Text 16] Battle Between the Demigods and Vṛtrāsura
175
TRANSLATION
My dear King Parikṣit, as Rudra, being very angry at Antaka [Yamarāja] had formerly run toward Antaka to kill him, Indra angrily and with great force attacked Vṛtrāsura, who was surrounded by the leaders of the demoniac armies.
TEXT 16
ततः सुराणामसुरै रणः परमदारुणः । त्रेतामुखे नर्मदायामभवत् प्रथमे युगे ॥१६॥
tataḥ surāṇām asurai raṇaḥ parama-dāruṇaḥ tretā-mukhe narmadāyām abhavat prathame yuge
tataḥ —thereafter;  surāṇām —of the demigods;  asuraiḥ —with the demons;  raṇaḥ —a great battle;  parama-dāruṇaḥ —very fearful;  tretā-mukhe —in the beginning of Tretā-yuga;  narmadāyām —on the bank of the River Narmadā;  abhavat —took place;  prathame —in the first;  yuge —millennium.
TRANSLATION
Thereafter, at the end of Satya-yuga and the beginning of Tretā-yuga, a fierce battle took place between the demigods and the demons on the bank of the Narmadā.
PURPORT
Herein the Narmadā does not mean the Narmadā River in India. The five sacred rivers in India—Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Narmadā, Kāveri and Kṛṣṇā—are all celestial. Like the Ganges River, the Narmadā River also flows in the higher planetary systems. The battle between the demigods and the demons took place in the higher planets.
The words  prathame yuge  mean “in the beginning of the first millennium,” that is to say, in the beginning of the Vaivasvata  manvantara . In