Krishna - The Dark Lord of Dwaraka

Chapter 18 - The Battle of Khandava

Meanwhile in the heavens, Indra was enjoying himself unaware of the plans of Agni.

As he was relaxing Indra felt something wrong.

Indra shook himself.

He sensed that something was wrong in the forest of Khandava.

Indra gasped. That was the place of Takshak. Agni had been looking to burn the place for a long time. Indra had been able to stop him so far.

Indra got up angrily as he looked down at the forest of Khandava. He saw a forest fire and and angrily summoned the thunder and rain clouds.

Agni was never going to learn, or so Indra thought.

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Arjuna and Krishna looked at the approaching thunder clouds and both of them pulled out their weapons.

Arjuna drew out the Gandiva and pulled out the first arrow.

Arjuna daily practiced the art of the archery and he was perfect in it. He fired arrows with such speed as never seen before.

Before the thunder clouds got anywhere near the forest of Khandava, there was an umbrella made out of the arrows surrounding the entire forest of the Khandava!

Indra summoned the rain clouds and it started pouring.... But even a single drop of the rain water did not touch the Khandava forest.

The umbrella made of arrows was so dense that none of the arrows penetrated through it, to reach the forest.

Indra saw that the rain was not having any effect on the forest fire.

The fire continued to blaze and it had started to grow bigger. It was then that Indra saw the blanket of arrows surrounding the forest.

From high up in the heavens he saw Krishna and Arjuna protecting the fire.

Indra fumed.

The inhabitants of the forests were surprised. The asuras, demons and monsters, living the forest were shocked on seeing the forest fire slowly spread throughout the forest.

Time and again forest fires had developed in the forest.

But it had always rained at the opportune time, putting out the fires. But the asuras were in for a second shock. it was raining, but the rain was not reaching the forests.

The asuras then saw the two warriors at the edge of the forest protecting the fire from the rain.

Angrily, the asuras attacked the two of them from all the sides.

The demons and the monsters might have as well done nothing for all the effect their attacks had.

Krishna with his Sudarshana Chakra, Arjuna with his Gandiva - the two of them were more dangerous than the entire army of the asuras.

Needless to say the asuras and the nagas were destroyed and routed.

Most of them tried to run away, but the forest fire now was becoming huge and the asuras and the nagas were destroyed in the forest.

Takshak, the king of the Snakes was not in the Khandava forest at the time the forest was burning but his son Ashwasena was there. He was very angry when he saw Arjuna and Krishna protecting the fire.

Ashwasena attacked Arjuna from all the sides.

Arjuna was fighting Ashwasena and his army.

It was at this time that Indra used a very powerful gust of wind and tried blowing away the cover of arrows surrounding the forest.

Arjuna was fighting Ashwasena, his army and Indra, when a particularly violent gale of wind crashed into him and he fell unconscious.

Krishna was rallying and trying to keep up with the fight as his friend was trying to pull himself up.

Ashwasena realized that he could not overcome or defeat Krishna and Arjuna. If he wanted to escape, now was the only chance, with Krishna fighting against all of them.

It was just possible that Krishna would not notice that Ashwasena had escaped.

Using his soldiers, Ashwasena ran away from the forest. He promised himself that he would destroy Krishna and Arjuna, whenever he got a chance.

Arjuna woke up groggily. He was furious with himself for letting his guard down and letting Indra make him unconscious.

Angrily he picked up the Gandiva. Krishna smiled when he saw his friend awake again.

If Arjuna was good before he had fallen unconscious, now he was brilliant.

The asuras and the nagas could not even make out what it was that had hit them.

Before they could shout, or even call out for help either the sudarshana chakra or an arrow would come straight at them. The asuras had nowhere to run.

At one side was the army of two, Krishna and Arjuna and the other side was a forest fire, which raged on and on.

The asuras, demons and monsters lost the battle - they were either consumed by the fire or by the weapons of the master warriors.