Arjuna Encounters and Battles the Kirata

Arjuna had done what Yudhishthira asked. He had studied the weapons he was sent to obtain, then retired to the forest to practise austerities. From Kamyaka he went to Bhrigutunga, where a brahmana (a sage) met him on the road and asked where he was going. Arjuna told him everything. The brahmana was pleased. "Practise austerities," he said. "You will soon behold the lord of the gods." So Arjuna ascended Mount Shaishira and began. For one month he lived on roots and fruit. For the second month, on water alone. In the third, he abstained from food entirely. In the fourth, he stood with his arms upraised — and it is extraordinary that he did not lose his strength. When the fourth month passed and the first day of the new cycle arrived, a being in the form of a boar appeared before him. It dug the ground with its tusks, scratched with its hooves, rubbed its belly against the earth and rolled over. And following it came another being — a kirata (a hunter), carrying a bow, arrows and a sword, accompanied by a crowd of women. Arjuna took up his bow and quivers. He pierced the boar with an arrow. At the same instant, the kirata drew his own powerful bow and pierced the boar even more firmly — as if making Arjuna's mind tremble. "Why have you disregarded the rules of hunting?" the kirata demanded. "It was struck by me first. Stand still. I will destroy your insolence with my sharp arrows." Then the kirata rushed at him. Arjuna stood like a mountain and covered him with a shower of arrows. The kirata covered him back. Arjuna pierced him with arrows that flamed at the tips, arrows with mantras chanted over them — arrows that should have struck like the vajra (Indra's thunderbolt) against a mountain. The kirata multiplied his body a hundred times, a thousand times. Arjuna pierced each body. All the bodies became one again. Arjuna pierced that one body. The kirata shrank to a tiny form with a huge head, then swelled to a giant with a tiny head. Then he became one body again and rushed at Arjuna to do battle. When arrows could not vanquish him, Arjuna resorted to the vayavya weapon — the wind weapon. It could not hurt him. When that weapon was repulsed, Arjuna was struck with wonder. He unleashed a greater storm: sthunakarna, ayojala, sharavarsha, sharolbana, shailastra, ashmavarsha — weapons of iron, of netted arrows, of stone, of mountain-crushing force. The kirata smiled and gobbled them all up. Arjuna grasped his brahmastra (the ultimate divine weapon). He covered the kirata with flaming arrows. The kirata's body began to expand from the weapon's energy. The world began to burn. The directions and the sky blazed. The kirata pacified the brahmastra in a moment. Arjuna was overcome by great fear. He grasped his bow and his inexhaustible quivers and struck the kirata with them. The kirata devoured those too. With all weapons repulsed, with all weapons devoured, the two of them engaged in a wrestling bout. They struck each other with fists and the flats of their hands. The kirata vanquished Arjuna. Arjuna fell immobile on the ground. The kirata laughed. He disappeared at that spot and time, with all the women. Then he appeared in another form — divine, dressed in a wonderful garment. The illustrious god himself, with the bull on his banner, yellow-eyed, capable of assuming many forms, wielder of the pinaka (the trident). The lord Shankara, accompanied by Uma. "I am pleased with you," Shiva said. He grasped Arjuna's bow and inexhaustible quivers and returned them. "Ask for a boon. I am satisfied with you. Tell me what I can do for you. What is the desire of your heart? I will grant whatever is in your heart — as long as it is not immortality." Arjuna joined his hands in salutation, his mind set on weapons. "If the illustrious one is pleased with me, I ask for this: I wish to know about all the weapons that the gods possess." Shiva said, "I will give you my own weapon — roudra. It will always be present before you." And he granted Arjuna the pashupata weapon. "This should never be used against humans," Mahadeva told him. "Only if you are hard-pressed. It can be used to counter all other weapons." The divine weapon — capable of countering all others, destroyer of all enemies, unassailable by gods, danavas and rakshasas — stood personified by Arjuna's side. After obtaining Shiva's permission, Arjuna sat down. In his very sight, the god disappeared.