01.217
Pancharatra: Kandavaforest set on fire protected by Arjuna and Krishna.
Vaiśampāyana said.
Those two heroes, like tigers among men, stood with their chariots on either side of the conflagration and wrought great slaughter of all beings in every direction.
Wherever the living beings of Khāṇḍava were seen fleeing, there the two heroes rushed after them.
Because of the swift movement of the chariots, they do not perceive any gap; those two excellent charioteers appear as if pierced (together).
But as the Khāṇḍava forest was burning, thousands of creatures arose, uttering terrible cries that echoed in all ten directions.
Many were burnt in one part, others were completely scorched; some had burst eyes, some were shattered, some dissolved, and some were unconscious.
Some, having embraced their sons, others their fathers and mothers likewise, and others, unable to abandon them out of affection, thus went to their deaths.
Others, with deformed appearances, arose by the thousands; here and there, whirling about, they again entered into the fire.
Creatures with burnt wings, eyes, and feet, moving about on the ground, were seen here and there, perishing.
O Bhārata, in all water bodies, as they were being boiled, thousands of lifeless turtles and fishes were seen.
In that forest, living beings, their bodies blazing like fire, appeared as if at the end of their lives.
Arjuna (Pārtha), seeing them rise, cut them into pieces with his arrows, and then, smiling, hurled the blazing weapon onto the path of Kṛṣṇa.
They, their entire bodies covered with arrows, let out great roars, leapt up swiftly, and again fell into the fire.
The cries of the forest-dwellers, struck by arrows and burning, were heard, like the sound of the ocean being churned.
From the delighted Agni, great flames arose into the sky, causing immense disturbance among the dwellers of heaven.
Then all the great-souled dwellers of heaven went to take refuge with the king of the gods, the thousand-eyed Purandara (Indra).
The gods said.
O lord of immortals, are all these humans truly being consumed by the dark path? Has destruction not come upon the worlds?
Vaiśampāyana said.
Having heard that, the Vṛtra-slayer, after personally observing them, went for the release of Khāṇḍava, being Hari's vehicle (Arjuna).
Indra, the lord of the gods and wielder of the thunderbolt, covered the sky with a vast and varied network of clouds and began to rain.
Then Indra, the thousand-eyed, released streams of rain, each the size of dice, by the hundreds of thousands, pouring them down upon the fire at Khandava.
But those streams, before reaching, were completely dried up in the sky by the brilliance of Jātavedas (the fire); none of them reached the fire.
Then Namuci, enraged and blazing intensely, once again released a great quantity of water upon him.
That forest became dreadful, joined by streams of flame, filled with smoke and lightning, and resounding with the noise of thunder.
