Arjuna Attacks and Destroys Hiranyapura

Arjuna heard Matali's words and understood what they meant. The danavas of Hiranyapura could not be slain by gods or asuras. But a human could. He told Matali: "Go swiftly to that city. I will use my weapons to destroy those who hate the thirty gods." Matali drove the divine chariot, yoked to tawny horses, straight toward Hiranyapura. The sons of Diti saw him coming. They mounted their chariots, adorned in colourful garments and ornaments, and attacked at great speed. They hurled darts, iron arrows, missiles, spears, cudgels and clubs — a great shower of weapons that Arjuna warded off with his own arrows. He confounded them through the course of his chariot, moving so swiftly that the danavas fell upon one another in confusion. He sliced off their heads with blazing arrows. Those who survived retreated into their city. Then the danavas used the power of maya (illusion) that they possessed. The entire city rose into the sky. Arjuna restrained them with a shower of arrows, blocking their path. But the boon protected them. The celestial city, divine in radiance and capable of going anywhere at will, plunged into the ground, then rose up again, then moved diagonally, then immersed itself in the waters. Arjuna attacked it with many types of weapons. He subdued the daityas together with the city, trapping them in a net of arrows invoked with divine weapons. Wounded by his straight and iron arrows, the city of the asuras was destroyed and fell to the ground. But the danavas were not finished. Sixty thousand chariots surrounded him. Arjuna destroyed them with sharp arrows feathered with vulture plumes. They retreated like the waves of the ocean. Then something changed. Slowly, his divine weapons and the chariots of the danavas began to neutralize each other. The maharathas (great warriors) roamed around in different manoeuvres, hundreds and thousands of them, adorned in colourful crowns and dazzling armour. For all his showers of arrows, Arjuna could not oppress them. They oppressed him. Hard-pressed by many who were accomplished in weapons, he felt pain in that great battle. A great fear took hold of him. In that moment, he bowed down to Rudra, god of the gods. He said, "May there be welfare to all beings." And he used the great weapon known as the roudra, capable of destroying all enemies. He saw a man with three heads, nine eyes, three faces and six arms, with hair blazing like the sun and the fire. Giant serpents with flaming tongues coiled on his head. On beholding that terrible and eternal form, Arjuna lost his fear. He attached the roudra weapon to Gandiva, bowed to the three-eyed and infinitely energetic Sharva, and discharged it. The weapon assumed thousands of different forms everywhere — deer, lions, tigers, bears, buffaloes, serpents, cattle, elephants, sharabhas, bulls, boars, cats, hyenas, ghosts, vultures, garudas, sharks, pishachas, yakshas, guhyakas, nairritas, owls, masses of fish and tortoises — all brandishing weapons and swords. There were yatudhanas wielding clubs and maces. Beings with three heads, four tusks, four faces and four arms devoured the flesh, fat and marrow of the danavas. In an instant, Arjuna killed the danavas with arrows as hard as the vajra and as radiant as lightning. He bowed once again to the god who destroyed Tripura. When the city had been destroyed and the danavas killed, the lamenting women emerged. Their hair was dishevelled. They were miserable like ospreys. They threw themselves down on the ground, sorrowing over their sons, fathers and husbands. They beat their breasts with their hands. The garlands and ornaments were thrown away. The city of the danavas, overcome with sorrow and misery, lost all its splendour. Like a city of the gandharvas, like a pond deserted by elephants, like a forest full of dry trees — it disappeared. Matali, Shakra's charioteer, joined his hands in salutation. "The task that you have accomplished was impossible for the gods and the asuras. Even the lord of the gods could not have achieved this in battle. You have vanquished it through the strength of your own valour, weapons and austerities."