Soma said:—O lord of the universe, O king of gods, I shall do what you have asked me for the battle. I pour the dews which can dispell the demonaic illusion (11). Behold in this great encounter the Dānavas consumed with my cold, covered with dues, divested of their illusive powers and haughtiness (12). Vaishampāyana said:—Like unto masses of clouds the smoky showers of dues, discharged by the moon, enveloped all the dreadful Dānavas (13). With the pouring of dews and strokes of nooses, Varuna, the holder of noose and the moon of white rays began to slay the demons in that great battle (14). Pouring water in the battle-field and fighting with the noose and cold those two lords of water began to range like two swelling oceans (15). As the world is enveloped with Pravartaka cloud discharging copious showers of rain at the time of the universal dissolution so that Danava army was covered with water by Varuna and Soma (16). Taking up the rays and the noose the moon and Varuna destroyed the illusion of the Daitya (17). Being exhausted with cold water and fettered by the noose the Daityas, like mountains bereft of their peaks, became (extremely) inactive (18). Being slain by the moon, crushed down by cold and having their bodies covered with dews those Daityas began to fall down like extinguished fire (19). The various cars of the demons, shorn of lustre, began to fall down and go up in the sky (20). The Dānava Maya again displayed another huge illusion before the Dānavas who had been covered with dews and bound down with the noose (21). He then spread in the sky an extensive mountainous illusion coursing every where at will created by his son Krouncha. It was covered with stones, and rocks. Its peaks were covered with huge trees, its caves were filled with trees and it was infested with lions, tigers and elephants. It abounded in deer emitting cries and trees shaken by the wind (22–24). With a downpour of rocks and trees that mountainous illusion slew the gods and revived the Dānavas (25). Thereupon the illusion, created by the moon and Varuna, was dispelled and Maya’s illusion covered the gods in the battle-field with iron clouds and rocks (26). The earth, already uneven with the collection of mountains and filled with trees, was so thickly covered with mountains that any one could hardly traverse it (27). Some gods were wounded with rocks, some were assailed with stones and some were hemmed in with trees in that battle (28). Excepting the holder of club (Vishnu) all the celestial soldiers lost their bows and had their weapons broken. And they all became inactive (29). But that beautiful lord of the universe, Gadhādhara, although stationed in the battle, was not the least agitated or worked up with anger on account of his patience (30). In order to witness the assailing of the gods and demons, Jānārddana, conversant with the knowledge of proper time, resembling the cloud that appears at the time of the universal dissolution, waited for