The Defeat of the Devos by Bali

1. О brother, if I am considered worthy of being blessed by you, kindly narrate to me the origin and other details of the river that is called the Ganga and that has its source from the feet of Vishnu.2

2. О Narada, listen. I shall relate to you, О sinless one, the source or the origin of the Ganga that bestows merits on the speakers as well as on the listeners, and destroys their sins.

3. There was a certain sage, Kasyapa, who was the father of Indra and other gods. Diti and Aditi, the daughters of Daksa, were his wives.

4. Aditi was the mother of all Devas or gods and Diti was the mother of Daityas. О Brahmana, those two wives of Kasyapa and their sons vied with each other, seeking to vanquish the other.

5. The Daityas were called PUrvadevas, as they had been always senior to Devas. The first Daitya, the son of Diti, was the powerful Hiranyakashipu.

6. Prahlada, the extremely noble and the righteous- most Daitya, was his son. Prahlada’s son Virocana was a great devotee of Brahmanas.

7. His son was the extremely brilliant and valorous Bali. О sage, he alone was the real leader of the armies of Daityas.

8. He was endowed with great strength. He enjoyed this earth. After conquering the entire earth, he became desirous of conquering the heaven.

9. О excellent sage, his elephants were in billions. The number of his horses and the chariots came to as many. For every elephant, the number of foot-soldiers was five hundred. How can his excellent army be described adequately?

10. His ministers were Kumbhantfa and Kupakarna who surpassed the leaders of millions of ministers. Bali had a hundred sons, the eldest of whom was Bana. He was equal to his father in heroism and prowess.

11. Bali was actuated by a desire of vanquishing the gods. He started the campaign accompanied by a great army. Through banners and umbrellas, he reminded the people of the Bashes of lightning which were the billows on the ocean in the form of the sky.

12. Arriving at the city of the slayer of Vrtra (viz. Amaravati), the demon laid siege to it through Daityas, strong and vehement like lions. The thunder-bolt-bearing Indra and other gods came out of the city for fighting with them.

13. A terrible battle ensued thereafter between the gods and Daityas, with shouts like thunders of clouds at the end of the universe, mixed with the sounds of big drums.

14. In that extremely terrible battle, Daityas discharged volleys of arrows on the army of Devas. The gods too retaliated like-wise on the army of Daityas.

15. Yelling sounds and shouts came up from both the armies (such. as ‘Kill’, ‘Tear’, ‘Hit’, ‘Split’, ‘Annihilate’, ‘Strike down’, etc.

16-17. The whole world was filled with various sounds such as the sounds of conches, whistling arrows,3 kettle-drums, the roaring sound of the shouting demons, the creaking of the chariots, the hissing of the arrows, the neighing of horses, the trumpeting of the elephants and the twanging sound of the bow-strings.

18. Beholding the fire that originated from the mutual friction of the shafts discharged by gods and Asuras, the whole universe regarded it as an untimely Pralaya (the dissolution of the world).

19. The army of the enemies of gods, wielding a stream of refulgent weapons shone like the night over-cast with clouds with streaks of lightning flashing across.

20. In that war, the agile, active and valorous gods, by means of their arrows, smashed to smithereens the huge boulders of mountainous rocks, hurled by the Asuras.

21. Some of them confronted the elephants with their elephants, the chariots by means of their chariots, the horses with other horses. Some hit them with the handles of maces and iron bars.

22. Some of them, on being hit with Parighas (Iron clubs), fell into the marsh of blood. Some of them whose vital breath had come out i.e. (died), occupied the aerial cars.

23. Those Daityas who were forcibly killed by the gods in the battle, assumed the forms of devas and rushed at demons.

24. Then the extremely terrible hosts of demons who became infuriated on being beaten soundly by the gods, hit back gods by means of various kinds of weapons (such as)

2527. Rocks, Bhindipdlas (a cubit-long wooden club), swords, axes, tomaras, (Javelins), Parighas (Iron clubs), daggers, spears, discus, pointed poniards, pestles, goads, plough-shares, Paffifas (a spear with sharp points) Jaktis, stones, Sataghnis (a cylinderical piece of wood studded with iron pikes and capable of killing hundreds of people), nooses, mailed fists, tridents, pointed iron spikes and pounding rods. The battle grew more and more tumultuous and fierce through the confrontation between the chariots, horses, elephants and foot-soldiers.

