Vamana Purana — Vishnu Slays Kalanemi, Shloka 27

Vishnu Enters the Deva–Asura War and Slays Kalanemi

Devanagari script

संनिपातस्तयो रौद्रः सैन्ययोरभवन्मुने महीधरोत्तमे पूर्वं यथा वानरहस्तिनोः

Transliteration

saṃnipātastayo raudraḥ sainyayorabhavanmune mahīdharottame pūrvaṃ yathā vānarahastinoḥ

Translation

O sage, a fierce clash then arose between those two armies—like, in former times, the encounter on the best of mountains between a monkey and an elephant.

Speakers

• Narrator (traditionally Sūta or a Purāṇic narrator) addressing a sage (mune)
• within the Andhaka cycle

Primary Deities

• Shiva

Key Themes

• War imagery and simile (upamā)
• Heroic/terrible mood (raudra-rasa)
• Cosmic-scale conflict in Purāṇic narrative

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

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

FAQs

Why does the verse compare the armies’ clash to a monkey and an elephant on a mountain?

Purāṇic battle-poetry often uses vivid, asymmetrical animal similes to convey suddenness and violence. The vānara–hastin image suggests a chaotic, close-quarters struggle on difficult terrain, emphasizing ferocity rather than orderly warfare.

Is “mahīdharottama” a specific sacred mountain here?

In this śloka it functions as a generic superlative—“the best of mountains.” Without an explicit proper name (e.g., Meru, Kailāsa, Vindhya), it should be indexed as an unnamed mountainous setting rather than a definite tīrtha.

What does the vocative “mune” indicate about the narrative frame?

It signals a dialogic Purāṇic style: the narrator recounts events to a sage-listener. Even when the immediate content is battlefield description, the larger frame remains a didactic recitation addressed to a ṛṣi.