Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 15
English (machine translation) 15
- Language
- English
Contents
- 15.41 — 2 parts
15.1
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then, surrounded by thousands of fierce Mothers, / Kālarātri of blazing eyes destroyed the entire world.
15.2
Then those dreadful Mothers, embodying Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva, / the powers of Vāyu, Indra, Agni, and Kubera, and of Yama and Varuṇa,
15.3
[the powers] of Skanda, the Boar, and Narasiṃha, roamed frightfully / with discuses, tridents, clubs, swords, vajras, spears, lances, and sharp spears,
15.4
with skull-topped staffs and flaming torches, the Mothers roamed during the destruction; / urged on by Umā, all ran forward into the ten directions.
15.5
By the striking of their feet and by the sounds of the roar of "hūṃ", / all these three worlds were completely burned up on every side.
15.6
With the cries of "Alas, alas!" and wailing sounds, and with highways, houses, and gate-towers broken down, / the earth became dreadful on all sides, its body variegated and strewn with a heap of skulls.
15.7
This Jambūdvīpa which is described as measuring a hundred thousand [yojanas], / was entirely laid waste, attacked, O best of kings.
15.8
Jambū, Śāka, Kuśa, Krauñca, Gomeda, and Śālmali, / along with the Puṣkaradvīpa, and whatever mountain-dwellers there were,
15.9
all of them were swallowed by Death, by spirits and hosts of Mothers, / and with the skulls of great asuras, overflowing with flesh, marrow, and fat.
15.10
Her body reddened by the vomiting of blood, the exceedingly terrifying Mahāmāyā, / drinking blood there, fond of human flesh and fat,
15.11
with a skull bowl in hand, hideous, devouring gods and asuras, / dancing and laughing, perverse, made a tremendous noise.
15.12
Causing terror to the three worlds, laughing with the burst of lightning, / and having devoured the earth bounded by the seven continents and oceans,
15.13
she then went to her own abode where Lord Maheśvara was, / dwelling on the bank of the Narmadā together with the host of mothers.
15.14
Dancing on the lofty peak of the immortals with a laughing face— / 'gods' are called 'immortals', and a 'peak/corpse' is called 'kaṭa'.
15.15
Since this mountain was covered with those corpses, O best of kings, / with heaps of broken and shattered bones flooded with fat, marrow, and blood,
15.16
therefore it is called 'Amaraṃkaṭa' by the wise. / Highly sacred in the worlds, it was fashioned by Śambhu.
15.17
Śaṅkara is indeed eternally present there together with Umā. / Then I, restrained, stood at the tip of his feet there.
15.18
Bowed low in a state of reverent salutation, I praise that blue-and-red Lord. / Then, with beats of rhythm, along with the gaṇas and the hosts of mothers,
15.19
greatly delighted, Śaṅkara danced together with Death. / With skull-topped clubs, firebrands, spears, and iron bars,
15.20
holding flesh, fat, and marrow in their hands, they danced in joyful groups: / dwarfs, matted-haired, bald, with long necks, lips, and hair,
15.21
with huge phalluses, bellies, and arms, they danced and laughed, / with distorted, terrifying faces, and ferocious faces like serpents and the rest.
15.22
They made [the mountain of] the immortals into a thorn when the reversal of time arrived. / In their midst I beheld the exceedingly terrible
15.23
Death dancing, whose hair was tawny like lightning. / Beside him stood the goddess adorned with spotless garments,
15.24
her cheeks resounding with earrings, wearing a serpent as a sacred thread, / worshipping Maheśvara with diverse offerings.
15.25
There I saw the Narmadā, the mother praised by all, / having diverse waves and whirlpools, resembling the great shore of the ocean,
15.26
invisible through the cascades of great lakes and rivers, yet possessing a visible form, / being praised by gods, perfected beings, and hosts of sages, O Bhārata.
15.27
Meanwhile, I saw the terrible [stream] called the Saptasaptikā, / full of a deluge of great waves and foam, turning the world into water.
15.28
Again I beheld the goddess Narmadā clothed in black deer[skin], / flowing in seven streams with the roaring sounds of smoky thunderbolts.
15.29
Having thus seen this peerless dissolution, O best of kings, / this mobile and immobile world became devoid of the rays of the moon and the sun.
15.30
Arising from a great portent, the circle of constellations perished. / Then swiftly whirling everything without remainder like a firebrand,
15.31
thronged with ten million aerial chariots, along with Kiṃnaras and great serpents, / came the great gale accompanied by lightning bolts, by which the mobile and immobile world trembled.
15.32
Born from the mouth of Rudra, renowned by the name of Saṃvarta, / that wind dried up the vast seven oceans.
15.33
His limbs smeared with ashes, his eyes and hair tawny, his crest bound with matted hair locks, / making a great roar, holding a blazing and broad trident—may that Hara protect you day by day!
15.34
Bearing a trident, holding a bow, wearing armor and a diadem, all his limbs sprinkled with cremation-ground ash, / the stalk of his neck entwined with a garland of skulls, his diadem bound with strings of great serpents,
15.35
his body encircled by hosts of cobras, his crown bearing poison, fire, the moon, and the river of the gods, / his terrible hand holding the Pināka and a skull-staff, clad in animal skin, accompanied by the rattle of the damaru,
15.36
his self extended beyond the seven worlds, all his limbs wrapped by mighty arms, / with an eye resembling the rising sun and a belly resembling a sprout of coral,
15.37
red like twilight clouds, red lotuses, rubies, vermilion, and massed flashes of lightning, / he sportively played at the end of the yuga with his extended liṅga and eye.
15.38
Hurling about with his golden staff just like the lord Meru, / shattering the mountains with the stamping of the tip of his feet, doing so to the world, he also went there.
15.39
Desiring to destroy heaven completely, letting loose a wild, terrifying laugh, / the great-souled one, the sole Lord of the universe, carried away all of heaven, throwing it into agitation.
15.40
Seeing that Lord, the unborn ruler, the most worthy of praise, the great Lord who destroys the universe, / that Kālarātri, together with the mothers and all the gaṇas, worshipped Śiva.
15.41
Nandin, Bhṛṅgin, and the gaṇas bowed to that god who is all beings, / to Hara, the best in the universe, the cause of all people, the enemy of Smara, day and night.
15.41.p1
Thus ends the fifteenth chapter, named 'Description of the Onset of the Dissolution of Creation', in the Glorification of the Narmadā, in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa of eighty-one thousand [verses].
15.41.p2
RKV Chapter 16
Linked texts (1)
- Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit