Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (Volume 1).pdf/518

504 filled with smoke and flashes of lightning, became terrible to be. bold."

Thus ends the two hundred and twenty-eighth section in the Khandava-daha Parva of the Adi Parva.

Vaisa mpayana said, "Then Vibhatsı, the son of Pandu, invoking his excellent weapons, prevented that shower of rain by Indra, by means of a shower of his own weapons, And Arjuna of immeasurable soul soon covered the forest of Khandava with innumerable arrows like the moon covering the atmosphere with a thick fog. When the sky above that forest was thus covered with the arrows of Arjuna no living creature could then escape from below. And it so happened that while that forest was burning. Takshaka, the chief of the Nagas, was not there, having gone at that time to the field of Kurukshetra. But Aswasena, the mighty son of Takshaka, was there. He made great efforts to escape from that fre: but confined by Arjuna's shafts he succeeded not in finding a way. It was then that his mother, the daughter of a snake, determined to save him by swallowing him first. His mother first swallowed his head and then was swallowing his tail. And desirous of saving her son, the sea-snake rose (up from the Earth) while still employed in swallowing her son's tail. But Arjuna as soon as he beheld her escaping, severed her head from her body by means of a sharp and keen edged arrow. Indra saw all this, and desiring to save his friend's son, the weilder of the thunder bolt, by raising a violent wind, deprived Arjuna of consiousness. During those few moment, Aswasena succeeded in effecting his escape. Behold. ing that manifestation of the power of illusion, and deceived by that snake, Arjuna was much enraged. He forthwith cut every animal seeking to escape by the skies, into two, three, or more pieces. And Vibhatsu in anger, and Agni, and Vasudeva also, cursed the snake that had escaped so deceitfully, saying.–Never shalt thou be famous !' And Jishnu, remembering the deception practised upon him, became angry, and covering the firmament with a cloud of arrows. sought to fight with bim of a thousand eyes. The chief of the celestials also, seeing Arjuna in anger, sought to fight with him, and hurled him own fierce weapons, covering the wide expanse of the firmament. Then the winds, making a loud roar and agitating all the oceans, brought