18 Then Maya, burning away the spell of darkness, cast the great spell that—when it’s cast by the Aurva fire—causes the flare-up at the end of the age. 19 That spell (māyā) that Maya cast burned away all the darkness, and the Daityas immediately stood up on the battlefield, as clear as suns.
20 After encountering the Aurva spell the heaven-dwellers were burning, so they went within range of the moon, into the lake whose waters are cool rays. 21 Burned by the power of the Aurva spell, the gods lost their own power. Tormented, seeking help, they called out for the god with the thunderbolt.
22 While the army was being tormented by the spell and roasted by the Dānavas, the king of the gods consulted Varuna, who addressed him as follows:
23 Shakra. Long ago, Ūrva, the son of a brahmin seer, who was already so powerful that he had the attributes of Brahmā, undertook severe austerities. 24 He was scorching the world constantly with his heat, like the sun, and so the companies of sages and the gods and divine seers approached him. 25 And Hiranyakashipu Dānava, the chief of the Dānavas, also had words with the supremely powerful seer in those days. 26 The brahmin seers addressed him with a speech concerning his duty:
Your holiness. Your lineage, which is one of the lineages of seers, will be cut down at the root. 27 You’re single and childless, and so the family has no offspring. You’re asking for trouble by keeping this vow of celibacy, 28 brahmin. There are many lineages of devout sages that each survive isolated in a single person, without children. 29 But if the people carrying those other lineages become decrepit, that’s no excuse for you to! Through your asceticism, you’re supreme. You’re as majestic as a patriarch. 30 So look after the lineage, and extend yourself of your own accord. Deliver your mighty semen, and make a second self.
31 When the sages said this to him, that sage was cut to the quick. Then he railed against the companies of seers. He said:
32 Since this is an eternal law ordained of old for the sages, surely I should follow the conduct of the seers, who eat the roots and fruits that grow wild in the forest. 33 When a brahmin born in a brahmin family relies upon himself, his chastity is virtuous, and it can prompt a response from Brahmā himself. 34 Brahmins who inhabit the householder estate have three livelihoods,* but we inhabit the forest estate, and our livelihood is the forest. 35 There are those who live on water, and those who live on air; there are those who grind grain with their teeth, and those who grind it with stones; there are those who expose themselves to ten fires, and those who expose themselves to seven fires, or five.†36 All of these, steady in their hardship within such very difficult regimes, prioritise chastity and aim for the final station.
37 The people in the next world who know about chastity say that it’s because of chastity (brahmachārya) that a brahmin’s brahminhood deserves its name. 38 Constancy follows from chastity, and austerity follows from chastity. The brahmins who stand firm in their chastity are the ones sure of heaven. 39 There’s no success without yoga, and there’s no glory without success, but glory can’t result in any austerity that’s better than chastity. 40 When someone restrains the village of the senses and the village of the five elements, and keeps their chastity, what austerity is there better than that?
41 Three things should be called hypocrisy: wearing the hair without doing the yoga, making vows without intending to keep them, and chastity and going visiting. 42 When Brahmā used his mind to produce mind-born children, where were the women, where was the sex, and where was the perversity of passion? 43 If your penances have any potency, broadminded seers, then do what the patriarch did, and produce mind-born children. 44 An ascetic must impregnate a womb made by the mind. For ascetics there’s no contact with women, no seed, and no relaxing of vows. 45 What you honest and untroubled seers have suggested is sorely lacking in reason and rectitude. In my view, it’s almost as if it’s been suggested by rogues.
46 I’ll use my mind to create a body with a blazing heart, and without touching a woman I’ll give birth to a son grown within my own person. 47 Thus, in accordance with the rule of the forest, my body will produce a second self that just wants to burn creatures.
48 So Ūrva, full of ascetic power, put his thigh into the oblation-eating fire, and using a single stalk of darbha grass he drilled it as the mother and birthplace of his son. 49 Splitting his thigh open suddenly, the son was born, and it was a fire that was wreathed in flame but wanting fuel, and that sought to burn everyone. 50 Since it had cracked open Ūrva’s thigh (ūru), the deadly fire was named Aurva Son-of-the-Thigh.* It was born with an intense fury as if it wanted to burn the three worlds, 51 and as soon as it was born it spoke to its father with flaming words:
Daddy, my hunger’s hurting me. I’ll burn the world. Let me!
