The Mahabharata is full of descriptions of cities and beings that call to mind more recent fantasies like the Tolkein saga...the story of Arjuna's battle with the Nivatakavacha demons who live in the undersea city originally belonging to the devas..his battle against the denizens of Hiranyapuri (the kalakeyas), a golden city afloat in the heavens are all stuff of the highest order of magical imagination...
Bear in mind that Arjuna enters the sea in a vimana that obviously is not just amphibious but also perfectly at home navigating the skies as it is charting the depth of the seas.
To do battle with the undersea bad-guys, Arjuna apparantly emerges out of his ship into a bubble that extends out of it -- a sort of protective, globular cock-pit that allows him to see in all directions and let loose his weapons...all this while the nivatakavachas, humanoids with fish-like characteristics are firing weapons at him from their undersea crafts...
To vanquish the kalakeyas, Arjuna employs the pasupata-astra, the weapon given by Shiva, and when released this astra bursts into thousands of vimanas each manned by a gana, a matted-lock follower of Shiva, who then completes the destruction. How cool is that!
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