Parva 7

7.1.1 Janamejaya said: When he had heard that Devavrata—peerless in courage, vigor, strength, valor, and prowess—had been slain by Śikhaṇḍin the Pāñcāla,

7.1.2 what then did King Dhṛtarāṣṭra do, his mind distraught with grief, O sage among brahmins, when that valiant father of his had fallen?

7.1.3 For his son, O reverend one, sought the kingdom by overcoming the great-bowed Pāṇḍavas with chariot-warriors led by Bhīṣma and Droṇa.

7.1.4 Now that he was slain, O reverend one—he who was the banner of all bowmen—tell me what the Kaurava did, O best of the twice-born.

7.1.5 Vaiśaṃpāyana said: Hearing that his father was slain, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, lord of men, found no peace—that Kaurava, given over wholly to anxiety and grief.

7.1.6 As the king brooded ceaselessly upon that sorrow, the pure-souled son of Gavalgaṇa came once more before him.

7.1.7 When Saṃjaya had come by night from the camp to the city named for the elephant, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, son of Ambikā, questioned him, O great king.

7.1.8 Hearing of Bhīṣma's death, his heart utterly without joy, yet longing for the victory of his sons, he lamented as one stricken.

7.1.9 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When they had overcome the great-souled Bhīṣma of terrible prowess, what then did the Kurus do, my son, urged on by fate?

7.1.10 When that hero—unassailable, of mighty energy—was struck down, what did the Kurus do, sunk in an ocean of grief?

7.1.11 That great army of the high-souled Pāṇḍavas, once roused, could strike fierce terror even into the three worlds, O Saṃjaya.

7.1.12 When Devavrata, that bull of the Kurus, was slain, tell me what the kings then did, O Saṃjaya.

7.1.13 Saṃjaya said: Hear, O king, with single mind the words I speak—what your sons did when Devavrata had fallen in the fray.

7.1.14 When Bhīṣma of truthful prowess was slain, O king, both your men and the Pāṇḍavas fell to brooding, each side apart.

7.1.15 Amazed and yet exultant, beholding the law of the warrior, and reproaching their own calling, they bowed down before that great soul.

7.1.16 They made ready a bed for Bhīṣma of measureless splendor, O tiger among men, with a pillow too, fashioned of arrows with bent-down joints.

7.1.17 Having set a guard about Bhīṣma, and spoken each with the other, and taken leave of the son of Gaṅgā, and walked round him in reverence,

7.1.18 their eyes red with wrath, the warriors, gazing upon one another, marched forth again to battle, driven on by fate.

7.1.19 Then to the blare of trumpets and the great booming of war-drums, the divisions of your host and of the foe alike went forth.

7.1.20 As the day turned, O lord of kings, with the son of Jāhnavī fallen, they yielded to fury, their minds undone by fate.

7.1.21 Heedless of the wholesome counsel of the great-souled son of Gaṅgā, the foremost of the Bhāratas marched out, taking up their weapons on every side.

7.1.22 Through your folly and that of your sons, and through the slaying of the son of Śaṃtanu, the Kauravas, together with all their kings, were made over to death.

7.1.23 Like sheep and goats without a herdsman in a forest thronged with beasts of prey, their hearts deeply troubled, were they, bereft of Devavrata.

7.1.24 When the foremost of the Bhāratas had fallen, the Kuru host became like a sky with its stars departed, like the firmament without wind.

7.1.25 like the earth with its harvest withered, like speech left unrefined, like the army of the Asuras of old when Bali was overthrown.

7.1.26 like a fair-hipped woman widowed, like a river with its waters dried, like a spotted doe whose herd-leader is slain, hemmed in by wolves in the wood,

7.1.27 like a great mountain-cavern, once unassailable, with its lion slain—such, O best of the Bhāratas, was the host of Bhārata when the son of Jāhnavī had fallen.

7.1.28 It was like a ship battered and broken by winds from every quarter on the great sea, sorely afflicted by the mighty Pāṇḍava heroes who had found their mark.

7.1.29 That army then was sorely shaken, its horses, chariots, and elephants in disarray, most of its men downcast; pitiful it appeared to behold.

7.1.30 Within it the kings and soldiers of every kind were filled with dread, sinking as if into the nether world, bereft of Devavrata; and so the Kurus called Karṇa to mind, for he was the equal of Devavrata.

7.1.31 To him, the foremost of all who bear arms, shining like a welcome guest, like a kinsman to one fallen into peril—to him their thoughts turned.

7.1.32 "Karṇa! Karṇa!" the kings cried out there, O Bhārata—the son of Rādhā, our well-wisher, the charioteer's son who would lay down his very body for us.

7.1.33 For he of great renown, Karṇa, had not fought for those ten days, he and his counselors and kinsmen; "Summon him without delay!"

7.1.34 For Bhīṣma, before the eyes of all the warriors, when the chariot-warriors endowed with strength and valor were being reckoned, had counted the mighty-armed Karṇa—that bull among men, though twofold in might—as but half a chariot-warrior.

7.1.35 —he who in the reckoning of chariot-warriors and great chariot-warriors stood foremost, esteemed of heroes, who would dare to do battle even with the lords of the fathers, of wealth, of waters, and of the gods.

7.1.36 And it was through that very anger, O king, that Karṇa had said to the son of Gaṅgā: "While you live, O Kaurava, I will not fight at all.

7.1.37 But when by you the Pāṇḍavas have been slain in the great battle, I shall take leave of Duryodhana and go to the forest, O Kaurava.

7.1.38 Or if Bhīṣma is slain by the Pāṇḍavas, and you have gone to heaven, then I alone, with a single chariot, will slay all those whom you account chariot-warriors."

7.1.39 Having spoken thus, O great king, the illustrious Karṇa fought not for ten days, by the consent of your son.

7.1.40 Bhīṣma, valiant in battle, O king, of prowess beyond all counting, slew countless warriors of the Pāṇḍava host in the field.

7.1.41 But when that hero, true to his word and of mighty energy, was slain, your sons called Karṇa to mind, as men longing to cross the water think of a raft.

7.1.42 Your men and your sons, together with all the kings, cried out "Alas, Karṇa!" and said, "This is the hour."

7.1.43 To Karṇa—sanctioned in arms by the son of Jamadagni, of manhood not to be withstood—our thoughts went out, as to a kinsman in times of dire need.

7.1.44 For he was able in battle, O king, to save us from great peril, as Govinda ever saved the thirty gods from exceeding great peril.

7.1.45 Vaiśaṃpāyana said: As Saṃjaya thus praised Karṇa again and again as the best in battle, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, hissing like a venomous serpent, spoke these words:

7.1.46 "When your thoughts then went out to Karṇa, son of the sun, did you indeed see the son of Rādhā, the charioteer's son who would yield up his body?

7.1.47 Did he, of truthful prowess, not prove false to it in battle—to those bewildered, stricken, and afraid, who looked to him for deliverance?

7.1.48 Did that best of bowmen fill in battle the breach that had been laid open among the Kauravas when Bhīṣma was slain?

7.1.49 Did he fill that gap, striking dread into the foe, and make fruitful at last the hope of victory of my sons?"

7.2.1 Saṃjaya said: When the son of Adhiratha learned that Bhīṣma was slain—the host of the Kurus like a shattered ship upon a bottomless deep—that charioteer's son, like a brother in their calamity, set out to bear your son's army across to safety.

7.2.2 And Karṇa, hearing that the lord of men, the unfailing son of Śaṃtanu, that great chariot-warrior, had been struck down, came swiftly forth, that scourge of foes, the bull and foremost among bowmen.

7.2.3 When Bhīṣma, best of chariot-warriors, was slain by the foe, he hastened to the Kurus, who were sinking like a ship in the sea—as a father to his sons—to bear your son's army across to safety.

7.2.4 Karṇa said: In whom dwelt steadfastness, wisdom, valor, and energy, self-mastery, truth, and all a hero's virtues, divine weapons, humility, modesty, and gracious speech—all unfailing in Bhīṣma;

7.2.5 in him, the ever-slayer of those who hate the brahmins, the ever-grateful, in whom virtue was eternal as the mark upon the moon—if he, the slayer of enemy heroes, is now stilled, then I deem all our warriors already slain.

7.2.6 Nothing here is ever found to be fixed, by reason of the impermanence that cleaves to all deeds in this world. Who, when the great-vowed one is slain, could at sunrise today, free of doubt, count on any thing's enduring?

7.2.7 Now that the lord of the earth—sprung of the splendor of the Vasus, born of the might of the Vasus—has gone to the Vasus themselves, mourn now your wealth, your sons, the earth, the Kurus, and this whole host.

7.2.8 Saṃjaya said: When the boon-granting son of Śaṃtanu, of great splendor and mighty energy, the foremost in the world, was struck down, and the Bhāratas were vanquished, Karṇa, downcast, sighed long and let his tears fall.

7.2.9 And hearing these words of the son of Rādhā, your sons too, O king, and your soldiers, cried out aloud to one another in their anguish, and let fall their tears with sound from their eyes.

7.2.10 But as the great battle was joined once more, and the kings plunged into the warring hosts, that bull among all great chariot-warriors then spoke heartening words to those bulls among chariot-warriors:

7.2.11 Karṇa said: In a world impermanent, forever hastening on, I see plainly today how unstable it is. While you yourselves stood here, how was the bull of the Kurus, like a very mountain, cast down in battle?

7.2.12 With the great chariot-warrior, the son of Śaṃtanu, struck down—as though the sun had sunk to the earth—the kings can no more withstand Dhanaṃjaya than trees can withstand the wind that carries mountains away.

7.2.13 This army of the Kurus, its chief now slain, stricken in look, its spirit broken by the foe, left masterless this day—must be guarded by me in battle as that great soul once guarded it.

7.2.14 Such a burden is laid upon me; and I see how impermanent this world is—he, drunk with battle, struck down in battle. How then should I let battle make me afraid?

7.2.15 As for me, ranging the field and speeding those bulls of the Kurus to the house of Yama with my straight-flying shafts, I shall win the highest glory in the world—or else, struck down by the foe, lie slain in battle.

7.2.16 Yudhiṣṭhira, firm and versed in the very truth of dharma; Vṛkodara, whose valor equals a hundred elephants; and Arjuna, son of the foremost of the gods—because of them, that host is not easily conquered even by the immortals.

7.2.17 Where in battle stand the twins, the equals of Yama in strength, and where stands the son of Devakī with Sātyaki—no coward who comes against that host but turns back, again and again, as if from the very jaws of death.

7.2.18 Towering austerity is met only by austerity, and strength too by strength, so the wise hold; and my mind is fixed, unshaken as a mountain, upon repelling the foe and upon guarding my own.

7.2.19 And though I well know their might, I shall go forth this very day, O charioteer, and conquer them. Betrayal of a friend is not to be borne by me: he who stands by you when the army is broken—he is the true friend.

7.2.20 This noble deed worthy of a true man I shall do: laying down my life, I shall follow after Bhīṣma. I shall slay all the throngs of the foe in battle, or, slain by them, shall go to the world of heroes.

7.2.21 When the women and children wail and weep aloud, and the manhood of the son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra is brought low, then there is something I must do—this I know, O charioteer; and so I shall vanquish the foes of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son.

7.2.22 Guarding the Kurus, seeking to slay the sons of Pāṇḍu, casting away my life in this battle of dread aspect, having struck down all the throngs of the foe in the field, I shall give the kingdom to the son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

7.2.23 Let my wondrous armor be bound on—golden, gleaming bright with gems and jewels—and my helmet too, radiant as the sun, my bow, and my arrows like venomous serpents.

7.2.24 Let them fit on sixteen quivers, and bring forth divine bows as well, and swords and spears and heavy maces, and a conch bright with the sheen of Jāmbūnada gold.

7.2.25 This golden elephant-girth that brings victory, and my victorious banner with the hue of the blue lotus—wipe them clean with soft cloths and bring them to me, and bind upon it a bright garland with its netting.

7.2.26 My finest horses, gleaming like pale clouds, well-fed, bathed, and washed with waters hallowed by sacred chants, decked with vessels of refined gold and swift of foot—bring them quickly, O charioteer's son.

7.2.27 And my excellent chariot, bound about with a net of gold, bright with jewels that shine like moon and sun, furnished with the gear that battle requires and yoked with its steeds—wheel it swiftly round to me.

7.2.28 And the splendid swift bows, and the finest bowstrings of firm make, and the great quivers full of arrows—lay these all together, and the guards for the limbs as well.

7.2.29 And let them quickly bring all that befits the march, the maidens, and the golden hero's-cup brimming full; and having brought a garland and bound it upon my body, let them straightway sound the drums for victory.

7.2.30 Drive on swiftly, O charioteer, to where the Diademed one is, and Vṛkodara, the son of Dharma, and the twins. Either I shall slay them, joining battle in the field, or, struck down by the foe, I shall go the way of Bhīṣma.

7.2.31 That host in which stand King Yudhiṣṭhira, steadfast in truth, and Bhīmasena and Arjuna, and Vāsudeva, Sātyaki, and the Sṛñjayas—that host, I deem, is unconquerable by the kings of earth.

7.2.32 Even if Death himself, who carries off all, should guard that crowned one—Kirīṭin—ever-watchful in the fray, even then I shall slay him when we close in battle, or else I shall go to Yama by the road Bhīṣma has taken.

7.2.33 Yet I will surely go into the midst of those heroes—this I declare as it is. But those who betray their friends, whose loyalty is feeble, those evil-souled men—they are no comrades of mine.

7.2.34 Saṃjaya said: Mounting his splendid, sturdy, well-equipped chariot—its pole adorned, wrought with gold, fair to see, crowned with a banner and yoked to the finest horses swift as the wind—he set forth to victory.

7.2.35 Honored by the Kurus, that great-souled bull among charioteers, drawn by pale steeds, the fierce-bowed warrior, went forth then to the battleground, to where the bull of the Bhāratas had met his end.

7.2.36 In a chariot great and armored, with its banner, gleaming with gold and pearls and gems and diamonds, yoked to noble horses and thundering like a cloud, Karṇa rode—measureless in might, like the sun itself.

7.2.37 Bright as the fire-eater, in his fire-bright, fair chariot the radiant bowman stood—Adhiratha's son, that mighty car-warrior, shining as he stood, like the king of the gods himself stationed in his celestial car.

7.3.1 Saṃjaya said: That great-souled one of boundless might lay upon his bed of arrows, like the ocean drained dry by a vast gathering of winds.

7.3.2 That great archer, felled by Savyasācin with celestial weapons—and with him the hope of victory of your sons, their shelter and their armor, all shattered.

7.3.3 He who had been like an island in a shoreless deep to men longing for footing in the fathomless waters—now flooded over by a torrent of arrows as by the current of the Yamunā.

7.3.4 Like the great Maināka mountain, unbearable, cast down upon the earth; like the sun fallen from the sky, lying upon the ground.

7.3.5 Unthinkable, like the defeat of Śatakratu by Vṛtra in olden days—the felling of Bhīṣma in battle, a thing to daze the whole army.

7.3.6 The crest of all the armies, the very emblem of all bowmen, pierced through by Dhanaṃjaya's shafts—your father, the man of the great vow.