52 The ten directions were soon spreading with flames that reached up to the third heaven. The deadly fire grew, burning everything.
53 At that point, Brahmā, placating the sage Ūrva, said:
Control this fire, my child. Have pity on the worlds. 54 I’ll give this son of yours lots of help, brahmin: I’ll give him somewhere to live, and food that’s like nectar. Listen to what I’m telling you, great orator. It’s the truth.
55 Ūrva said:
Today I’m fortunate, and I’m honoured that his holiness gives such consideration to my child. It’s a great honour indeed. 56 But when each morning comes and my son wants to have something, what offerings will satisfy him and make him happy, my lord? 57 What kind of food will your lordship grant him, to match the mighty man’s mettle? And where might he live?
58 Brahmā said:
His residence will be in the ocean, within the mare’s head. The water is my source, brahmin, and that head of mine drinks water. 59 I sit there happily, drinking the oblation of water. I now confer that oblation, and that home, upon your son. 60 Then, at the end of the age, man of firm vows, he and I will go around the world together, annihilating creatures. 61 This fire is the doomsday fire that incinerates all creatures, including the gods, demons, and monsters. But in the meantime, I appoint it to consume water.†
62 The fire agreed to this, and withdrew its ring of flames. It entrusted its splendour to its father, and entered the head within the ocean. 63 Then Brahmā went on his way, and all the great seers, who now understood the power of the Aurva fire, went off along their various paths.*
64 After he’d seen that marvel, Hiranyakashipu, making a bow with his whole body, honoured Ūrva and said:
65 My lord. The whole world has witnessed the marvel that’s taken place here. The Grandfather’s been satisfied by your privations, supreme sage. 66 And if my conduct commends me, man of great vows, then may I be known as your son’s servant, and yours too. 67 Look upon me as a loyal soul, happy to worship you alone. But if I should come to grief, supreme sage, that would be a defeat for you too.
68 Ūrva said:
I’m fortunate and I’m honoured, since I’m the one you consider to be your guru. Daitya of firm vows, as of here and now you’re in no danger from my asceticism. 69 And take this magic spell that my son’s created—a spell consisting of fire but wanting fuel, a spell that’s hot to the touch even for other fires. 70 When your enemies block you, it’ll be obedient to you and your lineage. It’ll protect you and your allies, and burn your foes.
71 The Dānavas’ leader was delighted. He gave his agreement, took the spell, paid his respects to that bull of sages, and went off to the third heaven, having achieved his objective.
72 So this is that same spell, hard for even the gods to withstand or to match. It was originally created by Ūrva’s son, the Aurva fire. 73 But when Hiranyakashipu Daitya was overcome, the spell lost some of its power, no doubt about it, for that was the curse that was cast upon it at the start, by the same seer whose power produced it. 74 If this spell is to be resisted and your holiness made happy, Shakra, then give me an assistant: the moon, maker of night, source of moisture. Through your grace I’ll destroy this spell, no doubt about it.
36. Enter
Kālanemi
1 Vaishampāyana said:
Shakra, the mainstay of the thirty gods, was delighted. He agreed to Varuna’s request, and he dispatched Soma and his wintry weapons to the front for battle, saying:
2 Soma. For the destruction of the demons and the victory of the heaven-dwellers, go and be of assistance to the god who holds the snares.
3 Your potency is peerless. Among heavenly bodies you’re the lord of lords, and those who understand flavour know that you supply flavour to everyone. 4 Your waning and waxing is apparent in the ocean, and in the disc in the sky. You roll day and night around, applying time to the world. 5 Soma, neither the gods nor the planets that move through the constellations understand the hare-shaped mark that the earth’s shadow makes on your body. 6 Standing above the path of the sun, and above the stars and planets, you dispel the darkness with your beauty and light up the whole world.
7 With your white beams, your body of frost, and your hare, you’re the ruler of the heavenly bodies. You make the year, you’re the key to the secret of time. You’re the one to be worshipped, the unchanging flavour in the act of worship, 8 the lord of the herbs, the source of activity, the source of the lotus, the lover of the cold. Cool with your rays, you carry nectar. You come and you go, pulled by white horses. 9 You’re the beauty of those with beautiful bodies, the soma of those who live by soma. You’re the gentle lunar side of every creature, the destroyer of darkness, the king over the constellations.
