Shloka 12

Indra's Campaign on Mount Malaya — Indra’s Campaign on Mount Malaya and the Birth of the Maruts (Origin of the Epithet Gotrabhid)

Devanagari script

तानागतान् बाणजालैः रथस्थो ऽद्भुतदर्शना छादयामास विप्रर्षे गिरीन् वृष्ट्या यथा घनः

Transliteration

tānāgatān bāṇajālaiḥ rathastho 'dbhutadarśanā chādayāmāsa viprarṣe girīn vṛṣṭyā yathā ghanaḥ

Translation

O sage, stationed upon his chariot, the wondrous (warrior) covered those who had advanced with a net of arrows—just as a cloud, by its rain, veils the mountains.

Speakers

• Narrator (traditionally Pulastya) addressing a sage-audience (vocative: viprarṣe)
• within the Andhaka-vadha battle cycle

Primary Deities

• Vishnu (Hari)
• Indra (Śakra)

Key Themes

• Deva–Dānava warfare
• Poetic simile (cloud-rain covering mountains)
• Divine martial prowess

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

{ "primaryRasa": "vira", "secondaryRasa": "adbhuta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

FAQs

Who is being described as ‘wondrous to behold’ and what is the action?

The verse depicts a divine-grade warrior on a chariot (contextually Hari in the surrounding passage) releasing such a dense barrage that it is likened to a cloud’s rain obscuring mountains—an idiom for overwhelming, area-covering archery.

Is this a geographical reference important for tirtha-māhātmya mapping?

No. ‘Mountains’ and ‘cloud’ function as a conventional epic simile. There is no identifiable named river, lake, forest, or pilgrimage-site in 45.12.

Why does the text address ‘viprarṣe’ in the middle of battle description?

Purāṇic narration often retains the dialogic frame (sage-to-sage transmission). The vocative ‘viprarṣe’ marks the narrator’s address to the listener, maintaining the recitational setting even during action-heavy passages.