34. Then he produced by his sorcery three very strong and fearful Asuras for the protection of his army, with their hideous appearances as that of death. 35. These horrible leaders of his army, being produced in his magic, flew upward with their enormous bodies, resembling the flying mountains of old. 36. They had the names of Dáma—the snare, Vyála—the snake, and Kata—the mat given them for their entrapping, enfolding and enwrapping the enemy, according to the demon’s wish. 37. They were preadamite beings and devoid of changing desires; and the want of their prior acts (like those of the human kind), made them move about as free as spiritual beings in one uniform tenor of their course. 38. These were not born as men from the seeds of their previous acts, with solid and substantial bodies; but mere artificial forces and airy forms, as facsimiles of the images in the demon’s mind. CHAPTER XXVI. BATTLE OF THE DEITIES AND DEMONS. Argument. The war of the gods with the Demons, rising from the Rasátala or Infernal regions. Vasishtha continued:—So saying, the chief of the demons despatched his generals Dáma, Vyála and Kata, to lead his armies for the destruction of the Deities upon earth. 2. The demoniac army rose out of the foaming sea and infernal caverns, in full armour and begirt with fiendish arms; and then bursting forth with hideous noise, soared aloft with their huge bodies, like mountains flying on high. 3. Their monstrous and mountainous bodies, hid the disk of the sun in the sky; and their stretching arms smote him of his rays. They increased also in their number and size under the leadership of Dáma, Vyála and Kata. (This is the war of the Gods and Titans, wherein Sambara is the Satan, and his generals are the devils, Damon, Baal or Bel and etc.)? 4. Then the dreadful hosts of the celestials also, issued out from the forests and caverns of the heavenly mountain—Meru, like torrents of the great deluge. 5. The forces under the flags of the deities and demons, fought together with such obstinacy, that it seemed to be an untimely and deadly struggle between the gods and Titans as of the prior world. 6. The heads of the decapitated warriors, decorated with shining earrings, fell down on the ground like the orbs of the sun and moon; which being shorn of their beams as at the end of the world, were rolling in the great abyss of chaos. 7. Huge hills were hurled by the heroes, with the hoarse noise of roaring lions; and were blown up and down, by the blast of an all destroying tornado. 8. The broken weapons of the warriors, fell on mountain tops, and ground them to granules; that fell down as hailstones upon the lions, that had been resting by their sides below. 9. The sparks of fire that flew about by the commingled clashing of the weapons, were as the scattered stars of the sky, flying at random on the last day of dissolution.