A fierce battle erupted, filling the air with the forceful drawing of bows and a relentless rain of arrows. The loud trumpeting of massive, intoxicated elephants reverberated across the city, their power unleashed in the chaos. Within the city’s walls, leaping flames crackled and burst, and the anguished cries of citizens—whose wives had perished in the fire—echoed in great distress. Fragments of fire blazed forth, their harsh, crackling roar flickering with a sound like “dhvaga-dhvaga.” In the deep of night, King Viduratha, accompanied by his two queens and minister, gazed out through the window. They beheld the city rising up with a tremendous roar, as if filled with the force of a single, vast ocean, agitated by winds of dissolution and surging with waves of dense, ominous clouds, all driven by a supreme power. Great masses of flame consumed the city, their brightness rivaling the bodies of mountains dissolving in the fire at the end of an age, filling the sky with their brilliance. Terrifying, tumultuous cries mingled with the thunder of massive clouds—so close they seemed within reach—and the fleshly mutterings of incantations. The sky was veiled by swirling clouds of smoke, resembling the eddies of a lotus pond, ceaselessly lit by masses of flames like golden clouds. Meteor fragments and shooting stars flickered across the sky, while the multitude of burning bodies illuminated the scene with blazing fire. The city, its armies destroyed, was strewn with heaps of embers and clouds of ash, resounding with dreadful wails and the fierce roar of worlds being burned. Arrows ceaselessly flew through the sky, like a forest consumed by fire, and the ground was covered with heaps of blazing flames, rolling and burning down rows of houses. Fierce warriors fell, struck down by crashing elephants in battle, and great wealth lay scattered along the paths where fleeing thieves were cut down. The cries of men and women intensified as showers of embers rained down, and the crackling sound of burning wood resounded as flames devoured everything. The sky was filled with countless wheels of chariots and hundreds of suns, while the earth was blanketed with peaks of burning coals. The crackling of burning logs rang out like the sound of a veena, and the lamenting cries of all animals being burned—including elephants—rose in sorrow. The food of kings, queens, and elders, set aside on mats, was destroyed, as the flames eagerly began to consume everything in their path. The houses echoed with the harsh crackling and roaring of the fire, and the flames, freed from fuel, longed to devour the endless food of countless creatures. King Viduratha heard the voices of his soldiers, who, while being burned, cried out as they ran, witnessing the destruction. “Alas! The maddened wind above casts down burning embers from the roofs and trees of houses, blazing with the clamor of clashing swords. Alas! The edges of swords, cold as snow, are stuck in the bodies of elephants, just as wisdom’s sayings are fixed in the minds of the great. Alas, father! The causes of death are lodged in the tender grass of youth, burning like heaps of dry leaves set ablaze by a hero’s fire.” A long, swirling river of smoke rushed upward, and Viduratha saw the Ganges of the sky, filled with smoke, surging ahead. The smoke-river, rising with burning logs, blinded the celestial beings; fire-sparks and bubbles could be seen within it. In one house, mother, father, brother, son-in-law, son, and daughter had all been burned; now, the fire sought to consume the rest. “Alas! Alas! Alas! Go quickly, sir, from this house of embers; it is about to collapse, just like the summit of Mount Meru falling down.” Arrows, stones, spears, javelins, and swords rushed into the mass of blazing, smoke-filled clouds like moths into fire. All the winds entered the blazing fire in the sky, just as ocean waves enter the fierce submarine fire. Great clouds became smoky at the tips of the tongues of flame, and even lakes dried up, like hearts consumed by passion. Rows of trees, scorched and angry, were struck down by elephants, their cracking branches resounding loudly as they were felled by those who had already eaten their fill. Household trees, once fragrant with blossoms and fruit, now burned and stripped of all, became desolate, like householders deprived of everything. Children, bereft of mother and father, wandered through the darkness, beaten and destroyed in the streets by collapsing walls. Elephants, driven away by the blind, roared harshly in the midst of battle, their bodies heavy with falling embers and burning coals. Stones, split by swords and firmly embedded in shoulders, fell upon men like thunderbolts from machines. Cows, horses, buffaloes, camels, dogs, and wolves—all suffered terribly in the battle, begun by those blocking the roads in confusion. The crackling sounds of burning cloths and the winds of blazing flames accompanied the wailing women, who went forth as if adorned with ground lotuses. The tongues of flame licked at their flowing locks, making them resemble the blossoms of the ashoka tree, like elephants playing with serpents. The slender flame, resting on blades of grass, reached the eyelash-fringed eyes of the doe-eyed women. Even while burning, a man would not depart without his wife; such are the hard-to-break snares of affection for living beings. An agitated elephant shattered flaming trees with force, and in his rage, churned a pond already filled with withered lotuses with his trunk. The smoke, reaching the clouds, with its restless, broad flashes, rained down a multitude of blazing, fiery arrows. Thus, the city was engulfed in a night of terror and destruction, with fire, battle, and sorrow consuming all in their path.