7.3.7 When Adhiratha's son beheld that hero lying upon the bed of heroes, that bull among men, Bhīṣma, peerless among the Bhāratas—

7.3.8 —he stepped down from his chariot, stricken, his voice broken with tears, and saluting him, his palms joined in reverence, spoke in homage.

7.3.9 "I am Karṇa—blessings be upon you! Speak to me today, O Bhārata; look upon me with a kind and gracious word, and with your eyes."

7.3.10 "Surely no one in this world reaps the fruit of his good deeds, when you—aged, devoted to dharma—lie here upon the bare earth."

7.3.11 "In raising up a treasury, in counsel, in battle-arrays and in the wielding of weapons, I see no other protector for the Kurus, O best of the Kurus."

7.3.12 "You, endowed with a clear and stainless mind, who could carry the Kurus across their peril—now you leave the warriors without a vessel and depart to the world of the fathers."

7.3.13 "From this day on, enraged like tigers wreaking slaughter among deer, the Pāṇḍavas, O best of the Bhāratas, will work the ruin of the Kurus."

7.3.14 "Today the Kurus, who know the prowess of Savyasācin, will tremble at the roar of the Gāṇḍīva, as the asuras tremble before the wielder of the thunderbolt."

7.3.15 "Today the sound of the shafts loosed from the Gāṇḍīva, like thunderbolts, will strike terror in battle into the Kurus and the other kings as well."

7.3.16 "As a kindled fire with mighty flames burns up the trees, O hero, so will Kirīṭin's arrows consume the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra."

7.3.17 "Wherever the wind and fire advance together through the forest, there those two mighty lords burn whatever they will."

7.3.18 "As is the kindled fire, such is Pārtha—of that there is no doubt; and as is the wind, O tiger among men, such is Kṛṣṇa—of that no doubt at all."

7.3.19 "Hearing the blare of the Pāñcajanya and the twang of the Gāṇḍīva, all the armies will be seized with terror, O Bhārata."

7.3.20 "And at the onrush of the ape-bannered chariot of the foe-grinding warrior, none of the kings save you, O hero, will be able to endure its thunder."

7.3.21 "For what king but you is fit to fight Arjuna in battle—he whose deeds the wise proclaim to be divine?"

7.3.22 "More than human was his combat with the three-eyed god, and from him too the wise one won a boon unattainable by men of unperfected souls."

7.3.23 "Today, unable to brook that war-loving son of Pāṇḍu—a venomous serpent, sight-destroying, most dread—and instructed by you, I shall go forth to meet him, setting before me either his death or my own victory."

7.4.1 Saṃjaya said: Hearing him lament thus, the aged grandsire of the Kurus, his heart well pleased, spoke words fitting to the place and the hour.

7.4.2 "As the ocean is to the rivers, as the sun is to the lights of heaven, as the good are to truth, as fertile soil is to the seeds—"

7.4.3 "—as the rain-cloud is to living things, so be a stay to your friends. May your kinsmen live under you, as the immortals live under the thousand-eyed one."

7.4.4 "By the strength and valor of your own arm, seeking the good of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son, O Karṇa, you went to Rājapura and there slew the Kāmbojas."

7.4.5 "The kings dwelling at Girivraja, with Nagnajit at their head, and the Ambaṣṭhas, the Videhas, and the Gāndhāras—all were conquered by you."

7.4.6 "The Kirātas, dwelling in the fastnesses of the Himavat, hardened in war, you, Karṇa, made subject to Duryodhana in days gone by."

7.4.7 "And in battle here and there, seeking Duryodhana's welfare, many heroes were vanquished by you, O Karṇa of mighty energy."

7.4.8 "As Duryodhana is, my son, with his kinsmen, clan, and relations, so be you too a refuge for all the Kauravas."

7.4.9 "With a blessing I bid you farewell: go, do battle with the foes, lead the Kurus in the fray, and set victory in Duryodhana's hands."

7.4.10 "You are as a grandson to us, even as Duryodhana is; and by dharma we are all yours, just as we are his."

7.4.11 "The fellowship of the good, O best of men, the wise declare to be in this world more excellent than the bond of marriage or of blood—the union of the worthy with the worthy."

7.4.12 "True to your pledge, then, resolved that 'this host is mine,' guard the army of the Kurus, even as Duryodhana would."

7.4.13 Having heard these words, and having bowed at his feet, Vaikartana Karṇa swiftly went toward the field of battle.

7.4.14 Surveying the vast, matchless station of those throngs of men, he marshaled that army, its breast arrayed with weapons, into fuller strength.

7.4.15 Seeing the great archer Karṇa take his stand for battle, the Kurus honored him with roars and the slapping of arms, with lion-shouts, and with the manifold twanging of bows.

7.5.1 Saṃjaya said: Beholding that tiger among men, Karṇa, stationed and ready in his chariot, Duryodhana, O king, rejoiced and spoke these words.

7.5.2 "This army, guarded by you, is now exceedingly well-led, I think. Yet let it be considered well what course is fit and beneficial."

7.5.3 Karṇa said: "Tell it yourself, O tiger among men, for you, O king, are the wisest; as the master of an affair sees what must be done, no other does so."

7.5.4 "We are all eager to hear your word, O lord of men; for you would utter nothing unjust—such is my conviction."

7.5.5 Duryodhana said: "Bhīṣma was leader of our host, well endowed in years and valor and learning, and in all a warrior's qualities besides."

7.5.6 "By that most glorious one, O Karṇa, who slew the hosts of my foes, by that great-souled man's good warfare, we were protected for ten days."

7.5.7 "Now that he has done the hard task and ascended to heaven, whom do you deem fit to be leader of the host in his stead?"

7.5.8 "Without a leader an army cannot stand even a moment in battle, O best in war, any more than a rudderless ship upon the water."

7.5.9 "As a ship without a helmsman, or a chariot without a charioteer, would drift whither it would, so would a host be without its commander."

7.5.10 "Therefore, looking upon all my great-souled men, do you mark out one fit to be commander, next after Śaṃtanu's son."

7.5.11 "For whomever you name as leader of the host in the fight, him shall we all together set up, good sir."

7.5.12 Karṇa said: "All these great-souled men, these best of men, are worthy of the command—herein no debate is needed."

7.5.13 "Endowed with noble birth, hardihood, and skill, with strength, prowess, and judgment, grateful, full of modesty, never turning back in battle—"

7.5.14 "—yet they cannot all be made leaders at once. One alone must be chosen here, in whom the special virtues reside."

7.5.15 "They vie with one another; if you honor one of them, the rest, downcast, will plainly refuse to fight, O Bhārata."

7.5.16 "But this one—the teacher of all the warriors, the venerable preceptor—is fit to be made commander: Droṇa, foremost of those who bear arms."

7.5.17 "For while the unassailable Droṇa stands—best of the knowers of Brahman, with the insight of Śukra and Aṅgiras—who other than he could be commander?"

7.5.18 "And there is not, among all your kings, a single warrior, O Bhārata, who would not follow Droṇa as he advances into the thick of battle."

7.5.19 "He is the best of leaders of hosts, the best of those who bear arms, the best of the wise as well—and he is your preceptor, O king."

7.5.20 "Therefore, Duryodhana, make the preceptor commander at once, as the immortals, longing to conquer the asuras in battle, made Kārttikeya their own."

7.5.21 Saṃjaya said: Having heard Karṇa's words, King Duryodhana then spoke these words to Droṇa, who stood in the midst of the army.

7.5.22 "By eminence of caste, by birth of family, by learning, by years, by wisdom, by valor, by skill, by invincibility, by knowledge of affairs, by statecraft, by victory—"

7.5.23 "—and by austerity and by gratitude, you who are aged and endowed with every virtue: among kings there is no other protector your equal."

7.5.24 "So may you guard us all, as Vāsava guards the gods. With you as our guide we long to conquer the foe, O best of the twice-born."

7.5.25 "As the Skull-bearer among the Rudras, as the Fire among the Vasus, as Kubera among the Yakṣas, as Vāsava among the Maruts—"

7.5.26 "—as Vasiṣṭha among the brāhmaṇas, as the sun among the radiant powers, as Dharma among the fathers, as the lord of waters among the Ādityas—"

7.5.27 "—as the moon among the stars, as Uśanas among the sons of Diti—so, best of the leaders of hosts, be you our commander."

7.5.28 "Let the eleven akṣauhiṇīs be subject to you, O sinless one; with them array against the foe and slay them, as Indra slew the dānavas."

7.5.29 "Let you go before us, as the son of Fire goes before the gods; and we shall follow you into battle as bullocks follow the bull."

7.5.30 "Fierce-bowed, a great archer, twanging your celestial bow—seeing you at our head, not even Arjuna will withstand us."

7.5.31 "Surely I shall conquer Yudhiṣṭhira in battle, with his followers and his kinsmen, O tiger among men, if you are our commander."

7.5.32 When Droṇa had been so addressed, the kings cried out "Victory!" and with a great lion-roar they gladdened your son.

7.5.33 And the soldiers, filled with joy, acclaimed that best of the twice-born, setting Duryodhana at their head and praying for great glory.

7.5.34 Droṇa said: "I know the Veda with its six branches, and the science of statecraft taught by Manu, and the archery of the three-eyed god, and weapons of many kinds."

7.5.35 "And those virtues which you, longing for victory, have named in me—seeking to make them true, I shall do battle with the Pāṇḍavas."

7.5.36 Saṃjaya said: Granted leave thus, your son then made Droṇa commander of the host, O king, with the rite ordained by precept.

7.5.37 Then the kings, led by Duryodhana, consecrated Droṇa to the supreme command, even as the gods of old, led by Śakra, had consecrated Skanda.

7.5.38 Then, with the sound of musical instruments mingling with the mighty cries of the men, great joy arose when Droṇa was made commander of the host.

7.5.39 Then with the proclamation of the auspicious day and the chant of benediction, with the praises and the songs of the bards, the heralds, and the panegyrists,

7.5.40 and with the victory-cries of the foremost brāhmaṇas and the dances of fair women, they honored Droṇa according to rite, and deemed the Pāṇḍavas already vanquished.

7.6.1 Saṃjaya said: Having attained the supreme command, the son of Bharadvāja, that mighty car-warrior, eager for battle, marshaled the troops in array and advanced together with your sons.

7.6.2 The lord of the Sindhus, the king of the Kaliṅgas, and Vikarṇa your son took their stand upon the right flank, clad in armor.

7.6.3 As their outer wing, Śakuni advanced with his choice horsemen, together with the men of Gāndhāra, warriors armed with bright lances.

7.6.4 Kṛpa, Kṛtavarman, Citrasena, and Viviṃśati, led by Duḥśāsana and on the alert, guarded the left flank.

7.6.5 As their outer wing, the Kāmbojas, with Sudakṣiṇa at their head, advanced on swift-flying horses, along with the Śakas and the Yavanas.

7.6.6 The Madras, the Trigartas, the Ambaṣṭhas, the dwellers of the west and the north, the Śibis and the Śūrasenas, the Śūdras together with the Maladas,

7.6.7 the Sauvīras, the Kitavas, the easterners and the southerners, every one of them, placing your son at their head, marched behind the son of the charioteer.

7.6.8 Gladdening all the troops and lending strength to the strong, Karṇa the son of Vikartana advanced at the forefront of all the bowmen.

7.6.9 His great banner, blazing and huge of body, bearing the device of an elephant's girth and gladdening his own divisions, shone with a splendor equal to the sun's.

7.6.10 Beholding Karṇa, not one reckoned the calamity of Bhīṣma's fall; and all the kings, together with the Kurus, became free of grief.

7.6.11 And many of the warriors, gathered together and rejoicing, spoke thus among themselves: 'When once they behold Karṇa in the fray, the Pāṇḍavas will not stand their ground in battle.'

7.6.12 'For Karṇa is able in combat to vanquish the gods themselves, with Vāsava at their head—how much more the sons of Pāṇḍu, whose valor and might are now diminished in war.'

7.6.13 'The sons of Pṛthā were shielded in battle by the mighty-armed Bhīṣma; but Karṇa with his sharp shafts will destroy them, beyond all doubt.'

7.6.14 Speaking thus to one another, joyful of countenance, O lord of peoples, honoring and praising the son of Rādhā, they marched forth.

7.6.15 Ours was the wagon-array, formed by Droṇa; but the array of the high-souled foe was the heron, O king—formed in delight by the King of Righteousness, O descendant of Bharata.

7.6.16 At the front of their array stood those two bulls among men, Viṣvaksena and Dhanaṃjaya, raising aloft the ape-bannered standard.

7.6.17 The standard of Pārtha of measureless splendor—the summit of all the hosts, the ensign of all the bowmen—ranged along the very path of the sun.

7.6.18 It set ablaze that army of the high-souled Pāṇḍava, as the blazing sun at the dissolution of an age sets the whole earth aflame.

7.6.19 Among archers Arjuna is supreme, among bows the Gāṇḍīva is foremost, among beings Vāsudeva, and among discuses the Sudarśana.

7.6.20 Bearing these four splendors, the white-horsed chariot stood before the foe like the uplifted wheel of Time.

7.6.21 Thus these two great-souled ones both stood at the vanguard of their armies: Karṇa the front of your host, and Dhanaṃjaya that of the foe.

7.6.22 Then, both kindled to fury and each seeking the other's death, Karṇa and the Pāṇḍava gazed upon one another in the field of battle.

7.6.23 Then, as the mighty car-warrior, the son of Bharadvāja, suddenly advanced, the earth trembled with a terrible inner roar.

7.6.24 Then a fierce dust, raised up by the wind and tumultuous, like a heap of silken cloth, veiled the sky together with the sun.

7.6.25 From a cloudless heaven there rained down flesh and bones and blood; and vultures, hawks, herons, kites, and crows by the thousand then wheeled circling above the host, O king.

7.6.26 Jackals howled dreadful, fear-bringing cries, and again and again circled your army from the left, hungering to devour the flesh and thirsting for the blood.

7.6.27 And there fell a blazing meteor, flaming, attended by thunderclaps and tremors, veiling the whole field of battle on every side with its tail of fire.

7.6.28 And a great halo, attended by lightning and thunder, appeared about the sun, O king, as the lord of the host advanced.

7.6.29 These and many other most dreadful portents arose, foretelling in the war the destruction of the heroes' lives.

7.6.30 Then began the battle of the armies of the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas, each seeking the other's death, making the world resound with its din.

7.6.31 Greatly enraged at one another, the Pāṇḍavas with the Kauravas, those smiters greedy for victory, struck back with whetted shafts.

7.6.32 That mighty bowman of great splendor rushed with speed upon the great army of the Pāṇḍavas, scattering hundreds of sharpened arrows.

7.6.33 Seeing Droṇa thus risen against them, the Pāṇḍavas together with the Sṛñjayas received him then, O king, each in his turn, with showers of arrows.

7.6.34 Shaken and rent asunder by Droṇa, the great host with the Pāñcālas was scattered like banks of cloud before the wind.

7.6.35 Wielding in that combat many celestial weapons, Droṇa in but a moment sorely oppressed the Pāṇḍavas and the Sṛñjayas.

