and the monkey laid hold of a large rock, which he burled at the hero. Bala casting his club at it, as it neared him, broke it into a thousand fragments, which, together with the club, fell upon the ground. Beholding the club prostrate, the monkey sprang over it, and struck the Yádava violently on the breast with his paws. Bala replied with a blow of his fist upon the forehead of Dwivida, which felled him, vomiting blood, and lifeless, to the earth. The crest of the mountain on which he fell was splintered into a hundred pieces by the weight of his body, as if the thunderer had shivered it with his thunderbolt. The gods threw down a shower of flowers upon Ráma, and approached him, and praised him for the glorious feat he had performed. "Well has the world been freed," said they, "by thy prowess, O hero, of this vile ape, who was the ally of the enemy of the gods." Then they and their attendant spirits returned well pleased to heaven. Many such inimitable deeds were wrought by the illustrious Baladeva, the impersonation of Śesha, the supporter of the earth 1.

Footnotes

605:1 This exploit of Balaráma is also similarly, but more vulgarly, related in the Bhágavata. It is simply said in the Hari Vanśa, and erroneously, that Meńd́a and Dwivida were conquered by Krishńa.

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Hinduism

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