Dānavas

Rivers, oceans, mountains, gods, gandharvas, and dānavas are not capable of doing what is displeasing to you, as the virtuous are not capable of wronging one who has taken a sacred vow.

Kabandha, the foremost of dānavas, great-armed, spoke to the two:

"Maya by name—a great-spirited dānava of powerful illusion, the foremost among dānavas—by him all this golden forest was fashioned through māyā.

He who is the mighty-armed one, the mantric power among the fierce, who has overcome the strength of the Dānavas;

with her may I overcome my rival wife, as great Indra overcame the Dānavas.

Indra, roaring, struck down the swallower — he smote the Dānava that hissed against him.

When you cleft the great mountain, O Indra, you released the streams and smote the Dānava downward.

Even that one among them rejoicing in his own power — the son of the cloud-mist, the well-grown, the darkness-going — him, Śuṣṇa, the fierce one of the Dānava, the thunderer slew with his thunderbolt, the bull bearing it along.

When you, O Indra, split open the great mountain and let the streams flow down, when you smote the Dānavas.

The *Dānava* is the patron divinity of the blades that are the implements of a priest, such as a *pamiso*, *kartrī*, or *karayu* (types of ritual knives).

Kriyāśakti means He creates the entire world, and moreover all the hosts of deities.

The *Dānava* is the *yoni* of that *rajas*.