{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/db/bk05ch28.htm","path":"hin/db/bk05ch28.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk05ch28.htm","text":"THE FIFTH BOOK\nChapter XXVIII\nOn the description of the fighting of the goddesses\n1-5. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- O King! The Dev\u00ee, hearing thus, laughed and spoke the following reasonable words, in a voice deep as a rumbling cloud :-- O Dull brained one! Already I told to that messenger before in reply to you; why then do you boast in vain? If there be any such in the three worlds who can stand equal to Me in appearance, strength, and prosperity, I will marry him. Go to S\u2019umbha and Nis\u2019umbha and inform them that thus I promised before; therefore let any of them conquer Me in battle and then marry Me according to the prescribed rules. You have come here to execute the order of S\u2019umbha; so either stand up and fight or fly to P\u00e2t\u00e2la with your King.\n6-11. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- O King! Hearing the Dev\u00ee\u2019s words, the D\u00e2nava was filled with anger and began to shoot dreadful arrows at once on the Lion. Ambik\u00e2, then, ready-handed, seeing the multitude of arrows coming in the sky like serpents, cut them off in a moment to pieces by Her sharp arrows. The Dev\u00ee, then, drawing Her bow, shot arrows sharpened on stone at the great Asura Raktab\u00eeja. Then that wicked Demon, thus shot at by the arrows, fell unconscious on the chariot. When he lay thus senseless, a great uproar arose amidst his army and the soldiers began to cry aloud saying, \u201cAlas! We all are killed.\u201d Then S\u2019umbha, the king of the Asuras, hearing the sound of Boomb\u00e2 (a danger cry by hands and mouth) ordered all the D\u00e2navas to be ready for the battle.\n12. Then S\u2019umbha said :-- Let all K\u00e2mbojas go to the battle with all their forces; let other powerful heroes, especially the K\u00e2lakey\u00e2s, too, who are very strong heroes, go up for the battle. (Note: K\u00e2mboja, name of a people and their country. They inhabited the Hindoo Koosh mountain which separates the Giljit valley from Balkh and probably extended up to little Tibet and L\u00e2dak. The K\u00e2lakey\u00e2s may be the Afridis.)\n13-33. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- O King! Thus ordered, all the fourfold army of S\u2019umbha, viz., cavalry, infantry, elephants and chariots went out, intoxicated for war, to the battle ground where the Dev\u00ee existed. The Dev\u00ee Chandik\u00e2, seeing the D\u00e2nava forces coming near, made at once terrible sounds frequently. The Ambik\u00e2 Dev\u00ee also made the sound with Her bowstring and blew Her conchshell. K\u00e2l\u00ee, then, shouted aloud opening Her mouth widely. The powerful Lion, the Dev\u00ee\u2019s V\u00e2hana, hearing the terrible sounds, roared so loudly that the D\u00e2navas were struck with strange terror. The powerful D\u00e2navas, then, hearing that sound became\nimpatient with anger and shot arrows after arrows on the Dev\u00ee. The wonderful horrible battle, then, ensued, causing horripilation and the S\u2019aktis of Brahm\u00e2 and the other Devas began to come to Chandik\u00e2 Dev\u00ee. The Dev\u00ees, the wives of the several Devas, then went, to the battlefield in their respective forms with ornaments and V\u00e2hanas as generally on such occasions. The S\u2019akti (wife) of Brahm\u00e2 named Brahm\u00e2ni, mounting on the back of Her Swan came there with a string of beads and Kamandalu (an wooden waterpot used by ascetics). The Vaisnav\u00ee with Her yellow robes came there mounted on Garuda (the sacred bird of Visnu, the carrier of Him) with conch, discus, club, and lotus in Her hands. The Dev\u00ee S\u2019ankar\u00ee, the wife of S\u2019iva, the Auspicious One, arrived on the back of Her Bull. The emblem of half-moon was on Her forehead while in Her hands She held snake, bracelet, and trident (Tris\u00fbla) and the sign of fearlessness for Her devotees. The beautiful wife of K\u00e2rtika, Kaum\u00e2ri Dev\u00ee, looking like Kartika, came to fight there mounted on a peacock. The fairfaced Indr\u00e2n\u00ee, decked with ornaments on Her several limbs, came there to fight, with thunder-bolt in Her hand, mounted on the elephant Air\u00e2vata. The V\u00e2r\u00e2h\u00ee Dev\u00ee looking like a female boar, came also, seated on an elevated seat of departed souls (Preta). The N\u00e2rasimh\u00ee, resembling Nrisimha (the Man Lion Incarnation) came there. The wife of Yama, looking fearful like Yama arrived there on the battlefield smiling and with staff in Her hand and mounted on the back of a buffalo. Thus the wives of Kuvera, Varuna, and other Devas came there with proper forms, V\u00e2hanas, ornaments, accompanied by their forces and all excited. Seeing them all, the Dev\u00ee Ambik\u00e2 became glad; the Devas, too, became peaceful and expressed their great joy; the D\u00e2navas were afraid at the sight of them. S\u2019ankara, auspicious to all the beings, came there to the battlefield, surrounded by these goddesses and thus said to Chandik\u00e2 :-- Slay quickly all these Asuras, S\u2019umbha, Nis\u2019umbha and all other D\u00e2navas to serve the cause of the Devas. Let all the goddesses destroy the D\u00e2nava race and thus free the world from dangers; they may, then, return to their own abodes. Let the Devas get their shares of sacrifices, let the Br\u00e2hmanas perform the sacrificial acts, and let all the creatures, moving or not moving, be happy. Let all calamities such as proceed from drought, excessive rain, rats, foreign invasion, locusts and birds, bats, etc., come to an end. Let the clouds bestow rains regularly and let the cultivation yield ample harvests. Note here that rats bring in plague.