10 So off you go. You’ll be with Varuna here—he’ll look after you. Disarm the demon’s spell that’s burning us in battle.
11 Soma said:
Since you speak to me of the business of war, king of the gods and granter of wishes, I’ll be sure to rain down cool dew, which will dissolve the Daitya magic. 12 Watch the great battle as these gangs of Daityas are scorched by my chilliness, smothered in frost, and stripped of their spells and their pride.
13 Then the cold-fingered moon poured out cold foggy showers, which enveloped the fierce Daityas like blankets of cloud. 14 In that great battle Varuna and the moon, the god with the snares and the god with the pale beams, pummelled the Dānavas with the effects of the cold and the effects of the snares. 15 The two lords of water used their waters to travel around the battlefield like two great churning oceans, fighting with fetters and frost in the fray. 16 They flooded the Dānava army, which looked as if it had been smothered by the return of the world-destroying rainclouds.
17 Those two gods, Varuna and the one with the sign of the hare, persevered with their beams and fetters, and between them they disarmed the spell that the Daitya had cast. 18 Singed by the water and cool rays and tied up by the fetters, the Daityas in the battle became unable to move, like decapitated mountains. 19 Struck down by the god with the cool rays, the Daityas fell, hurt by the cold, their every limb flooded with cold, like fires without heat. 20 The Daityas’ amazing aerial chariots lost their splendour and lurched up and down in the sky.
21 Maya, the Dānava magician, saw that the Dānavas in the sky had been tied up by the god with the snares in his hands, and encased in chilly rays. 22 So he cast a spell that was loaded with masses of rocks and cackled with the crack of falling boulders. Its summit was a peak rich in trees, and its forests were full of caves. 23 Crowded with lions, tigers, and elephants, it rang with the roars of the chiefs of the elephant herds. It was crammed with packs of wolves, and its trees waved in the wind. 24 Built by his own son Krauncha, it flew through the sky wherever he wished. It was the famous mountain spell, and he cast it all around.
25 It pelted the ranks of the gods with flying trees, and with hails of boulders that sounded like thunder, and it revived the Dānavas. 26 It disarmed the twin spells of Varuna and the night-maker, and as the battle raged it covered the ranks of the gods with rocks and lumps of iron. 27 Cluttered with clumps of rocks and dense with trees and hills, the sky became impassable, as the earth does where there are mountains.
28 Not a god could be seen who hadn’t been smashed by stones, or bashed by boulders in battle, or trapped by troops of trees. 29 The gods’ army was hampered by broken weapons. Its bows stopped firing, and it ground to a halt . . .
All except for the wielder of the mace. 30 For that glorious lord—the wielder of the mace and the master of the world—had come to the fight. He wasn’t at all perturbed, and because of his tolerance, he wasn’t angry either. 31 Janārdana was enjoying the sight of the gods and demons fighting. He knows the right time, and he was looking like a black cloud, looking out for the right time in that battle.
32 So now his holiness gave the fire god and the wind god their battle orders, and, prompted by Vishnu’s words, they disarmed the spell. 33 They spread, producing clouds of smoke, and in that great battle they incinerated the mountain spell. It turned to ashes and went out. 34 The fire filled out with wind, the wind filled up with fire, the two of them became as powerful as they are when the ages end, and between them they scorched the Daitya army. 35 The wind ran through it, and then, because of the wind, the fire did the same, and the two of them had great fun charging around in the Dānava army.
36 Soon the Dānavas’ aerial chariots had been treated with a total lack of respect and were lurching up and down, turned to ashes in places, 37 and thrown to the paths of the wind. The fire had done its deeds, the spell had been destroyed, and the mace-wielder was receiving the plaudits. 38 The Daityas had been stilled, the triple-world freed from bondage, and the joyful gods were cheering on all sides. 39 Thousand-eyed Indra had triumphed, Maya had been defeated, and every region had been cleansed. The rug of righteousness had been rolled out.
