showers of their mellifluent flowers, as offerings to the sylvan gods
and people.
30. The birds that approached fearlessly to drink the water dropping
from the hill, now fled for fear of their seeming as sleets, shells and
shots of archers.
31. The birds parched by thirst, and wishing to drink the water dashed
by the waves of the rivulet, were hovering upon it as stars in the sky.
32. There were rows of crows sitting on the tops of the tall _tála_ (or
palm) trees, from whose sight the boys were hiding the remains of their
sweetmeat.
33. There they beheld the rustic lads with garlands of flowers on their
heads and garments; and roaming in the cooling shades of the date, jam
and nimba trees.
34. They saw the lean and hungry beggar woman passing slowly by the
way, and clad in her flaxen robe, with chaplets of blossoms for her ear
dress.
35. They saw the lazy rustics sitting retired in their lonely retreats,
and conversing afar from the noisy brooks where they could hardly hear
one another.
36. They saw the naked mendicant boys, besmeared in their face and
hands with curd, and with cow-dung upon their bodies, and holding the
flowery branches of plants in their hands, and crowding in the compound.
37. The bushes on the verdant banks of the river, were shaken to and
fro as in a swing by the dashing of the waves, which left their marks
on the sandy shore, as the waters receded to their bed.
38. The house was full of flies cloyed with the sweets of milk and
curds; but the children were moaning with cries for their want of
sufficient food.
39. The herdswomen were observed to be fretting, at seeing their
wristlets daubed by the cow-dung (which they were pasting); and the men
were seen to be smiling, at seeing the eagerness of women, for tying
the loosened knots of their hair.
40. The crows were alighting from the tops of hills, to pick up the
offerings of the holy sages; and the paths about their houses, were
strewn over with the sacred _kuru_ and _kurunta_ leaves.
41. The floral plants growing in the caverns of the hills, and about
the precincts of the house, covered the ground every morning, with
heaps of flowers to the depth of the heels.
42. There were the _chouri_ kine and antelopes, grazing in one part of
the forest; and also the tender fawn sleeping on the bed of grass under
the _gunja_ groves.
43. There were the young calves lying on one side, and shaking their
ears to drive the flies away; which were fluttering on their faces, and
upon the milk exuding from the sides of their mouths.
44. The rooms were stored with honey, which had been collected by
driving the bees from the hives; the gardens were full of flowering
_asokas_ (_asoka Jonesia_); and their rooms were painted with lacdye.
45. The winds moistened by the showers of rain, had given the arboretum
to bloom, and the blooming buds of Kadamba, overhung like a canopy, the
beds of green grass below.
46. The _Ketaka_ (_keya_) arbour was blooming white by removal of its
weeds, and the water-course was gliding along with its soft murmuring
tune.
47. The winds whistled in the windows of the caves, and the clouds
rested on the roofs of the mountain tops; the ponds were brimful of
water, and filled with lotuses like so many lightsome moons.
48. The green arbour cast its cooling and undivided shade upon the
ground, where the dew-drops trembling on the blades of grass, glistened
like twinkling stars in the azure sky.
49. The trees incessantly dropped down their ripened fruits, and dried
flowers and leaves of various sorts, like showers of snow on the
whitened ground.
50. There some clouds were seen to hang continually over the household
compound, like the _chirinti_ (or kulína) girls, that never forsake
the abode of their parents; while there were others hovering over the
roof of the house, and flashing in lightenings that supplied the place
of lights.
51. The altar here, re-echoed to the loud roaring of the winds,
confined in the caverns of the mountains; and the temple there, was
graced by the twittering swallows and parrots, that alighted upon it in
their numerous flights.
52. Soft breezes were moving slowly, loaded with the fragrance exhaled
by the sleepy flowers (in the evening), and gently shaking the leaves
of trees as they passed along the lawn.
53. There the ladies were attentive to the prattling and playful
parrots and partridges, and here they listened to the melodious notes
of the _Kokila_, responsive to the jarring crows on the branches.
54. The palma and tamála trees were loaded with fruits, and the forest
trees were entwined by creepers, which waved their leafy palms around
them.
55. There were the tender ivy creepers, clasping the branches on one
side, and the fragrance of the efflorescent _Kandala_ and _silindhra_
plants, exhaled on the other. The tapering _tála_ and _tamála_ trees
rising as high as spires, and a cooling breeze was blowing amidst the
flower plants in the gardens.
56. There were the kine hastening to drink the water in the troughs,
and garden trees hanging with loads of green unripe fruits and
beautiful flowers; the running streams were hidden under rows of trees
on the banks, and the stalks of plants were studded with flowers
without alternation.
57. The gardens were perfumed with the nectarious fragrance of _kunda_
flowers, and the lakes were redolent with the odour of lotuses, hiding
the humble bees giddy with liquor, in their honied cells. The air was
reddened with the roseate pollen, flying from the crimson lotuses
(_sthala padmas_) of the land, and mocked the redness of Indra’s palace
in the sky.
58. The gargling noise of the rivulets running down precipitately from
the hills, and the whiteness of the hoary cloud, hanging with the hue
of _kundu_ flowers over them; the beauty of the flowery parterres in
the compound of the house, and the melodious warbling of musical birds
singing joyous in the air, enchanted the scene.
59. The youths were sporting on their beds of flowers, and the playful
damsels were decked with flowery wreaths hanging down to their feet.
The ground was adorned every where with sprouting and prickly shrubs
and blades of grass; and there was a beauty displayed in the clasping
of creepers about the clumps of reeds.
60. The new shooting buds and blossoms covered the trees around, and
fragments of clouds shrouded the houses below; the ground was decorated
by wreaths of icicles, and the flash of lightnings in the clouds over
the houses, terrified the women within.
61. There was the fragrance of blue lotuses exhaling its sweets
about, and the hoarse lowings of the kine, hastening to their green
grazing ground. The confident deer and does were lying tamely in the
house-yard, and the peacocks dancing merrily before the water-falls, as
if they were the showers of rain water.
62. The odoriferous breezes were blowing giddily, with the flavour of
the fragrance they bore about; and the medicinal plants were lending
their lights like lamps at night. The nests of birds were resonant with
ceaseless warblings, and the noise of the cataracts deafened the ears
of men on the bank.
63. The pearly dew drops, that were continually dropped on the ground,
from the leaves of trees and blades of grass; and the gleaming beauty
of the ever blooming blossoms above, form with others, the everlasting
charms of mountainous habitations, and baffle the description of poets.
CHAPTER XXIX.
ACCOUNT OF THE PREVIOUS LIFE OF LÍLÁ
_A Description of the Domestic Duties of a Hindu Lady._
The two goddesses then alighted in that cooling village seat, as the
two states of felicity and liberation, meet in the tranquil spirit of
the man knowing the Divine spirit.
2. Lílá, who had by this time, become personified to the form of pure
intelligence, by her knowledge of yoga, now became a seer of the three
times presenting themselves before her.
3. She remembered the whole course of her past life, and derived
pleasure in relating the events of her former life and death.
4. Lílá said:—I recollect by thy favour, O goddess! and by sight of
this place, all what I did and thought of in my past life.
5. Here I had grown up to old age, and here I had withered and become
lean and thin as a skeleton. I was a Bráhmaní here, and had my body
scratched by the dried sacrificial grass (_kusa_), which I had to
meddle with.
6. I was the legal wife of my lord, and producer of his race, and was
employed in the acts of milking the kine, and churning the curd (for
butter and _ghee_). I had been mother of many sons, and a kind hostess
to my guests.
7. I was devoted to the service of the gods, Bráhmans and good people,
and rubbed my body with cow milk and _ghee_: I was employed in cleaning
the frying pans and the boiling kettles of the house.
8. I boiled the food daily with a single bracelet of glass and one of
conch-shell in my wrists; and served my father, mother, brother and
daughters and sons-in-law with their daily victuals.
9. I was emaciated in my body like a domestic servant, by working all
day and night; and ‘haste and hasten,’ were the words I used to repeat
to myself.
10. Being thus busied and employed, I was so silly and ignorant, that I
never thought within myself, even in a dream, about what I was and what
was this world, although I had been the wife of a Bráhman.
11. Wholly engaged in the collection of fuel, cow-dung, and sacrificial
wood and vegetables, I became emaciated in my body, which was wrapt in
a worn out blanket.
12. I used to pick out the worms from the ears of the milch cow, and
was prompt to water the garden of greens with watering pots in hand.
13. I used to go to the swelling lake every day, and get the fresh
green grass for the fodder of my tender calves. I used to wash and
clean the house every morning, and paint the doorway with the white
tints of pasted and powdered rice (_gundi_).
14. I had to correct my domestics with gentle rebukes, and tell them to
keep within their bounds like the billows in the rivers.
15. With my infirm body and ears shaking as dried leaves of trees, and
supporting myself on a stick, I lived here under the dread of old age.
16. As she was speaking in this manner, and walking in company with
Sarasvatí about the village, in the valley of the mountain, she was
astonished to see her former seats of pleasure, and showed them to the
goddess.
17. This was my flowery arbour, decorated by these torn _pátala_
plants, and this was my garden alcove of flowering Asokas.
18. This is the bank of the pond where the calves were loosely tied to
the trees; and this is my pet calf Karniká, which has refrained from
browzing the leaves (in my absence).
19. This is my watering woman, now so languid and dirty in her
appearance; and weeping these eight days in my absence, with her eyes
daubed in tears.
20. This, O goddess, is the place, where I used to eat and sit, and
where I slept and walked; and these are the places where I gave and
received the things to and from my attendants.
21. This is my eldest son Jyeshtha Sarmá, weeping in the house; and
this is my milch cow, now grazing on the grassy plain in the forest.
22. I see this portico and these windows, once dear to me as my person,
and besmeared with the dry powder of the _huli_ festival of the vernal
season.
23. I see these pulpy plants of gourd planted with my own hands, and
dear to me as myself, now spreading themselves over the oven place.
24. I see these relatives of mine, who had been the bonds of my life
before, now smoking in their eyes with tears, and carrying the fuel for
fire, with beads of _rudráksha_ seeds on their bodies.
25. I see that stony shore, baffling the force of the waves, which have
been pelting their pebbles against it, now covered by bushes of the
beach.
26. The verdant meadows were full of leafy plants, with pendant dew
drops on their tips; and the plains were whitened by the hailstones
falling on them in showers.
27. The mid-day was mantled by sun beams, as by a white mist of frost,
and the arbours resounded with the humming of bees, fluttering about
their clustering flowers.
28. The blooming palása glowing as reddish corals, had covered the
trees and the land with heaps of crimson flowers.
29. The village rill was flowing with the floating fruits, which it
bore from shore to shore; and the rustic lads jumbled together with
loud noise, eager to lay hold on them.
30. The cool shady beach of the rill, was strewn over with pebbles,
washed and carried away by the current, and covered by leaves falling
from the trees.
31. There I see the altar of my house, which is so beautifully
ornamented with the flowering creepers, and which is overhung on its
windows by clusters of fruits and flowers.
32. Here lived my husband, whose life has fled to the sky in its aerial
form, and became afterwards the lord of the earth, reaching to the
surrounding seas.
33. I remember, how he had fostered the fond wish of obtaining royal
dignity, and how ardently he looked forward on its attainment.