7.6.36 Slaughtered by Droṇa as the Dānavas by Vāsava, the Pāñcālas, with Dhṛṣṭadyumna at their head, trembled.

7.6.37 Then the hero, the son of Yajñasena, that mighty car-warrior, skilled in celestial weapons, broke Droṇa's division asunder in many places with a shower of shafts.

7.6.38 With his showers of shafts that powerful one warded off, part by part, the showers of Droṇa's arrows, and then slew the army of the Kurus as well.

7.6.39 Then Droṇa, the mighty-armed, having rallied and steadied his own division in the fray, rushed upon the son of Pṛṣata.

7.6.40 He loosed a vast shower of arrows against the son of Pṛṣata, as Maghavan in sudden wrath against the Dānavas.

7.6.41 Made to tremble by Droṇa's arrows, the Pāṇḍavas and the Sṛñjayas broke and fled again and again, like lesser beasts before a lion.

7.6.42 Then the mighty Droṇa wheeled about through the army of the Pāṇḍavas like a whirling firebrand, O king, and that seemed a wondrous thing.

7.6.43 Mounted upon his peerless chariot—like a city moving through the air, fashioned by the lore of scripture, its pennon fluttering in the shifting wind, thundering, its horses prancing, its standard pure as crystal, a scorcher of foes—he annihilated the army of his enemies.

7.7.1 Saṃjaya said: Beholding Droṇa thus smiting their horses, charioteers, chariots, and elephants, the Pāṇḍavas were stricken with dread and could not hem him in.

7.7.2 Then King Yudhiṣṭhira said to Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Dhanaṃjaya: 'Let the pitcher-born one be checked by men set on guard upon every side.'

7.7.3 Thereupon Arjuna and the son of Pṛṣata with his followers, and then all the mighty car-warriors, hemmed in that advancing foe.

7.7.4 The Kekayas and Bhīmasena, the son of Subhadrā, and Ghaṭotkaca, Yudhiṣṭhira, the twins, the Matsyas, and the sons of Drupada,

7.7.5 the sons of Draupadī full of joy, Dhṛṣṭaketu with Sātyaki, the wrathful Cekitāna, and Yuyutsu the mighty car-warrior,

7.7.6 and whatever other princes, O king, were followers of the Pāṇḍava, wrought deeds in great number worthy of their lineage and their valor.

7.7.7 Seeing his army being thus hemmed in by the Pāṇḍavas in the battle, the son of Bharadvāja, rolling his eyes in wrath, looked upon them.

7.7.8 Yielding to fierce anger upon his chariot, that one furious in battle scattered the army of the Pāṇḍavas as the ever-moving wind scatters the clouds.

7.7.9 Charging chariots, horses, men, and elephants this way and that, Droṇa ranged about as one frenzied, and, though aged, was as a youth.

7.7.10 His red steeds, swift as the wind, of noble breed, their bodies smeared with blood, O king, unswerving, bore a surpassing splendor.

7.7.11 Beholding that man of steadfast vow rushing upon them, wrathful as the Ender himself, the warriors of the Pāṇḍava fled in every direction.

7.7.12 From them—some fleeing, some turning back again, some gazing on, and some standing fast—there arose a most terrible din.

7.7.13 Begetting joy in the brave and swelling the fear of the timid, it filled on every side the gulf between heaven and earth.

7.7.14 Then once again Droṇa, proclaiming his name aloud in the battle, made himself terrible, scattering hundreds of shafts upon the foe.

7.7.15 Thus did the mighty Droṇa slay those divisions of the wise Pāṇḍava like Time itself—an old man, yet as a youth.

7.7.16 And the fierce mighty car-warrior, lopping off heads and arms still bedecked with ornaments, leaving the chariot-seats empty, raised a great shout.

7.7.17 At his shout of joy and the rush of his arrows, O lord, the warriors trembled in the battle like cattle tormented by the cold.

7.7.18 From the roar of Droṇa's chariot, the lashing of his bowstring, and the twang of his bow, a great sound arose in the sky.

7.7.19 Then his arrows, issuing forth in their thousands, filling all the quarters, fell upon elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers.

7.7.20 Upon that Droṇa, mighty in the speed of his bow, his weapons blazing like kindled fire, the Pāñcālas with the Pāṇḍavas closed in.

7.7.21 Them, with their chariots, elephants, and horses, Droṇa sent to the abode of Yama, and in no long while made the earth a mire of blood.

7.7.22 As he plied his supreme weapons and ceaselessly loosed his shafts, a net of arrows woven by Droṇa was seen across the quarters of the sky.

7.7.23 Ranging over the foot-soldiers, the chariots and horses, and the elephants on every side, his banner was seen like lightning amid the clouds.

7.7.24 Having crushed with his shafts the five chief warriors of the Kekayas and the king of the Pāñcālas, Droṇa, that undaunted fighter, bow and arrow in hand, advanced upon Yudhiṣṭhira's division.

7.7.25 At him Bhīmasena and Dhanaṃjaya, the grandson of Śini, the son of Drupada, the son of Śaibyā, the lord of Kāśi, and Śibi, exulting and roaring aloud, hurled torrents of arrows.

7.7.26 Then the feathered shafts loosed from Droṇa's bow, their golden, many-hued nocks bright, piercing the bodies of their elephants, horses, and men, passed into the earth, their plumes drenched with blood.

7.7.27 That earth, strewn over with hosts of fallen warriors and chariots, with shattered arrows and elephants and horses, became as the sky overspread on every side with the clouds of doom.

7.7.28 The leaders of the hosts of Sātyaki, Bhīma, and Arjuna; Śaibya and Abhimanyu, together with the king of Kāśi; and other heroes besides—Droṇa, desiring the welfare of your sons, crushed them in the fight.

7.7.29 Having wrought these deeds and others in the battle, O lord of the Kurus, the high-souled Droṇa, scorching the worlds as the sun of doom, departed hence to heaven, O king.

7.7.30 Thus the hero of the golden chariot, having slain the warriors of the Pāṇḍavas in the battle by the hundred thousand, was struck down by the son of Pṛṣata.

7.7.31 Having slain more than a full akṣauhiṇī of heroes who never turned back, that steadfast one thereafter attained the supreme goal.

7.7.32 By the Pāñcālas, together with the Pāṇḍavas—malign and cruel of deed—was the hero of the golden chariot slain, O king, after he had wrought a most arduous deed.

7.7.33 Then a cry of all beings arose in the sky, and likewise of the armies, O king, when the preceptor was slain in the battle.

7.7.34 Making heaven, earth, the sky, the quarters, the waters, and the intermediate regions resound, a great cry went up from all beings: "Alas! Shame!"

7.7.35 The gods, the ancestral fathers, and those who had been his kinsmen of old looked down and beheld Bhāradvāja, that mighty warrior, lying slain.

7.7.36 The Pāṇḍavas, having won the victory, raised lion-roars, and at that mighty roar the whole earth trembled.

7.8.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: While Droṇa was doing what in battle did the Pāṇḍavas and the Sṛñjayas slay him — him so skilled in weapons, foremost among all who bear arms?

7.8.2 Did his chariot break apart, or did his bow shatter as he shot, or did Droṇa grow heedless, that he thus met his death?

7.8.3 How, my son, did the son of Pṛṣata strike down one whom foes could not assail, who scattered showers of gold-feathered arrows in their thousands —

7.8.4 that swift-handed best of brahmins, the accomplished one, the dazzling fighter, who struck from afar, the self-controlled, the master of warfare with divine weapons?

7.8.5 By cruel fate the Pāñcāla prince slew that unfaltering, supreme warrior, who was performing terrible deeds and striving with all his might in the battle.

7.8.6 Surely destiny is mightier than human valor — this is my conviction — since the hero Droṇa was slain by the great-souled son of Pṛṣata.

7.8.7 In that hero the fourfold science of weapons was firmly established; yet you tell me that Droṇa, the supreme teacher of archery, is slain.

7.8.8 Hearing that he of the golden chariot is slain — he whose car was draped with tiger-skins and adorned with gold — I cannot today drive away my grief.

7.8.9 Surely no one dies of another's sorrow, Saṃjaya, since I, having heard that Droṇa is slain, still live and do not die.

7.8.10 Surely my heart is made of iron, exceedingly hard, that it does not burst into a hundred pieces on hearing that Droṇa is slain.

7.8.11 He whom brahmins and princes seeking excellence waited upon in the sacred Veda, in archery, and in divine weapons — how was he struck down by death?

7.8.12 Like the drying-up of the ocean, like the toppling of Meru, like the falling of the sun — I cannot bear the felling of Droṇa.

7.8.13 He was the curber of the arrogant and the protector of the righteous, that scorcher of foes who would lay down even his life for the sake of the helpless.

7.8.14 He in whose prowess lay the hope of victory for my dull-witted sons, the equal of Bṛhaspati and Uśanas in wisdom — how was he slain?

7.8.15 And those tall red horses of the Sindhu breed, garlanded with gold, swift as the wind, yoked to his chariot, unshaken by every clamor of battle —

7.8.16 strong, loud-neighing, well-trained Sindhu steeds, drawing smoothly, steadfast in the thick of the fray — were they perhaps thrown into confusion?

7.8.17 They could endure in battle the trumpeting of elephants, the blare of conches and kettledrums, the twang of bowstrings, the showers of arrows, and the clash of weapons —

7.8.18 those horses that bore Bhāradvāja's chariot, eager to conquer the foe, masters of their own breath, mastering all pain, swift and urged to speed.

7.8.19 Yoked to the golden chariot, set in motion by that hero among men — how, my son, did they fail to break through the host of the Pāṇḍavas?

7.8.20 Mounted upon his excellent chariot adorned with gold, what did the heroic, war-shouting Bhāradvāja do in the battle?

7.8.21 He upon whose learning all the bowmen of the world depend — that strong Droṇa, true to his vows, what did he do in the fight?

7.8.22 He who was foremost among bowmen as Śakra is in heaven, that mighty one — what warriors in their chariots dared advance against him of terrible deeds in battle?

7.8.23 Surely, on seeing him of the golden chariot wielding divine weapons and thinning their inexhaustible army, the Pāṇḍavas would flee?

7.8.24 Or did the King of Righteousness, together with his younger brothers and with the Pāñcāla prince at their head, with his whole army surround Droṇa on every side?

7.8.25 Surely Pārtha held off the other chariot-warriors with his straight-flying shafts, and then the son of Pṛṣata, doer of an evil deed, fell upon Droṇa.

7.8.26 For I can see no other capable of slaying that valiant one except the fierce Dhṛṣṭadyumna, guarded as he was by the Diademed Arjuna.

7.8.27 Then that base-born Pāñcāla, surrounded on all sides by those heroes — by the Kekayas, the Cedis, the Karūṣas, the Matsyas, and other kings —

7.8.28 slew the teacher, who had been thrown into confusion as a serpent is by ants, while he was engaged in a deed hard to perform — such is my belief.

7.8.29 He who, having studied the four Vedas together with the legends as a fifth, stood as the refuge of brahmins as the ocean is of streams — how did that aged brahmin meet his death by the sword?

7.8.30 Impatient by nature, he yet bore patiently, though ever harassed by me. The son of Kuntī, who deserved no such treatment, has reaped the fruit of that conduct.

7.8.31 He on whose accomplishment all the bowmen in the world depend for their livelihood — that virtuous one, true to his word, how was he slain by men greedy for glory?

7.8.32 He who was foremost as Śakra is in heaven, of great courage and great strength — how was he slain by the sons of Pṛthā, as a great whale is slain by little fishes?

7.8.33 Swift-handed and strong, with a stout bow, a crusher of foes, into whose range no one desiring to live could come and yet live —

7.8.34 whom, while he lived, two sounds never left: the chant of the Veda for those who sought sacred lore, and the twang of the bowstring for those who bear arms.

7.8.35 I cannot bear that Droṇa is slain — he of the prowess of a lion or an elephant. How, Saṃjaya, did this unassailable one, of unconquerable fame and might, fall?

7.8.36 Who guarded the right wheel of that great soul, and who the left, and who stood before the hero as he fought in the encounter?

7.8.37 And what heroes there, casting away their bodies, went forth to meet death head-on, what warriors showed the highest resolve in Droṇa's battle?

7.8.38 This is what a noble man must do in dire calamities, Saṃjaya — to strive with all his power; and that was firmly established in him.

7.8.39 My mind grows faint, my son; let the narration pause awhile. When I have regained my senses, I shall question you again, Saṃjaya.

7.9.1 Vaiśaṃpāyana said: Having thus questioned the sūta's son, sorely afflicted with grief of heart and despairing of his sons' victory, Dhṛtarāṣṭra fell to the ground.

7.9.2 As he lay fallen and senseless, the attendants sprinkled him with exceedingly cool, fragrant water and fanned him.

7.9.3 Aware that he had fallen, the women of the Bhāratas gathered round the great king on every side and touched him with their hands.

7.9.4 Slowly raising the king from the surface of the earth, those lovely women, their throats choked with tears, brought him to his seat.

7.9.5 Having reached his seat, the king, overwhelmed by a swoon, remained motionless, while he was fanned on every side.

7.9.6 Slowly regaining consciousness, the trembling lord of the earth questioned the sūta, son of Gavalgaṇa, once more, point by point.

7.9.7 When Ajātaśatru advanced, dispelling the darkness with his radiance like the rising sun, who held him back from Droṇa?

7.9.8 Like a rutting elephant, thus enraged and swift, his mind fixed on the foe, blazing, slaying the elephants that opposed him — unconquerable by rival herd-leaders as in the rivalry for a cow-elephant —

7.9.9 surpassing the other warriors in battle, that hero, best of men, the mighty-armed, who alone, steadfast and true to his oath, could burn up Duryodhana's whole host with the mere glare of his terrible eyes —

7.9.10 him whose gaze could destroy, bent upon victory, guarded by the best of bowmen, self-controlled and honored throughout the world — what heroes hemmed him in?

7.9.11 What men of mine there closed in upon that unassailable king, the best of bowmen, the unfaltering, that tiger among men, the son of Kuntī?

7.9.12 He who, charging swiftly, fell upon Droṇa — what heroes surrounded that Bhīmasena as he came on?

7.9.13 When Bībhatsu advanced, his chariot dark as a rain-cloud, of supreme valor, hurling tumultuous thunderbolts like Parjanya —

7.9.14 he of the monkey-bannered standard rained down showers of arrows as Maghavan rains the rains, choking the sky with shafts and making all the quarters crash with the din of his palm-guards and wheel-rims —

7.9.15 terrible, his bow flashing like lightning, his chariot-squadrons a thundercloud, thundering with the roar of his chariot-rims, made fearsome by the rush of arrows —

7.9.16 his fury surpassing the storm-clouds, moving swift as thought, a downpour of arrows that pierced the vitals, tumultuous, with blood for its waters —

7.9.17 flooding the whole earth and strewing it with the slain, fierce, resounding with the clash of maces, roused up by Duryodhana's doing —

7.9.18 when the wise Vijaya in that battle, wielding the Gāṇḍīva, bathed the field with vulture-feathered shafts honed on stone — what then was the temper of your minds?

