Part 12: Quarrel with Meraka

One day, when they were playing in the city’s environs, they saw a camp established with guards, with many elephants, horses, and much treasure. The minister’s son, questioned by Lāṅgalin, “Who sent this here, a friend or enemy?” replied, “These presents are sent as tribute to Ardhacakrin Meraka by King Śaśisaumya from a desire to live.” Angered at hearing that, Śārṅgapaṇi said, “Why shall tribute go to him while we look on? Who is this wretched Meraka who takes tribute in this way from kings when we are present? His valor must be seen. Snatch all this away, take it by your own strength,” he instructed his soldiers, raising his hand. His soldiers beat Śaśisaumya’s soldiers, like fruit-trees, with clubs, hammers, staves, et cetera. Attacked by them unexpectedly hostile, like people asleep by night-attacks, they saved their lives and disappeared like crows. Afterwards Śārṅgapaṇi took everything, horses, elephants, et cetera. To take an enemy’s property by force is a characteristic of warriors.

Śaśisaumya’s soldiers, breathing hard (with indignation), related to Ardhacakrin Meraka that they had taken the property. When he heard that, Meraka, very angry like Yama, unrestrained, said in council with a terrible frown: “Like a kick from a donkey, excited by food, on an elephant, like the beating of a householder’s wife by a plowman, like a slap from a frog on a snake, the son of Rudra, devoid of sense, has done this for his own death. Just as the appearance of wings in ants^[1] is the cause of death, so a distracted mind in men leads to an adverse fate. I will kill him taking my presents like a thief, a new enemy who has arisen, together with his father and brother.”

Then one minister said: “They did this from ignorance. Yon have been served for a long time by King Rudra. Do not be angry. I think this will not be approved by King Rudra. He is desirous of gaining your favor as master. ‘Who would fall into the first anger of the master or into the stream of a river?’ so King Rudra now hesitates from fear. Be gracious, Your Majesty. Instruct me. Bestow fearlessness on him. I shall bring an extraordinary gift from him.”

Meraka agreed and he went quickly to Dvārakā and spoke to Rudra in company with Bhadra and Svayambhū: “What is this that your sons have done through ignorance, O king? Surely even the master’s dog is not killed with shame to his face.^[2] So hand over everything. There will be no fault of yours. Ignorance alone will hide the fault of your sons.”

Then Svayambhū said: “You, noble-minded, have spoken well to my father from devotion to your master, because of your noble nature. Consider resolutely, ‘How much has been seized from him?’ We shall seize the whole earth. For this earth is to be enjoyed by heroes. Who will endure in battle the strength of arm of the noble Balabhadra and myself like that of Kṛtānta angered? After killing him alone, I shall enjoy half of Bharata myself. What is the use of many other beaten kings like ants? He took half of Bharata by strength of arm, not by inheritance. Let it be mine by that law. There are stronger than the strong.”

The minister, astonished, terrified, and embarrassed by this speech, went quickly to Meraka and related the facts. Angered like a rutting elephant by his speech hard to hear, Meraka set out, shaking the earth with his masses of soldiers. Now Svayambhū, accompanied by Rudra and Bhadra, set out from the city Dvārakā like a lion from a cave. Disturbing the people, Rudra and Meraka, terrifying as Rāhu and Saturn,^[3] gradually came together at one point. A battle between the two armies took place, which made the sky terrifying from fire from blows of the weapons, cruel as the fire at the end of the world. Svayambhū blew Pāñcajanya himself with a loud noise resembling a charm for the destruction of all enemies. Meraka’s soldiers trembled at Pāñcajanya’s sound. Elephants do not linger when they have heard the lion’s roar. Meraka made his own soldiers stand still, like cocks, mounted his chariot himself, and rushed against Svayambhū. Saying to each other, “Why should the armies fight uselessly?” carrying only bows, they twanged the bows. Making a wedding-pavilion for the Śrī of victory, as it were, they both rained water in the form of arrows which hid the sun. They warded off each other’s shower of arrows with a shower of arrows, like a fire by a fire, like poison by poison. The two appeared terrifying like two suns that had arisen with thousands of arrow-rays streaming forth. Both their hands, as they came and went between the quiver and bow, could not be seen (from speed), and were visible only from the gleam of their rings. The hands of both, quick-handed, falling now on the quiver, now on the bow-string, shone as if they had two forms. When he realized that the enemy was not to be conquered by arrows, Meraka rained weapons, clubs, etc., like mountain-peaks raised up by the wind at the end of the world. Svayambhū soon destroyed them by counter-weapons, like a poison-eyed snake^[4] by terrifying flames from its eyes.