34. I see, O goddess! his royal dignity of eight days, which had seemed
to be of so long a duration (as eighty years) before.
35. I see the soul of my Lord, residing in the empty space of this
mansion, as in his former kingly state; although it is invisible to all
as the current air in the sky, and as the odours borne by the winds.
36. It is in this vacuous space, that his soul is contained in the form
of a thumb; which contains in its bosom, the whole extent of the realm
of my lord, stretching to thousands of leagues in its circumference.
37. I see also O goddess! the spacious kingdom of my lord, in the space
of my intellect, which makes room for thousands of mountains by the
miraculous power of God, styled as illusion. (_máyá_).
38. I wish now, O Goddess! to see the earthly city of my lord again;
let us therefore turn our course that way, as no place is distant to
the resolute.
39. Vasishtha said:—Having said so, she bowed down to the goddess and
entered into the shrine, and then like a bird, she flew into the air
with the goddess.
40. It was a region devoid of darkness, and as fair as a sea of
moonlight. And then it was as azure as the person of Náráyana, and as
bright as the back of a locust.
41. They passed above the regions of the clouds and winds, as also
beyond the spheres of the orbits of the sun and moon.
42. They passed beyond the path of the north polar star, and the limits
of the circuits of the sádhyas and siddhas and other celestial beings.
43. Thence they ascended to the higher heavens of Brahmá and the
Tushita divinities, and then upward to the sphere of Golaka (the
zodiac); and thence again to the Sivaloka, and the sphere of the Pitris
or the departed souls of the dead.
44. Passing thus beyond the spheres of the embodied living beings,
and bodiless souls of the dead, they proceeded far and farther to the
unknown regions of empty space.
45. Having passed the etherial sphere, they beheld nothing there,
except the sun, moon and the stars shining below them.
46. There was only a deep darkness to be seen, filling the whole
vacuity of space, and appearing as the basin of the waters of universal
deluge, and as compact as the impenetrable cavity of a rock.
47. Lílá said:—Tell me, O goddess! what became of the light of the
sun and other luminaries, and whence came this dense darkness as to be
compressed under the fist (mushti-gráhya).
48. The goddess replied: you have got to a spot so remote from the
spheres of heaven, that the light of the luminaries can never reach to
it.
49. And as one in a deep dark pit, can see no light of a fire fly
flitting over it; so the solar light is invisible to one behind the
great belt of heaven.
50. Lílá said:—Oh! the great distance that we have come to, whence the
great luminary of the sun also, appears as small as an atom below.
51. Tell me mother, what sort of a place is that which lies beyond this
region, and how can we come to it after traversing this gloomy expanse.
52. Sarasvatí said:—Behind this is the great pole of the universe,
which is scattered over with innumerable nebular stars in the form of
the particles of dust.
53. Vasishtha said:—As they were talking in this manner, they glided
imperceptibly to that pole, as the bee saunters over the solitary hut
on the height of a mountain.
54. They then were at no pains to come down from that precipice, as
there is no pains to effect what must certainly come to pass in the
end, though it appeared difficult at first. (Or) that which is certain
must come to pass, however hard it might seem at first.
55. They saw the system of the universe, laid naked to their sight, as
the bold navigator beholds a world exposed to his view beyond the wide
expanse of waters.
56. They saw the watery expanse to be ten times greater than the earth,
and enveloping it in the shape of the crust of the walnut fruit.
57. Then there is a latent heat which is ten times as great as the
water, and the circumambient air which is as much greater than the
water; and then the all encompassing vacuum of which there is no end.
58. There is no beginning, middle or end of that infinite space; and it
is productive of nothing, like a barren woman of her offspring.
59. It is only an extended expanse, infinite, calm and without
beginning, middle or end, and is situated in the Supreme spirit.
60. Its immensity is as immeasurable as if a stone is flung with full
force from its top, or if the phœnix would fly up to it with all his
might, or if he would traverse through it in full velocity, it is
impossible for him to reach from one end to the other, in a whole Kalpa
age.
CHAPTER XXX.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MUNDANE EGG—(BRAHMÁNDA).
They passed in a moment beyond the regions of the earth, air, fire,
water, and vacuum, and the tracks of the ten planetary spheres.
2. They reached the boundless space, whence the universe appeared as an
egg (ovum).
3. They beheld under its vault millions of luminous particles floating
in the air (nebulæ).
4. These were as innumerable bubbles, floating on the waters of the
unlimited ocean of the sphere of the Intellect.
5. Some of them were going downward, and others rising upward; some
turning round, and others appeared to their understanding to remain
fixed and immovable.
6. These different motions appeared to them with respect to their own
situations, as they saw them in their different sides.
7. Here there were no ups and downs and no upside or below, nor any
going forward or backward. Here there are no such directions as men
take to be by the position of their bodies.
8. There is but one indefinite space in nature, as there is but one
consciousness in all beings; yet everything moves in its own way, as
wayward boys take their own course.
9. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why do we call upward and downward, forward
and backward, if there are no such things in space and nature.
10. Vasishtha said:—There is but one space enveloping all things, and
the worlds which are seen in the infinite and indiscernible womb of
vacuity, are as worms moving on the surface of water.
11. All these bodies that move about in the world by their want of
freedom (_i.e._ by the power of attraction), are thought to be up and
down by our position on earth.
12. So when there is a number of ants on an earthen ball, all its sides
are reckoned below which are under their feet, and those as above which
are over their backs.
13. Such is this ball of the earth in one of these worlds, covered
by vegetables and animals moving on it, and by devas, demons and men
walking upon it.
14. It is covered also by cities, towns and mountains, and their
inhabitants and productions, like the walnut by its coat.
15. Like elephants appearing as pigmies in the Vindhyan mountains, do
these worlds appear as particles in the vast expanse of space.
16. Every thing that is any where, is produced from and subsists in
space. It is always all in all things, which are contained as particles
in it.
17. Such is the pure vacuous space of the Divine understanding, that
like an ocean of light, contains these innumerable worlds, which like
the countless waves of the sea, are revolving for ever in it.
18. Some of these are hollow within, and others as dark as the darkness
in the end of a _kalpa_ age: and they are all moving about in the ocean
of vacuity, like the waves of the sea.
19. Some of these are whirling about with a jarring noise for ever,
which is neither heard by nor known to any body. It is like the motion
of men addicted to earthly pursuits by their nature.
20. Some of these are now growing in form, as if they were newly
created, and are in the course of their development, like sprouts in
the cells of seeds newly sown in the ground.
21. Some of these are melting away as icicles under heat, like the
mountains that were melted down by the burning sun and heavenly fire,
at the dissolution of the world.
22. Others have been continually falling downward without gaining
the ground, till at last they dwindle away, and melt into the divine
Intellect.
23. Others are as immovable in the air, as the animalculae in the
water, which are moved to and fro by the wind, without any sign of
motion or sensation in them.
24. Again nothing is stable in nature, but every thing is as changeful
as the acts and usages enjoined in the Vedas and sástras, are altered
and succeeded by others.
25. There are other Brahmás and other patriarchs, and many Vishnus and
many Indras one after the other. We have different kings of men, and
sometimes no ruler of them.
26. Some are as men and lords of others (Ishas), in this multiform
creation, and some are creeping and crooked living beings on earth;
some kinds are as full as the waters of the ocean, and others have
become quite extinct in the world.
27. Some are as hard as solid stones, and others as soft as the poor
insects and worms; some are of godly figures as the giants, and others
of puny human forms.
28. Some are quite blind and suited to darkness (as owls and moles and
bats); others are suited to light (as men, birds and beasts), and some
to both (as cats and rats).
29. Some are born as gnats sucking the juice of the fruits of the fig
tree; while others are empty within, and fly about and feed upon the
air.
30. The world is thus filled with creatures beyond the conception of
Yogis, and we can not form even a guess-work of the beings that fill
the infinite vacuum.
31. This world is the sphere of these living beings; but the great
vacuum spreading beyond it, is so extensive, that it is immeasurable by
the gods Vishnu and others, were they to traverse through it, for the
whole of their lives.
32. Every one of these etherial globes, is encircled by a belt
resembling a golden bracelet; and has an attractive power like the
earth to attract other objects.
33. I have told you all about the grandeur of the universe to my best
knowledge, any thing beyond this, is what I have no knowledge of, nor
power to describe. 34. There are many other large worlds, rolling
through the immense space of vacuum, as the giddy goblins of _Yakshas_
revel about in the dark and dismal deserts and forests, unseen by
others.
CHAPTER XXXI.
SECTION I.
ALIGHTING OF THE LADIES ON EARTH.
Vasishtha said:—After having seen the worlds in their aerial journey,
the ladies alighted from there, and quickly entered the inner apartment
of the king.
2. There they saw the dead body of the king lying in state amidst heaps
of flowers, accompanied by the spiritual body of Lílá, sitting beside
the corpse.
3. It was the dead of night, and the inmates had fallen into sound
sleep one by one; and the room was perfumed with the incense of resin,
camphor and sandalwood and saffron.
4. Lílá, seeing the house of her latter husband, and wishing to enter
into it, alighted in her assumed body (sankalpadeha) on the spot of his
sepulchre.
5. She then passed through the fictitious spacious palace of her lord
(_sankalpasansára_), by breaking out of the confines of her body and
cranium called the earthly and worldly environs in Yoga terminology
(sansára and Brahmánda-ávaranas).
6. Then she went again with the goddess to the bright and spacious
temple of the world (Brahmánda-mandapa), in which she quickly entered.
7. She saw her husband’s imaginary world to lie as a dirty and mossy
pool, as the lioness beholds the mountain cave covered by darkness and
clouds.
8. The goddesses then entered into that vacuous world with their airy
bodies, as weak ants make their passage through the hard crust of the
wood-apple or _bel_-fruit.
9. There they passed through regions of cloudy hills and skies, and
reached the surface of the earth, consisting of tracts of land and
basins of water.
10. They then came to the Jambudwípa (Asia), situated amidst the
ninefold petals of the other dwípas (or continents), and thence
proceeded to the territories of Lílá’s husband in the _varsha_ land of
Bharata (India).
11. At this interval of time they beheld a certain prince—(the ruler
of Sinde), strengthened by other chiefs, making an attack on this part
which was the beauty of the world.
12. They beheld the air crowded by people of the three worlds, who had
assembled there to see the conflict.
13. They remained undaunted, and saw the air crowded by aerial beings
in groups like clouds.
14. There were the Siddhas, Cháranas, Gandharvas, Vidyádharas, Súras,
celestials and Apsarás in large bodies.
15. There were also the goblins of Bhútas and Pisáchas, and Rákshasa
cannibals; while the Vidyádhara females were flinging handfuls of
flowers like showers of rain on the combatants.
16. The Vetálas, Yakshas and Kushmánds, that were looking at the affray
with pleasure, took themselves to the shelter of hills, to avoid the
flying darts and weapons.
17. The imps were flying from the air, to keep themselves from the way
of the flying weapons; and the spectators were excited by sound of the
war-whoop of the combatants.
18. Lílá who was standing by with a flapper (or fan) in her hand, was
frightened at the imminent dreadful conflict, and smiled to scorn their
mutual vauntings.
SECTION II.
SIGHT OF A BATTLE ARRAY IN EARTH AND AIR.
