cars, in various manoeuvres. And being furnished with variegated
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 chamaras, 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 lik