Wishing to conquer the enemy in battle, Meraka recalled the cakra, and it fell into his hand like a falcon into that of a hunter. Then Meraka said to Svayambhū, “You have been made into a soldier only by myself fighting for amusement. I will cut off your head. Go! Go now, villain! What shame is there to crows and robbers running away?”

Svayambhū said, “If such fighting is for amusement, then your fighting in anger must be seen. For I came for that. If heroes taking away enemies’ wealth are robbers, then you are the first robber. Who gave it to you? If any running away is to be done after you have thrown the cakra, now you do the running. What shame is there to crows and robbers running away? Throw the cakra! Throw it! Let its strength be seen, so you, dying, will feel no regret.”

So addressed, Meraka whirled the cakra terrifying with flames, like another Mars, in the air and hurled it at the enemy. It landed with a hard blow on Śārṅgapaṇi’s breast, like a cymbal on a cymbal. Dazed by a blow from the tip of the hub, Svayambhū fell on the floor of his chariot, his eyes tremulous like an intoxicated man’s. Muśalin, devoted to his brother, with tears in his eyes, supported him on his lap, saying, “Breathe, breathe, dear brother.” Sprinkled by his brother’s tears, Śārṅgabhṛt regained consciousness and stood up, saying to the enemy, “Wait! Wait!” After getting up and taking the cakra, like the wheel of fortune of enemies, Hari, watched with wide-open eyes by his men, said to Meraka, “This is your entire wealth of weapons and this is your duration of life. It has gone today, as you looked on, like the head-jewel of a snake.^[5] By what support do you remain? Go! Go, now! Svayambhū does not kill enemies fleeing from battle.”

Meraka said, “Throw it. Do you also see its strength. How could one who did not become the wife of the lord, become the wife of a petty lord?”

So addressed, Śārṅgabhṛt whirled the cakra, threw it, and easily cut off the lotus-head of Meraka. A rain of flowers fell from the sky on Svayambhū and likewise Meraka’s torso fell on the ground. The kings who were adherents of Meraka at once resorted to Svayambhū. There was the same procession of the friends of the bridegroom, but the groom was the other one.^[6]

Then keeping on his right the cakra, which was victorious over the circle of the quarters,^[7] he conquered the southern half of Bharata. Svayambhū, the abode of the Śrī of Victory, returned from the expedition of conquest, sporting at will with the Śrī of half of Bharata like a new wife. As he went along the road in the Magadhas, Śārṅgapaṇi saw a rock being lifted by a crore of men, like a concave cover of the earth. Adhokṣaja lifted it with his left arm easily, like the lord of serpents (Śeṣanāga) supporting the earth. After depositing the rock right there, instilling wonder in the powerful, Hari went in a few days to the city Dvāravatī. There Svayambhū’s installation as ardhacakrin was held by Rudra, Bhadra, and other kings with a festival.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

They die after the nuptial flight. See I, 11. 85.

[2]:

I.e., he would ‘lose face.’

[3]:

See I, n. 136.

[4]:

I.e., a Nāga.

[5]:

Crooke (p. 390) says that if any one obtains the snake-jewel, the snake dies. On the other hand, in Ceylon it is believed that misfortune follows the killing of the snake to obtain it, according to Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p. 316.

[6]:

Svayambhū instead of Meraka, whose friends they were originally.

[7]:

In the expeditions of conquest of the Cakravartin, the cakra preceded them in the air.