19. Virtuous people who were unable to endure the horrid sight, betook
themselves to prayers, with the chief priests for averting the calamity.
20. The messengers of Indra, were ready with their decorated elephants
(called _loka-pálas_), for bearing the souls of mighty heroes to grace
the seats of heaven.
21. The cháranas and Gandharvas, were singing praises of the advancing
heroes; and heavenly nymphs that liked heroism, were glancing at the
best combatants.
22. Voluptuous women were wishing to embrace the arms of the brave;
and the fair fame of the heroes, had turned the hot sunshine to cool
moonlight.
23. Ráma asked:—Tell me, sir, what sort of a warrior is called a hero,
that becomes a jewel in heaven, and who is an insurgent.
24. Vasishtha answered:—He who engages in a lawful warfare, and fights
for his king, and whether he dies or becomes victorious in the field,
is called a hero, and goes to heaven.
25. Whoever kills men otherwise in war and dies afterwards, in an
unjust cause, is called an insurgent, and goes to hell at last.
26. Whoever fights for unlawful property, and dies in battle, becomes
subject to everlasting hell fire.
27. Whoso wages a just warfare, that is justified by law and usage,
that warrior is called both loyal as well as heroic in deed.
28. Whoever dies in war, for the preservation of kine, Bráhmans and
friends with a willing mind, and whoso protects his guest and refugee
with all diligence, he verily becomes an ornament in heaven after his
death.
29. The king who is steadfast in protecting his subjects and his own
country, is called the just, and those that die in his cause are called
the brave.
30. They that die fighting on the side of riotous subjects, or in the
cause of rebellious princes or chiefs, are doomed to fire.
31. They that die fighting unjustly against their kings, lawgivers and
rulers, are subjected to the torments of hell.
32. A war which is just, serves to establish order; but the giddy that
are fearless of the future, destroy all order (by their unjust warfare).
33. The hero dying, goes to heaven, is the common saying; and the
sástras call the lawful warrior only a hero, and not otherwise.
34. They who suffer wounds on their bodies, for the protection of the
righteous and good, are said to be heroes, or else they are insurgents
(_dimbhavas_).
35. It was in expectation of seeing such heroes that the damsels of the
gods, were standing in the air, and talking to themselves of becoming
the spouses of such warriors.
36. The air was as decorated as by an illumination on high, and by rows
of the beautiful heavenly cars of gods and Siddhas, and presence of
celestial maidens, who sang in sweet notes, and decorated their locks
with _mandára_ flowers.
CHAPTER XXXII.
ONSET OF THE WAR.
Vasishtha said:—Lílá standing with the goddess of wisdom in air, saw
the Apsarás dancing there, at the eagerness of the combatants for war
below.
2. She beheld the assemblage of the forces in her own territory once
governed by her lord; and saw the field of the air not less formidable
by the assembled ghosts (and its encircling belt composed of the lion,
scorpion, crab and the archer).
3. The meeting of the two forces made the ground appear as a billowy
sea; like the meeting of two clouds in the sky, giving it the
appearance of two hostile forces.
4. The battle array of armoured warriors, flashing as the fire of
heaven, was succeeded by their commingled blows, resembling the
rattling of thunders above, deafening the ears and dazzling the sight.
5. Then darts and javelins, spears and lances, and many other missiles
(_prásas_) began to fall on both sides, like showers of raindrops,
hailstones and meteorolites from the skies.
6. Showers of shafts fell with a force, that would pierce the pinions
of _garuda_, and struck out the glare of sunbeams, by hitting at the
armours of the warriors.
7. The combatants standing face to face with their lifted arms, and
staring at each other with steadfast looks, seemed as they were
pictures in a painting.
8. The armies drawn in long regiments, standing in lines opposite to
each other, were heard to answer one another by their repeated shouts.
9. The battalia of both armies, and the drums on both sides, were put
to a stop by the warnings of their leaders, against striking the first
blow.
10. The intermediate space of the breadth of two bows, that separated
the hostile forces like a bridge from one another, appeared as the gap,
caused by the winds in the midst of the ocean at the universal deluge.
(Or more like the partition of the waters of the Red sea by the rod of
Moses).
11. The leaders were drowned in thoughts for fear of bloodshed and
massacre; and the cowardly soldiers groaned in their hearts, with the
hoarse noise of croaking frogs.
12. There were numbers of bravoes, eager to yield up their precious
lives in a trice; and the bowyers stood with their bowstrings drawn to
the ear, and ready to let loose their pointed arrows at the foe.
13. Others stood dreadfully fixed to strike their arms upon the enemy,
and many were looking sternly at their adversaries, with their frowning
looks.
14. The armours were clashing by mutual concussion, the countenances
of the bravoes were burning with rage, and the faces of cowards were
turned towards sheltered retreats for flight.
15. The lookers stood in doubt of their lives until the end of the war,
and old men like big elephants, were covered with horripilation on
their bodies.
16. The silence which ensued at the expectation of the first blow,
resembled the calm of the stormy main, and the deep sleep of a city at
the dead of night.
17. The musical instruments, the drum and conch-shell were all silent,
and a thick cloud of dust, covered the face of the earth and sky.
18. The retreaters were flying from their stronger assailants, who kept
running after them, in the manner of sharks pursuing the shoals of
fishes in the sea.
19. The glittering fringes of the flags, put the etherial stars to
blush, and the lifted goads in the hands of the elephant-drivers, made
a forest of tapering trees in the sky.
20. The flinging arrows were flying like flocks of the winged tribe
in air, and the loud beating of drums and blowing of pipes, resounded
amidst the air.
21. There was a phalanx in a circular form, attacking a host of wicked
demons, and here was a squadron in the form of Garuda, with its right
and left wings, attacking a body of elephants.
22. Somewhere a great howling was heard to rise from the vanguard of a
body of troops, disconcerted by a cohort in the form of eagles: and at
another many were seen to fall upon one another with mutual shouts.
23. Thus a tremendous noise was raised by the warriors of the many
legions, and a multitude of big mallets were seen to be raised on high
by the hands of the combatants.
24. The glaring of sable steel, shaded the sunbeams like a cloud, and
hissing darts in the air, emitted a sound, resembling the rustling of
breeze amidst the dry leaves of trees.
25. Now the brunt of battle, began like the dashing of clouds upon
clouds at the end of a Kalpa, and the war raged like the raging sea
ruffled by a hurricane.
26. Big elephants were falling in the field like coal-black rocks,
hurled down by gusts of wind.
27. It seemed that the infernal spirits were let loose from their caves
of hell, to rage in the battle field with their horrid and dismal
figures.
28. The day light was obscured by the sable cloud of swords, and the
mallets and lances were raised up by the black Kunta warriors, who
seemed bent upon converting the earth to an ocean of bloodshed.
CHAPTER XXXIII.[17]
COMINGLED FIGHTING.
Ráma said:—Sir, relate to me in short and promptly, about this
warfare, as my ears are delighted with narratives of this kind.
2. Vasishtha said:—These ladies then, in order to have a better view
of the battle below, ascended in their imaginary aerial cars _vimánas_,
to a more retired spot in the higher regions of the sky.
3. At this interval, there began a mingled fight of the forces face to
face, with a commingled shout of the two armies, as the dashing of the
waves against one another in the raging sea.
4. At this instant, Vidúratha the lord of the realm, (formerly
Padma—the husband of Lílá), seeing a daring warrior of the hostile
force attack one of his soldiers, struck him impatiently on the breast,
with the blow of a ponderous mallet.
5. Then the battle raged with the impetuosity of the rolling waves of
the stormy main, and the arms on both sides, flamed with living fire
and flash of fiery lightnings.
6. Now the edges of waving swords (larattarat), glittered in the sky,
and cracking and clashing noise (Kanakana), filled the air with a
hideous crackling (kadkada).
7. Then flew the winged arrows, overshadowing the beams of the sun, and
emitting a booming noise (hunkára), which hushed the rattling clamour
(gharghara) of summer clouds.
8. Armours clashed against armours (Kankata), with a clanking noise
(tankára), and shot forth the sparks of glistening fire (Kanatkana);
and arms, hashing (ch’hina-bhinna) and slashing (Khanda-khanda)
against arms, filled the air with their fragments flying like birds in
the air.
9. The shaking (dodulya) shanks and arms of the army, appeared as a
moving forest (dordruma) on the land, and the twangings of their bows
(tankára), and rumbling of the disks (krenkára), drove away the birds
of the air, and crackled like the rattling drive of wheels (dravat) in
heaven.
10. The hissing of their loosened strings (halhala), resembled the
(ghunghuna) buzzing of bees, heard in the _samádhi_ yoga (by shutting
the ears).
11. Iron shafts like sleets of hailstones, pierced the heads of the
soldiers, and the (ranat) crashing of armours (sanghatta), broke the
arms of the warriors in mail (Kankata sankata).
12. Weapons struck on brazen armours with a howling noise (hunkára),
made a clanking sound by the stroke (tánkára), and flying like drifts
of rain water (tartara), pierced the face of the air on all sides:
(literally, denticulated—dantura dingmukha).
13. The striking of steel on one another (sanghatta), made the hands
ring with a jingling sound (jhanjhanat); and the continued rapping
on the arms (ásphota), and clapping of hands, (karasphota), raised a
pattering and chattering sound (chat chat and pat pat).
14. The whizzing noise of unsheathing the sword (shitkára), and the
hissing of the sparks of fire (sansana); the flinging of arrows in all
ways (sadatkára), and the flying of darts, likened the rustling of
falling leaves (Kharkhara) in autumn.
15. The spouting of life blood (dhakdhak), from the throats separated
from the bodies, the mangled limbs and heads, and the broken swords
filled the whole space.
16. The flame of fire flaring (sphurat) from the armours; emblazoned
the hairs of the warriors, and the fighting and falling (ranatpatat)
of swordsmen, raised a giddy and loud jingling of their weapons
(jhanjhana).
17. The lofty elephants pierced by the spears of the Kunta lancers,
poured out torrents of red-hot blood; while the tusky tribe was goring
whole bodies of them with their shrill cries (chitkára).
18. Others crushed by the ponderous maces of their antagonists, creaked
grievously under the blows; while the heads of the slain soldiers, swam
in the rivers of blood over the plain.
19. Here the hungry vultures were pouncing from above, and there the
sky was covered by a cloud of dust; and the weaponless combatants,
were engaged in _Kesákesí_ fighting, by holding each other down by the
hairs.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE.
Now the generals and ministers of the belligerent powers, and the
aerial spectators of the war, were thus talking among themselves.
2. Lo! here the ground has become a lake of blood, with the heads of
the slaughtered hosts floating as lotuses upon it; and there the air
has become as the starry heaven, glittering with broken weapons, flying
like birds in the sky.
3. Behold the air is reddened with the particles of vermeil blood,
borne above by the winds, and the sky presenting the evening clouds,
with the glow of the setting sun at midday.
4. What are these, says one, that are flying as straws in the
firmament? They are, says the other, no straws, but the flight of
arrows, that have filled the atmosphere.
5. As long as the dust of the earth, cries another, is moistened by the
bloodshed of the brave, so long are the heroes entitled to glory, and
have their abode in heaven for myriads of years.[18]
6. Fear not these sable swords, says the sástra, whose blades are worn
by the brave like petals of blue lotuses about their necks and breasts;
and bravoes are favourites in the eyes of the goddess of fortune.