40 A path had been opened up for the moon, and the sun was on its proper course. All was well with the worlds. The people were given to good conduct, 41 death didn’t break its bounds, the oblation-eating fire was honoured, and the gods adorned sacrificial rites with their presence, showing people the value of heaven. 42 All the world-guardians made tours around their respective regions. The religious observances of honest people went well, those of the wicked came to nothing. 43 The side of the gods was happy, the side of the Daityas despaired.
Virtue stood on three legs, and vice stood on one. 44 The great gate was thrown open, and the true path prevailed in the world. The four social classes retained their distinctive duties, and so did the four estates, 45 and the kings took responsibility for protecting their subjects, and shone with glory. The stain upon the world had been removed, the terrible darkness had lifted. 46 After the fire and the wind had done their battle-deed, the pure people who are dedicated to them celebrated the rite of victory on their account.
47 Then, after hearing about the terrible distress that the primeval gods of wind and fire had caused, a Dānava known as Kālanemi the Rim of Death appeared.
48 His crown shone like the sun, and his armbands and other ornaments rattled. He loomed as large as Mount Mandara, covered in gold. 49 Standing there in splendour with a hundred heads, a hundred mouths, and a hundred arms holding up a hundred weapons, he was like a mountain with a hundred peaks, or like a summer fire raging in a thick dry forest. 50 He had hair the colour of smoke, a yellow beard, a mouth with tusks between its lips, and a massive body as big as a second triple-world. 51 He was lifting up the sky with his arms, scattering mountains with his feet, and tossing rainclouds around with the exhalations from his mouth.
52 His red eyes darting from side to side, his chest as vast as Mount Mandara, he advanced towards the ranks of the gods as if he were about to burn them all in battle. 53 He menaced the ranks of the gods and obscured the ten directions, like Death risen up wild and thirsty when the world’s end comes.
54–55 His handsome right hand was held out before him, with its finger-guards loosened slightly. It had thick fingers and joints and was fitted with dangling decorations, and as he raised its broad palm, he told the Dānavas who’d been felled by the gods to get up.
56 Kālanemi the Rim of Death meant death for his enemies in battle. The g
ods all saw him, and their eyes trembled in fear. 57 Everybody watched Kālanemi as he strode up, looking like a second Nārāyana striding and making his three strides. 58 The demon strode into battle, terrifying every god. As soon as he raised his foot it whirled winds around the sky. 59 As he strode into the fray Kālanemi Daitya was embraced by Maya, the leader of the demons, and he looked like Mount Mandara in the company of Vishnu. 60 After they’d seen Kālanemi the terrifying, the gods led by Indra were all afraid, as if they’d seen Death himself approaching.
37. The Power of Kālanemi
1 Vaishampāyana said:
Kālanemi Dānava wanted to delight the Dānavas. He was brilliant, and he expanded like the cloud that brings rain at the end of the hot season. 2 When the Dānava leaders saw him filling the space of the triple-world they stood up, exhausted no longer, as if they’d found the finest nectar. 3 Their fear and trembling vanished, and led by Maya and Tāra the Dānavas came to the battlefield and disported themselves there, spoiling for the fight. 4 They had fun running around their army making plans, and gazing at Kālanemi Dānava.
5 Maya’s champions of war had shed their fear. They were all now excited and ready to fight. 6 Maya, Tāra, Varāha, potent Hayagrīva Horse-Neck, Viprachitti’s son Shveta, Khara and Lamba, 7 Bali’s son Arishta, Kishora the Colt, Aushtra the Son of a Camel, and the great demon Svarbhānu who looks like a god and fights with his mouth: 8 these accomplished Dānavas—all of them expert with missiles, all of them honed by their hardships—reported to Kālanemi the ace.
9 They had heavy maces, discuses, and axes. They had deadly clubs, throwing-hammers, 10 rocks as tall as watchtowers, and large knapped stones. They had pikes, sling-javelins, bludgeons of the finest iron, 11 heavy killing-clubs, weapons that kill a hundred at a time, yokes, catapult-machines, projectiles, and bars with beaten tips. 12 They had long muscular forearms. They had harpoons, chains, and hammers. They had snakes with flickering tongues, arrows ready to scatter, 13 thunderbolt weapons, blazing javelins, sharp drawn swords, and sharp shining spears. 14 They stood at the head of the army behind Kālanemi, their hearts aflame and their magnificent weapons at the ready. 15 The Daitya army looked glorious, its fine weapons flashing.
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