BATTLE OF THE DEITIES AND DEMONS.
Argument. The war of the gods with the Demons, rising from the Rasátala
or Infernal regions.
Vasishtha continued:—So saying, the chief of the demons despatched his
generals Dáma, Vyála and Kata, to lead his armies for the destruction
of the Deities upon earth.
2. The demoniac army rose out of the foaming sea and infernal caverns,
in full armour and begirt with fiendish arms; and then bursting forth
with hideous noise, soared aloft with their huge bodies, like mountains
flying on high.
3. Their monstrous and mountainous bodies, hid the disk of the sun in
the sky; and their stretching arms smote him of his rays. They
increased also in their number and size under the leadership of Dáma,
Vyála and Kata.
(This is the war of the Gods and Titans, wherein Sambara is the Satan,
and his generals are the devils, Damon, Baal or Bel and etc.)?
4. Then the dreadful hosts of the celestials also, issued out from the
forests and caverns of the heavenly mountain—Meru, like torrents of the
great deluge.
5. The forces under the flags of the deities and demons, fought
together with such obstinacy, that it seemed to be an untimely and
deadly struggle between the gods and Titans as of the prior world.
6. The heads of the decapitated warriors, decorated with shining
earrings, fell down on the ground like the orbs of the sun and moon;
which being shorn of their beams as at the end of the world, were
rolling in the great abyss of chaos.
7. Huge hills were hurled by the heroes, with the hoarse noise of
roaring lions; and were blown up and down, by the blast of an all
destroying tornado.
8. The broken weapons of the warriors, fell on mountain tops, and
ground them to granules; that fell down as hailstones upon the lions,
that had been resting by their sides below.
9. The sparks of fire that flew about by the commingled clashing of the
weapons, were as the scattered stars of the sky, flying at random on
the last day of dissolution.
10. The ghosts of Vetálas as big as the _tálas_ or palmtrees, were
beating the _tála_ or time of their giddy dance, with the _táli_ or
clapping of their palms, over the heaps of carnage, floating on floods
of blood flowing as a sanguinary sea, on the surface of earth.
11. Showers of shedding blood, had put down the flying dust of the
battlefield; and numbers of the crowned heads separated from their
bodies, glistened amidst the clouds, like so many stars sparkling in
the sky.
12. All sides were filled by the demons, who blazed like burning suns
with their luminous bodies, and held the tall _kalpa_ branches in their
hands for striking the enemy therewith, and with which they broke down
the tops and peaks of mountains.
13. They ran about with their brandished swords in hand, and broke down
the buildings by the rapidity of their motion, like the blast of a
gale; and the rocks which they hurled at the foe, were reduced to dust,
like the ashes of a burning mountain.
14. The gods also pursued them as sacrificial horses, and drove the
weaponless Asuras, like clouds before the storm.
15. They fell upon and laid hold of them like cats pouncing upon rats,
and seizing them for their prey; while the Asuras also were seizing the
_devas_ as bears lay hold on men, mounting on high trees for fear of
them.
16. Thus the gods and demigods dashed over one another, as the forest
trees in a storm, striking each other with their branching arms, and
strewing the flowers of mutual bloodshed.
17. Their broken weapons lay scattered on all sides, like heaps of
flowers lying on the sides of a hill after a strong gale is over.
18. There was a close fight of both armies, with a confused noise
filling the vault of the sky; which like the hollow of the Udumbara
tree, resounded to the commingled hum of the gnats rumbling within it.
19. The elephants that were the regents of the different quarters of
the skies, sent their loud roars, answering the tremendous peal of the
world-destroying cloud.
20. The thickened air grew as hard as the solid earth with the
gathering clouds, and the thickened clouds that became as dense as to
be grasped in the fist, were heavy and slow in their motion.
21. The broken weapons which were repelled by the war-chariots and hit
against the hills, emitted a rattling noise from their inward
hollowness, like the cacophony of a chorus.
22. The mountain forests were set on fire by the fiery weapons, and the
burning rocks melted down their lava with as dreadful a noise, as that
of the volcanic mount of Meru with its melting gold, and blazing with
the effulgence of the twelve suns of the zodiac.
23. The clamour of the battle, was as that of the beating waves of the
boisterous ocean, filling the vast deep of the earth, and resounding
hoarsely by their concussion.
24. The huge rocks which were hurled by the demons, flew as birds in
the air with their flapping wings sounding as thunder claps; while the
hoarse noise of the rocky caverns, sounded as the deep sounding main.
25. The clamour of the warfare resembled the rumbling of the ocean, at
its churning by the Mandara mountain, and the clashing arms sounded as
the clappings of the hands of the gods, in their revelry for the
ambrosial draughts.
26. In this warfare of the two armies, the haughty demons gained the
day; and laid waste the cities and villages of the gods, together with
whole tracts of their hills and forests.
27. The mountainous bodies of the demons also, were pierced by the
great weapons of the gods; and the vault of heaven was filled with the
flying weapons, flung by the hands of both parties.
