Arjuna repels Indra's rain to protect the Khandava fire
Indra unleashes a shower of rain to extinguish the Khandava fire. Arjuna covers the sky with arrows, driving the rain away. When the serpent Ashvasena attempts to flee, his mother is killed, but Indra intervenes to save the son, provoking Arjuna's lasting curse.
Summoning his splendid weapons, Pandava Bibhatsu repulsed the shower of rain with a shower of arrows. He covered every side of the Khandava forest with his shafts and drove the rain away. When the sky was covered with Savyasachi's arrows, not a single being could escape from the blazing enclosure.
Takshaka, the powerful king of the serpents, was not there; he had gone to Kurukshetra. But his son Ashvasena was. He made great efforts to escape from the fire, but oppressed by Kounteya's arrows, he did not succeed. His mother, a serpent lady, tried to save him. She first swallowed his head, then began to swallow his tail, and in her haste rose up into the sky with her son inside her.
When Pandava saw this, he sliced off her head with a sharp arrow. The lord of the gods saw this. Acting as saviour, the wielder of the vajra unleashed another shower of rain on Pandava. When this dazed him, Ashvasena instantly escaped.
On seeing this terrible power of maya (illusion) and having been deprived by the serpent, Arjuna cut down all the remaining serpents into pieces. Angrily, Bibhatsu cursed the serpent that had escaped. The fire and Vasudeva joined in the curse: Ashvasena would never attain fame.