\n34-40. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- O King! When S\u2019ankara, the Lord of the gods and Auspicious to all, said thus, a wonderful female ensued out of the body of Chandik\u00e2, very furious, horrible, with hundreds of jackals surrounding and yelling; then that S\u2019akti, of dreadful appearance, said\nto the five-faced S\u2019iva, smiling :-- O Deva of the Devas! Go quickly to the lord of the Daityas; do the duty of a messenger for us, O Destroyer of lust! O S\u2019ankara! Tell that haughty lustful S\u2019umbha and Nis\u2019umbha leave the Heavens and go to P\u00e2t\u00e2la. Let the Devas reign in the Heavens; Indra go to his own beautiful throne; let all the Devas go to their appropriate places in Heaven and receive their sacrificial offerings duly. And if the Demons desire to live, let them go quickly to the city of P\u00e2t\u00e2la where other D\u00e2navas are dwelling. Else, if they like to die, let them go quickly to the battlefield and let their flesh be eaten up by Her jackals.\n41. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- O King! Hearing Her words, S\u2019\u00fblap\u00e2ni went quickly to S\u2019umbha, the lord of the D\u00e2navas, seated in the assembly, and said thus :--\n42-44. O King! I am Hara, the Destroyer of the Asura Tripur\u00e2; now I have come to you for your good as a messenger of Ambik\u00e2 Dev\u00ee. Quit the Heavens and Earth and go quickly to P\u00e2t\u00e2la where reside the powerful Bali and Prahl\u00e2da, or if you like to court Death, come to fight; I will slay you all in a moment. O King! The Great Queen Ambik\u00e2 Dev\u00ee has sent me with these instructions for your welfare and information.\n45-63. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- O King! Thus conveying the nectarlike, beneficial words of the Dev\u00ee to the chief Daityas, S\u2019iva, the Holder of the trident, returned to his own place. The S\u2019akti that sent S\u2019ambhu as a messenger to the D\u00e2navas is known in three worlds as S\u2019iva D\u00fbt\u00ee. The Daityas, thus hearing the rigorous words of the Dev\u00ee, put on their coats of armour and taking their bows and arrows quickly went out to fight. They came with great force to the battlefield, stretched their bows to their ears and shot piercing arrows, sharpened on stone and tipped with iron, at the Chandik\u00e2 Dev\u00ee. The K\u00e2lik\u00e2 Dev\u00ee, too began to strike some with the trident, some with S\u2019akti weapon, and some with clubs and rent them asunder and devoured them all, and began to roam in the field. Brahm\u00e2ni began to pour water from Her Kamandalu on the powerful D\u00e2navas in the battlefield and thus destroyed them. Mahes\u2019var\u00ee, mounting on Her Bull gave violent blows by Her trident and thus lay them dead on the ground. Vaisnav\u00ee, with the blow of Her club, took away the lives of many Daityas and striking them with Her Discus out off the heads of several others. Indr\u00e2n\u00ee hurled Her thunderbolt on the chief D\u00e2navas, already struck by the feet of the elephant and lay them dead on the field. N\u00e2rasimh\u00ee tore the strongest D\u00e2navas with the sharp nails and, devouring them, walked to and fro and made dreadful sounds. S\u2019iva D\u00fbt\u00ee began to laugh hoarsely and laid the D\u00e2navas flat on the field, when they were at once devoured by K\u00e2lik\u00e2 and Chandik\u00e2. Kaum\u00e2ri, seated on a peacock, by drawing the bowstring to\nHer ears hurled arrows sharpened on stone on the enemies and killed them to serve the cause of the gods. V\u00e2runi tied down the D\u00e2navas by Her P\u00e2sa weapons in a face to face fighting; thus they lay down senseless on the ground. O King! Thus the M\u00e2trik\u00e2s, the goddesses, crushed the forces. Then the other powerful soldiers fled away terrified. The \u201cBoomb\u00e2\u201d danger cry rose then loudly; on the other hand, the Devas began to shower flowers on the Dev\u00ees. Hearing the distressful agonies of the Asuras and the shouts of victory of the Devas, Raktab\u00eeja, the chief of the D\u00e2navas became very angry. Seeing specially the D\u00e2navas flying away and the Devas shouting, that powerful Demon came hurriedly to the battlefield with anger. Then with eyes reddened with anger, and with various weapons came before the Dev\u00ee, Raktab\u00eeja mounting on a chariot, and making sounds unusual with his bowstring.\nHere ends the Twenty-eighth Chapter of the Fifth Book on the description of the fighting of the goddesses in S\u2019r\u00ee Mad Dev\u00ee Bh\u00e2gavatam the Mah\u00e2 Pur\u00e2nam, of 18,000 verses by Maharsi Veda Vy\u00e2sa.","title":"The Devi Bhagavatam: The Fifth Book: Chapter 28","type":"page"}