As the battle raged, a rain of weapons and thunder split the earth and mountains, crushing crowds of people beneath the falling elephants and tumbling hills. Lines of arrows formed thick clouds over the army, obscuring both earth and sky, and the clash of great forces stirred the ocean itself, echoing with a harsh roar. The air was filled with fierce winds, churned by waters, serpents, fires, and mountains, each absorbed in the destruction of the other, all arising from the relentless effects of weapons and calamities. Spears, swords, discs, arrows, darts, maces, clubs, and javelins resounded as they struck and clashed against each other. Hundreds of blazing weapons whirled in all ten directions, enacting a drama reminiscent of the world’s end, swept by the storm of dissolution. Amidst the slain, who lay like mountain peaks, and among the tribes, rivers of blood began to flow, resembling the sacred Ganges. Headless bodies danced wildly, their arms swinging in frenzy with their kin, while the dead lay scattered among men, elephants, horses, and chariots in the blood-filled waters. As the armies thinned and scattered, the fearful fled, broken and running in all directions. On the mountains formed by elephant corpses and beneath lines of resting clouds, the yakshas, rakshasas, and pisachas played in the ocean of blood. Among the noble and virtuous, heroes born from lotus-like noble families, endowed with strength and purity, stood those who never turned back, devoted to righteousness. Duels erupted, thundering like clouds, each eager for mutual destruction, surging like the meeting of mighty oceans. The cage with its birds was shaken by the herd of elephants, just as a mountain is shaken by another in violent collision. Troops of horses clashed against one another with tumultuous uproar, like fierce waves meeting in the ocean. Battalions of men fought against equally armed battalions, like masses of reeds striking each other, or gusts of wind agitating one another. Chariot divisions crushed opposing chariots, destroying all forms, like cities colliding or the sky hurled by fate. The army of archers, their banners flying, fought so fiercely that the sky seemed filled with an unprecedented cloud formed by the continuous shower of arrows. In battles with uneven weapons, many warriors, their hearts weakened, would flee by strategy when the fire of combat became too intense. Those bearing discs joined with other disc-bearers; bowmen with bowmen; sword-fighters with sword-fighters; slingers with slingers. Mace-wielders fought with mace-wielders; spear-men with spear-men; javelin-bearers with javelin-bearers; lance-holders with lance-holders. Some wielded maces with iron clubs, others shone with maces and clubs; some, skilled with spears, held spears, while others, adept with axes, bore axes. Some carried many staffs, others had stones as their weapons; some were foremost with nooses, others held spikes. Daggers were brandished by dagger-wielders, slings by sling-bearers; some stood with thunderbolt-fists, others wielded goads. Some held ploughs, skilled in ploughing, others tridents; some adorned themselves with chains and nets, while others wore garlands of gentle creepers. Some fought with spears, others with lances, agitated like waves of the ocean stirred by the end of an age. Disturbed by the whirling eddies of discus-weapons and the wind of arrow-showers, the sky appeared as a single ocean, filled with crocodiles of spinning missiles. With surging waves of weapons and the waters crowded with armies, the battlefield became like a river-ocean, difficult even for immortals to cross. The host of kings, stationed on both sides like the two wings of an army, stood thus, each occupying half the field, facing one another. According to the number of regions and directions, those peoples dwelling in the eastern quarter gathered, and the lands on the side of the lotus of Lila’s Lord were revealed. In the east stood the Kāśis, Magadhas, Kosalas, Mithilas, Utkalas, Mekalas, Kavaṭas, Puṇḍras, as well as the Auṇḍras and the united Gauḍakas. There were also the Drimayas, Madras, Suhmas, Tāmraliptas, Prāgjyotiṣas, Vājimukhas, Ambaṣṭhas, and Puruṣādas. The Karṇākṣas, Aviśrotras, those who eat raw fish, Vyāghravaktras, Kirātas, Śavaras, and Ekapādas assembled as well. Here stood the mountains named Mālyavān, Śibivān, Jñāna, Vṛṣabhadhvaja, Padma, and the mountain called Udaya. In the southeast, dwellers on Mount Vindhya gathered: the Cedayas, Vatsas, Dāśārṇas, Aṅgas, Vaṅgas, and the subordinate Vaṅgas. The Kaliṅgas, Puṇḍras, Jaṭharas, Vidarbhas, and Mekalas were present, along with Śavaras, Nagnaparṇas, and Kaṇṭhatripurapūrikas. There were Kaṇṭakasthalas, the gentle ones of Pṛthudvīpaka, Kaṇṭhadrās, Śoṇikas, and those of Carmaṇvat. Kokakas, Hemakudyas, Shmashrudharas, Baligrivas, Mahagrivas, Kishkindhas, and Nārikelinas stood among them. On the southern side of this play of the Lord, the mountains rose: Vindhya, Kusumapida, Mahendra, and Dundura. Malaya and Suryavansh, Ganarajya and Nrirajyaka, Avanti and Sambavati were renowned. Dashapurya, Ekakaccha, Rishikas, Turushkas, Shakas, Vanavasa, mountain-dwellers, and the Bhadragiri people were present. Nagaras and Dandakas, Ganarajya and Nrirajyaka, Saharas, Rishyamukas, Karkotas, and Vanatimbilas assembled. Padmas, the residents, Chaurakas, Karkaviras, Vairikas, Pashikas, and the people of Dharmapattana and Pamsikas completed the gathering, each bringing their strength and heritage to the vast, tumultuous field of battle.