Mahabharata Drona Parva Chapter 184:3

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Mahabharata Drona Parva (Drona-vadha Parva) Chapter 184:3


That slumbering host, deprived of sense and sunk in sleep, then looked like a wonderful picture drawn on canvas by skilful artists. Those Kshatriyas, decked in ear-rings and endued with youth, with limbs mangled by shafts, and immersed in sleep, having laid themselves down on the coronal globes of elephants, looked as if they were lying on the deep bosom of beautiful ladies. Then the moon, that delighter of eye and lord of lilies, of hue white as the checks of a. beautiful lady, rose, adorning the direction presided over by Indra.[1] Indeed, like a lion of the Udaya hills, with rays constituting his manes of brilliant yellow, he issued out of his cave in the east, tearing to pieces the thick gloom of night resembling an extensive herd of elephants.[2] That lover of all assemblage of lilies (in the world), bright as the body of Mahadeva's excellent bull, full-arched and radiant as Karna's bow, and delightful and charming as the smile on the lips of a bashful bride, bloomed in the firmament.[3] Soon, however, that divine lord having the hare for his mark showed himself shedding brighter rays around. Indeed, the moon, after this seemed to gradually emit a bright halo of far-reaching light that resembled the splendour of gold. Then the rays of that luminary, dispelling the darkness by their splendour, slowly spread themselves over all the quarters, the welkin, and the earth. Soon, therefore, the world became illuminated.

The unspeakable darkness that had hidden everything quickly fled away. When the world was thus illuminated into almost daylight by the moon, amongst the creatures that wander at night, some continued to roam about and some abstained. That host, O king, awakened by the rays of the sun. Indeed, that sea of troops was awakened by the rays of the moon bloomed (into life) like an assemblage of lotuses expanded by the rays of the sun. Indeed, that sea of troops was awakened by the risen moon like the ocean swelling up in agitated surges at the rise of that luminary. Then, O king, the battle once more commenced on earth, for the destruction of the earth's population, between men that desired to attain to heaven.



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References

  1. The moon is called the lord of lilies because the water-lily is seen to bloom at moonrise, just as the sun is called the lord of the lotuses because the lotus blooms at sun-rise. The direction presided over by Indra means the East.
  2. Dasatakasha-kkupa means the Kakup or direction presided by him of a thousand eyes; hence the East.
  3. Instead of Vrishodara, the Bombay text reads Vrishottama, which I adopt.