(Fortune favours the brave).
7. The heavenly nymphs that beheld the fighting, felt a desire to
embrace the brave, and the god of the flowery bow (Káma or Cupid), was
busy to loosen their waist bands. (Cupid by inversion is Dípuc, another
name of the Indian Káma. And Fairies or Paries and Huries are said to
fall to the lot of the fighters in Jehad-battle. So says Dryden: “None
but the brave deserve the fair”).
8. They beckoned their welcome by the waving of their reddish palms, in
the shaking of the ruddy leaves of trees, and by the round glances of
their eyes, in the blooming blossoms of plants, and by the perfume of
their breath in the honied fragrance of flowers.
9. The geniuses of the garden of Paradise, were singing sweetly in the
notes of the sylvan choir, and betook themselves to dancing in the
wagging tails of peacocks.
10. As the brave warrior was breaking the line of the enemy with his
hardy axe; so was his beloved breaking his hard heart and spirit, with
the soft glances of her eyes.
11. It is by my lance, says the lancer, that I have severed the head of
my adversary with the rings in his ears, like the head of the ascending
node of Ráhu, approaching the disk of the sun.
12. Lo! There is a champion, hurling the blocks of stones, attached to
the end of a chain reaching his feet; and another whirling his wheel
with a wondrous log of wood, held in his uplifted arm.
13. There comes that combatant in the form of Yama, appearing from the
region of Pluto (Preta), and spreading a horrid devastation all around.
Come let us go hence as we came.
14. Look there the ravenous birds, greedily plunging their long necks
in the cells of bodies just separated from their heads, and glutting
themselves with the gushing blood; and see there the headless trunk of
the slain, moving to and fro in the field of battle.
15. The eloquent among the spectators were talking to one another,
about the frailty of human life, and the uncertainty of the time of
their meeting in the next world.
16. Oh! the stern cannibal of death, says one, that devours in one
swoop, whole bodies of the assembled armies, now weltering in blood;
and levels the levelling hosts to the ground.
17. The showers of arrows falling on the bodies of elephants, resemble
the showers of rain drops on mountain tops; and the darts sticking to
their frontal bones, liken the bolts of lightening piercing the peaks
of cliffs.
18. While the headless body of the beheaded, was groveling grievously
on the ground for want of its head, the pate flying on high as a bird
of air, proclaimed its immortality in heaven.
19. The army harassed by stones slung on their heads, cried to entrap
the enemy in the snares set at their feet.
20. Wives that had become Apsarás (heavenly nymphs) after death, were
now eager to claim their husbands, who were restored to their youth, by
virtue of their falling in the field of battle.
21. The glaring light of the line of lances that had reached the skies,
seemed as a flight of stairs or golden vistas, for the ascent of the
brave to the gates of heaven.
22. The wife of the slain soldier, seeing now a heavenly goddess,
taking possession of her husband’s fair gold-like breast, was looking
about in search of another.
23. Generals, wailing loudly with their uplifted arms, over their
fallen armies in the field, appeared as the cliffs of rocks, resounding
to the clamorous surges below.
24. They cried out to fight the foremost in war, and to remove the
wounded to the rear; and not to trample over the bodies of their own
soldiers, now lying low on the ground.
25. Behold! there the Apsarás eagerly tying their loosened locks, and
advancing with sobbing bosoms to receive the departed warriors, joining
their company in their celestial forms.
26. Ah! receive them says one, who are our guests from afar, on the
banks of the rivers of Paradise, decorated with lotus blossoms of
golden hue, and entertain them with fresh water and cooling breeze.
27. Look! there the groups of weapons, broken into pieces like bones
by their concussion, are huddled in the air with a jingling sound
(kanatkára), and shining as stars in the sky.
28. Lo! the stream of deceased souls, flowing in arrowy currents and
rolling in whirlpools of the flying disks, is rapidly gliding with the
pebbles and stones, flung from the slings in the air.
29. The sky is become as a lake of lotuses with the lotiform heads of
warriors flung aloft in the air, while the flying weapons are floating
like their stalks in it, with the broken swords as their thorns all
around.
30. The flying fragments of the flags, forming the folia of the plants,
and the darts sticking to them, appear as big black bees fluttering
about the flowers moving with the breeze.
31. The arrows sticking to the dead bodies of elephants, are as emmets
on mountain tops, and as timid girls clinging to the bosoms of men.
32. The winds unfurling the curling locks of Vidyádhara females,
indicate their approaching spousals, as the unfolding plumage of fowls
are predictions of success in augury.
33. The lifted umbrellas are shining as so many moons on high and the
moon shining above in the form of fair fame, spreads her light as a
white canopy on earth.
34. The brave warrior, soon after his death, assumes a celestial form
framed by his own merit, as a man in his sleep, attains to a state, he
has imagined to himself in his waking.
35. The flying spears and lances and clubs and disks are hurtling
in the air, like shoals of restless fishes and sharks, moving about
incessantly in the troubled waters of the sea.
36. The milk-white rags of umbrellas, tattered and shattered by arrowy
shafts, are flying as cranes in the crowded air, and appearing as the
disk of the moon broken into a thousand pieces.
37. These waving flappers flying in the air with a hoarse gurgling
(gharghara), seem as the waves of the sea lifted in the air, and
undulating with a babbling noise in the ocean of the sky.
38. Those slips of the flappers and umbrellas, hashed by the slashing
arms, appear as the laurels of glory flung aloft and flying in the
regions of air.
39. Behold ye friends! how these flying arrows and showering spears,
are approaching to us with hits of their spoil, like bodies of locusts,
bearing away their verdant booty in the air.
40. Hearken to the clanking sound of the striking steel, in the
uplifted arm of the armoured soldier, resounding like the loud larum of
the regent of death.
41. Hear the tremendous blows of weapons, like the blowing of an
all destroying tornado, throwing down the elephants like craigs of
mountains, with their long stretching tusks lying like water falls on
the ground.
42. Lo! there the drivers of war chariots are stopped in their course,
and striving to make their way through the puddles of blood, in which
the wheels and horses of the car, are huddled together as in a bog of
quagmire.
43. The jingling of arms and armours, and the jangling of swords and
steel, resound, as the tinkling of the lute at the dancing of the dire
and dreaded dame of death.
44. See the skirts of the sky reddened by the roseate particles, borne
by the winds from the streams of blood, issuing out of the wounds in
the bodies of men, horses and elephants lying dead in the field.
45. Look at the array of arrows formed in the air as a wreath of
blossoms, and falling as the rays of lightnings from the dark black
clouds of weapons hanging on high.
46. Lo! the surface of the earth filled with blood-red weapons,
appearing as faggots of fire strewn over the ground in an universal
conflagration.
47. The multitudes of commingled weapons, clashing with and breaking
one another into pieces, are falling down in showers, like the
innumerable rays of the sun.
48. The fighting of one man among the motionless many, is like the
magic play of a magician[19] where the conjurer acts his parts amidst
the bewitched beholders, Lo! there the indifferent spectators viewing
the warfare as a dream (by their _prajna_ or inward vision of the mind).
49. The field of battle, where all other sounds are hushed under the
clashing of arms, resembles the stage of the martial god Bhairava,
chanting his pitiless war song in jarring cacophony.
50. The battlefield is turned to a sea of blood, filled with the sands
of pounded weapons, and rolling with the waves of broken discuses.
51. All the quarters under the regents of the sky, are filled with
martial music loudly resounding on all sides; and the rebellowing hills
seem to challenge one another, in their aerial flight and fighting (as
in contest of the gods and titans of old).
52. Alas for shame! says one, that these arrows flung with such force
from the bow strings, and flying with such loud hissing, and glittering
as red hot lightnings in the air, are foiled in their aim of piercing
the impenetrable armours, and driven back by them to hit at the stony
hills.
53. Hear me friend, that art tired with the sight, that it is time for
us to depart from this place, ere we are pierced in our bodies by these
sharp arrows flashing as fire, and before the day runs its course of
the fourth watch (evening).
CHAPTER XXXV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLEFIELD.[20]
Vasishtha said:—Then the waves of horse troops mounting to the sky,
made the battlefield appear as a raging sea.
2. The moving umbrellas floated as its foam and froth, and the
feathered silvery arrows glided like the finny pearly fishes in it,
while the high flight and rush of the cavalry, heaved and dashed as
surges of the sea.
3. The rushing of the weapons resembled the running of its currents,
and the circles of the soldiers were as vortices of its waters. The
elephants were as its islets and their motions resembled the moving
rocks in it.
4. The whirling disks were as its eddies, and the flying hairs on the
heads likened its floating weeds. The sparkling sands were as its
shining waters, and the flash of swords like its glassy spray.
5. The gigantic warriors were its whales and alligators, and the
resounding caverns like its gurgling whirlpools.
6. The flying arrows were like its swimming fishes, and the floating
flags likened its uprising waves and bores.
7. The shining weapons formed the waters of this ocean and their
whirlpools also, while the long lines of forces appeared as the huge
and horrible bodies of its whales.
8. Soldiers clad in black iron armour, were as the dark blue waters of
the deep, and the headless bodies groveling in dust were as the eddies
of the sea, with the encircled equipments as the sea weeds.
9. The showers of arrows had obscured the skies with a mist, and the
confused rattlings of the battlefield, were as the roarings of the
clouds.
10. The flying and falling heads of the slain soldiers, resembled the
large drops of rain, and their bodies were as pieces of wood, whirling
in the eddies of the disks.
11. The bold bowyer, bending his strong bow in the form of a curve,
and leaping above the ground, resembled the spouting sea, rising from
underneath the ground with his heaving waves on high.
12. The unnumbered umbrellas and flags, that were moving up and down in
the field, were as the foaming and frothing sea, rolling in waves of
blood, and carrying away the beams and timbers of the broken cars in
its current.
13. The march of the army resembled the flowing of the sea waters,
and the blood spouting from the wounds of the elephants likened its
bubbles, while the moving horses and elephants represented the sea
animals in their motion.
14. The battlefield had become like the wondrous field of the air,
where the furious war, like a tremendous earthquake, shook the hills
like moving clouds in the sky.
15. Here the waves were undulating like flights of birds in the air,
and the groups of elephants falling aground like rocks, and the
cowardly ranks were murmuring like herds of the timorous deer.
16. The field is turned to a forest of arrows, and wounded soldiers
are standing fixed on the ground as trees, with the arrows flying as
locusts, and the horses moving like antelopes in it.
17. Here the loud drum sounded as the humming of bees in the hollows
of trees, and the army appearing as a mist, with the bold warrior
sprawling like a lion in it.
18. The dust was rising in clouds and the forces falling as rocks; the
huge cars broken down as hills, and the flaming swords shining on all
sides.
19. The rise and fall of the foot soldier’s feet flitted like the
falling flowers on the ground, and the flags and umbrellas o’ertopped
it as clouds; it was overflown by streams of blood, and the
high-sounding elephants falling as thundering showers of rain.
20. The war was as the last doom of death ready to devour the world,
and destroy the flags and banners, the umbrellas and chariots in a
confused chaos.
21. The shining weapons were falling like fragments of the refulgent
sun, and burning all things as a burning pain inflames the soul and
mind.