7.9.19 Did not your army perish at the sound of the Gāṇḍīva, when Arjuna, raising that fearful roar, bore down upon you in fury?

7.9.20 Did not Dhanaṃjaya drive you back from Droṇa with his shafts, scattering you with a forest-felling wind of arrows as the gale scatters clouds? What man is able to withstand the wielder of the Gāṇḍīva in battle?

7.9.21 When the armies trembled and fear laid hold of the heroes, who there did not abandon Droṇa, and what mean-spirited men fled away in terror?

7.9.22 Or who there, casting away their bodies, went forth to meet death head-on against Dhanaṃjaya, the conqueror even of more-than-human foes in battle?

7.9.23 My men cannot endure the onset of him whose horses are white, nor the roar of the Gāṇḍīva, like the rumble of the rain-clouds of the monsoon.

7.9.24 That chariot whose driver is Viṣvaksena and whose warrior is Dhanaṃjaya is, I think, impossible to conquer even by gods and demons together.

7.9.25 Delicate, young, heroic, and fair to behold is that son of Pāṇḍu, intelligent, skilled, wise, of true valor in battle —

7.9.26 when the wise Nakula advanced, raising a vast war-cry and dismaying all the Kauravas, what heroes hemmed him in?

7.9.27 When Sahadeva, enraged like a venomous serpent, came on, wreaking havoc among the foes — that hard-to-conquer one, a victor in battle —

7.9.28 as he advanced toward Droṇa — that man of noble vows, whose arrows never miss, modest and unconquered — what heroes hemmed him in?

7.9.29 He who, having crushed the great host of the Sauvīra king, carried off his cherished and desirable queen, lovely in every limb —

7.9.30 truth, firmness, valor, and perfect continence — all these dwell forever in this Yuyudhāna, this bull among men.

7.9.31 Strong, true in deed, undaunted, unconquered, equal to Vāsudeva in battle and second only to Vāsudeva —

7.9.32 that hero ready in Dhanaṃjaya's service, skilled in a teacher's office, equal to Pārtha in weapons — who held him back from Droṇa?

7.9.33 The foremost hero of the Vṛṣṇis, valiant among all bowmen, the equal of Rāma in weapons, in fame, and in prowess —

7.9.34 truth, firmness, self-restraint, valor, and continence unsurpassed — all these are present in that Sātvata, as the three worlds are present in Keśava.

7.9.35 That great archer, endowed with such qualities, hard to ward off even by the gods — what heroes closed in and hemmed him round?

7.9.36 The foremost hero among the Pāñcālas, beloved for his noble birth, ever doing the highest deeds, of supreme energy in battle —

7.9.37 devoted to Dhanaṃjaya's welfare and the foremost cause of my ruin, the equal of Yama, Vaiśravaṇa, Āditya, great Indra, and Varuṇa —

7.9.38 renowned as a mighty chariot-warrior, rising up against Droṇa in battle and ready to lay down his life in the tumult — what heroes hemmed him in?

7.9.39 Who held off from Droṇa that Dhṛṣṭaketu as he came on—he who, alone, broke away from the Cedis and gave his allegiance to the Pāṇḍavas?

7.9.40 That brave Ketumat who slew the prince Sudarśana at the gateway of the western mountains—who kept him back from Droṇa?

7.9.41 That tiger among men, once a woman, who knows men's merits and faults—Śikhaṇḍin, son of Yajñasena, unflinching in heart upon the field—

7.9.42 the appointed cause of the death in battle of high-souled Devavrata—as he advanced straight upon Droṇa, what heroes hemmed him in?

7.9.43 That hero in whom all virtues surpass even those of Dhanaṃjaya, in whom dwell forever the celestial weapons, truth, and continence—

7.9.44 the equal of Vāsudeva in valor, the equal of Dhanaṃjaya in strength, like the sun in splendor, like Bṛhaspati in wisdom—

7.9.45 the high-souled Abhimanyu, like the Ender with gaping jaws—as he advanced straight upon Droṇa, what heroes hemmed him in?

7.9.46 When the youthful son of Subhadrā, glowing like the dawn, slayer of enemy heroes, charged upon Droṇa—how then stood your hearts?

7.9.47 When the sons of Draupadī, those tigers among men, rushed upon Droṇa in battle like rivers upon the sea, what heroes turned them back?

7.9.48 Those boys who for twelve years forsook all play and, keeping the highest vow, dwelt with Bhīṣma for the sake of mastering arms—

7.9.49 Kṣatraṃjaya, Kṣatradeva, and proud Kṣatradharman, heroic sons of Dhṛṣṭadyumna—who kept them back from Droṇa?

7.9.50 That mighty archer Cekitāna, whom the Vṛṣṇis reckoned in battle worth more than a hundred men—who kept him back from Droṇa?

7.9.51 Anādhṛṣṭi, son of Vṛddhakṣema, undaunted in soul, who carried off the maiden of the Kaliṅgas by force of arms—who kept him back from Droṇa?

7.9.52 The five Kaikeya brothers, righteous men of truthful valor, of the hue of the cochineal insect, with crimson armor, weapons, and banners—

7.9.53 those heroes, sons of their mother's sister, who sought victory for the Pāṇḍavas—as they came on to slay Droṇa, what heroes hemmed them in?

7.9.54 That lord of warriors whom the kings, battling against him at Vāraṇāvata in fury for six months, bent on his death, could not conquer—

7.9.55 that tiger among men, foremost of bowmen, brave, true to his word, of mighty strength—who held back the eager Yuyutsu from Droṇa?

7.9.56 He who in battle at Vārāṇasī struck down with a broad-headed shaft from his chariot the great chariot-warrior, the son of the king of Kāśi, as he lusted after the women—

7.9.57 that mighty archer Dhṛṣṭadyumna, keeper of the counsels of the Pārthas, bound to Duryodhana's ruin and born for the slaying of Droṇa—

7.9.58 as he burned the warriors in battle and tore them apart on every side, advancing straight upon Droṇa, what heroes hemmed him in?

7.9.59 Kṣatradeva, son of Śikhaṇḍin, most skilled in arms, reared as it were in Drupada's lap—who kept him back from Droṇa?

7.9.60 That great chariot-warrior, slayer of the foremost foes, who with his vast line of chariots wrapped this whole earth as in a hide—

7.9.61 who performed ten horse-sacrifices with abundant food and drink and ample gifts, unhindered and complete, while guarding his people like his own sons—

7.9.62 at whose sacrifice the cattle drinking down their fee drank the whole stream of the Gaṅgā—so many cows did that hero, the son of Uśīnara, bestow—

7.9.63 "No men of old, nor any to come, have wrought this deed"—so cried the gods aloud when that hard task was done.

7.9.64 "Among the still and the moving in the three worlds we see no second to him—neither born before, nor to be born, nor living now."

7.9.65 "None other than Śaibya, son of Uśīnara, can bear such a yoke"—whose course the men who dwell in the world shall never attain.

7.9.66 His grandson Śaibya, as he came on—who held him back, advancing straight upon Droṇa like the Ender with gaping jaws?

7.9.67 As the chariot-host of Virāṭa, the Matsya king and slayer of foes, sought to reach Droṇa in battle, what heroes hemmed them in?

7.9.68 That dread rākṣasa, a master of illusion, of mighty strength and prowess, born in a single day of Vṛkodara, from whom comes my great fear—

7.9.69 the mighty-armed Ghaṭotkaca, longing for the victory of the Pārthas, a thorn in the side of my sons—who kept him back from Droṇa?

7.9.70 These and many others, Saṃjaya, who in their cause would lay down their lives in battle—what could remain unconquered for such men in war?

7.9.71 And those whose refuge is that tiger among men, the bearer of the Śārṅga bow, who seeks the good of the Pārthas—how can there be defeat for them?

7.9.72 He is the supreme teacher of the worlds, the eternal lord of the worlds, Nārāyaṇa, the protector in battle, divine, of divine essence, the Lord—

7.9.73 whose divine deeds the wise recount; these I shall proclaim with devotion, for the steadying of my own soul.

7.10.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Hear the divine deeds of Vāsudeva, Saṃjaya—deeds that Govinda performed as no other man anywhere ever has.

7.10.2 While yet a child growing up in the herdsmen's clan, the high-souled one made the might of his arms renowned throughout the three worlds, Saṃjaya.

7.10.3 He slew the king of horses that dwelt in the forest by the Yamunā, a steed equal in strength to Uccaiḥśravas and matching the wind in swiftness.

7.10.4 In his boyhood, with his bare arms, he slew that dānava of dreadful deeds, who had taken the form of a bull and risen up like death itself against the cattle.

7.10.5 The lotus-eyed one slew Pralamba, Naraka, Jambha, the great asura Pīṭha, and Muru, who was like a mountain.

7.10.6 So too Kaṃsa of great splendor, protected by Jarāsaṃdha, was struck down in battle by Kṛṣṇa's prowess alone, together with his followers.

7.10.7 The valiant Sunāman, lord of a full akṣauhiṇī, a leader among the Bhojas and the mighty brother of Kaṃsa—

7.10.8 that swift king of the Śūrasenas was consumed in battle, army and all, by Kṛṣṇa the slayer of foes, with Baladeva at his side.

7.10.9 The brahmin-sage named Durvāsas, of utmost wrath, was propitiated by him together with his wife, and bestowed boons upon him.

7.10.10 So too the lotus-eyed hero, at her self-choosing, vanquished the lords of the earth and bore away the daughter of the king of Gāndhāra.

7.10.11 The kings, unable to endure it, were yoked like thoroughbred horses to his wedding chariot and made to bear the wounds of his goad.

7.10.12 Janārdana, by a stratagem, had the mighty-armed Jarāsaṃdha, lord in his own right of a whole akṣauhiṇī, slain by another's hand.

7.10.13 And the mighty one then slew like a sacrificial beast the valiant king of the Cedis, that commander of the kings' host, when he disputed the offering of homage.

7.10.14 Mādhava, charging in, cast down Saubha—that secure city of the daityas, guarded by Śālva and hard to assail—into the belly of the sea.

7.10.15 He conquered in battle the Aṅgas, Vaṅgas, and Kaliṅgas, the Māgadhas, the men of Kāśi and Kosala, the Vatsas, Gargas, and Karūṣas, and the Puṇḍras as well.

7.10.16 The Āvantyas and the southern peoples, the mountain-dwellers and the Dāśerakas, the Kāśmīrakas, the Aurasakas, and the Piśācas with the Mandaras—

7.10.17 the Kāmbojas and Vāṭadhānas, the Colas and Pāṇḍyas, Saṃjaya, the Trigartas, the Mālavas, and the Daradas so hard to conquer—

7.10.18 the lotus-eyed one vanquished too the bands gathered from every quarter, those of the Aśvas and Śakas, and the Yavanas together with their followers.

7.10.19 Of old, entering the abode of sea-monsters, hemmed about by water-creatures, he conquered Varuṇa in battle within the waters.

7.10.20 Having slain in battle Pañcajana, who dwelt in the depths of the netherworld, Hṛṣīkeśa won the divine conch Pāñcajanya.

7.10.21 At Khāṇḍava, together with Pārtha, the mighty one gratified the Eater of Oblations and obtained the irresistible fiery weapon, the discus.

7.10.22 Mounting the son of Vinatā and striking terror into Amarāvatī, the hero carried off the pārijāta tree from the abode of great Indra.

7.10.23 And Śakra bore that patiently, knowing his prowess; nor have we heard of any king here who was not conquered by Kṛṣṇa.

7.10.24 And that great marvel which the lotus-eyed one wrought in my assembly hall, Saṃjaya—what other man here is capable of it?

7.10.25 And when in devotion I took refuge in him, I beheld Kṛṣṇa as the Lord; all that is well known to me, and came to me as though before my very eyes.

7.10.26 No end can be reached, Saṃjaya, of the deeds of Hṛṣīkeśa, who is endowed with valor and again with wisdom.

7.10.27 So too Gada and Sāmba, Pradyumna and Viḍūratha, Āgāvaha and Aniruddha, Cārudeṣṇa and Sāraṇa,

7.10.28 Ulmuka and Niśaṭha, Jhallī and the valiant Babhru, Pṛthu and Vipṛthu, Śamīka and Arimejaya—

7.10.29 these mighty Vṛṣṇi heroes, hard-striking warriors, might somehow take their stand with the Pāṇḍava army and abide in the battle.

7.10.30 Summoned by the Vṛṣṇi hero, the high-souled Keśava—then all would be cast into doubt: such is my conviction.

7.10.31 And the hero Rāma, strong as ten thousand elephants, like the peak of Kailāsa, garlanded with wildflowers and bearing the plough, is there where Janārdana is.

7.10.32 And he whom the twice-born call Vāsudeva, the father of all—he too, Saṃjaya, may well fight for the cause of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.10.33 When Keśava arms himself, my son, for the sake of the Pāṇḍavas, then there will be no one among the opposing ranks to stand against him.

7.10.34 Were all the Kurus to conquer all the Pāṇḍavas, the Vārṣṇeya would surely take up his supreme weapon for their sake.

7.10.35 Then that tiger among men, the mighty-armed one, having slain in battle all the lords of men and the Kauravas, would give the earth to Kuntī.

7.10.36 The chariot whose driver is Hṛṣīkeśa and whose warrior is Dhanaṃjaya—what chariot in the field could be its match?

7.10.37 By no means whatsoever do I see victory for the Kurus; therefore tell me all, just as the battle came to pass.

7.10.38 Arjuna is the very soul of Keśava, and Kṛṣṇa too is the soul of the Diademed one; in Arjuna victory dwells forever, and in Kṛṣṇa undying renown.

7.10.39 For preeminently and beyond all measure do the virtues abound in Keśava; yet out of delusion Duryodhana does not know Kṛṣṇa, the Mādhava, here in this world.

7.10.40 Deluded by the working of fate, with the noose of death set before him, he knows neither Kṛṣṇa of the Dāśārha line nor Arjuna the Pāṇḍava.

7.10.41 Those two high-souled primeval gods, Nara and Nārāyaṇa both, one in soul yet become twofold, are seen by men upon the earth.

7.10.42 Those two glorious and irresistible ones could, if they wished, destroy this army by a mere thought; but being in human form, they do not wish it.

7.10.43 The slaying of Bhīṣma, my son, and of the high-souled Droṇa is like the overturning of an age, like the bewildering of the worlds.

7.10.44 For not by continence, nor by the study of the Vedas, nor by rites, nor by weapons is any man freed from death.

7.10.45 Hearing that Bhīṣma and Droṇa are slain—those two heroes honored by the world, masters of arms, unconquerable in the fury of battle—why should I go on living, Saṃjaya?

7.10.46 That sovereign splendour which we once begrudged when it passed long ago to Yudhiṣṭhira—today, with the slaying of Bhīṣma and Droṇa, we acknowledge it as his.

7.10.47 And so, through my doing, this destruction of the Kurus has come to pass; for when the ripe are to be slain, O charioteer, even blades of grass become as thunderbolts.

