Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/117

Rh that burneth all things at the end of time, hurled with force from the hands of Narayana, falling constantly everywhere destroyed the Daityas and the Danavas by thousands. Sometimes it flamed like fire and consumed them all, sometimes it struck them down as it coursed through the sky; and sometimes, falling on earth, like a goblin it drank their life blood.

"And on their side, the Danavas, white as the clouds from which the rain hath been extracted, possessing great strength and bold hearts, ascended the sky and hurling down thousands of mountains continually harassed the gods. And those dreadful mountains, like masses of clouds, with their trees and flat tops, falling from the sky, collided with one another and produced a tremendous roar. And when thousands of warriors shouted without intermission on the field of battle and the mountains with the woods thereon began to fall around, the Earth with her forests trembled. Then the divine Nara coming to that dreadful conflict of the Asuras and the Ganas (the followers of Rudra), reducing to dust those rocks by means of his arrows covered the heavens with the dust. And  [sic]discomfitted by the gods, and seeing the furious discus scouring the fields of heaven like a blazing flame, the mighty Danavas entered the bowels of the Earth, while others plunged into the sea of salt waters.

"And having gained the victory, the gods offering due respect to Mandara placed him on his own base. And the gods making the heavens resound with their shouts, went to their own abodes. And the gods returning to the heavens rejoiced greatly, and the vessel of nectar Indra and the other gods made over to Nara for careful keep."

And so ends the nineteenth Section in the Astika of the Adi Parva.

 

Sauti said:—"Thus have I recited to you all about how amrita (nectar) was churned out of the Ocean, and on which occasion the horse Uchchaisrava of great beauty and in com-