28. The bursting rockets broke the peaks and pinnacles of the rocks by
hundreds; and the flying arrows pierced the faces of both parties of
the gods and demigods.
29. The whirling disks lopped off the heads of the warriors like blades
of grass, and the clamour of the armies rolled with an uproar in the
midway sky.
30. Struck by the flying weapons, the heavenly charioteers fell upon
the ground; and their celestial cities were deluged by the hydraulic
engines of the demons.
31. Flights of swords, spears and lances were flying in the air, like
rivers running down the sides of mountains; and the vault of heaven was
filled by war-whoops and shouts of the combatants.
32. The habitation of the regnant divinities, were falling under the
blows of demons from behind; and their female apartments reechoed to
the lamentations and jingling trinkets of the goddesses.
33. The stream of the flying weapons of the demons, washed the bodies
of fighting men with blood, and made them fly off from the battle-field
with hideous cries.
34. Death was now lurking behind, and now hovering over the heads of
the gods and leaders of armies; like a black-bee now skulking in, and
then flitting over the lotuses; while the armies on both sides, were
discomfited by the blows of the gods and demigods on the battle field.
35. The demons flew in the air like winged mountains, moving around the
sky; and making a whizzing rustle that was dreadful to hear.
36. The mountainous bodies of the demons, being pierced by the weapons
of the gods, were gushing out with streams of blood; which converted
the earth below to a crimson sea, and tinged the air with purple clouds
over the mountain heights.
37. Many countries and cities, villages and forests, vales and dales
were laid waste; and innumerable demons and elephants, horses and human
beings were put to death.
38. Also numbers of elephants were pierced, with long and pointed
shafts of steel and iron; and huge Airávatas were bruised in their
bodies, by the blows of steeled fists.
39. Flights of arrows falling in showers like the diluvian rains,
crushed the tops of mountains; and the friction of thunderbolts, broke
down the bodies of the mountainous giants.
40. The furious flames of heavenly fire, burned the bodies of the
infernal hosts; who in their turn, quenched the flame with water-spouts
drawn out of the subterranean deep.
41. The enraged demons flung up and hurled, the huge hills to oppose
the falling fires of the gods; which like a wild conflagration, melted
down the hardstones to liquid water.
42. The demons spread a dark night in the sky, by the shadow of their
arms; which the gods destroyed by the artificial flame of lightenings,
blazing as so many suns in heaven.
43. The fire of the lightenings, dried up the waters of the raining
clouds; and the clashing of arms, emitted a shower of fire on all sides.
44. The shower of thunder-arms, broke down the battery of mountain
ramparts; and the Morphean weapon of slumber dispelled by that of its
counteraction.
45. Some bore the sawing weapon, while others held the Brahmástra—the
invincible weapon of warfare, that dispelled the darkness of the field
by its flashing.
46. The air was filled with shells and shots, emitted by the fire-arms;
and the machine of hurling stones, crushed the missile weapons of fire
(agneyastra).
47. The war chariots with their up-lifted flags and moon-like disks,
moved as clouds about the horizon, while their wheel rolled with loud
roaring under the vault of heaven.
48. The incessant thunders of heaven were killing the demons in
numbers, who were again restored to life by the great art of Sukra,
that gave immortality to demoniac spirits.
49. The gods that were now victorious and now flying away with loss,
were now looking to their good stars, and now to the inauspicious ones
in vain.
50. They looked upon heaven for signs of good and evil with their
uplifted heads and eyes, but the world appeared to them as a sea of
blood from the heaven above to the earth below.
51. The world seemed to them as a forest of full blown rubicund
(Kinsuka) flowers, by the rage of their obstinate enmity, and appeared
as a sea of blood filled with mountains of dead bodies in it.
52. The dead bodies hanging pendant on the branches of trees, appeared
as their fruits moving to and fro by the breath of winds.
53. The vault of the sky was filled with forests of long and large
arrows, and with mountains of headless trunks with their hundred arms
(as those of Briareus).
54. These as they leaped and jumped in the air, plucked the clouds and
stars and the heavenly cars of the celestials with their numerous arms;
and hurled their mountain like missile arms and clubs and arrows to the
heavens.
55. The sky was filled with the broken fragments of the edifices,
falling from the seven spheres of heaven, and their incessant fall
raised a noise like the roaring of the diluvian clouds.
56. These sounds were resounded by the elephants of the deep (pátála);
while the bird of heaven—_Garuda_, was snatching the gigantic demons as
his prey.
57. The dread of the demons drove the celestial deities, the Siddhas
and Sáddays and the gods of the winds, together with the Kinnaras,
Gandharvas and Cháranas, from all their different quarters to one
indistinct side. (There was no distinction of the sides in the chaotic
state).
58. Then there blew a tremendous tornado like the all-destroying Boreas
of universal desolation; laying waste the trees of the garden of
paradise, and threatening to destroy the gods; while the thunders of
heaven were splitting and breaking down the mountains flung to the face
of the sky.