7.10.48 Yudhiṣṭhira has gained in this world a sovereignty that has no rival—he by whose wrath those two great archers, Bhīṣma and Droṇa, have been struck down.

7.10.49 By its very nature righteousness has prevailed over men, not unrighteousness; yet cruel Time, bent on the ruin of all, overrides every law.

7.10.50 For the aims that thoughtful men devise in one way, my son, turn out quite otherwise; this, I hold, is the work of fate.

7.10.51 Therefore, since a thing unavoidable, a calamity most grievous, beyond crossing and beyond comprehension, has befallen us, tell me how it truly came about.

7.11.1 Saṃjaya said: Come then, I shall describe it all to you, for I saw it with my own eyes—how Droṇa fell, brought low by the Pāṇḍavas and the Sṛñjayas.

7.11.2 Having attained the command of the army, Bhāradvāja, that mighty car-warrior, in the midst of all the host spoke these words to your son.

7.11.3 "In that next after the bull of the Kurus, the son of the river Gaṅgā, you have today honoured me, O king, with the office of commander,

7.11.4 receive a reward worthy of that deed, O prince. I will grant your wish: choose now whatever boon you desire."

7.11.5 Then Duryodhana, having taken counsel with Karṇa, Duḥśāsana, and the rest, spoke thus to the unassailable teacher, the foremost of the victorious:

7.11.6 "If you grant me a boon, then seize Yudhiṣṭhira alive—take that best of car-warriors captive and bring him here before me."

7.11.7 Then the teacher of the Kurus, hearing your son's words, gladdening the whole army, spoke these words:

7.11.8 "Blessed is King Kuntī's son, whose capture you desire; for it is not his death, O unconquerable one, that you ask of me as a boon today.

7.11.9 And why, O tiger among men, do you not crave his slaying? You surely do not wish this deed of me, Duryodhana.

7.11.10 Or is it that the son of Dharma has no hater anywhere, that you wish him alive and so preserve the lineage within yourself?

7.11.11 Or rather, O best of the Bhāratas, having conquered the Pāṇḍavas in battle and restored to them their share of the kingdom, do you wish to make brotherhood with them?

7.11.12 Blessed is King Kuntī's son, and well earned is that wise man's name—Ajātaśatru, 'he whose enemy is not born'—proven true, since even you bear him such affection."

7.11.13 But when Droṇa had spoken thus, O Bhārata, from your son there suddenly broke forth that disposition which forever moves within him.

7.11.14 A man's true bent cannot be hidden, not even by those equal to Bṛhaspati; and so your son, O king, in his eagerness, spoke these words:

7.11.15 "In the slaying of Kuntī's son in battle, O teacher, lies no victory for me; for were Yudhiṣṭhira killed, the son of Pṛthā would surely slay us all.

7.11.16 Nor can they all be killed in war, not even by the immortals; and whichever of them might be left would leave none of us remaining.

7.11.17 But once he whose vows are true is brought here and defeated again at dice, the sons of Kuntī, devoted to him, will go once more into the forest.

7.11.18 Such, plainly, would be my victory, and it would last a long while. Therefore I do not in any way wish the death of the Dharma-king."

7.11.19 Knowing his crooked intent, Droṇa, who understood the true nature of things, having reflected, granted him that boon—but with a reservation, wise as he was.

7.11.20 Droṇa said: "If Arjuna does not guard Yudhiṣṭhira in the battle, O hero, then count the eldest Pāṇḍava as already brought into your power.

7.11.21 For the son of Pṛthā cannot be withstood in battle, not even by the gods and demons together with Indra; and so, my son, I will not provoke that contest.

7.11.22 Beyond doubt he is my pupil, and in the wielding of weapons he had me first as his teacher; yet he is young, crowned with fame, and wholly single-minded in his course.

7.11.23 He has gained many weapons from Indra and from Rudra, and he is full of indignation against you, O king; for that reason I will not rouse him.

7.11.24 Let him be drawn away from the battle by whatever means is possible; and once the son of Pṛthā is removed, the Dharma-king is as good as conquered by you.

7.11.25 If you reckon his capture to be victory, O bull among men, then by this expedient his capture will surely come to pass.

7.11.26 I will seize the king, devoted to truth and righteousness, and bring him into your power this very day, O king—of that there is no doubt,

7.11.27 if only he will stand before me in the fray for even a moment, once that tiger among men, Kuntī's son Dhanaṃjaya, has been led away.

7.11.28 But in Phalguna's very presence, Yudhiṣṭhira the son of Pṛthā cannot be taken in battle, not even by the gods and demons together with Indra."

7.11.29 Saṃjaya said: But when Droṇa had pledged the king's capture with that reservation, your sons, foolish as they were, deemed him already taken.

7.11.30 Your son knew that Droṇa was partial toward the Pāṇḍavas; and therefore, to make the pledge seem firm, that counsel was spread far and wide.

7.11.31 Then by Duryodhana too that capture of the Pāṇḍava was proclaimed aloud throughout all the stations of the army, O crusher of foes.

7.12.1 Saṃjaya said: Then those soldiers, hearing of that capture of Yudhiṣṭhira, raised lion-roars together with the clamour of arrows and conch-shells.

7.12.2 But all that had taken place—Bhāradvāja's design—was swiftly learned in full by the Dharma-king, O Bhārata, through trusted men.

7.12.3 Then, having summoned all his brothers and the troops on every side, the Dharma-king spoke these words to Dhanaṃjaya:

7.12.4 "You have heard, O tiger among men, what Droṇa intends to do today; let such a course be devised that it may not come true.

7.12.5 For Droṇa has made his pledge with a reservation, O scourge of foes, and that reservation he has fixed upon you, whose every arrow strikes home.

7.12.6 Therefore, O mighty-armed one, fight today close at my side, so that Duryodhana may not gain this wish from Droṇa."

7.12.7 Arjuna said: "As the slaying of the teacher is by no means a thing I would do, so neither, O king, is your abandonment anything I would intend.

7.12.8 Even so, O Pāṇḍava, I would sooner give up my life in battle—I will not turn against the teacher, nor will I ever forsake you in any way.

7.12.9 That wish which Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son cherishes—to seize you in battle, O king—he shall in no way attain so long as I live in this world of the living.

7.12.10 Sooner might the sky fall with its stars, sooner might the earth break into fragments, than Droṇa take you captive while I yet live—of this be certain.

7.12.11 Even if the wielder of the thunderbolt himself should aid him in the fight, or the gods together with the demons, he shall not reach you in the battle.

7.12.12 While I live, O lord of kings, you ought to feel no fear of Droṇa, foremost of all who bear weapons, nor of any other wielder of arms.

7.12.13 I do not recall an untrue word from my lips, I do not recall a defeat, nor do I recall ever having promised a thing and left it undone."

7.12.14 Saṃjaya said: Then conches and kettledrums and tabors, together with war-drums, sounded out, O great king, in the encampment of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.12.15 And a lion-roar arose from the great-souled Pāṇḍavas, and the sound of bowstrings slapped from the palm, touching the heavens, most terrible.

7.12.16 Hearing that blare of the conch of the great-souled Pāṇḍava, in your own ranks too the instruments were struck up in answer.

7.12.17 Then the marshalled hosts, both yours and theirs, O Bhārata, advanced slowly toward one another, ready to do battle in the field.

7.12.18 Then there broke out a tumultuous, hair-raising battle between the Pāṇḍavas and the Kurus, and between Droṇa and the Pāñcāla prince.

7.12.19 Striving with all their effort to shatter Droṇa's array, the Sṛñjayas could not prevail, O king, for it was guarded by Droṇa himself.

7.12.20 Likewise the noble, hard-striking car-warriors of your son could not break the Pāṇḍava army, guarded as it was by the Diademed One.

7.12.21 Both those armies stood motionless, each warding off the other, like two fair-flowering forest-tracts asleep together in the night.

7.12.22 Then the warrior of the golden car, O king, blazing like the very sun with his guard-railed chariot, dashed forth and ranged through the midst of the host.

7.12.23 Him, raised aloft and alone upon his chariot, swift in action in the fray, the Pāṇḍavas and Sṛñjayas in their terror reckoned to be many.

7.12.24 The dreadful arrows loosed by him ranged in every direction, terrifying, O great king, the army of the Pāṇḍava.

7.12.25 As the noonday sun, ringed about with its hundred rays, appears when it reaches the meridian, so too did Droṇa appear.

7.12.26 And no one among the Pāṇḍavas, good sir, could so much as look upon him in his battle-fury, as the demons could not gaze upon great Indra.

7.12.27 Then Bhāradvāja, the majestic one, having bewildered the army, swiftly scattered Dhṛṣṭadyumna's force with his whetted arrows.

7.12.28 Blocking the quarters on every side and covering the very sky with his straight-flying shafts, wherever the son of Pṛṣata was, there did he crush the Pāṇḍava host.

7.13.1 Saṃjaya said: Then, raising a great tumult in the Pāṇḍava ranks, Droṇa ranged among the Pāṇḍavas, burning them as a fire burns dry brushwood.

7.13.2 Seeing the warrior of the golden car consuming their armies, like fire itself risen up in the battle, the Sṛñjayas trembled.

7.13.3 And as his bow was drawn without pause, swift-dealing, the twang of its string was heard exceedingly loud, like the crash of the thunderbolt.

7.13.4 Car-warriors and horsemen, elephants, steeds, and foot-soldiers—the fierce shafts loosed by that deft-handed one ground them all to ruin.

7.13.5 Like a thundering rain-cloud, wind-driven at summer's end, raining down a hail of stones, he poured forth terror upon his foes.

7.13.6 Then that lord ranged on, O king, throwing the host into turmoil, and swelled in his enemies a terror more than human.

7.13.7 His bow, adorned with gold, sweeping about upon that chariot-cloud, was seen again and again like lightning amid the storm-clouds.

7.13.8 That hero, truthful, wise, ever devoted to righteousness, yet now most terrible, set surging a dreadful river, like the driver of doom at the ending of an age—

7.13.9 a river born of the rushing torrent of his wrath, thronged with flocks of flesh-eating beasts, brimming on every side with floods of soldiery, sweeping away heroes as its trees;

7.13.10 its water blood, its whirlpools chariots, its banks built of elephants and horses, carrying coats of mail as its rafts, choked with the mire of flesh;

7.13.11 its sands fat and marrow and bone, foaming with fine turbans, filled by the rain-clouds of war, teeming with javelins for fish;

7.13.12 sprung from men and elephants and horses, bearing along its swift flood of arrows, with corpses for its driftwood and water-chestnuts, swarming with arms for its water-snakes;

7.13.13 its pebbled bed strewn with severed heads, haunted by swords for sharks, set with deep pools of chariots and elephants, its lotuses the manifold ornaments;

7.13.14 with eddies of hundreds of great car-warriors, garlanded with waves of the dust of the earth—easy to cross for the mighty in battle, but for the timid impassable;

7.13.15 strewn with heroes for its serpents, frequented by living men for its traders, its great swans the severed parasols, thronged with diadems for its water-birds.

7.13.16 Its chariot-wheels were its turtles, its maces its crocodiles, and it teemed with arrows for its little fishes; it was haunted by dreadful packs of herons, vultures, and jackals.

7.13.17 O best of kings, it bore by hundreds to the realm of the fathers the living beings whom mighty Droṇa had slain in battle with his arrows.

7.13.18 Choked with hundreds of corpses, its weeds and grass the hair of the dead, such a river did he set flowing, O king—a river that swelled the terror of the fearful.

7.13.19 As he triumphed thus, O Bhārata, those very armies, with Yudhiṣṭhira at their head, charged upon Droṇa from every side.

7.13.20 Your warriors, their bows held firm, received those onrushing heroes from every quarter, and the encounter made the hair stand on end.

7.13.21 Śakuni of a hundred wiles rushed against Sahadeva and pierced him with whetted arrows, together with his charioteer, his banner, and his car.

7.13.22 The son of Mādrī, not greatly angered, cut down his uncle's banner, bow, charioteer, and horses with his shafts, and pierced him with sixty arrows.

7.13.23 But the son of Subala, seizing his mace, leapt down from his splendid chariot, and with that mace, O king, he struck Sahadeva's charioteer from his car.

7.13.24 Then those two mighty warriors, O king, both bereft of their chariots, maces in hand, sported in the battle like two peaked mountains.

7.13.25 Droṇa pierced the king of the Pāñcālas with ten swift arrows; and being himself struck by many in return, he pierced that king with more than a hundred.

7.13.26 Bhīmasena pierced Viviṃśati with twenty whetted arrows, yet the hero could not make him waver, and that seemed a wonder.

7.13.27 But Viviṃśati at once made Bhīma horseless, bannerless, and bowless, O great king; and thereupon the troops applauded him.

7.13.28 The hero could not brook this triumph of his foe in the fray; and so with his mace he struck down all the well-trained horses of his enemy.

7.13.29 And the hero Śalya, smiling, pierced with his arrows Nakula, his own beloved sister's son, as if caressing him, yet provoking him.

7.13.30 But the valorous Nakula, having brought down his horses, his parasol, his banner, his charioteer, and his bow, blew his conch upon the field.

7.13.31 Dhṛṣṭaketu, having cut down the many arrows loosed by Kṛpa, pierced Kṛpa with seventy shafts and with three struck away his emblem.

7.13.32 Kṛpa overwhelmed him with a great rain of arrows, and the brahmin, checking him in battle, fought on against Dhṛṣṭaketu.

7.13.33 Sātyaki, piercing Kṛtavarman in the breast with an iron shaft, smiling as it were, pierced him again with seventy other arrows.

7.13.34 The Bhoja chief, piercing him with seventy-seven whetted arrows, could no more shake the grandson of Śini than a swift wind shakes a mountain.

7.13.35 The commander Dhṛṣṭadyumna swiftly struck Suśarman in his vital parts, and Suśarman in turn struck him with a lance upon the collarbone.

7.13.36 And Virāṭa, together with the mighty Matsyas, held back Vaikartana in the fight, and that seemed a marvel.

7.13.37 Terrible there was the prowess of the charioteer's son, in that he held back that whole army with his smooth-jointed arrows.

7.13.38 And King Drupada himself closed with Bhagadatta; their combat, O great king, was as a wondrous spectacle, and those two masters of weaponry wrought a thing that struck terror into all creatures.

7.13.39 In the battle, O king, the valiant Bhūriśravas covered the great warrior, the son of Yajñasena, with a vast flood of arrows.

7.13.40 But Śikhaṇḍin then, enraged, O lord of peoples, made the son of Somadatta tremble with ninety arrows, O Bhārata.

7.13.41 The two rākṣasas of dreadful deeds, the son of Hiḍimbā and Alambusa, both seeking each other's death, waged a most wondrous battle.

7.13.42 Proud conjurers of a hundred illusions, by their illusions each vanished from the other, and the two ranged about, working great amazement.

7.13.43 Cekitāna fought most fearsomely with Anuvinda, as in the war of gods and demons the mighty Bala and Śakra once fought.

7.13.44 Lakṣmaṇa made a fierce clash with Kṣatradeva, as Viṣṇu of old, O king, did with Hiraṇyākṣa in battle.

7.13.45 Then with horses urged to full speed and a chariot fitly equipped, the Paurava, O king, rushed roaring upon the son of Subhadrā.

