(Rajya-labha Parva continued)
"Vaisampayana said, 'Hearing these words of Yudhishthira, Narada replied,
"O son of Pritha, listen with thy brothers to me as I recite this old
story, O Yudhishthira, exactly as everything happened. In olden days, a
mighty Daitya named Nikumbha, endued with great energy and strength was
born in the race of the great Asura, Hiranyakasipu. Unto this Nikumbha,
were born two sons called Sunda and Upasunda. Both of them were mighty
Asuras endued with great energy and terrible prowess. The brothers were
both fierce and possessed of wicked hearts. And those Daityas were both of
the same resolution, and ever engaged in achieving the same tasks and ends.
They were ever sharers with each other in happiness as well as in woe.
Each speaking and doing what was agreeable to the other, the brothers
never were unless they were together, and never went anywhere unless
together. Of exactly the same disposition and habits, they seemed to be
one individual divided into two parts. Endued with great energy and ever
of the same resolution in everything they undertook, the brothers
gradually grew up. Always entertaining the same purpose, desirous of
subjugating the three worlds, the brothers, after due initiation, went to
the mountains of Vindhya. And severe were the ascetic penances they
performed there. Exhausted with hunger and thirst, with matted locks on
their heads and attired in barks of trees, they acquired sufficient
ascetic merit at length. Besmearing themselves with dirt from head to foot,
living upon air alone, standing on their toes, they threw pieces of the
flesh of their bodies into the fire. Their arms upraised, and eye fixed,
long was the period for which they observed their vows. And during the
course of their ascetic penances, a wonderful incident occurred there. For
the mountains of Vindhya, heated for a long course of years by the power
of their ascetic austerities, began to emit vapour from every part of
their bodies. And beholding the severity of their austerities, the
celestials became alarmed. The gods began to cause numerous obstructions
to impede the progress of their asceticism. The celestials repeatedly
tempted the brothers by means of every precious possession and the most
beautiful girls. The brothers broke not their vows. Then the celestials
once more manifested, before the illustrious brothers, their powers of
illusion. For it seemed their sisters, mothers, wives, and other relatives,
with disordered hair and ornaments and robes, were running towards them in
terror, pursued and struck by a Rakshasa with a lance in hand. And it
seemed that the women implored the help of the brothers crying, 'O save
us!' But all this went for nothing, for firmly wedded thereto, the
brothers did not still break their vows. And when it was found that all
this produced not the slightest impression on any of the two, both the
women and the Rakshasa vanished from sight. At last the Grandsire himself,
the Supreme Lord ever seeking the welfare of all, came unto those great
Asuras and asked them to solicit the boon they desired. Then the brothers
Sunda and Upasunda, both of great prowess, beholding the Grandsire, rose
from their seats and waited with joined palms. And the brothers both said
unto the God, 'O Grandsire, if thou hast been pleased with these our
ascetic austerities, and art, O lord, propitious unto us, then let us have
knowledge of all weapons and of all powers of illusion. Let us be endued
with great strength, and let us be able to assume any form at will. And
last of all, let us also be immortal.' Hearing these words of theirs,
Brahman said, 'Except the immortality you ask for, you shall be given all
that you desire. Solicit you some form of death by which you may still be
equal unto the immortals. And since you have undergone these severe
ascetic austerities from desire of sovereignty alone I cannot confer on
you the boon of immortality. You have performed your ascetic penances even
for the subjugation of the three worlds. It is for this, O mighty Daityas,
that I cannot grant you what you desire.'"
"'Narada continued, "Hearing these words of Brahman, Sunda and Upasunda
said, 'O Grandsire, let us have no fear then from any created thing,
mobile or immobile, in the three worlds, except only from each other!' The
Grandsire then said, 'I grant you what you have asked for, even this your
desire'. And granting them this boon, the Grandsire made them desist from
their asceticism, and returned to his own region. Then the brothers, those
mighty Daityas, having received those several boons became incapable of
being slain by anybody in the universe. They then returned to their own
abode. All their friends and relatives, beholding those Daityas of great
intelligence, crowned with success in the matter of the boons they had
obtained, became exceedingly glad. And Sunda and Upasunda then cut off
their matted locks and wore coronets on their heads. Attired in costly
robes and ornaments, they looked exceedingly handsome. They caused the
moon to rise over their city every night even out of his season. And
friends and relatives gave themselves up to joy and merriment with happy
hearts. Eat, feed, give, make merry, sing, drink--these were the sounds
heard everyday in every house. And here and there arose loud uproars of
hilarity mixed with clappings of hands which filled the whole city of the
Daityas, who being capable of assuming any form at will, were engaged in
every kind of amusement and sport and scarcely noticed the flight of time,
even regarding a whole year as a single day."'"