s poured gentle
showers wetting the dust on the roads and, O Yudhishthira, the cars of
the celestials could be seen high over the spot where the mighty _Asura_
Dhundhu was. The gods and _Gandharvas_ and great _Rishis_ urged by
curiosity, came there to behold the encounter between Dhundhu and
Kuvalaswa and, O thou of the Kuru race, filled by Narayana with his own
energy, king Kuvalaswa, aided by his sons, soon surrounded that sea of
sands and the king ordered that wilderness to be excavated and after the
king's sons had excavated that sea of sands for seven days, they could
see the mighty _Asura_ Dhundhu. And, O bull of the Bharata race, the
huge body of that _Asura_ lay within those sands, effulgent in its own
energy like the Sun himself. And Dhundhu, O king, was lying covering the
western region of the desert and surrounded on all sides by the sons of
Kuvalaswa, the _Danava_ was assaulted with sharp-pointed shafts and
maces and heavy and short clubs and axes and clubs, with iron spikes and
darts and bright and keen-edged swords, and thus assaulted, the mighty
_Danava_ rose from his recumbent posture in wrath. And enraged, the
_Asura_ began to swallow those various weapons that were hurled at him
and he vomited from his mouth fiery flames like unto those of the fire
called _Samvarta_ that appeareth at the end of the _Yuga_ and by those
flames of his, the _Asura_ consumed all the sons of the king and, O
tiger among men, like the Lord Kapila of old consuming the sons of king
Sagara, the infuriated _Asura_ overwhelming the triple world with the
flames vomited from his mouth, achieved that wonderful feat in a moment.
And, O thou best of the Bharatas, when all those sons of king Kuvalaswa
were consumed by the fire emitted by the _Asura_ in wrath, the monarch,
possessed as he was of mighty energy, then approached the _Danava_ who,
like unto a second Kumbhakarna of mighty energy, had come to the
encounter after waking from his slumbers. From the body of the king, O
monarch, then began to flow a mighty and copious stream of water and
that stream soon extinguished, O king, the fiery flames emitted by the
_Asura_. And, O great king, the royal Kuvalaswa, filled with _Yoga_
force, having extinguished those flames by the water that issued from
his body, consumed that _Daitya_ of wicked prowess with the celebrated
weapon called _Brahma_ for relieving the triple world of its fears, and
the royal sage Kuvalaswa, having consumed that grea