22. The out-stretched bows were as rainbows, and the falling arrows as
showers of rain; the flying sabres resembled the forky lightnings, and
their falling fragments like the sparkling hailstones.
23. The dire massacre made a sea of blood, with the hurling stones as
its shoals and rocks; while the flying arms resembled the falling stars
from heaven.
24. The sky was as a sea full of the whirlpools of the groups of disks
and circlets, that were hurled in the air; and there were the burning
fires, that performed the funerals of the slain.
25. The missiles were as bolts of thunder, which struck the rock-like
elephants dead in the field, to block the passage of men.
26. The earth and sky were obscured by a thick cloud of showering
arrows, and the army below was a sea of tempestuous warfare and
bloodshed.
27. The destructive weapons were flying on all sides, like huge dragons
of the sea, carried aloft by gusts of wind from the stormy main.
28. The flying arms of bolts and swords, disks, pikes and lances, were
blazing and breaking one another in the air with such hideous noise,
that it seemed to be a second deluge, when the last tornado blew up
everything on high scattering them in all directions, and crushing and
smashing them with a tremendous peal.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
SECTION I.
COLLISION OF EQUAL ARMS AND ARMIGERENTS.
The heaps of arrows rising in spires above the ground, drove the
cowards and the wounded afar from the field.
2. The hills of the dead bodies of men, horses and elephants, heaving
in promiscuous heaps, and appearing as clouds fallen upon earth,
invited the Yakshas and Rákshasas, and the carnivorous Pisáchas, to
come and sport in the wide ocean of blood.
3. Now there commenced a commutual contest, betwixt men of rank and
virtue, and those of good character, valour and strength on both sides;
not excepting even the holy and household people, all of whom took part
in the combat (that is, no condition of life, nor age nor sex, could
escape the contagion of a warfare).
4. Duels were fought between these, like the clashing of one cloud with
another; and like the confluence of two streams discharging their fury
against each other.
5. As a rib is joined to another, and one side with the other, so met
the horse against the horse, and elephant opposed the elephant in
mutual conflict.
6. As one forest clasps and clings to another, and one hill is linked
with the other in a range, so the duelists strove together, as one wave
dashes against the other.
7. Footmen fought with footmen, as the reeds crush the reeds, and
bamboos clash against one another, and the contrary winds struggle
between themselves.
8. Cars falling upon cars, and chariots running against chariots, broke
one another to pieces; and the citizens beat the rustics, as the Devas
smote the demons of old.
9. The sky which had been erewhile clouded by the flight of arrows, was
now emblazoned by the banner of the bowyer, resembling the rainbow of
various colours.
10. At last the warriors who were overpowered in their conflict with
unequal arms, fled away from the field, as they do from the fire of a
conflagration.
11. Now the armigerents with discuses, met the thwarters of disks
(chakras) in contest; and bowyers were opposed to bowmen, and swordsmen
challenged the sword fighters in the field. So met the hookers and
crookers with their co-rivals with crowbars (bhusundis) in hand.
12. Maces were opposed to maces (musalas), and lancers were set against
the lance bearers (kuntas) in fighting. Spearmen braved the spearmen
(rishtis), and the throwers of missiles were crossed with missives
(prásas) in hand.
13. Mallets militated against mallets (mudguras), and clubs were
contravened by clubmen in the conflict. Combatants with pikes (saktis),
encountered the pikemen (sakti-dharas) face to face; and iron rods were
crossed to pointed rods (súlas) in the strife.
14. Pugilists with missive weapons, counteracted the missiles of their
antagonists (prásas), and those fighting with battle axes (parasus),
baffled the poleaxes and pickaxes (paraswadhas) of their foes.
15. Trappers with their traps and snares, attacked the darters of
nooses and lassos (pásas); and the darters of javelins (sankus),
withstood the darts of the dartsmen on the other side. Daggers were
opposed to daggers (kshurikas), and cudgels were presented before the
cudgels (bhindipálas of the enemy).
16. Combatants with iron gloves contravened the boxers with iron
fistcuffs (Vajramushtis), and those with iron cranes, pursued
the fighters with crooked goads (ankusas) in hand. Warriors with
ploughshares attacked the ploughmen, and those with tridents, fell upon
the trident holders (trisúlins) in contest.
17. Champions with chained armours set upon the soldiers attired in
mail (srinkhala jála); and they poured upon the field as flights of
locusts, or as the waves in the troubled sea.
18. The air also seemed as a sea, with flying disks whirling as
whirlpools (chakravartas), and the flight of reeds whistling like
gusts of wind; while the range of running weapons seemed as sharks and
dolphins moving about it.
19. The hollow of the heaven became as the great deep of the sea,
impassable by the celestials, owing to the waving weapons, moving as
sea monsters in the air.
20. Thus the armies of the two belligerent potentates, each composed of
eight ranks or battalions, were furiously engaged with one another, as
described below.
SECTION II.
CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES.
21. Now hear me relate to you, the forces on the side of Padma, now
named Vidúratha, and the allied powers that came to his side, from the
Central and Eastern districts.
22. There came the hardy warriors of Kosala (Oudh) and Kási (Benares);
those of Magadha (Behar) and Utkala (Orissa), situated in the east; and
the Mekhalas (of Vindhya range), the Karkars (of Karnatic), and the
Madras (of Madura) in the south.
23. The chiefs of Hema (Imaus) and Rudras and the Támraliptas (Tamils)
from the south; the Prágjyotishas (of east Assam), and the horse faced
Osmuks and Ambashtha cannibals.
24. Then there joined the Varna-koshthas and Viswotras, and the eaters
of raw food and flesh and the fish eaters (piscivori); and those with
faces like tigers, the Kiratas (Kirrhoids and Kira-antis), with the
Sauviras and one legged people.
25. Next came the mountaineers of Mályavána, Sibira and Anjanagiri; and
others having the ensigns of bulls and lotuses, and the people of the
sun rising mountain (Udaya-giri) in the east.
26. Those that joined from the south east (prágdaxina), are the
following, namely; the Vindhyaris, the Chedis, the Vatsas, the Dasárnas
(near the confluence of the ten streams); and the Angas, Bangas and
Upabangas (of Upper and Lower Bengal).
27. They that met from the south were, Kalingas and Pundras, the
Jatharas, Vidarbhas and the hill people (on the Karnatic coast); the
Sabaras, the outcasted savages, the Karnas and the Tripura people.
28. Those named Kantakas from their thorny district, the unenlightened
Komalas (of Comilla?); the Karnas (Canarese), the Ándhras, the Cholas
and the people on the borders of the Charmanvati river.
29. The Kakos or bald-headed and bearded people, and those of the
Hema-kuta hills; the frizzled and long necked people, and the
inhabitants of Kishkindha and cocoa forests.
30. The princes that joined with Lílá’s husband from the south, were as
follows viz. the Vindhyans, the Kusumians (of Patna), the Mahendras and
the Darduras (of the hills of the same names).
31. The Malays and the solar race, and the Prince of the (33) united
states and the rich and united cities of Avanti and Sámbavati.
32. And those of Dasapura (or ten cities) of Katha (Kota), Chakra,
Reshika Cutch and others, and the foresters of Upagiri and Bhadragiri
hills.
33. The prince of Nagore and the chiefs of Dandaka forest, and the
joint states of the people; the Sahas, Saivas, and the hill people of
the Rishyamuka and Karkota and the Vimbila foresters.
34. Then came the inhabitants from the banks of Pampá, the Kerakas and
Karkaviras; with the Kherikas, Asikas and the people of Dhrumapattana.
35. Next came the Kásikas and Khallukas, the Yadas and Tamraparnikas;
the Gonardas, the Kanakas and the people of Dinapattam.
36. The Tamris (Tamils), Kadambharas, Sahakáras and Enakas (or deer
hunters); the Vaitundas, Tumba-vanalas, and those attired in deer and
elephant skins.
37. Then came the lotus-like Sibis and Konkans and the inhabitants of
Chitrakuta mountains; with the people of Karnata, the Mantas, Batakas
and those of Cattak.
38. The Andhras and Kola hill people (Koles), the Avantis and Chedis;
with the Chandas and Devanakas and Kraunchavahas.
39. At last came the people from the three peaks of Chitrakúta
mountains, called the Silákhára, Nanda mardana and Malaya, which were
the seats of the guardian Bákshasas of Lanká.
40. Then those of the southwest where there is the great realm of
Surástra (Surat), with the kingdoms of Sindhu (Sinde) Sauvira, Abhíra,
and Dravidas (in Deccan).
41. Also those of the districts of Kikata, Siddha Khanda, and Káliruha,
and the mount Hemagiri or golden hills and the Raivataka range.
42. Then the warriors of Jaya Kachchha (the victorious Cutch), and
Mayavara (Mewar); as also the Yavanas (Ionians), the Bahlikas (Balkhs),
the Marganas (nomads), and the grey coloured Tumbas (on the north).
43. Then there came Lahsa races and many hill peoples, inhabiting the
borders of the sea (Caspian), forming the limit of the dominion of
Lílá’s husband (Hindu Government) on the north.
44. Now know the names of the countries belonging to the enemy in the
west, and of those composed of the following mountain ranges, _viz._
45. The mount Manimán and the Kurar-pana hills, with the hillocks of
Vanorka, Megha-bhava, and the Chakra-vana mountain.
46. There is the country of the five peoples limiting the territory of
the Kása Brahmans, and after that the Bháraksha, the Páraka and Sántika
countries.
47. Thence stretch the countries of the Saivyas, Amarakas, the
Pachchyas (Páschátyas) and Guhutwas; and then the Haihaya country, and
those of the Suhyas, Gayas and Tajikas and Hunas (Huns).
48. Then along the side of some other countries, there is the range of
Karka hills, inhabited by barbarous people, devoid of caste, customs
and limits of moral duties.
49. Thence stretches a country hundreds of leagues in length, to the
boundary mountain of Mahendra, abounding in rich stones and gems.
50. After that stands the Aswa range with hundreds of hills about it;
and extending to the dread ocean on the north of the Pariyátra range.
(Paropamisus).
51. On the north western side, there are countries beyond the boundary
mountains (of Asia), where Venupati was the king of the land.
52. Then there are the countries of the Phálgunakas and Mándavayas
and many other peoples; and those of Purukundas and Paras (Paris?) as
bright as the orb of the sun.
53. Then the races of Vanmilas and Nalinas and the Dirghas; who are so
called, from their tall statures and long arms and hairs. Then there
are the Rangas (Red men), Stánikas with protuberant breasts, and the
Guruhas and Chaluhas.
54. After that is the kingdom of women (ruled by a queen), where they
feed upon bullocks and heifers. Now about the Himálayas and its hills
in the north (of India):—
55. These are the Krauncha and Madhumán hills; and the Kailása, Vasumán
and the Sumeru peaks; at the foot of which are the people, known under
many names.
56. Beside these there met the warlike tribes of India consisting of
the Madrawars, Malavas and Sura-senas. The Rajputs of the race of
Arjuna, the Trigartas and the one legged people and Khudras.
57. There were the Abalas, Prakhalas, and Sakas (Saccæ or Scythians).
The Khemadhúrtas, the Dasadhanas, the Gavásanas and Dandahanas (club
fighters).
