Indra and Brahma

After a golden age of righteousness, the defeated Asuras begin to take birth on earth as kings and beasts, oppressing all beings until the planet itself can no longer bear the weight. The overburdened Earth seeks refuge with Brahma, who commands the gods, gandharvas, and apsaras to incarnate on earth to relieve her.

During a great sacrifice where Yama, the god of death, serves as priest, death itself is suspended. Humans stop dying and their numbers swell until they rival the gods. Alarmed by this loss of distinction, the gods go to the creator Brahma for a solution.

Sunda and Upasunda, invincible asura brothers, conquer the three worlds and indulge in every pleasure. Their perfect unity shatters in an instant when they both desire the apsara Tilottama, leading to a fatal clash that returns the universe to order.

Shiva disappears from the Himalayan peak, and Arjuna is still reeling from having seen the god face to face — when the sky lights up and four more gods arrive. Yama, Varuna, Kubera, and Indra have come to reveal who Arjuna really is, what he is meant to do, and to arm him for the war that awaits.

The Kaleyas, terrible danavas invincible in battle, arm themselves and place themselves under Vritra, pursuing the gods led by Indra everywhere. The thirty gods, with Indra at their head, approach Brahma for a means to kill Vritra. Brahma tells them: go to Dadhicha. Ask for his bones. Fashion the vajra. With it, Indra will kill Vritra.

The danavas unleash a storm of rocks, water, wind, fire, and finally a terrible darkness that confounds Arjuna and terrifies Matali. Arjuna counters each elemental assault with divine weapons, but when the darkness falls, even his charioteer loses his senses — and Arjuna must steady himself before he can fight on.

Indra, troubled by Devasena's description of the invincible husband she desires, witnesses a celestial conjunction of the sun, moon, and Agni that suggests a possible solution. He takes her to Brahma, who promises that an embryo of great strength will be born — one who will serve as Indra's general and become Devasena's husband.

Prajapati Brahma tells Mahasena (Skanda) to go to his father Mahadeva, then explains the strange circumstances of his birth — how Rudra entered Agni and Uma entered Svaha, how the semen was scattered five ways, and how the flesh-eating ganas were born from it. Skanda agrees, worships his father, and is affectionately received.

Enraged by the death of his son, Ravana marches out with his rakshasa army and attacks Rama with terrifying maya — creating illusory soldiers and even false forms of Rama and Lakshmana. But when Indra sends his own chariot, driven by Matali, Rama mounts it and invokes the brahmastra, an arrow that envelops the lord of rakshasas in a mass of blazing flames from which nothing remains — not even ash.