7.13.46 And the mighty Abhimanyu, that tamer of foes, eager for battle, swiftly advanced and waged a great fight with him.

7.13.47 The Paurava then showered the son of Subhadrā with masses of arrows, but Arjuna's son brought down his banner, his parasol, and his bow to the earth.

7.13.48 And the son of Subhadrā, piercing the Paurava with seven other swift shafts, struck his horses and his charioteer with five more arrows.

7.13.49 Then, gladdening his own army and roaring again and again like a lion, the son of Arjuna swiftly took up an arrow that would make an end of the Paurava.

7.13.50 But the son of Hṛdika, with two arrows, cut asunder his bow with its fitted shaft; and the son of Subhadrā, slayer of hostile heroes, casting aside the severed bow, drew his bright sword and took up his shield.

7.13.51 With that shield set with many stars, like one of practiced hand, he ranged the sword-paths with whirling blade, displaying his own valor.

7.13.52 Now whirled, now whirled aloft, now shaken, now upraised again—the shield and the sword, O king, were seen as though there were no difference between them.

7.13.53 Leaping suddenly with a roar onto the pole of the Paurava's chariot, he mounted the Paurava's car and seized him by the locks of his hair.

7.13.54 With his foot he struck down the charioteer and with his sword felled the banner; then he flung the Paurava down as Garuḍa, churning the ocean, seizes a great serpent.

7.13.55 All the kings beheld him, his hair clutched fast and senseless, being borne down like a bull brought down by a lion.

7.13.56 Seeing the Paurava fallen into the power of Arjuna's son, dragged helplessly like a masterless thing, Jayadratha could not endure it.

7.13.57 Taking up a sword and a shield decked with great peacock plumes and meshed with a hundred little bells, he leapt down from his chariot with a roar.

7.13.58 Then, beholding the lord of the Sindhus, the son of Kṛṣṇa let go the Paurava and sprang swiftly from the chariot, and swooped down like a hawk.

7.13.59 The javelins, pikes, and swords hurled at him by his foes the son of Kṛṣṇa cut apart with his sword and warded off with his shield.

7.13.60 Having displayed to the armies the might of his own arms, the strong one then raised aloft his great sword and his shield once more,

7.13.61 and the hero advanced straight upon the heir of Vṛddhakṣatra, his father's bitterest foe, as a tiger upon an elephant.

7.13.62 Closing upon each other, their swords for teeth and claws, the two struck joyfully, like a tiger and a lion.

7.13.63 In the clashings, the onslaughts, and the descents of sword and shield, none could see any opening in those two lions among men.

7.13.64 The flinging down, the clang of swords, the spying of an opening between the weapons, and the strokes outward and inward—all seemed as one, without distinction.

7.13.65 Ranging the outer and the inner along the supreme paths of swordcraft, the two great-souled ones appeared like winged mountains.

7.13.66 Then, as the illustrious son of Subhadrā was sweeping his sword across, Jayadratha smote upon the edge of his shield's rim.

7.13.67 Caught in the gold-bordered rim of that gleaming shield, the great sword, wrenched by the strength of the king of the Sindhus, snapped asunder.

7.13.68 Knowing his sword broken, he leapt back six paces, and in the twinkling of an eye was seen mounted again upon his own chariot.

7.13.69 As the son of Kṛṣṇa, withdrawn from that single combat, stood mounted on his splendid chariot, all the kings together hemmed him in on every side.

7.13.70 Then the mighty heir of Arjuna, raising on high his shield and his sword, roared aloud, his eyes upon Jayadratha.

7.13.71 Leaving the king of the Sindhus, the son of Subhadrā, slayer of hostile heroes, scorched that army as the sun scorches the world.

7.13.72 At him Śalya hurled in the fight a dreadful spear, all of iron and adorned with gold, blazing like a tongue of fire.

7.13.73 Leaping up, the son of Kṛṣṇa caught it as Garuḍa, son of Vinatā, catches a falling serpent-prince, and he sheathed his sword.

7.13.74 Seeing the deftness and the courage of him of boundless splendor, all the kings together then raised a lion's roar.

7.13.75 Then that very spear, its haft wrought with cat's-eye gems, the son of Subhadrā, slayer of hostile heroes, loosed back at Śalya by the strength of his arm.

7.13.76 Reaching his chariot like a serpent loosed from its slough, it struck down Śalya's charioteer and hurled him from the car.

7.13.77 Then Virāṭa and Drupada, Dhṛṣṭaketu, Yudhiṣṭhira, Sātyaki, the Kekayas, Bhīma, Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Śikhaṇḍin, the twins, and the sons of Draupadī cried out, "Well done! Well done!"

7.13.78 Manifold twangings of bows and abundant lion-roars arose, gladdening the son of Subhadrā who never fled; but your sons could not endure that mark of triumph in their foe.

7.13.79 Then all of them at once, O great king, showered him with whetted arrows from every side, as rain-clouds drench a mountain.

7.13.80 And seeking to do them a pleasure, and stung by the defeat of his charioteer, the son of Ārtāyana, slayer of foes, advanced in wrath upon the son of Subhadrā.

7.14.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Hearing of the many wondrous single combats you have told of, Saṃjaya, I envy those who have eyes to see.

7.14.2 As a marvel in all the worlds will men tell of this war of the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas, like the war of gods and demons.

7.14.3 For I have no surfeit in hearing of this surpassing battle; therefore tell me of the combat of the son of Ārtāyana and the son of Subhadrā.

7.14.4 Saṃjaya said: Seeing his charioteer struck down, Śalya, raising aloft a wholly iron mace and roaring in wrath, leapt from his splendid chariot.

7.14.5 At him—blazing like the fire of doom, like Death with staff in hand—Bhīma rushed swiftly, gripping his great mace.

7.14.6 The son of Subhadrā too, seizing a mighty mace like the thunderbolt, cried, "Come on, come on!" to Śalya, but with effort Bhīma held him back.

7.14.7 Having checked the son of Subhadrā, the valorous Bhīmasena, advancing upon Śalya in the fray, stood firm as an unshaken mountain.

7.14.8 And likewise the king of the Madras, beholding the mighty Bhīma, advanced swiftly straight upon him, as a tiger upon an elephant.

7.14.9 Then the blare of trumpets and the sound of conches by the thousand, lion-roars, and the great booming of kettledrums arose together.

7.14.10 And among the hundreds of onlookers, Pāṇḍavas and Kurus alike of equal mind, there arose the cry, "Well done! Well done!"

7.14.11 For among all the kings, O Bhārata, none save the lord of the Madras could endure the onset of Bhīmasena in battle.

7.14.12 And likewise, who else in the world but Vṛkodara could endure in battle the mace-onset of the great-souled lord of the Madras?

7.14.13 Bound about with bands of fine gold, the great mace of Bhīma was a delight to all who saw it, and brandished thus it blazed forth.

7.14.14 And in like manner, as it ranged the paths and circling sweeps in turn, the mace of Śalya, resembling a great flash of lightning, shone resplendent.

7.14.15 Bellowing like two bulls, the pair ranged in circling sweeps—Śalya and Vṛkodara both, their maces lowered like horns turned for the charge.

7.14.16 In the wheeling, circling courses and in the play of their maces, the combat of those two lions among men was beyond all distinction.

7.14.17 Struck by Bhīmasena, Śalya's great mace, blazing with flame and terrible to behold, was shattered into mace-dust.

7.14.18 In like manner Bhīmasena's mace, smitten by his foe, gleamed like a tree thronged with fireflies in the early dusk of the rainy season.

7.14.19 The mace hurled in battle by the king of the Madras, O Bhārata, kindling the sky, scattered fire in abundance.

7.14.20 So too the mace sped by Bhīmasena against his foe scorched that host like a great meteor falling.

7.14.21 And those two surpassing maces, meeting each other, hissing like serpent-maidens, gave forth fire.

7.14.22 Like two great tigers with their claws, like two great elephants with their tusks, those two ranged about, closing upon each other with their maces.

7.14.23 Then, struck by the heads of the maces and in a moment drenched with blood, those two great-souled warriors appeared like a pair of kiṃśuka trees in flower.

7.14.24 In every quarter was heard the clash and crash of the mace-blows of those two lions among men, like to the thunderbolt of Indra.

7.14.25 Struck on left and right by the king of the Madras' mace, Bhīma did not waver then, like a mountain being riven yet unmoved.

7.14.26 So too, battered by the onsets of Bhīma's mace, the mighty lord of the Madras stood firm by his steadfastness, like a mountain smitten by thunderbolts.

7.14.27 Rushing on with great speed, their huge maces raised aloft, again, taking the intervening paths, they wheeled about in circles.

7.14.28 Then, springing forward eight paces and clashing together like two elephants, of a sudden they smote each other with their iron staves.

7.14.29 And by their mutual onslaught and by their maces sorely battered, the two heroes fell at once to the earth like two banners of Indra.

7.14.30 Then to Śalya, reeling and gasping again and again, Kṛtavarman the great chariot-warrior swiftly came.

7.14.31 And seeing him, O great king, crushed by the mace, writhing like a serpent and overwhelmed by a swoon,

7.14.32 then, lifting the lord of the Madras together with his mace onto his chariot, Kṛtavarman the great chariot-warrior swiftly bore him away from the battle.

7.14.33 The hero, reeling as though drunken, rose again within the twinkling of an eye; and mighty-armed Bhīma too was seen, mace in hand.

7.14.34 Then, seeing the lord of the Madras turned away in flight, your sons, with their elephants, chariots, foot, and horse, trembled, O venerable one.

7.14.35 Your men, harried by the victory-flushed Pāṇḍavas, took in fear to the quarters of the sky like clouds driven before the wind.

7.14.36 Having vanquished the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the great chariot-warriors of the Pāṇḍavas shone resplendent in the battle, O king, blazing and full of glory.

7.14.37 Loudly they raised their lion-roars and, in their joy, blew their conches and sounded kettledrums and tabors along with the war-drums.

7.15.1 Saṃjaya said: Beholding that vast host of yours broken in flight, valiant Vṛṣasena alone withstood the Pāṇḍavas in battle by the cunning of his weapons.

7.15.2 The arrows loosed by Vṛṣasena toward the ten quarters ranged abroad, O venerable one, piercing through men, horses, chariots, and elephants.

7.15.3 His blazing great shafts issued forth by the thousand, O mighty-armed one, like the rays of the sun in the season of summer.

7.15.4 Tormented by him, O great king, chariot-warriors and horsemen alike fell suddenly upon the earth like trees uprooted by the wind.

7.15.5 Floods of horses, floods of chariots, and floods of elephants on every side he brought down in battle, O king, by hundreds and by thousands.

7.15.6 Seeing him thus ranging fearless through the battle, all the kings together hemmed him in on every side.

7.15.7 But Śatānīka, son of Nakula, advanced against Vṛṣasena and pierced him with ten iron shafts that cut to the vitals.

7.15.8 Karṇa's son sundered his bow and felled his banner; and the sons of Draupadī, seeking to protect that brother of theirs, advanced together.

7.15.9 With showers of arrows they made Karṇa's son straightway invisible; whereupon the chariot-warriors, with Droṇa's son at their head, ran roaring against them.

7.15.10 Swiftly veiling the great chariot-warriors, the sons of Draupadī, with arrows of many kinds, O great king, as rain-clouds veil the mountains.

7.15.11 The Pāṇḍavas, eager for their sons, received them in haste—the Pāñcālas, the Kekayas, the Matsyas, and the Sṛñjayas, weapons upraised.

7.15.12 Dreadful, tumultuous, and hair-raising was that battle between your men and the sons of Pāṇḍu, as of the gods with the dānavas.

7.15.13 Thus, with utmost fury, the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas fought, glaring upon one another, each having wronged the other.

7.15.14 In their wrath the forms of those of measureless might were seen, like the bodies of the noblest of winged serpents joined in combat in the sky.

7.15.15 With Bhīma, Karṇa, Kṛpa, Droṇa, Droṇa's son, the son of Pṛṣata, and Sātyaki, that field of battle shone as with risen suns of doom.

7.15.16 Then was waged a tumultuous battle of mighty ones smiting one another, as of the strong gods with the dānavas.

7.15.17 Then the host of Yudhiṣṭhira, roaring like an upheaved ocean, smote down your army, whose great chariot-warriors had taken to flight.

7.15.18 Seeing that host broken and sorely afflicted by the foe, Droṇa cried out, "Enough of your flight, O heroes!"

7.15.19 Then he of the red steeds, enraged, like a four-tusked elephant, entered the host of the Pāṇḍavas and rushed upon Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.15.20 Yudhiṣṭhira pierced him with sharp shafts feathered with heron-plumes; but Droṇa, sundering his bow, swiftly bore down upon him.

7.15.21 But the prince Kumāra, guardian of the chariot-wheel and bringer of glory to the Pāñcālas, stayed the advancing Droṇa as the shore stays the lord of rivers.

7.15.22 Seeing Droṇa, that bull among the twice-born, held back by Kumāra, there arose a lion-roar from those who cried, "Well done! Well done!"

7.15.23 Then Kumāra, in that great fray, in his wrath pierced Droṇa in the breast with a shaft, roaring again and again like a lion.

7.15.24 But the mighty Droṇa, deft of hand and unwearied, having checked Kumāra in the battle with many thousands of arrows,

7.15.25 that best of the twice-born crushed Kumāra—the hero, faithful to noble vows, schooled in the lore of weapons, the guardian of the wheel.

7.15.26 Reaching the midst of the army and ranging through all the quarters, Bhāradvāja, that bull among chariot-warriors, became the protector of your host.

7.15.27 Piercing Śikhaṇḍin with twelve shafts, Uttamaujas with twenty, Nakula with five, and Sahadeva with seven,

7.15.28 Yudhiṣṭhira with twelve, the sons of Draupadī with three apiece, Sātyaki with five, and the Matsya king with ten arrows—

7.15.29 he threw the foremost warriors into confusion in the battle, charging upon them; and he pressed forward, seeking to seize Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Kuntī.

7.15.30 Then, O king, Yugaṃdhara held back Bhāradvāja, that great chariot-warrior in his wrath, as a shore holds back the wind-tossed ocean.

7.15.31 But he, piercing Yudhiṣṭhira with arrows of well-bent joints, with a broad-headed shaft swept Yugaṃdhara from the platform of his chariot.

7.15.32 Then Virāṭa and Drupada, the Kekayas, Sātyaki, Śibi, Vyāghradatta the Pāñcāla, and the valiant Siṃhasena,

7.15.33 these and many others, seeking to protect Yudhiṣṭhira, barred his path, pouring forth many arrows.

7.15.34 And Vyāghradatta the Pāñcāla pierced Droṇa with fifty sharp arrows, O king; whereat the people raised a great shout.

7.15.35 And Siṃhasena, swiftly piercing Droṇa, that great chariot-warrior, laughed aloud of a sudden in his joy, seeking to daunt that man of steadfast vows.

7.15.36 Then, his eyes wide with rage, drawing back the bowstring and making a great clap with his palm, Droṇa bore down upon him.