58. The Dhánadas and Sarakas and Bátadhánas also, with the islanders
and Gándháras and Avanti warriors of Malwa.
59. The warlike Takshasilas (Taxilas), the Bílavas, Godhanas and the
renowned warriors of Pushkara (Pokhra).
60. Then there were the Tíkshas and Kálavaras, and the inhabitants of
the cities of Káhaka and Surabhúti likewise.
61. There were the people of the Ratikádarsa and Antarádarsa also; and
the Pingalas, the Pandyas, Yamanas and Yátudhánas Rákshasas too.
62. There were also the races of men, known as Hematálas and Osmuks,
together with the hilly tribes, inhabiting the Himalaya, Vasumán,
Krauncha and Kailasa mountains.
63. Hear me now relate to you the peoples that came from the north
east quarter, which extends a hundred and eighty leagues in its
circumference.
64. There came also the Kalutas and Brahmaputras, the Kunidas and
Khudinas, with the warlike Malavas and the champions of the Randhra and
forest states.
65. Then there were the Kedavas and Sinhaputras of dwarfish statures;
the Sabas (Sabæ or Sabians?), the Kaccæs, the Pahlavis (ancient
Persians), the Kamiras and the Daradas (the present Darduis or
Himalayan hills).
66. There were also the people of Abhisa, the Jarvakas, the Pulolas
and Kuves; the Kirátas and Yamupatas, together with the poor and rich
people of desert lands and tracts of gold.
67. Thus Lílá saw in one view, the residences of the _devas_; the
forest lands and the earth in all their beauty. She saw all the seats
of opulence (viswavasus), and the edifices with which they were
adorned; she beheld the summit of Kailása, and the delightful groves
at its foot, and the level lands traversed by the aerial cars of
Vidyádhara and celestial beings.[21]
CHAPTER XXXVII
CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES CONTINUED.[22]
Vasishtha said:—Thus the ravaging war was making a rapid end of men,
horse, elephants and all; and the bravos coming foremost in the combat,
fell in equal numbers on both sides.
2. These (as named before), and many others were reduced to dust and
ashes; and the bravery of the brave, served but to send them like poor
moths to the fire and flame of destruction.
3. Know now the names of the central districts, not yet mentioned by
me, that sent their warriors to the field, in favour of the consort
prince of Lílá.
4. These were the inland forces of Sursena (Muttra), the Gudas
(Gaudas?), and the Asganas (?); the Madhymikas and they that dwell
under sunlight (the tropics).
5. The Sálukas and Kodmals, and Pippaláyanas; the Mándavyas, Pandyans,
Sugrívas and Gurjars.
6. The Páriyátras, Kurashtras, Yamunas and Udumvaras; the Raj-waras,
the Ujjainas, the Kálkotas (Calicuts) and the Mathuras (of Muttra).
7. The Pánchálas (Pánjábis), the Northern and Southern Dharmakshetras;
the Kurukshetriyas, Pánchálakas and Sáraswatas.
8. The line of war chariots from Avanti, being opposed by the arms of
the warriors of the Kunta and Panchanada districts, fell in fighting by
the sides of the hills.
9. Those arrayed in silken attire, being dismantled by the enemy, fell
upon the ground, and were trodden down by the elephants.
10. The bravadoes of Daspura, being hacked in their breasts and
shoulders by the hostile weapons, were pursued by the Banabhuma
warriors, and driven to the distant pool.
11. The Sántikas being ripped in their bellies, lay dead and motionless
in naked field, and wrapped in their mangled entrails, which were torn
and devoured by the voracious Pisáchas at night.
12. There the veteran and vociferous warriors of Bhadrasiri, who were
well skilled in the battle field, drove the Amargas to the ditch, as
they drive the tortoises to their pits.
13. The Haihayas were driving the Dandakas, who like fleet stags were
flying with the swiftness of winds, and all gushing in blood by the
pointed and piercing arrows of the enemy.
14. The Daradas were gored by the tusks of the elephants of their
enemies, and were borne away in floods of their blood, like the broken
branches of trees.
15. The Chínas (Chinese) were mangled in their bodies by darts and
arrows, and cast their tortured bodies in the water, as a burden they
could no longer support.
16. The Asúras, pierced in their necks by the flying lances of the
Karnatic lancers, fled in all directions like the faggots of fire, or
as the flying meteors of heaven.
17. The Sákas and Dásakas were fighting together, by holding down one
another by the hair on their heads, as if the whales and elephants were
struggling mutually from their respective elements.
18. The flying cowards were entrapped in the snares cast by the Dasárna
warriors, as dolphins hiding under the reeds, are dragged out by nets
on the blood-red shore.
19. The lifted swords and pikes of the Tongas (Tonguise), destroyed the
Gurjara (Guzrati) force by hundreds, and these like razors balded the
heads (_i.e._ made widows) of hundreds of Gurjara women. (It is their
custom to remain baldheaded in widowhood).
20. The lustre of the lifted weapons of the warriors, illumined the
land as by flashes of lighting; and the clouds of arrows were raining
like showers of rain in the forest.
21. The flight of the crowbars (bhusundis), which untimely obscured the
orb of the sun, affrighted the Abhíra (cowherd) warriors with the dread
of an eclipse, and overtook them by surprise, as when they are pursued
by a gang of plunderers of their cattle.
22. The handsome gold collared army of the Támras or tawny coloured
soldiers, were dragged by the Gauda warriors, as captors snatch their
fair captives by the hair.
23. The Tongons were beset by the Kanasas, like cranes by vultures with
their blazing weapons, destroying elephants and breaking the discuses
in war.
24. The rumbling noise (gudugudurava), raised by the whirling of
cudgels by the Gauda gladiators, frightened the Gándháras to a degree,
that they were driven like a drove of beasts, or as the dreading
Drávídas from the field.
25. The host of the Sáka or Scythian warriors, pouring as a blue
torrent from the azure sky, appeared by their sable garb as the mist of
night, approaching before their white robed foes of the Persians.
26. The crowded array of lifted arms in the clear and bright
atmosphere, appeared as a thick forest under the milk white ocean of
frost, that shrouds the mountainous region of Mandara.
27. The flights of arrows which seemed as fragments of clouds in the
air from below, appeared as waves of the sea, when viewed by the
celestials from above.
28. The air appeared as a forest thickly beset by the trees of spears
and lances, with the arrows flying as birds and bees; and innumerable
umbrellas, with their gold and silver mountings, appearing as so many
moons and stars in the sky.
29. The Kekayas made loud shouts, like the war whoops of drunken
soldiers, and the Kankas covered the field like a flight of cranes, and
the sky was filled with dust over their heads.
30. The Kiráta army made a purling noise (kulakula) like the effeminate
voice of women; causing the lusty Angas to rush upon them with their
furious roar.
31. The Kásas (Khasias) covering their bodies with _kusa_ grass (in
their grassy garbs), appeared as birds with feathers, and raised clouds
of dust by flapping their feathered arms.
32. The giddy warriors of Narmada’s coasts, came rushing in the field
unarmed with their weapons, and began to fleer and flout and move about
in their merry mood.
33. The low statured Sálwas came with the jingling bells of their waist
bands, flinging their arrows in the air, and darting showers of their
darts around.
34. The soldiers of Sibi were pierced with the spears hurled by the
Kuntas. They fell as dead bodies in the field, but their spirits fled
to heaven in the form of Vidyádharas.
35. The Pándu-nagaras were laid groveling on the ground in their quick
march, by the mighty and light footed army, who had taken possession of
the field.
36. The big Páncha-nadas (Punjabis), and the furious warriors of Kási
(Benares), crushed the bodies of stalwart warriors with their lances
and cudgels, as elephants crush the mighty trees under their feet and
tusks.
37. The Burmese and Vatsenis were cut down on the ground by the disks
of the Nípas (Nepalese); and the Sahyas were sawn down with saws as
withered trees.
38. The heads of the white Kákas (Caucasians), were lopped off with
sharp axes; and their neighbouring prince of the Bhadras was burnt down
by the fiery arrows (fire arms).
39. The Matangajas (of Elephanta) fell under the hands of Káshthayodhas
(of Katiawar), as old unchained elephants falling in the miry pit; and
others that came to fight, fell as dry fuel into the blazing fire.
40. The Mitragartas falling into the hands of the Trigartas, were
scattered about as straws in the field, and having their heads struck
off in their flight, they entered the infernal regions of death.
41. The weak Vanila force, falling into the hands of the Magadha army,
resembling a sea gently shaken by the breeze, went down in the sands,
as lean and aged elephants.
42. The Chedis lost their lines in fighting with the Tongans, and lay
withered in the field of battle, as flowers when scattered in the
plains, fade away under the shining sun.
43. The Kosalas were unable to withstand the war cry of the deadly
Pauravas, and were discomfited by showers of their clubs, and missile
arrows and darts.
44. Those that were pierced by pikes and spears, became as coral plants
red with blood all over their bodies, and thus besmeared in bloodshed,
they fled to the sheltering hills like red hot suns to the setting
mountains (astáchala).
45. The flight of arrows and weapons borne away by the rapid winds,
moved about in the air as fragments of clouds, with a swarm of black
bees hovering under them.
46. The flying arrows seemed as showering clouds, and their feathers
appeared as the woolly breed; their reedy shafts seeming as trees, were
roving with the roar of elephants.
47. The wild elephants and people of the plains, were all torn to
pieces like bits of torn linen.
48. War chariots with their broken wheels, fell into the pits like the
broken craigs of mountains, and the enemy stood upon their tops as a
thick mist or cloud.
49. The multitude of stalwart warriors meeting in the field, had given
it the appearance of a forest of _tála_ and _tamála_ trees; but their
hands being lopped off by weapons, they made it appear as a mountainous
wood, with its clumps of tapering pine trees.
50. The youthful damsels of Paradise were filled with joy and glee,
to find the groves of their native hill (Meru), full of the brave
champions (fallen in the field).
51. The forest of the army howled in a tremendous roar, until it was
burnt down by the all devouring fire of the enemy.
52. Hacked by the Pisáchas (Assamese), and snatched of their weapons
by the Bhutas (Bhoteas), the Dasárnás (at the confluence of the ten
streams of Vindhya) threw off their staffs, and fled as a herd of
heifers (_nikuchya karnidhavati_—bolted with their broken staves.
Pánini).
53. The Kásias were eager to despoil the tinsels from the dead bodies
of the chiefs by their valour, as the summer heat robs the beauty of
lotuses in a drying pool.
54. The Tushákas were beset by the Mesalas, with their darts, spears
and mallets; and the sly Katakas were defeated and driven away by the
Narakas in battle.
55. The Kauntas were surrounded by Prastha warriors, and were defeated
like good people by the treachery of the wily.
56. The elephant drivers, that struck off the heads of their hosts in
a trice, were pursued by the harpooners, and fled with their severed
heads, as they do with the lotus-flowers plucked by their hands.
57. The Sáraswatas fought on both sides with one another until it was
evening, and yet no party was the looser or gainer, as in a learned
discussion between pandits and among lawyers.
58. The puny and short statured Deccanese, being driven back by the
Rákshas of Lanka, redoubled their attack on them, as the smothering
fire is rekindled by fuel.
