Vamana Purana — Andhaka's Coronation, Shloka 36
Andhaka’s Coronation, Boons from Shiva, and the Daiva–Asura War (Vahana Catalogues)
शोणितोदा रथावर्त्ता योधसंघट्टवाहिनी गजकुम्भमाहकूर्मा शरमीना दुरत्यया
śoṇitodā rathāvarttā yodhasaṃghaṭṭavāhinī gajakumbhamāhakūrmā śaramīnā duratyayā
Its waters were blood; its whirlpools were chariots; its current was the crush of masses of warriors. Elephant temples were its great turtles; arrows were its fish—hard to cross.
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FAQs
By aestheticizing violence into a ‘river,’ the text simultaneously conveys grandeur and horror; it cautions that warfare creates a self-sustaining current of harm that becomes ‘uncrossable’ once unleashed.
It is episodic narrative material aligned with Vamśānucarita/Manvantara-associated Deva–Asura struggles (a common Purāṇic narrative layer), not cosmological sarga/pratisarga.
The ‘river of blood’ is a dharmic inversion of sacred rivers: instead of purifying, it embodies adharma’s consequences; martial objects become aquatic life, suggesting violence naturalized into an ecosystem.