Arjuna and Hara Slay the Rakshasa Muka

The ascetics had departed. The forest fell silent — the streams stopped their murmuring, the birds ceased their calls. And then the lord Hara, the destroyer of sins, the one who holds the pinaka (trident), took on the form of a kirata — a mountain hunter — blazing like a golden tree, resplendent as Mount Meru among peaks. He grasped his handsome bow and arrows like venomous serpents and descended like a flame consuming dry grass. With him came the goddess Uma, attired in the same way, observing the same vow. Thousands of women accompanied them. The forest, in an instant, was transformed. As Hara approached Arjuna, he saw what the Pandava had not yet noticed: Muka, a son of Diti, a rakshasa, had taken the form of a gigantic boar and was charging at Arjuna with murderous intent. Arjuna saw only the boar. He picked up Gandiva, strung his supreme bow, and the twang of the bowstring echoed through the silent forest. "I have come here without causing you any injury," he said to the boar. "But since you desire to kill me, I will first send you to Yama's abode today." He was about to shoot when the kirata stepped forward and restrained him. "I was the one who sought this one first," said the hunter, pointing at the boar whose body had the colour of a blue cloud. Arjuna disregarded the words. He released his arrow. At that very instant, the hunter also unleashed his arrow — immensely radiant, like the crest of a fire, like a streak of lightning — at the same target. The two arrows struck Muka's gigantic body simultaneously. His form was as solid as a mountain, but the arrows struck him with the force of lightning and the roar of thunder descending on a peak. More arrows followed, like serpents with flames in their mouths. Pierced and broken, the rakshasa assumed his terrible true form for a moment — and then gave up his life. The boar was dead. But the question of who had killed it — and who had the right to claim it — was very much alive.