved futile,

just as all the designs of a man with a bad wife come to nothing, / he then fixed another bowstring of firm and mighty strength.

Having produced a clapping sound with his palm, he discharged the Raudra weapon. / Then, by the radiance of the weapon, the whole sky could not be seen at all;

the earth, the cardinal points, and the intermediate points became filled with a net of arrows. / Seeing the greatness of that weapon, the Asura commander Grasana

swiftly discharged the Brāhma weapon, which repels all weapons. / By that, the Raudra weapon, terrifying to the world, was brought to rest.

When that weapon was neutralized, Viṣṇu, the slayer of Dānavas, / invoked the Kāladaṇḍa weapon, terrifying to all the worlds.

While that weapon was being aimed, a harsh wind blew, / the earth goddess trembled, and the oceans split apart.

Seeing that fierce weapon, the Dānavas, arrogant in battle, / invoked divine weapons of various forms in the combat.

Grasana invoked the Nārāyaṇa weapon, Nimi discharged the excellent Tvāṣṭra weapon, / and Jambha discharged the Aiṣīka weapon to ward off the Daṇḍa weapon of the battle.

Even as the Nārāyaṇa and other weapons were being aimed for its neutralization, / the Kāladaṇḍa slew a crore of Daitya lords in a mere instant.

Thereafter, seeing that weapon, the Kāladaṇḍa, calmed and its terror ceased by the counteraction of the Daityas' weapons, / Hari, whose form became like the fire of dissolution in anger,

seized the discus, brilliant as ten thousand suns, with fierce spokes, like a second self. / Grasping it firmly in combat, the four-armed one hurled it blazing at the general.

Then, seeing that furious discus advancing, the foremost Daityas, with all their soul and their own valor, / were unable to ward it off, just like fate arrived from [deeds] done before.

That unfathomable discus, like a newly forged weapon, fell upon Grasana's neck. / Its dreadful nave turned crimson with the stream of his blood, it returned once more to the hand of Murāri.

Struck by the discus in the battle, the Dānava fell to the ground and died; / and the remaining Daityas experienced immense sorrow, while some ground their arms in rage.

Then, after the Daitya Grasana, the commander of the army, was slain, / the Dānavas fought unrestrainedly with Hari,

with flat-faced iron spears, maces, lances, knifes, and iron bludgeons, / and with sharp-faced iron arrows, discuses, and spears.

Having found his mark, Janārdana split into a hundred pieces each one / of that mass of missiles loosed by them, using arrows resembling tongues of fire.

Enraged, Janārdana struck down tens of millions of them; / then, coming together all at once, they fell upon Keśava.

Some Asuras seized Garuḍa by the feet in their hundreds; / they clung to his two wings, and others clung to his face.

Unto Keśava's bow as well, and upon his two arms and head, / the great Daityas clung, roaring again and again.

Seeing that great marvel, the Siddhas, Cāraṇas, and travelers / let out cries of "Alas, alas!" and praised Hari in the sky.

Then Hari, shaking them off violently, cast them down upon the earth, / just as an enlightened person casts off the faults born of worldly existence.

Then, unsheathing his excellent sword Nandaka / and taking up his spotless shield, Viṣṇu ran at them on foot.

Then, in merely a moment, wandering along the way, / Keśava with his many [blows] cut down ten lotus-units of the foremost Daityas.

Then the foremost Asuras headed by Nimi, mighty archers, / roaring loudly, ran toward Keśava as he traversed on foot.

And Garuḍa swiftly approached, and Hari mounted him, / and he spoke to Garuḍa in that tumultuous battle:

"If you are not weary, O Tārkṣya, then advance toward Mathana; / but if you are weary, withdraw for a moment from the battle."

Tārkṣya said: / "I have no weariness, O Lord of the World, even a bit, when I remember / that Tāraka appointed my sons to serve as mounts."

Speaking thus, he went toward the Daitya Mathana in battle. / The Daitya, seeing him approaching, bearing the conch, discus, and mace,

struck him on the chest with a sharp-edged javelin. / Without giving any thought to that blow in that great fight, Viṣṇu

struck him with five arrows capable of cleaving even a sovereign mountain; / and again, pierced between his breasts by ten [shafts] drawn to the ear,

senseless for a moment, Mathana composed himself once more, / and taking an iron club, struck Janārdana on the head.

