The form that Indra assumed on the eve of the
encounter, while seated on his car and while his praises were being
hymned by the Rishis, became such that none could look at it without
awe.'"[1393]
SECTION CCLXXXII
"Bhishma said, 'Listen, O king, to me as I tell thee the symptoms that
appeared on the body of Vritra when he was overtaken by that fever (born
of the energy of Mahadeva). The heroic Asura's mouth began to emit flames
of fire. He became exceedingly pale. His body began to tremble all over.
His breath became hard and thick. His hairs stood on end. His memory, O
Bharata, issued out of his mouth in the form of a fierce, dreadful, and
inauspicious jackal. Burning and blazing meteors fell on his right and
left. Vultures and kanakas and cranes, gathering together, uttered fierce
cries, as they wheeled over Vritra's head. Then, in that encounter,
Indra, adored by the gods, and armed with the thunderbolt, looked hard at
the Daitya as the latter sat on his car. Possessed by that violent fever,
the mighty Asura, O monarch, yawned and uttered inhuman cries.[1394]
While the Asura was yawning Indra hurled his thunderbolt at him. Endued
with exceedingly great energy and resembling the fire that destroys the
creation at the end of the Yuga, that thunderbolt overthrew in a trice
Vritra of gigantic form. Loud shouts were once more uttered by the gods
on all sides when they beheld Vritra slain, O bull of Bharata's race!
Having slain Vritra, Maghavat, that foe of the Danavas, possessed of
great fame, entered heaven with that thunderbolt pervaded by Vishnu.
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