59. What more shall I relate Ráma about this war, which baffles the
attempt of the serpent Vásuki even, to give a full description of it
with his hundred tongues and mouths.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
CESSATION OF THE WAR.
Vasishtha continued:—Now as the war was waging fiercely, with mingled
shouts on both sides, the sun shrouded his burnished armour under the
mist of darkness, and was about to set.
2. The waters of the limpid streams glided with the showers of stones
flung by the forces, and falling on the fading clusters of lotuses
growing in them.
3. Flashes of fire glittered in the sky, by the clashing of the shafts
and darts below; and waves of arrows were seen, now approaching nigh
and now receding at a distance.
4. Severed heads like loose lotuses, floated and whirled in the
whirlpools of blood below, and the sea of heaven was filled with flying
weapons, moving as marine animals above.
5. The rustling of the breeze and the whistling of the overshadowing
clouds of weapons, frightened the aerial Siddhas and sylvan apes, with
the fear of an approaching rain.
6. The day declined after it had run its course of the eight watches
(Yámárdhas), and assumed the graceful countenance of a hero, returning
in glory, after he has fought his battle.
7. The army like the day, declined in splendour, being battered in its
cavalry, and shattered in its force of elephants.
8. Then the commanders of the armies, in concert with the ministers of
war, sent envoys to the hostile parties for a truce to the fighting.
9. Both parties agreed to the armistice, seeing how much they were
harassed in the engagement; and the soldiers with one voice, gave their
assent to it.
10. They hoisted their soaring banners of truce on the pinnacles of the
highest chariots (rathas); and a crier on each side, mounted over one,
to give proclamation to the armies below.
11. They furled the white flags on all sides, which like so many moons
in the gloom of night, proclaimed peace on earth by cessation from
contention.
12. Then the drums sent their loud peals around, which were resounded
by roarings of the clouds (Pushkarávartas) above and all about.
13. The flights of arrows and weapons, that had been raging as fire in
the atmosphere, now began to fall in torrents, like the currents of the
lake Mansaravara on the ground below.
14. The hands and arms of the warriors were now at rest like their
feet; as the shaking of trees and the surges of the sea are at an end
after the earthquake is over.
15. The two armies now went their own ways from the field of battle, as
the arms of the sea run into the land in different directions.
16. The armies being at rest, there was an end of all agitation in the
field; as the waves of the ocean are lulled to rest, on its calm after
a storm (literally, after its churning by the Mandara mountain).
17. It became in an instant as dreadful as the dismal womb of death
(Pútaná); and as deep and dark as the hollow pit of the sea, after its
waters were sucked up by Agastya (the sun).
18. It was full of the dead bodies of men and beasts, and flowed in
floods of purpling blood; it was resonant with the sounds of insects,
like a heath with the humming of beetles.
19. The gory bodies were gushing with blood, and gurgling as the waves
of the sea; and the cries of the wounded who wished to live, pierced
the ears, and throbbed the heart strings of the living.
20. The dead and wounded weltering side by side in streams of blood,
made the living think the dead as still alive like themselves.
21. Big elephants lying dead in piles in the field appeared as
fragments of clouds, and the heaps of broken chariots seemed as a
forest dispersed by the storm.
22. Streams of blood were running with the dead bodies of horses and
elephants, and heaps of arrows and spears and mattocks and mallets,
flowing together with broken swords and missiles.
23. Horses were lying girt in their halters and harnesses, and the
soldiers wrapt in their mails and armours; and flags and flappers and
turbans and helmets lay scattered in the field.
24. The winds were rustling in the orifice of the quivers, like the
hissing of arrowy snakes, or as the whistling of the breeze in the
holes of bamboo trees; and the Pisáchas were rolling on beds of dead
bodies, as upon their beddings of straws.
25. The gold chains of the helmets and the head ornaments of the fallen
soldiers, glittered with the various colours of the rainbow, and greedy
dogs and jackals were tearing the entrails of the dead like long ropes
or strings.
26. The wounded were gnashing their teeth in the field of blood, like
the croaking of frogs in the miry pool of blood.
27. Those clad in party coloured coats with a hundred spots on them,
had now their arms and thighs gushing in a hundred streams of blood.
28. The friends of the dead and wounded, were wailing bitterly over
their bodies; lying amidst the heaps of arrows and weapons, the broken
cars and the scattered trappings of horses and elephants, which had
covered the land.
29. Headless trunks of the goblins were dancing about with their
uplifted arms touching the sky; and the stink of the carrion, fat and
blood, filled the nostrils with nausea.
30. Elephants and horses of noble breed, lay dead and others gasping
with their mouths gaping upwards; and the dashing of the waving streams
of blood, beat as loud as drums against their rock-like bodies.
31. The blood gushing out of the pores of the wounded horses and
elephants, ran like that of a wounded whale into a hundred streams. And
the blood spouting from the mouths of the dying soldiers flowed into a
hundred channels.
32. Those who were pierced with arrows in their eyes and mouths, were
uttering an inaudible voice in their last gasp of death; and those
pierced in their bellies, had their bowels gushing out with a horrible
stench; while the ground was reddened with thickened blood issuing out
of the wounds.
33. Half dead elephants grasped the headless trunks with their uplifted
trunks (proboscis), while the loose horses and elephants, that had lost
their riders, were trampling over the dead bodies at random.
34. The weeping, crying and tottering wives of the fallen soldiers,
fell upon their dead bodies weltering in blood, and embracing them fast
by their necks, made an end of themselves with the same weapons.
35. Bodies of soldiers were sent with their guides on the way, to
fetch the dead bodies from the field; and the hands of their lively
companions, were busily employed in dragging the dead.
36. The field had become a wide river running with waves of blood, and
breaking into a hundred whirling streams, carrying the severed heads,
as lotuses swimming in them, and the torn braids of hair floating as
bushes on them.
37. Men were busy to extract the weapons from the bodies of the
wounded, who lamented loudly on account of their dying in a foreign
land, and losing their arms and armours and horses and elephants in the
field.
38. The dying souls remembered their sons and parents, their dear ones
and their adored deities, and called out by their names; and began to
sigh and sob with heart-rending heigh-hos and alacks.
39. The brave that died cursed their fates, and those falling in their
fighting with elephants, blamed the unkind gods they had adored in vain.
40. The cowards fearing to be killed betook themselves to base flight;
but the dauntless brave stepped forward amidst the whirlpools of blood.
41. Some suffering under the agony of arrows piercing their mortal
parts, thought upon the sins of their past lives, that had brought this
pain upon them; while the blood sucking Vetálas, advanced with their
horrid mouths for drinking the blood of the headless trunks (Kabandhas).
42. The floating flags and umbrellas and flappers, seemed as white
lotuses in the lake of blood below, while the evening stretched her
train of stars like red lotuses in the etherial sea above.
43. The battle field presented the appearance of an eighth sea of
blood; the rathas or warcars forming its rocks, and their wheels its
whirlpools; the flags being its foam and froth, and the white flappers
as its bubbles. (There are seven seas only on record).
44. The field of blood with the scattered cars, appeared as a track of
land plunged in mud and mire, and covered over with woods broken down
and blown away by a hurricane.
45. It was as desolate as a country burnt down by a conflagration, and
as the dry bed of the sea sucked up by the sage Agastya (the sun). It
was as a district devastated by a sweeping flood.
46. It was filled with heaps of weapons, as high as the bodies of big
elephants lying dead about the ground.
47. The lances which were carried down by the streams of blood, were as
big as the palm trees growing on the summits of mountains. (Compare the
description in Ossian’s poems).
48. The weapons sticking in the bodies of the elephants, seemed as the
shining flowers growing on verdant trees: and the entrails torn and
borne up by vultures, spread a fretted network in the sky.
49. The lances fixed beside the streams of blood, were as a woody
forest on the bank of a river; and the flags floating on the surface,
appeared as a bush of lotuses in the liquid-blood.
50. Dead bodies of men were drawn up by their friends, from the bloody
pool in which they were drowned, and the embedded bodies of big
elephants were marked by men by the jutting weapons sticking in them.
51. The trunks of trees which had their branches lopped off by the
weapons, appeared as the headless bodies of slain soldiers, and the
floating carcasses of elephants seemed as so many boats swimming in the
sea of blood.
52. The white garments that were swept down by the current, seemed as
the froth of the pool of blood, and were picked up by the servants sent
to search them out.
53. The demoniac bodies of headless soldiers, were rising and falling
in the field, and hurling large wheels and disks upon the flying army
on all sides.
54. The dying warriors were frothing forth floods of blood from their
throats, and stones stained with blood were inviting the greedy
vultures to devour them.
55. Then there were groups of Sutála, Vetála and Uttála demons dancing
their war dance about the field, and whirling the rafts of the broken
cars upon the flying soldiers on all sides.
56. The stir and last gasp of those that were yet alive, were fearful
to behold, and the faces of the dying and the dead that were covered in
dust and blood, were pitiful to the beholder.
57. The devouring dogs and ravenous ravens beheld the last gasp of
the dying with pity; while the feeders on carrions were howling and
fighting on their common carcass, till many of them became dead bodies
by their mutual fighting.
58. Now I have described the sea of blood, which flowed fast with
the gore of unnumbered hosts of horses, elephants and camels, and of
warriors and their leaders, and multitudes of cars, and war chariots;
but it became a pleasure garden to the god of death, delighting in his
bed of bloodshed, and grove of the weapons beset all around.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE-FIELD INFESTED BY NOCTURNAL FIENDS.
Now the blood-red sun set down in the west, like a hero red with blood;
and hid his lustre, which was dimmed by the brightness of the weapons
of war in the western main.
2. The sky which had reflected the blood-red flush of the field of
blood, was now dimmed by the setting of the glorious sun, and darkened
by the veil of evening.
3. Thick darkness overspread the face of heaven and earth like the
waters of the great deluge, and there appeared a body of ghosts
(Vetálas), dancing in a ring and clapping their hands.
4. The face of the day like that of an elephant, being besmeared with
the blackness of night fall, was again painted by the light of evening
with the pearly spots of stars on the cheeks.
5. The busy buzz of Creation being silent in the dead darkness of
night, like the humming of bees over the surface of the waters, the
hearts of men were closed in sleep as in death, like the petals of the
lotus at night.
6. The birds lay with their folded wings and fallen crests in their
nests, as the dead bodies were lying in the field, covered with their
wounds and weapons.
7. Then the fair moonbeams shone above, and the white lotuses were
blown below; the hearts of men were gladdened, and the victors felt
joyous in themselves.
8. The ruddy evening assumed the shape of the blood-red sea of battle,
and the fluttering bees now hid themselves like the faces of the fallen
soldiers.
9. There was an etherial lake above spangled with stars like the white
lotuses on high; and here was the earthly lake below, beset by lotuses
resembling the stars of heaven.
10. The bodies that were thought to be lost in darkness, were now
recovered in light, as the gems hid under the water, are found
scattered about in moonlight.
11. The battle field was filled by the Vetála demons, howling with
their hideous cry; while bodies of vultures, crows and owls, were
tearing the carcasses and sporting with the skeletons.
12. Then blazed the funeral piles as brightly as the starry frame on
high, and the fire consumed the dead bodies together with their bones
and raiments.