Viṣṇu was slightly staggered by that blow; / then, his eyes rolling in rage, Mādhava seized his mace.

With it he struck Mathana forcefully on the heart; / he fell thus upon the ground with shattered limbs and died.

When that Mathana was crushed and had fallen to the ground, / all those Daityas were seized with despair on the battlefield.

Then, as those excessively proud Dānavas grew despondent, / Mahiṣa, the lord of the Dānavas, flew into a rage, his eyes red.

Relying on the strength of his own arms, the terrible Mahiṣa marched out against Hari, / tormenting Hari with a sharp-edged trident;

and the heroic [demon] struck Garuḍa firmly in the chest with a spear. / Then, opening his mouth, which resembled a huge dark cavern,

the Daitya wished to swallow Acyuta along with Garuḍa in the battle. / Then Acyuta of great might, knowing what the Dānava intended to do,

filled his mouth with divine missiles. / Struck by those arrows, Mahiṣa, who resembled a mountain,

with half his body overturned, fell down and died. / Seeing Mahiṣa fallen, Hari brought him back to life and then

said to Mahiṣa: "O Dānava, you do not deserve death at my hands; / formerly it was declared by the Lotus-born [Brahmā] himself that you are to be killed by a woman.

Arise, go, released by me, swiftly away from this great battle." / Addressed thus by Hari, the Asura departed from that place.

When that Daitya Mahiṣa had turned away, the Dānava Śumbha, / with the swell of his lips bitten and his face furrowed with frowns,

rubbing hand against hand and taking up a terrible bow, / strung it and loosed hundreds of exceedingly dreadful arrows.

That Daitya, who fought with wondrous skill and struck with a firm grip, then [attacked] Viṣṇu / with innumerable, unhindered arrows discharged, resembling blazing tongues of fire.

And Viṣṇu, deeply tormented by the arrows of the lord of the Daityas, seized an iron club like Death; / with it in the fight he crushed his face and Śumbha's collarbone, which was like a mountain.

Then, with three arrows drawn up to the ear, having the color of fire and sun, Viṣṇu [pierced] Śumbha's arm, / with sixty-two his charioteer's head, and with ten the Daitya's banner.

Pierced by them and afflicted, the lord of the Daityas became smeared with flowing blood. / Then, as he wavered slightly in his steadfastness, he whose hand holds the conch, lotus, and bow of horn said:

"You are easily slain by a woman; leave the battle, O inauspicious Śumbha, in a very few days! / You do not deserve [death] at my hands in vain, O fool." Thereupon that Dānava Śumbha retreated.

Then Jambha, hearing that from Viṣṇu's mouth, roared loudly, uttering a lion's roar, / and playfully spoke these words in the battle, making the world tremble with his loud burst of laughter:

"O you whose dwelling is in the waters, what use have you for these Daityas who lack prowess? / Face me in this battle if you have any manly vigor anywhere!

When formerly those Daityas led by Hiraṇyākṣa were slain by you, / Jambha was truly not there; behold me standing here today!"

"Look at these two arms of mine, Hari, like palm trees! / Or [look at my] chest, hard as a thunderbolt! Strike me, and take your pleasure!"

Addressed thus by him, Keśava, licking the corners of his mouth in fury, / hurled a terrible iron mace, one that could split even rocks.

Then, close behind it, Viṣṇu hurled a solid club / made of dark iron, like a second mountain.

Seeing those two weapons, Jambha set down his bow upon his chariot, / leaped forward, seized the iron mace, and struck Garuḍa with it.

Then seizing the second weapon, the club, roaring in battle, / he struck Govinda on the head with all his might.

From those exceedingly powerful blows, both Garuḍa and Keśava, / enveloped in stupor and senseless, lay as though dead.

Seeing that great wonder, the foremost Daityas roared; / the universe could not endure them, shaken by the arrogance of their joy.

With lion-roars, clappings of palms, and the twangs of bowstrings born of arrows, / they cheered Jambha and waved their garments.

They blew their conches and fiercely harassed the deities.

Then Hari, regaining consciousness in the great battle, along with the son of Vinatā, grappling with Jambha, / turned his back upon the invincible combat and fled swiftly.

Thus ends the twentieth chapter, named "Description of the Battle of Viṣṇu with the Daityas," in the Kaumārikākhaṇḍa of the first [section], the Māheśvarakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].