mail
and standards and diverse ornaments, they delighted my mind. And in the
conflict I could not afflict them by showers of shafts, but they did not
afflict me. And being afflicted by those innumerable ones, equipped in
weapons and skilled in fight, I was pained in that mighty encounter and
a terrible fear seized me. Thereupon collecting (my energies) in fight,
I (bowed down) unto that god of gods, _Raudra_, and saying, "May welfare
attend on all beings!" I fixed that mighty weapon which, celebrated
under the name of _Raudra_, is the destroyer of all foes. Then I beheld
a male person having three heads, nine eyes, three faces, and six arms.
And his hair was flaming like fire or the sun. And, O slayer of foes,
for his dress, he had mighty serpents, putting out their tongues. And
saying, O best of the Bharatas, the dreadful and eternal _Raudra_, I
being free from fear, set it on the _Gandiva_; and, bowing unto the
three-eyed _Sarva_ of immeasurable energy, let go (the weapon), with the
object of vanquishing those foremost of the _Danavas_, O Bharata. And, O
lord of men, as soon as it had been hurled, there appeared on the scene
by thousands, forms of deer, and of lions, and of tigers, and of bears
and of buffaloes, and of serpents, and of kine, and of sarabhas, and of
elephants, and of apes in multitudes, and of bulls, and of boars, and of
cats, and of dogs, and of spectres, and of all the _Bhurundas_, and of
vultures, and of Garudas, of _chumaras_, and of all the leopards, and of
mountains, and of seas, and of celestials, and of sages, and of all the
_Gandharvas_, and of ghosts with the _Yakshas_, and of the haters of the
gods, (_Asuras_), and of the _Guhyakas_ in the field, and of the
_Nairitas_ and of elephant-mouthed sharks, and of owls, and of beings
having the forms of fishes and horses, and of beings bearing swords and
various other weapons, and of _Rakshasas_ wielding maces and clubs. And
on that weapon being hurled all the universe became filled with these as
well as many others wearing various shapes. And again and again wounded
by beings of various sights with (pieces of) flesh, fat, bones, and
marrow on their persons,--some having three heads, and some four tusks,
and some four mouths, and some four arms,--the _Danavas_ met with
destruction. And, then, O Bharata, in a moment I slew all those
_Danavas_, with other swarms of arrows composed of the quintessence of
stone, flaming like fire or the sun, and possesse