28. The gods hurled various kinds of weapons at Daityas. In this way, the extremely terrible battle continued for eight thousand years.

29. When the army of Daityas became powerful, the defeated heaven-dwellers abandoned their celestial region in great fright and fied precipitately.

30-33. The defeated gods disguised themselves as human beings and wandered over the earth. The son of Virocana, Bali, was devotedly attached to Narayana. He enjoyed the three worlds without any obstruction to his overlordship. His prosperity flourished. The mighty Daitya desirous of propitiating Vishnu, performed many horse-sacrifices. He discharged the duties of Indra in the heaven as well as those of the guardians of cardinal points. The king of Daityas began to part- take of oblations offered in all various sacrifices performed by Brahmanas for propitiating Devas. On seeing her sons in such a plight Aditi, the mother of Devas, became distressed.

34-35A. She thought to herself, “I am staying in vain”, and then she went to the mountain Himalaya. Wishing for the prosperity of Indra and the defeat of Daityas, she who was devotedly attached to meditation on Hari, performed a severe penance.

35B-38A. While performing the penance she did it in the sitting posture for some time and then performed it while in a standing posture. For a long time, she stood on only one leg. Thereafter, she stood on the tip of her feet. For some time her diet was fruits. Thereafter, she subsisted on the withered leaves fallen down from trees. Then she lived only on water. Afterwards she gave up food altogether and subsisted on air only. She began to meditate on the Supreme Atman through her individual Atman. She contemplated on the Deity, the embodiment of existence, knowledge and bliss. О Narada she performed the penance for one thousand divine years.4

38B-41. On hearing of that unending penance of Aditi, Daityas, expert in their science of creating illusions, assumed the form of Devas as per command of Bali. They approached Aditi and said, “O mother, why do you perform this penance desiccating your body. If Daityas come to know of this, great misery may befall us. Leave off this (penance) causing so much misery and drying up your body. Learned men do not approve of a meritorious act which requires to be achieved only with very great difficulty and troubles. Those who are eager to achieve Dharma should assiduously preserve and take care of their body.

42. Those who neglect their body are the slayers of Atman. О fortunate and blessed lady, stay here happily. Please do not cause grief to us, your sons.

43-45A. О mother, undoubtedly those who are devoid of their mothers are no better than dead, whether they be cows or other animals or even trees. None of these derives any happiness without their mother. Whether one is an indigent fellow or an ailing one, or one in exile in a foreign land, one derives the greatest joy at the mere sight of one’s mother.

45B-46. One may perhaps develop aversion to food, water, richs, etc. and even to lovely women. But there iis none who turns his face away from his mother. If one has neither a mother nor a chaste wife devoted to religion (righteousness) and loyally attached to her husband at home, he should rather betake himself to the forest.

47.. A person devoid of his mother is like the righteous path of life devoid of devotion to Narayana, or like wealth which is not enjoyed in any decent manner or like house-hold without a wife or a son.

48. Hence, О gentle lady, save us who are your sons and who are extremely distressed.

Even though she was thus importuned by Daityas, Aditi did not get disturbed from her trance.

49. When Daityas found that in spite of their speech to her, Aditi was still absorbed in meditation on Hari, they were extremely infuriated and wanted to kill her.

50. Due to fury, their eyes turned red. They roared like clouds at the end of the Kalpa (when the universe is dissolved). By the gnashing of the tips of their curved fangs (in anger), they created fire which burnt down the forest instantaneously.

51-52. The forest extended to a hundred Tojanas. It was teeming with various kinds of living beings. The very same fire burnt Daityas who had gone there to destroy Aditi.

Only Aditi, the mother of gods, remained alive. She had been meditating on Acyuta (Vishnu) for hundreds of years. She was protected by the SudarSana discus of Vishnu who killed Daityas and took pity on his own devotees.

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