7.15.37 Then the mighty one, closing in, with two broad-headed shafts struck off from their bodies the heads of Siṃhasena and of Vyāghradatta, earrings and all.

7.15.38 Having crushed those great chariot-warriors of the Pāṇḍavas with showers of arrows, he stood close by Yudhiṣṭhira like Death the ender.

7.15.39 Then there arose a great clamor, O king, in the host of Yudhiṣṭhira—"The king is taken!"—from the warriors, as the steadfast-vowed one drew near.

7.15.40 Beholding Droṇa's prowess, the soldiers there said, "Today shall the son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra surely have his desire; surely he will come to us in the battle of the son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra."

7.15.41 While your men were thus talking together, the great chariot-warrior, the son of Kuntī, came on at speed, making all resound with the thunder of his car.

7.15.42 On the field of slaughter he made a river whose waters were blood and whose eddies were chariots, strewn with heaps of heroes' bones, sweeping away the corpses on its banks;

7.15.43 and crossing in haste that river, whose great foam was the floods of arrows and which teemed with javelins for fishes, the Pāṇḍava put the Kurus to flight.

7.15.44 Then the Diademed one suddenly fell upon Droṇa's host, veiling it with a vast net of arrows as though to bewilder it.

7.15.45 As he swiftly loosed his shafts and ceaselessly fitted them anew, no one could mark any interval in the work of the glorious son of Kuntī.

7.15.46 Neither the quarters, nor the mid-air, nor the heavens, nor the earth could be seen, O great king; all was become, as it were, one mass of arrows.

7.15.47 Nothing whatsoever could then be seen there in the battle, O king, so great a darkness of arrows had the wielder of the Gāṇḍīva made.

7.15.48 And as the sun reached its setting and all was wrapped in dust, neither foe nor friend nor anything at all could then be known.

7.15.49 Then Droṇa, Duryodhana, and the rest drew off their forces; and the Pāṇḍava, perceiving the foe sorely affrighted and with no heart for fighting,

7.15.50 Bībhatsu gently withdrew his own troops; whereupon the Pāṇḍus, the Sṛñjayas, and the Pāñcālas, rejoicing, extolled Pārtha with pleasing words, as the seers extol the sun.

7.15.51 Thus, having conquered the foe, Dhanaṃjaya, glad of heart and with Keśava beside him, made his way to his own camp behind all the host.

7.15.52 On his car bright with sapphire, agate, gold, and silver, and with choice diamonds, coral, and crystal, the son of Pāṇḍu shone like the moon in a sky aglitter with stars.

7.16.1 Saṃjaya said: Those two armies, having gone to their camps, settled down, O lord of peoples, each in its portion, in due order, and by its companies throughout.

7.16.2 Having drawn off the troops, Droṇa, exceedingly downcast, looked upon Duryodhana and spoke these words in shame.

7.16.3 "This I told you before: while Dhanaṃjaya holds his ground, Yudhiṣṭhira cannot be seized in battle, not even by the gods.

7.16.4 So, though you strove, it was thwarted by Pārtha in the battle. Do not too greatly doubt my word: unconquerable are Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍava.

7.16.5 But if by some device he of the white steeds be drawn away, then, O king, Yudhiṣṭhira shall this day come into your power.

7.16.6 Let someone challenge him in the fight and draw him off to another quarter; for the son of Kuntī will in no wise return without having vanquished him."

7.16.7 In that undefended interval, O king, I shall break through the host and seize the Dharma-king, even before the very eyes of Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.16.8 And if, bereft of Arjuna, he does not abandon the battle when he beholds me bearing down upon him, know him then as already taken.

7.16.9 Thus, O king, in a single rush I shall this very day bring Yudhiṣṭhira, son of Dharma, together with his retinue, into your power—of this there is no doubt.

7.16.10 If the Pāṇḍava stands his ground in battle even for a moment—but should he flee from the field, that would be better still than victory.

7.16.11 Having heard the words of Droṇa, the lord of the Trigartas then, O king, together with his brothers, spoke these words.

7.16.12 We have ever been wronged, O king, by the wielder of Gāṇḍīva, who, O bull of the Bhāratas, has done us injury though we were guiltless.

7.16.13 Remembering those manifold humiliations, we, burning in the fire of wrath, can find no sleep through all our nights.

7.16.14 Now he, mighty in celestial weapons, has come within the range of our sight; we shall accomplish all that we have long desired in our hearts.

7.16.15 What would be pleasing to you and bring glory to us—this we shall do: we shall slay him, having drawn him away beyond the field of battle.

7.16.16 This day let the earth be without Arjuna, or else without the Trigartas; truly we swear it to you, and this shall not prove false.

7.16.17 So having spoken, O Bhārata, Satyaratha and Satyadharman, and Satyavarman and Satyeṣu, and Satyakarman likewise,

7.16.18 the five brothers together, with ten thousand chariots, turned aside, O great king, having taken their oath upon the battle.

7.16.19 The Mālavas and the Tuṇḍikeras with thirty thousand chariots, and Suśarman, that tiger among men, the Trigarta lord of Prasthala,

7.16.20 together with the Mācellakas, the Lalitthas, and the Madrakas, with ten thousand chariots, took the oath together with his brothers.

7.16.21 And from sundry realms yet another ten thousand chariots of chosen warriors had risen up and come forward to swear the oath.

7.16.22 Then, taking up the kindled fire and making oblation each one severally, they donned garments of kuśa-grass and bright-patterned coats of mail.

7.16.23 Their armor bound on, anointed with clarified butter, clad in kuśa-grass, girt with bowstring-belts—those heroes whose sacrificial fees ran to hundreds of thousands—

7.16.24 performers of sacrifice, blessed with sons, worthy of the worlds, their duties fulfilled, ready to lay down their bodies, about to yoke their very selves to glory and to victory,

7.16.25 having attained the heavenly worlds through chastity, sacred learning, and rites whose fees were duly bestowed, eager to go thither swiftly through fair-fought battle,

7.16.26 having gratified the brāhmaṇas and bestowed upon them gold pieces each in turn, and cattle and garments, they spoke once more to one another,

7.16.27 and having kindled the black-pathed Fire and approached it, they then, in that flame, took their battle-vow, firm in resolve, and made their pledge.

7.16.28 In the hearing of all beings they made their utterances aloud, and binding themselves to the slaying of Dhanaṃjaya, they took their solemn oath.

7.16.29 "Those worlds which belong to liars, and those that belong to the slayers of brāhmaṇas, the worlds of the drinker of strong drink and of him who lusts after his teacher's wife,

7.16.30 the worlds of him who steals a brāhmaṇa's wealth and of him who plunders the king's grant, of him who forsakes one come for refuge and slays a suppliant,

7.16.31 the worlds of house-burners and of cattle-slayers, the worlds of the wicked and of those who hate the brāhmaṇas,

7.16.32 and of those who out of folly shun their wives in the season fit for offspring, and of those who betray a fellowship pledged over the funeral rites, and of those who destroy their own souls—

7.16.33 and the worlds of those who steal what was entrusted to them, of those who let their sacred learning perish, of those who fight in anger, and of those who follow base men,

7.16.34 and the worlds of unbelievers, and of those who abandon the fire-rites and forsake their forefathers—those worlds may we attain, and those of evildoers besides,

7.16.35 if we should turn back from the battle without having slain Dhanaṃjaya, or if, pressed hard by him, we should out of fear show him our backs.

7.16.36 But if in the fray we accomplish that deed so hard to do in this world, then beyond doubt we shall attain the cherished worlds of those who have done meritorious deeds."

7.16.37 Having spoken thus, O king, those heroes advanced into the battle, summoning Arjuna toward the quarter beloved of the forefathers.

7.16.38 Challenged by those tigers among men, Pārtha, conqueror of hostile cities, spoke these words to the Dharma-king without delay.

7.16.39 "Once challenged, I shall not turn back—such is the vow I have taken; and these sworn warriors, O king, summon me again and again.

7.16.40 And here Suśarman, together with his brothers, calls me to battle; you ought to give me leave to go for the slaying of him and his band."

7.16.41 "This challenge I cannot endure, O bull among men. Truly I declare to you: hold the foe as already slain in battle."

7.16.42 Yudhiṣṭhira said: You have heard, my dear son, what Droṇa intends to do; so act that his purpose shall come to nothing.

7.16.43 For Droṇa is strong and valiant, skilled in arms and untiring, and he has pledged this capture of me, O great chariot-warrior.

7.16.44 Arjuna said: This Satyajit, O king, shall be your guardian in battle today; so long as the Pāñcāla stands his ground, the preceptor shall not gain his desire.

7.16.45 But should that tiger among men Satyajit be slain in battle, O lord, then you must on no account stand your ground, even with all your forces gathered together.

7.16.46 Saṃjaya said: Then Phalguna, given leave by the king, was embraced and looked upon with love in many ways, and was sped on with benedictions.

7.16.47 Then the mighty Pārtha, leaving him, advanced against the Trigartas, as a famished lion against a herd of deer to still his hunger.

7.16.48 Then, Arjuna being gone, Duryodhana's army, filled with the highest joy and fiercely intent on the seizing of the Dharma-king,

7.16.49 then the two armies came together against each other with might, like the Gaṅgā and the Sarayū rushing in the rains, their waters swollen and turbulent.

7.17.1 Saṃjaya said: Then the sworn warriors, O king, arrayed upon level ground, drew up their host of chariots in the formation called the half-moon, filled with gladness.

7.17.2 Beholding the Diademed One advancing, those tigers among men, O sire, raised a great shout in their exultation.

7.17.3 That clamor filled all the intermediate quarters, the main quarters, and the sky; and because the whole world was so filled, there arose no echo of it there.

7.17.4 Perceiving them so exceedingly elated, Dhanaṃjaya, smiling somewhat, spoke these words to Kṛṣṇa.

7.17.5 "Behold these, O son of Devakī, these Trigarta brothers, doomed to die this day in battle, thus rejoicing when they ought rather to weep.

7.17.6 Or rather, this is indeed a time of joy for the Trigartas, beyond doubt, for they shall attain those most excellent worlds so hard for base men to win."

7.17.7 Having spoken thus to Hṛṣīkeśa, the mighty-armed Arjuna then closed in battle upon the arrayed host of the Trigartas.

7.17.8 Phalguna, taking up Devadatta, his conch adorned with gold, blew it with great force, filling all the quarters with its sound.

7.17.9 Terrified by that blast, the army of the sworn warriors stood motionless in the fray, as though wrought of iron-hard stone.

7.17.10 Their steeds, with eyes rolled back, ears and necks rigid, and legs braced stiff, let flow their urine and their blood.

7.17.11 But recovering their senses and steadying their force, they hurled all at once their heron-feathered arrows against the son of Pāṇḍu.

7.17.12 Those fifteen thousand shafts Arjuna, swift in valor, cut down with his own fleet arrows before ever they reached him.

7.17.13 Then again they struck back at Arjuna with ten sharp arrows apiece; and Pārtha in turn pierced each of them with three.

7.17.14 Then each one severally, O king, pierced Pārtha with five shafts, and he, the valiant one, pierced them back with two apiece.

7.17.15 Then yet again, enraged, they covered over Arjuna together with Keśava with their keen shafts, as a pond is filled with showers of rain.

7.17.16 Then thousands of arrows came falling upon Arjuna, like swarms of bees in a forest among groves of flowering trees.

7.17.17 Then Subāhu with thirty firm arrows of adamantine temper struck the Ambidextrous One deep upon the diadem.

7.17.18 With those gold-nocked, straight-flying shafts lodged in his diadem, the Diademed One, crowned as with a wreath of gold, shone like an uplifted sacrificial post.

7.17.19 With a broad-headed arrow the Pāṇḍava cut away the leather hand-guard of Subāhu in the fight, and then again overwhelmed him with showers of shafts.

7.17.20 Then Suśarman with ten arrows, and Suratha, Sudharman, Sudhanus, and Subāhu likewise, beset the Diademed One.

7.17.21 But he whose banner bore the foremost of monkeys pierced them all back, each with his arrows, and with broad-headed shafts cut down their golden standards.

7.17.22 Having cut asunder the bow of Sudhanus, he slew his horses with his shafts, and then struck off from the trunk his head together with its helmet.

7.17.23 When that hero had fallen, his followers, stricken with terror, fled in their fear to where Duryodhana's army stood.

7.17.24 Then the son of Vāsava, sorely enraged, smote that great host with unbroken nets of arrows, as the sun dispels the darkness with its beams.

7.17.25 Then, when that force was broken and scattered on every side, and the Ambidextrous One was wrathful, fear entered into the Trigartas.

7.17.26 Slaughtered by Pārtha with his smooth-jointed shafts, they swooned away here and there, frightened like herds of deer.

7.17.27 Then the king of the Trigartas, enraged, spoke to those great chariot-warriors: "Enough of your flight, O heroes; you ought not to give way to fear.

7.17.28 Having sworn dreadful oaths before the eyes of the whole army, what will you, foremost of men, say when you go to Duryodhana's host?

7.17.29 How shall we all together not become a mockery in the world by such a deed in battle? Turn back, each according to his strength!"

7.17.30 Thus addressed, O king, those heroes shouted again and again and blew their conches, heartening one another.

7.17.31 Then the bands of sworn warriors turned again to the fight, and the Nārāyaṇa cowherds too, making death itself their place of return.

7.18.1 Saṃjaya said: But seeing the bands of sworn warriors turn back once more to the battle, Arjuna spoke to the great-souled Vāsudeva.

7.18.2 "Urge on the horses, O Hṛṣīkeśa, against the bands of sworn warriors; these men will not quit the battle while they live—such is my judgment.

7.18.3 Behold the dread strength of my weapons, of my two arms and of my bow; this day, in my wrath, I shall lay them low as Rudra lays low the beasts."

7.18.4 Then Kṛṣṇa, smiling and greeting him with an auspicious word, drove the chariot, unassailable, wherever Arjuna wished it to go.

7.18.5 That chariot, borne along in the battle then, shone exceeding bright, drawn by its pale horses like a celestial car borne through the sky.

7.18.6 Then it wheeled in circles, advancing and returning, O king, as did the chariot of Śakra of old in the war between the gods and the asuras.

7.18.7 Then the Nārāyaṇa troops, enraged and bearing weapons of every kind, blanketing him with showers of arrows, surrounded Dhanaṃjaya on all sides.

7.18.8 And in a moment, O bull of the Bhāratas, they made Dhanaṃjaya, the son of Kuntī, together with Kṛṣṇa, invisible in the battle.

7.18.9 But Phalguna, enraged in the fray, his prowess redoubled, stroked the Gāṇḍīva and swiftly took it up in the combat.

7.18.10 Knitting his brow upon his face, the very mark of wrath, the Pāṇḍava filled with breath the great conch Devadatta.

7.18.11 Then Arjuna loosed the weapon of Tvaṣṭṛ, slayer of hosts of foes, and at once thousands of forms appeared, each one distinct.

7.18.12 Deluded by those counterfeit likenesses of him, of manifold shapes, they took one another for Arjuna and slew their very own selves.

