“Vaisampayana said, ’Then Vibhatsu, the son of Pandu, invoking his excellent weapons, prevented that shower of rain by Indra, by means of a shower of his own weapons.  And Arjuna of immeasurable soul soon covered the forest of Khandava with innumerable arrows like the moon covering the atmosphere with a thick fog.  When the sky above that forest was thus covered with the arrows of Arjuna no living creature could then escape from below.  And it so happened that while that forest was burning, Takshaka, the chief of the Nagas, was not there, having gone at that time to the field of Kurukshetra.  But Aswasena, the mighty son of Takshaka, was there.  He made great efforts to escape from that fire; but confined by Arjuna’s shafts he succeeded not in finding a way.  It was then that his mother, the daughter of a snake, determined to save him by swallowing him first.  His mother first swallowed his head and then was swallowing his tail.  And desirous of saving her son, the sea-snake rose (up from the earth) while still employed in swallowing her son’s tail.  But Arjuna as soon as he beheld her escaping, severed her head from her body by means of a sharp and keen-edged arrow.  Indra saw all this, and desiring to save his friend’s son, the wielder of the thunderbolt, by raising a violent wind, deprived Arjuna of consciousness.  During those few moments, Aswasena succeeded in effecting his escape.  Beholding that manifestation of the power of illusion, and deceived by that snake, Arjuna was much enraged.  He forthwith cut every animal seeking to escape by the skies, into two, three, or more pieces.  And Vibhatsu in anger, and Agni, and Vasudeva also, cursed the snake that had escaped so deceitfully, saying, ‘Never shalt thou be famous!’ And Jishnu remembering the deception practised upon him, became angry, and covering the firmament with a cloud of arrows, sought to fight with him of a thousand eyes.  The chief of the celestials also, seeing Arjuna in anger, sought to fight with him, and hurled his own fierce weapons, covering the wide expanse of the firmament.  Then the winds, making a loud roar and agitating all the oceans, brought together masses of clouds in the sky, charged with torrents of rain.  Those masses of clouds began to vomit thunder and terrible flashes of lightning charged with the thunderclap.  Then Arjuna possessing a knowledge of means, hurled the excellent weapon called Vayavya with proper mantras to dispel those clouds.  With that weapon the energy and force of Indra’s thunderbolt and of those clouds were destroyed.  And the torrents of rain with which those clouds were charged were all dried up, and the lightning that played amongst them was also destroyed.  Within a moment the sky was cleared of dust and darkness, and a delicious, cool breeze began to blow and the disc of the sun resumed its normal state.  Then the eater of clarified butter (Agni), glad because none could baffle him, assumed various forms, and sprinkled over with the