Chapter L - Death of viduratha

Vasishtha said:—

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As the tide of war was rolling violently with a general massacre on both sides, the belligerent monarchs thought on the means of saving their own forces from the impending ruin.

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The magnanimous Sindhuraja, who was armed with patience, called to his mind the Vaishnava weapon, which was the greatest of arms and as powerful as Siva (Jove) himself.

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No sooner was the Vaishnava weapon hurled by him with his best judgement (mantra), than it emitted a thousand sparks of fire from its flaming blade on all sides.

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These sparks enlarged into balls, as big and bright as to shine like hundreds of suns in the sky, and others flew as the lengthy shafts of cudgels in the air.

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Some of them filled the wide field of the firmament with thunderbolts as thick as the blades of grass, and others overspread the lake of heaven, with battle axes as a bed of lotuses.

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These poured forth showers of pointed arrows spreading as a net-work in the sky, and darted the sable blades of swords, scattered as the leaves of trees in the air.

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At this time, the rival king Viduratha, sent forth another Vaishnava weapon for repelling the former, and removing the reliance of his foe in his foible.

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It sent forth a stream of weapons counteracting those of the other, and overflowing in currents of arrows and pikes, clubs and axes and missiles of various kinds.

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These weapons struggled with and justled against one another. They split the vault of heaven with their clattering, and cracked like loud thunder claps cleaving the mountain cliffs.

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The arrows pierced the rods and swords, and the swords hewed down the axes and lances to pieces. The malls and mallets drove the missiles, and the pikes broke the spears (saktis).

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The mallets like Mandara rocks, broke and drove away the rushing arrows as waves of the sea, and the resistless swords broke to pieces by striking at the maces.

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The lances revolved like the halo of the moon, repelling the black sword-blades as darkness, and the swift missiles flashed as the destructive fires of Yama.

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The whirling disks were destroying all other weapons;they stunned the world by their noise, and broke the mountains by their strokes.

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The clashing weapons were breaking one another in numbers, and Viduratha defeated the arms of Sindhu, as the steadfast mountain defies the thunders of Indra.

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The truncheons (Sankus) were blowing away the falchions (asis); and the spontoons (sulas) were warding off the stones of the slings. The crow bars (bhusundis) broke down the pointed heads of the pikes (bhindhipalas).

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The iron rods of the enemy (parasulas) were broken by tridents (trisulas) of Siva, and the hostile arms were falling down by their crushing one another to pieces.

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The clattering shots stopped the course of the heavenly stream, and the combustion of powder filled the air with smoke.

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The clashing of dashing weapons lightened the sky like lightnings, their clattering cracked the worlds like thunderclaps, and their shock split and broke the mountains like thunderbolts.

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Thus were the warring weapons breaking one another by their concussion, and protracting the engagement by their mutual overthrow.

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As Sindhu was standing still in defiance of the prowess of his adversary, Viduratha lifted his own fire-arm, and fired it with a thundering sound.

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It set the war chariot of Sindhu on fire like a heap of hay on the plain, while the Vaishnava weapons filled the etherial sphere with their meteoric blaze.

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The two Kings were thus engaged in fierce fighting with each other, the one darting his weapons like drops of raging rain, and the other hurling his arms like currents of a deluging river.

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The two Kings were thus harassing each other like two brave champions in their contest, when the chariot of Sindhu was reduced to ashes by its flame.

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He then fled to the woods like a lion from its cavern in the mountain, and repelled the fire that pursued him by his aqueous weapons.

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After losing his car and alighting on the ground, he brandished his sword and cut off the hoofs and heels of the horses of his enemy's chariot in the twinkling of an eye.

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He hacked every thing that came before him like the lean stalks of lotuses; when Viduratha also left his chariot with his asi (ensis) in hand.

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Both equally brave and compeers to one another in their skill in warfare, turned about in their rounds, and scraped their swords into saws by mutual strokes on one another.

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With their denticulated weapons, they tore the bodies of their enemies like fishes crushed under the teeth, when Viduratha dropt down his broken sword, and darted his javelin against his adversary.

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It fell with a rattling noise on the bosom of Sindhu (the king), as a flaming meteor falls rumbling in the breast of the sea (Sindhu).

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But the weapon fell back by hitting upon his breast plate, as a damsel flies back from the embrace of a lover deemed an unfit match for her.

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Its shock made Sindhu throw out a flood of blood from his lungs, resembling the water spout let out from the trunk of an elephant.

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Seeing this, the native Lila cried with joy to her sister Lila: see here the demon Sindhu killed by our lion-like husband.

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Sindhu is slain by the javelin of our lion-like lord, like the wicked demon by the nails of the lion-god Nrisinha, and he is spouting forth his blood like the stream of water, thrown out by the trunk of an elephant from a pool.

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But alas! this Sindhu is trying to mount on another car, although bleeding so profusely from his mouth and nostrils, as to raise a wheezing (chulchulu) sound.

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Lo there! our lord Viduratha breaking down the golden mountings of his car with the blows of his mallet, as the thundering clouds—Pushkara and Avarta break down the gold peaks of Sumeru.

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See this Sindhu now mounting on another carriage, which is now brought before him, and decorated as the splendid seat of a Gandharva.

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Alack! our lord is now made the mark of Sindhu's mallet darted as a thunder bolt against him; but lo! how he flies off and avoids the deadly blow of Sindhu.

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Huzza! how nimbly he has got up upon his own car; but woe is to me! that Sindhu has overtaken him in his flight.

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He mounts on his car as a hunter climbs on a tree, and pierces my husband, as a bird-catcher does a parrot hidden in its hollow, with his pointed arrow.

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Behold his car is broken down and its flags flung aside; his horses are hurt and the driver is driven away. His bow is broken and his armour is shattered, and his whole body is full of wounds.

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His strong breast-plate is broken also by slabs of stone and his big head is pierced by pointed arrows. Behold him thrown down on earth, all mangled in blood.

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Look with what difficulty he is restored to his senses, and seated in his seat with his arm cut off and bleeding under Sindhu's sword.

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See him weltering in blood gushing out profusely from his body, like a rubicund stream issuing from a hill of rubies. Woe is me! and cursed be the sword of Sindhu that hath brought this misery on us.

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It has severed his thighs as they dissever a tree with a saw, and has lopped off his legs like the stalks of trees.

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Ah! it is I that am so struck and wounded and killed by the enemy. I am dead and gone and burnt away with my husband's body.

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Saying so, she began to shudder with fear at the woeful sight of her husband's person, and fell insensible on the ground like a creeper cut off by an axe.

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Viduratha though thus mutilated and disabled, was rising to smite the enemy in his rage, when he fell down from his car like an uprooted tree, and was replaced there by his charioteer ready to make his retreat.

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At this instant, the savage Sindhu struck a sabre on his neck, and pursued the car in which the dying monarch was borne back to his tent.

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The body of Padma (alias Viduratha), was placed like a lotus in the presence of Sarasvati, shining with the splendour of the sun; but the elated Sindhu was kept from entering that abode, like a giddy fly from a flame.

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The charioteer entered in the apartment, and placed the body in its death-bed, all mangled and besmeared with blood, exuding from the pores of the severed neck, in the presence of the goddess, from where the enemy returned to his camp. (Gloss). Here Padma fighting in the person of Viduratha, and falling bravely in the field, obtained his redemption by his death in the presence of the goddess; but the savage Sindhu, who slew his foiled foe in his retreat, proved a ruffian in his barbarous act, and could have no admittance into the presence of the goddess and to his future salvation.