13. The fire burnt the bodies with their bones to ashes, after which
it extinguished itself as if sated with plenty. The female fiends now
began to sport in the water.
14. There arose a mingled cry of dogs and crows, of Yakshas and
Vetálas, with the clapping of their hands; and bodies of ghosts were
moving about as woods and forests.
15. The Dákinis (Dáyinis) were eager to steal away the flesh and fat
from the piles, and the Pisáchas delighted in sucking the blood and the
flesh and bones of the dead.
16. The demons were now looking and now lurking about the funeral
piles, and the Rákshasas that rushed in, bore away the carcasses on
their shoulders.
17. There came also bodies of ferocious Kumbhándas, and big Dámaras,
uttering their barbarous cries of _chumchum_, and hovering over the
fumes of fat and flesh in the shapes of clouds.
18. Bodies of Vetálas stood in the streams of blood like earthly
beings, and snatched the skeletons with hideous cries.
19. The Vetála younglings slept in the bellies and chests of the
elephants, and the Rákshasas were drinking their fill in the bloody
field.
20. The giddy Vetálas fought with one another with the lighted faggots
of the piles, and the winds were wafting the stench of the putrid
carcasses on all sides.
21. The female fiends (Rúpikás), filled the baskets of their bellies
with carrion, with a rat-a-tat (ratarata) noise; and the Yaksha
cannibals were snatching the half-burnt carcasses from the funeral
piles, as their roasted meat and dainty food (S. kali A. Kul).
22. Aerial imps (khagas) attacked the dead bodies of the big Bangas and
black Kalingas, and flouted about with their open mouths, emitting the
blaze of falling meteors.
23. The Vetála goblins fell down in the dark and discoloured
blood-pits, lying hid in the midst of the heaps of dead bodies; while
the Pisácha ogres and the leaders of Yogini sprites, laughed at them
for their false step (vetála).
24. The pulling of the entrails (antras-ánts), vibrated as by striking
the strings of wired instruments (tantras—or tánts); and the ghosts of
men that had become fiends from their fiendish desires, fell a-fighting
with one another.
25. Valiant soldiers were affrighted at the sight of the spectres
(Rúpíkás); and the obsequies were disturbed by the Vetála and Rákshasa
goblins.
26. The hobgoblins of the night (nisácharas), got frightened at the
fall of the carcasses from the shoulders of the elves (Rúpíkás), who
were carrying them aloft in the air; where they were waylaid by a
throng of ghostly demons (bhúta-sankata).
27. Many dying bodies, that were lifted aloft with labour by the bogies
(Dánas), were let to fall down dead on the ground, being found unfit
for their food.
28. Pieces of blood-red flesh, fallen from the fiery jaws of jackals,
resembled clusters of _asoka_ flowers, strewn all around the funeral
ground.
29. Vetála urchins were busy in putting on the scattered heads over the
headless bodies of kabandhas (acephali); and bodies of Yaksha, Raksha
and Pisácha ogres, were flashing as firebrands in the sky.
30. At last a thick cloud of darkness, covered the face or the sky, and
the view of the hills and valleys, gardens and groves, was hid under an
impenetrable gloom. The infernal spirits got loose from their dismal
abodes, and ranged and ravaged at large over the field, as a hurricane
under the vault of heaven.
CHAPTER XL.
REFLECTIONS ON HUMAN LIFE AND MIND.
Vasishtha related:—The nocturnal fiends were thus infesting the gloomy
field, and the myrmidons of death (Yama), roaming about it as marauders
in the day time.
2. The naked and fleeting ghosts, were revelling on their provision of
carrion in their nightly abode, and under the canopy of thick darkness,
which was likely to be laid hold upon under the clutches of one’s hand
(hasta-gráhya).
3. It was in the still hour of the gloomy night, when the host of
heaven seemed to be fast bound in sleep, that a sadness stole in
upon the mind of Lílá’s magnanimous husband (the belligerent prince
Vidúratha by name).
4. He thought about what was to be done on the next morning, in council
with his Counsellors; and then went to his bed, which was as white as
moonlight, and as cold as frost. (A cold bed in the east _vs._ a warm
one in the west).
5. His lotus-eyes were closed in sleep for a while in his royal camp,
which was as white as the moonbeams, and covered by the cold dews of
night.
6. Then the two ladies, issued forth from their vacuous abode, and
entered the tent through a crevice, as the air penetrates into the
heart and amidst an unblown bud of flower.
7. Ráma asked:—How is it possible sir, that the gross bodies of the
goddesses, with their limited dimensions, could enter the tent through
one of its holes, as small as the pore of a piece of cloth?
8. Vasishtha answered saying that:—Whoso mistakes himself to be
composed of a material body, it is no way possible for him to enter a
small hole with that gross body of his.
9. But he who thinks himself to be pent up in his corporeal body as
in a cage, and obstructed by it in his flight, and does not believe
himself to fill his frame, or to be measured by its length; but has the
true notion of his inward subtle spirit, it is no way impossible for
him to have his passage any where he pleases to go.
10. He who perceives his original spiritual state, as forming the
better half of his body, may pass as a spirit through a chink; but
whoso relies in his subsequent half of the material body, cannot go
beyond it in the form of his intellect.
11. As the air never rises upward, nor the flame of fire ever goes
downward; so it is the nature of the spirit to rise upward, as that of
the body to go down; but the intellect is made to turn in the way in
which it is trained.
12. As the man sitting in the shade, has no notion of the feeling of
heat or warmth; so one man has no idea of the knowledge or thoughts of
another person.
13. As is one’s knowledge so is his thought, and such is the mode
of his life; it is only by means of ardent practice (of yoga and
learning), that the mind is turned to the right course.
14. As one’s belief of a snake in a rope, is removed by the conviction
of his error; so are the bent of the mind and course of conduct in
life, changed from wrong to right by the knowledge of truth.
15. It is one’s knowledge that gives rise to his thoughts, and the
thoughts that direct his pursuits in life: this is a truth known even
to the young and to every man of sense.
16. Now then the soul that resembles a being seen in a dream or formed
in fancy, and which is of the nature of air and vacuum, is never liable
to be obstructed any where in its course: (for who can constrain the
flight of his imagination?).
17. There is an intellectual body, which all living beings possess in
every place. It is known both by consciousness, as well as the feelings
of our hearts.
18. It is by the divine will, that the intellect rises and sets by
turns. At first it was produced in its natural, simple and intellectual
form, and then being invested with a material body, it makes together
an unity of the person out of the duality (of its material and
immaterial essences).
19. Now you must know the triple vacuity, composed of the three
airy substances—the spirit, mind and space, to be one and the same
thing (all the three being equally all pervasive); but not so their
receptacle (of the material body), which has no pervasion.
20. Know this intellectual body of beings, to be like the air, present
with every thing and every where (over which it extends and which it
grasps in itself); just as your desire of knowing extends over all
things in all places, and presents them all to your knowledge.
21. It abides in the smallest particles, and reaches to the spheres of
heavens (which it grasps within itself): it reposes in the cells of
flowers, and delights in the leaves of trees. (_i.e._ It stretches over
all these things in its knowledge of them).
22. It delights in hills and dales, and dances over the waves of the
oceans; it rides over the clouds, and falls down in the showers of rain
and hailstones of heaven.
23. It moves at pleasure in the vast firmament, and penetrates through
the solid mountains. Its body bears no break in it, and is as minute as
an atom.
24. Yet it becomes as big as a mountain lifting its head to heaven,
and as large as the earth, which is the fixed and firm support of all
things. It views the inside and outside of every thing, and bears the
forests like hairs on its body.
25. It extends in the form of the sky, and contains millions of worlds
in itself; it identifies itself with the ocean, and transforms its
whirlpools to spots upon its person.
26. It is of the nature of an uninterrupted understanding, ever
calm and serene in its aspect; it is possessed of its intellectual
form, from before the creation of the visible world, and being all
comprehensive as vacuity itself, it is conversant with the natures of
all beings.
27. It is an unreality as the appearance of water in the mirage, but
manifests itself as a reality to the understanding by its intelligence.
Without this (intellection), the intellectual man is a nil as the son
of a barren woman, and a blank as the figure of a body seen in a dream.
28. Ráma asked:—How is that mind to which you attribute so many
powers, and what is that again which you say to be nothing? Why is it
no reality, and as something distinct from all what we see?
29. Vasishtha replied:—All individual minds are indued with these
faculties, except all such individualities, whose minds are engrossed
with the error (of the reality) of the outer world.
30. All the worlds are either of a longer or shorter duration, and they
appear and disappear at times; some of these vanish in a moment, and
others endure to the end of a _Kalpa_. But it is not so with the mind,
whose progress I will now relate to you.
31. There is an insensibility which overtakes every man before his
death; this is the darkness of his dissolution (mahá-pralaya-yáminí).
32. After the shocks of delirium and death are over, the spiritual part
of every man, is regenerated anew in a different form, as if it was
roused from a state of trance, reverie or swoon; (the three states of
insensibility—avidyá-trayam).
33. And as the spirit of God, assumes his _triune_ form with the
persons of Brahmá and Viráj, after the dissolution of the world for
its recreation; so every person receives the triplicate form of his
spiritual, intellectual and corporeal beings, after the termination of
his life by death.
34. Ráma said:—As we believe ourselves to be reproduced after death by
reason of our reminiscence; so must we understand the recreation of all
bodies in the world by the same cause. Hence there is nothing uncaused
in it (as it was said with regard to the unproduced Brahmá and others).
35. Vasishtha replied:—The gods Hari, Hara and others, having obtained
their disembodied liberation or _videha-mukti_, (_i.e._ the final
extinction of their bodies, their minds and spirit as in nirvána), at
the universal dissolution, could not retain their reminiscence to cause
their regeneration.
36. But human beings having both their spiritual and intellectual
bodies entire at their death, do not lose their remembrance of the
past, nor can they have their final liberation like Brahmá, unless
they obtain their disembodied state, which is possible to all in this
life or hereafter, by the edification of their souls, through yoga
meditation alone.
37. The birth and death of all other beings like yourself, are caused
by their reminiscence, and for want of their disembodied liberation or
eternal salvation.
38. The living soul retains its consciousness within itself, after its
pangs of death are over; but remains in its state of insensibility by
virtue of its own nature (called pradhána).
39. The universal vacuum is called nature (prakriti). It is the
reflexion of the invisible divine mind (chit prativimbam); and is the
parent of all that is dull or moving (Jadá-Jada), which are so produced
by cause of their reminiscence or its absence (sansmriti and asmriti);
the former causing the regeneration of living beings, and the latter
its cessation as in inert matter.
40. As the living principle or animal life begins to have its
understanding (bodha), it is called _mahat_ or an intelligent being,
which is possessed of its consciousness (ahankára). It has then the
organs of perception and conception, added to it from their elements
(tanmátras) residing in the vacuous ether.
41. This minutely intelligent substance, is next joined with the five
internal senses, which form its body, and which is otherwise called its
spiritual body (átivahika or lingadeha).
42. This spiritual being by its long association with the external
senses, comes to believe itself as a sensible being; and then by
imagining to have the sensible form, it finds itself invested with a
material body (ádhibhautika-deha) as beautiful as that of a lotus.
43. Then seated in the embryo, it reposes in a certain position for
sometime, and inflated itself like the air, until it is fully expanded.