Vishnupurana 6.3.p5

6.3.p5

Having consumed the whole universe in the person of Rudra, Janārddana, breathes fourth heavy clouds, and those called Samvartta resembling huge elephants in bulk overspread the sky, roaring and darting lightnings. Some are as white as the water-lily, some are dusky like smoke; some are yellow; some are of a dun colour, like that of an ass; some like ashes sprinkled on the forehead; some are deep blue, as the lapis lazuly; some azure like the sapphire; some are white at the couch or the jasmine; some are black as colly rum; some are like the lady-bird; some are of fierceness of red arsenic and some are like the wing of the painted joy. Such is the colour of these massy clouds; in form some resemble towns, some mountains, some are like houses and hovels and some are like columns. Huge in size and loud in thunder they fill space. Showering down torrents of water, those clouds quench the dreadful fires which involve the three worlds and then rain incessantly a hundred years and deluge the whole universe. Showering down in drops as large as dice these rains overspread the earth and fill the middle region and inundate the celestial sphere. The world is now enshrouded in darkness and all things animate and inanimate having perished, the clouds continue to pour down waters for more than a hundred years.