Nivātakavaca Yuddha
In the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata, Chapters 169–175, Arjuna goes down to the depths of the ocean in Indra’s divine chariot. His task is to destroy a great host of three crore dānava warriors called the Nivātakavacas. The battle is fought in Pātāla, the world beneath the sea. The dānavas use every kind of māyā (magic power): a rain of stones, attack from below the ground, and invisibility. Only the Vajrāstra of Indra breaks their māyā and destroys the whole host.
Right after this victory Arjuna meets another group of asuras, the Pauloma and Kālakañja rākshasas, who live in the flying city of Hiraṇyapura. Arjuna destroys this city too and so completes the double task Indra gave him. Arjuna himself tells all this to Yudhishṭhira and the Pāṇḍavas after he returns.
The mission given by Indra
Arjuna had spent time in Amarāvatī and learned sixty divine astras (missile weapons) from Indra, each in five modes of use: prayoga (release), upasaṃhāra (withdrawal), āvṛtti (return), prāyaścitta (atonement) and pratighāta (counter-stroke). Then Indra told him why he had been taught.
Three crore asuras, the Nivātakavacas, lived in the depths of the ocean in their fortified city. These dānavas had been the enemies of Indra and the devas for long ages and had troubled them greatly. No divine warrior could destroy them. Indra now gave Arjuna the task of destroying them and offered him Indra’s own divine chariot. Mātali, Indra’s sārathi (charioteer), would drive it.
With the mission Indra gave Arjuna these things:
- Indra’s kirīṭa (celestial crown)
- a divine kavaca (armour)
- a fresh bowstring for the Gāṇḍīva
- the Devadatta śaṅkha (conch), the divine conch given by the devas
(Chapter 168)
The descent to Pātāla
Arjuna mounted the divine chariot with Mātali at the reins and came down from the realm of the devas toward the sea. The ocean below was a world of huge, rolling waves. Bright ships carrying treasure crowded it. It was full of sea creatures: turtles, timis (large fish), timiṅgalas (creatures that swallow timis), and timiṅgala-timis (still larger beings that swallow those). The waves rose like mountains. The whole realm was awesome and terrifying.
Mātali guided the chariot from the path in the air down to the surface of the earth and then into Pātāla itself. Far below, in the netherworld, Arjuna saw the dānava stronghold of the Nivātakavacas. The chariot was lowered with care to the ground near the entrance to this buried realm. (Chapter 169)
First stage: the battle with the Nivātakavacas
The attack with arrows
The Nivātakavacas, three crore in number, came out in battle order and attacked Arjuna fiercely. They showered him with arrows, javelins, śūlas (spears), mudgaras (clubs) and weapons of every kind. Arjuna answered with an unbroken stream of arrows from the Gāṇḍīva and cut through their ranks.
The māyā of stone rain
The Nivātakavacas saw that ordinary weapons would not stop Arjuna, so they used their māyā. They loosed a great storm of boulders and rocks, each as big as a mountain, on Arjuna’s position. The rocks piled up around him and the chariot like a cave of stone. The chariot could not move, the horses could not move, and the rocks kept falling without end. Mātali saw Arjuna’s trouble and told him at this critical moment: “Arjuna, do not lose heart! Use the Vajrāstra now!”
