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Updated: June 10, 2025
So ends the seventeenth section in the Astika Parva of the Adi Parva. "Sauti said, 'There is a mountain called Mandara adorned with cloud-like peaks. It is the best of mountains, and is covered all over with intertwining herbs. There countless birds pour forth their melodies, and beasts of prey roam about. The gods, the Apsaras and the Kinnaras visit the place.
The besieged, however, noticing the hesitation of their assailants, in their turn assumed the defensive, and rallying their archers discharged a shower of poisoned arrows, to which many an Arab fell a victim, and before which the forces of Bornou and Mandara gave way. Barca, the Bornou general, had three horses killed under him.
The Sultan of Mandara, mounted on a beautiful, cream-coloured horse, and followed by a number of persons handsomely dressed, was on one side. Barca Gana's people, who were on the other, wore their red scarves or bournouses over their steel jackets.
As the major's camel had not come up, he could not pitch his tent, and he was compelled to lie down in the best shade he could find, and cover himself completely with a cloth and a thick woollen bournous, to keep up a little moisture, by excluding all external air. After several days' march they arrived near the capital of Mandara, whose sultan sent out several of his chiefs to meet them.
The major rode by his side into the town, where a desperate skirmish took place, but Barca Gana with his muscular arm threw eight spears, some at a distance of thirty yards or more, which all told. Had either the Mandara or the sheikh's troops now moved up boldly, they must have carried the town and the heights above it.
They therefore moved on slowly till about midnight, when they passed the Mandara frontier, in a state of severe suffering, but the major met with much kindness from a dethroned prince, Mai Meagamy, who seeing his wounds festering under the rough woollen cloak, which formed his only covering, took off his own trousers and gave them to him.
The female slaves from Musgow, a large kingdom to the south-east of Mandara, are particularly disagreeable in their appearance, although considered as very trustworthy, and capable of great labour; their hair is rolled up in three large plaits, which extend from the forehead to the back of the neck, like the Bornowy; one larger in the centre, and two smaller on each side; they have silver studs in their nose, and one large one just under the lower lip, of the size of a shilling, which goes quite through into the mouth; to make room for this ornament, a tooth or two are sometimes displaced.
"Arjuna said, 'I bow to thee, O leader of Yogins, O thou that art identical with Brahman, O thou that dwellest in the forest of Mandara, O thou that art freed from decrepitude and decay, O Kali, O wife of Kapala, O thou that art of a black and tawny hue, I bow to thee. O bringer of benefits to thy devotees, I bow to thee, O Mahakali, O wife of the universal destroyer, I bow to thee.
The sheikh was excessively annoyed at the defeat; but laid the blame, not without justice, on the Mandara troops, who had evidently behaved treacherously to their allies. Soon after the return of the unfortunate expedition to Mandara, the sheikh set out on another against a people to the west, called the Munga, who had never hitherto acknowledged his supremacy, and refused to pay tribute.
There stayeth that origin of ascetic penances, that destroyer of Daksha's sacrifice, that wielder of Pinaka, that lord of all creatures, that slayer of the Asura called Bhaganetra. Thus addressed by Brahman, the gods proceeding to Mandara with Brahman in their company, beheld there that heap of energy, that Supreme god endued with the splendour of a million suns.
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