Brahma and Shakra

After the battle, Arjuna enters the Nivatakavacha city — a place more beautiful than the abode of the gods themselves. He asks Matali why the gods do not live there, and learns that his entire mission was divinely ordained: the gods could not kill these asuras, but Arjuna, arriving at the destined time, has accomplished what they could not.

Markandeya begins by bowing to the self-creating god, then describes the four yugas — krita, treta, dvapara, and kali — with their precise durations and sandhya periods. He then details the moral and social decay at the end of a yuga: brahmanas performing shudra work, shudras ruling as kings, falsehood everywhere, and dharma itself losing its strength.

After the drought and fire, the world is flooded. Markandeya wanders alone in the vast ocean, exhausted and unable to find rest. He sees a banyan tree with a divine child seated on it; the child invites him to rest inside his body. Markandeya enters the child's mouth and wanders inside for over a hundred years, seeing the entire universe — rivers, mountains, gods, and all beings.

Markandeya, pulled from the mouth of the cosmic being, hears Narayana declare his true nature: he is Vishnu, Brahma, Shakra, Yama, Shiva — all gods in one. He is the creator and destroyer, the one who sleeps through the ages and wakes to recreate the universe.

After instating Skanda as general of the gods, Shakra remembers Devasena — the maiden he once freed — and recalls Brahma's prophecy that she was destined for Skanda. He brings her adorned in ornaments, and Skanda accepts her hand in marriage according to prescribed rites, with Brihaspati reciting the mantras.

The maharshis and Shakra offer Skanda the position of Indra, praising his strength and asking him to become lord of the three worlds. Skanda refuses, declaring that Shakra alone should rule and that he will remain Shakra's servant — but when Shakra proposes he become general of the gods instead, Skanda accepts on one condition: that it be for destroying danavas and protecting cows and brahmanas.

Six goddesses, abandoned by their husbands the saptarshis after a false rumor that they gave birth to Skanda, come to the god of war seeking refuge. Skanda accepts them as his mothers, but the celestial disruption caused by their displacement must be resolved by Brahma himself.

Rudra embraces Skanda and gives him permission to leave — and the universe responds with a portent: the sky blazes, the earth trembles, darkness envelops everything, and a terrible army of danavas appears to attack the gods.

When the gods confront the terrible danger from Mahisha, Skanda arrives flaming like the sun and hurls a spear that severs Mahisha's head — killing the danava who had a boon from Brahma and whom the gods could not touch. In a single day, he subjugates all three worlds.

Dashagriva, the ten-headed king of the rakshasas, is rampaging through the three worlds, protected by a boon that makes him invincible to gods and asuras. The gods, led by Agni, flee to Brahma for refuge — and learn that the solution has already been set in motion. Vishnu has already descended to earth, and the gods themselves must take birth among monkeys and bears to serve as his army.

Sita has collapsed after Rama's public rejection. As she lies on the ground, the sky fills with gods — Brahma, Indra, Agni, Vayu, Yama, Varuna — and the radiant form of King Dasharatha descends in a swan-drawn chariot. Sita rises and calls upon the elements themselves to witness her truth.