The Vajrāstra
Arjuna steadied himself, took up the Gāṇḍīva, and called the Vajrāstra, the weapon-power of Indra’s thunderbolt, into his arrows. He released a steady stream of arrows charged with the vajra. These arrows broke every form of māyā the Nivātakavacas used. The stone rain melted away. Enemies who hid below the ground, clinging to the hooves of his horses and the wheels of his chariot, were pierced by the arrows wherever they hid. Thousands of huge asura bodies, as large as mountains, fell on one another and were crushed together in death. (Chapters 170–172)
The retreat into the city
The surviving Nivātakavacas saw that their māyā was completely overcome and their forces cut down. They withdrew into their underground city. The field was covered with bodies: thousands of asura corpses, shattered armour and broken ornaments. The horses found no room to set their feet among the fallen, so they sprang into the sky and hovered there. The dānavas came out again from the sky in invisible form and started a new attack with stones. Arjuna again called up the Vajrāstra and ended the battle. All three crore Nivātakavacas were destroyed. Their women came out of the city, weeping and mourning the dead. (Chapters 172–173)
Mātali’s praise
When the killing was over, Mātali spoke to Arjuna with great joy: “Arjuna! This deed you have done today could not have been done by the devas or the dānavas. Not even Indra could have done it. You have done it through your tapas (austerity) and your parākrama (valour). This glory is wholly yours.” Mātali then carried Arjuna quickly from the battlefield back toward Indra’s realm. (Chapter 173)
Second stage: Hiraṇyapura and the Pauloma-Kālakañja rākshasas
The flying city is sighted
Arjuna and Mātali were returning through the sky when they saw a city moving through the air. It blazed like the sun and shone like fire, with a divine radiance. It had four great gates and was surrounded by trees heavy with fruit and flowers. In it lived the Pauloma and Kālakañja rākshasas, a different clan from the Nivātakavacas, who had settled there in joy. Arjuna was filled with wonder and asked Mātali: “What is this wonderful city? What is its name?” (Chapter 173)
How Hiraṇyapura came to be
Mātali explained. Two rākshasa women, Pulomā and Kālakā, had performed tapas on Brahmā for one thousand divine years. Brahmā was pleased with their austerity and appeared before them and offered varas (boons). They asked for these things. Their sons, the Pauloma and Kālakañja rākshasas, were to be free from suffering. A great flying city was to be made for them, able to move at will and not to be taken by devas, rākshasas, nāgas or gandharvas. The city was to give all the comforts they desired and to be free from disease. Brahmā granted all of this.
The flying city, Hiraṇyapura, was the result. Brahmā himself made it, and his vara guarded it so that no divine being could conquer it. Its rākshasa guardians patrolled the four gates day and night, armed with śūlas, mudgaras, musalas (pestles), bows and ṛshṭis (swords). (Chapter 173)
Arjuna attacks Hiraṇyapura
Arjuna decided to attack the city. He fired arrows in great streams at the city and its defenders. The Pauloma and Kālakañja rākshasas fought back fiercely with śilās (rocks), astras and every means they had. But Arjuna’s divine astras, which he had received from Indra and the other Lokapālas, were stronger than their defence. Wave after wave of attacks was beaten back.
In the end Arjuna’s arrows destroyed the rākshasa forces, and Hiraṇyapura, the shining flying city, was brought down and destroyed. The rākshasa women inside wept and mourned as the women of the Nivātakavaca city had wept. (Chapters 173–174)
Astra Darśana: the weapons of the Lokapālas
After the victories Mātali took Arjuna to a place of great natural beauty. There the divine weapons that had been given to Arjuna showed themselves to him in their own true forms. They were the astras of Indra, Varuṇa, Agni, Vāyu, Yama and the other Lokapālas. The weapons made known who they were and offered themselves in Arjuna’s service. They said they were ready to act at his command whenever he called on them. (Chapters 174–175)
Return to Indra
Mātali brought Arjuna back to Indra’s realm and gave a full report of all that had been done. Indra heard of the slaughter of the Nivātakavacas and the destruction of Hiraṇyapura and rejoiced. He praised Arjuna before the assembled devas: “Arjuna! Today you have paid the guru-dakshiṇā (the teacher’s fee) by destroying my most dangerous enemies, which neither the devas nor the dānavas could do. Before you, yakshas, asuras, gandharvas, birds and nāgas alike are unable to stand.” Indra then declared that Yudhishṭhira, supported by Arjuna’s strength, would rule the whole world. (Chapter 173)
Arjuna tells the account to Yudhishṭhira
Arjuna himself tells the whole sequence to Yudhishṭhira and his brothers when he returns to Gandhamādana. It runs from the Kirāta encounter (told in Chapter 167), through the time in Amarāvatī (Chapter 168), to the battles with the Nivātakavacas and at Hiraṇyapura (Chapters 169–175). Chapters 165–166 describe the reunion, and Chapters 167–175 hold Arjuna’s own account. In it Arjuna speaks of twelve months in svarga (heaven) studying the astras.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 165–175: the reunion (165–166), Arjuna’s account (167–175), the mission and the time in Amarāvatī (168), the descent (169), the battle with the Nivātakavacas (170–173), Hiraṇyapura (173–174), the Astra Darśana (174–175), Mātali’s praise and Indra’s praise (173)