Vamana Purana — Prahlada vs Nara-Narayana, Shloka 60
Prahlada’s Defeat by Nara-Narayana and Victory through Bhakti
ततो नरो बाणगणैरसख्यैरवास्तरद्भूमिमथो दिशः खम् स चापि दैत्यप्रवरः पृषत्कैश्चिच्छेद वेगात् तपनीयपुङ्खैः
tato naro bāṇagaṇairasakhyairavāstaradbhūmimatho diśaḥ kham sa cāpi daityapravaraḥ pṛṣatkaiściccheda vegāt tapanīyapuṅkhaiḥ
Then Nara, with countless clusters of arrows, covered the earth, the directions, and the sky. And that foremost of the Daityas, with swift shafts of golden feathers, cut them down at speed.
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FAQs
The verse illustrates that aggression provokes counter-aggression; violence multiplies and fills one’s whole ‘world’ (earth, sky, directions). The implied ethic is that conflict expands to consume all space of awareness unless checked by higher discernment.
Again, carita/vamśānucarita-style narrative: a descriptive battle scene within the historical-legendary stream of the Purāṇa rather than cosmological categories.
‘Covering earth, directions, and sky’ is a stock totality-image: conflict becomes totalizing. The daitya’s cutting down of arrows with golden-feathered shafts symbolizes technical mastery and the arms-race dynamic—skill answering skill—until a transcendent resolution (often divine) becomes necessary in the broader purāṇic arc.