7.18.13 "Here is Arjuna! Here is Govinda! Here are the Yādava and the Pāṇḍava!"—so crying, bewildered, they slew one another in the battle.

7.18.14 Deluded by the supreme weapon, they wrought one another's destruction; the warriors gleamed upon the field like kiṃśuka trees in flower.

7.18.15 Then that weapon, reducing to ashes the thousands of arrows loosed by them, conducted those heroes to the abode of Yama.

7.18.16 Then Bībhatsu, laughing, tormented with his arrows the Lalitthas and the Mālavas, the Mācellakas, the Trigartas, and the Yaudheyas.

7.18.17 Those Kṣatriyas, slaughtered by the hero and driven on by fate, poured upon Pārtha showers of arrows of every kind.

7.18.18 Then neither Arjuna nor the chariot nor Keśava could there be seen, shrouded by that dreadful rain of arrows.

7.18.19 Then, believing they had found their mark, they shouted to one another in joy, "The two Kṛṣṇas are slain!"—and shook out their garments.

7.18.20 The warriors by the thousand sounded kettledrums, tabors, and conches, and there, O venerable one, they raised fierce roars like the roaring of lions.

7.18.21 Then Kṛṣṇa broke into sweat, and weary he said to Arjuna: "Where are you, Pārtha? I do not see you—do you yet live, O slayer of foes?"

7.18.22 Reading that mortal feeling in him, the Pāṇḍava, who knew all hearts, swept away with the weapon of Vāyu the rain of arrows they had loosed.

7.18.23 Then the lord Vāyu bore off the hosts of the Saṃśaptakas, with their horses, elephants, chariots, and weapons, as if they were heaps of dry leaves.

7.18.24 Borne aloft by the wind, O king, they made a strange spectacle, O venerable one, like birds flying up from the trees in their season.

7.18.25 Having thus thrown them into confusion, Dhanaṃjaya in haste slew with his whetted arrows hundreds and thousands of them.

7.18.26 With broad-headed shafts he struck off heads and arms still grasping their weapons, and with his arrows he felled to the earth thighs like the trunks of elephants.

7.18.27 Dhanaṃjaya made his foes broken-backed and legless, their brains, eyes, and fingers shorn away, robbed of their various limbs and members.

7.18.28 Shattering with his arrows the chariots, duly fashioned and resembling the cities of the Gandharvas, he left them stripped of horses, chariots, and elephants.

7.18.29 Here and there shone the throngs of chariots with banners cut away, like groves of headless palms—some here, some there, in this place and in that.

7.18.30 Elephants with their upper weapons, with banners, goads, and arms, fell like wooded mountains struck by the thunderbolt of Śakra.

7.18.31 Horses with chowries, head-ornaments, and armor, their entrails, eyes, and breath slipping from them, fell to the ground with their riders, struck down by Pārtha's arrows.

7.18.32 Their swords and daggers flung aside, their armor, lances, and spears hewn through, the foot-soldiers with sundered mail lay slain in pitiful array.

7.18.33 With the slain and the dying, with those falling and those fallen, with those reeling about and those groaning aloud, the battlefield grew terrible to behold.

7.18.34 The great cloud of dust that had risen was laid to rest by the showers of blood, and the earth, thronged with hundreds of headless trunks, became impassable.

7.18.35 That course of Bībhatsu in the battle, fierce and ghastly, shone like the sporting-ground of Rudra slaughtering his creatures at the end of an age.

7.18.36 Slaughtered by Pārtha, their horses, chariots, and elephants thrown into disorder, they, dwindling away yet still facing him, became the guests of Śakra.

7.18.37 That ground, O best of the Bhāratas, strewn all over with those slain great chariot-warriors turned into corpses, presented a fearful sight on every side.

7.18.38 Meanwhile, while Savyasācin was thus occupied, Droṇa, his ranks arrayed in battle order, rushed upon Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.18.39 Swiftly the warriors with their ordered ranks received him, seeking to shield Yudhiṣṭhira; and then there arose a great tumult.

7.19.1 Saṃjaya said: When the great chariot-warrior, the son of Bharadvāja, had passed that night, and had spoken much, O king, to King Suyodhana,

7.19.2 having arranged the engagement of Pārtha with the bands of the Saṃśaptakas, and when Pārtha had withdrawn from the field toward the slaying of the Saṃśaptakas,

7.19.3 then Droṇa, his army arrayed for battle, advanced, O best of the Bhāratas, against the great host of the Pāṇḍavas, seeking to seize the King of Righteousness.

7.19.4 Beholding then the Garuḍa-array fashioned by the son of Bharadvāja, Yudhiṣṭhira drew up his counter-formation in the shape of a half-circle.

7.19.5 The mouth of the Garuḍa was the great chariot-warrior, the son of Bharadvāja; its head was King Duryodhana with his brothers and followers.

7.19.6 Its two eyes were Kṛtavarman and the descendant of Gotama, the best of bowmen, together with Bhūtavarman, Kṣemaśarman, and the valiant Karakarṣa.

7.19.7 The Kaliṅgas, the Siṃhalas, the Easterners, the valiant Ābhīras, the Dāśerakas, the Śakas, the Yavanas, the Kāmbojas, and those who were the Haṃsapadas,

7.19.8 and the Śūrasenas, the Daradas, the Madras, and the Kekayas stood at the neck, a flood of elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers in their hundreds of thousands.

7.19.9 Bhūriśravas, Śala, Śalya, Somadatta, and Bāhlika, heroes encompassed by an akṣauhiṇī, took their stand upon the right wing.

7.19.10 Vinda and Anuvinda of Avanti, and Sudakṣiṇa the Kāmboja, taking their position on the left wing, stood with the son of Droṇa at their head.

7.19.11 At the back were the Kaliṅgas, the Ambaṣṭhas, the Māgadhas, the Pauṇḍras and Madrakas, the Gāndhāras led by Śakuni, the mountaineers, and the Vasātis.

7.19.12 At the tail stood Karṇa, son of Vikartana, with his sons, kinsmen, and friends, attended by a mighty host that bristled with banners of every kind.

7.19.13 Jayadratha, Bhīmaratha, Sāṃyātrika, Sabhā, Jaya, Bhūmiṃjaya, Vṛṣakrātha, and the mighty Naiṣadha,

7.19.14 surrounded by a great force and having the world of Brahmā as their goal, stood above the array, O king, those men skilled in war.

7.19.15 The array marshalled by Droṇa, with its foot-soldiers, horses, chariots, and elephants, looked like the ocean lashed by the wind and surging into motion.

7.19.16 From its wings and outer wings the eager combatants poured forth, like clouds charged with lightning and thunder from every quarter in the hot season.

7.19.17 In its midst the king of Prāgjyotiṣa, mounted upon an elephant duly caparisoned, shone, O king, like the radiant sun at its rising.

7.19.18 The king, borne beneath a white parasol hung with wreaths and garlands, was like the full moon on the night of the full, in conjunction with the Kṛttikā stars.

7.19.19 That elephant, dark as a heap of black collyrium and blind with rut, gleamed like a great mountain rained upon by mighty clouds.

7.19.20 Attended by sundry heroic kings of the mountains, adorned with weapons of every kind, he was like Śakra amid the hosts of the gods.

7.19.21 Then Yudhiṣṭhira, beholding that more-than-human array, unconquerable by foes in battle, spoke these words to the son of Pṛṣata:

7.19.22 "O lord, master of horses gray as the dove, let such a plan be devised that I do not this day fall into the power of the Brāhmaṇa."

7.19.23 Dhṛṣṭadyumna said: "You shall not fall into the power of Droṇa, however he may strive, O true to your vows; this day I shall hold off Droṇa together with his followers.

7.19.24 While I live, O descendant of Kuru, you ought not to be troubled; for Droṇa is by no means able to vanquish me in battle."

7.19.25 Saṃjaya said: Having spoken thus and scattering arrows, the mighty son of Drupada, his horses gray as the dove, himself rushed against Droṇa.

7.19.26 Seeing Dhṛṣṭadyumna planted before him, of unwelcome aspect, Droṇa in an instant became as one whose heart was not greatly cheered.

7.19.27 But beholding him, your son Durmukha, scourge of foes, wishing to do Droṇa a service, held off Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.19.28 That tumultuous clash between the heroic son of Pṛṣata and Durmukha, O Bhārata, seemed to be a contest of equals.

7.19.29 The son of Pṛṣata, swiftly veiling Durmukha with a net of arrows, beat back the son of Bharadvāja with a great flood of shafts.

7.19.30 Seeing Droṇa held at bay, your son, sorely strained, bewildered the son of Pṛṣata with showers of arrows of every device.

7.19.31 While those two chiefs, the Pāñcāla and the Kuru, were locked together in the fray, Droṇa with his arrows scattered Yudhiṣṭhira's army in many directions.

7.19.32 As clouds are torn asunder on every side by the wind, so were Pārtha's forces torn apart, here and there.

7.19.33 For a moment that battle was fair to behold; then, O king, it raged on as if frenzied, beyond all bounds.

7.19.34 Neither one's own men nor the foe, O king, could any longer be told apart; that battle was waged by guesswork and by watchwords.

7.19.35 From their crest-jewels, their golden chains, their ornaments, their swords and shields, beams shone forth with the splendor of the sun.

7.19.36 The aspect of the chariots, elephants, and horses, with their banners scattered abroad, appeared in the battle like a sky dappled with cranes and clouds.

7.19.37 Men slew men, and fierce horses slew horses; charioteers slew charioteers, and elephants slew great elephants.

7.19.38 Between elephants whose banners were upraised and other mighty elephants there arose in a moment a tumultuous and terrible combat.

7.19.39 From those beasts, their bodies locked together as they dragged at one another, fire mixed with smoke sprang up from the grinding clash of their tusks.

7.19.40 With their banners scattered and fire kindled from their tusks, they became, as they reached toward the sky, like clouds charged with lightning.

7.19.41 With the elephants—bleeding, trumpeting, and falling—the earth was strewn over, as the autumn sky is strewn with clouds.

7.19.42 From those elephants, smitten by the showers of arrows and lances, there arose a roar like the roar of clouds at the dissolution of the world.

7.19.43 Some of the great elephants, struck by lances and by arrows, trembled in terror; others took to flight at the very din of every creature.

7.19.44 And some elephants there, gored by the tusks of other elephants, raised a dreadful cry of anguish, like storm-clouds at a portent.

7.19.45 And the elephants that were being driven backward by mighty elephants, urged on again by the keen goads, churned forward and returned to the charge.

7.19.46 The elephant-drivers, smitten by the arrows and lances of other drivers, let fall their weapons and goads and went down from the elephants to the ground.

7.19.47 And the elephants, bereft of their men and trumpeting on every side, rushed together and crashed into one another like sundered clouds.

7.19.48 Bearing away the slain and held fast by the finest weapons, the great elephants scattered to every quarter, some wandering off alone as though solitary beasts.

7.19.49 Struck and struck again by lances, spears, and battle-axes, the elephants fell with cries of anguish there amid the slaughter.

7.19.50 As their mountain-like bodies came crashing down on every side, the earth, struck all at once, both trembled and resounded.

7.19.51 With elephants brought low on every side, their riders and banners with them, the ground shone as if strewn with scattered mountains.

7.19.52 The mahouts upon the elephants, their hearts pierced through in battle, were felled by the chariot-warriors' broad-headed shafts, their goads and lances flung about.

7.19.53 Other elephants, smitten by iron arrows, trumpeting like cranes, fled crashing through the ten directions, trampling enemy and friend alike.

7.19.54 Covered with the heaped bodies of hosts of elephants, horses, and chariots, the earth, O king, became a mire of flesh and blood.

7.19.55 Crushed and tossed aloft by the elephants' tusk-tips, the great chariot-warriors, with their cars whole or with wheels torn away, lay strewn upon the field.

7.19.56 Chariots bereft of their warriors, horses bereft of their men, and elephants whose riders were slain fled to every quarter, tormented by arrows.

7.19.57 There a father slew his son and a son his father; so tumultuous was the battle that nothing whatever could be discerned.

7.19.58 Men sank to their ankles in the mire of blood, hemmed in as great trees encircled by blazing forest fires.

7.19.59 Garments and armor, parasols and banners, all drenched with blood, appeared crimson to the eye.

7.19.60 Multitudes of horses, of chariots, and of men, struck down, were rolled over and over again and ground in many ways by the chariot-wheels.

7.19.61 That ocean of armies shone forth, its great surge the throng of elephants, its waterweed the lifeless men, its turbulent whirlpools the masses of chariots.

7.19.62 Plunging into it with their mounts for great ships, the warriors who craved the wealth of victory, though sinking down, gave way to no bewilderment.

7.19.63 Among the warriors rained upon by showers of arrows, their tokens of valor not yet won, not one who bore the marks of wounds could keep his own composure.

7.19.64 As that battle, terrible of aspect and dreadful, raged on, Droṇa, having confounded the foe, rushed upon Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.20.1 Saṃjaya said: Then Yudhiṣṭhira, seeing Droṇa drawn near, received him fearlessly with a great shower of arrows.

7.20.2 Then a tumultuous din arose within Yudhiṣṭhira's host, as when a great lion seeks to seize the leader of a herd of elephants.

7.20.3 Seeing Droṇa bent on reaching Yudhiṣṭhira, the hero Satyajit, of truthful valor, then rushed upon the teacher.

7.20.4 Then the teacher and the Pāñcāla fought one another, throwing that army into turmoil like Indra and the son of Virocana of old.

7.20.5 Then the teacher swiftly pierced Satyajit with ten keen, vital-rending shafts, cutting away his bow with its arrow set.

7.20.6 Taking up another bow more swiftly still, the valiant warrior at once struck Droṇa with twenty heron-feathered arrows.

7.20.7 Seeing Droṇa as if devoured by Satyajit in the fight, the Pāñcāla Vṛka harried Droṇa with hundreds of keen arrows.

7.20.8 Beholding the great chariot-warrior Droṇa overwhelmed in the fight, the Pāṇḍavas raised a shout, O king, and waved their garments aloft.

7.20.9 And the mighty Vṛka, in utmost wrath, pierced Droṇa between the breasts with sixty shafts, O king; and that seemed a marvel.

7.20.10 But the great chariot-warrior Droṇa, that mighty force, overspread by the shower of arrows, gathered his speed, his eyes rolling with wrath.

7.20.11 Then Droṇa cut away the bows of both Satyajit and Vṛka, and with six arrows Droṇa slew Vṛka together with his charioteer and horses.

7.20.12 Then Satyajit, taking up another swifter bow, pierced Droṇa with his horses, charioteer, and banner, with shafts.

7.20.13 Droṇa could not brook this harrying by the Pāñcāla in the fray; so for his destruction he loosed his arrows in haste.

7.20.14 His horses, his banner, the grip of his bow, and both his flanking charioteers—all these Droṇa then overwhelmed with showers of arrows by the thousand.

7.20.15 Though his bows were cut to pieces again and again, the Pāñcāla, supreme master of weapons, kept battling him whose horses were red.

7.20.16 Marking Satyajit risen up so in the great battle, Droṇa with a crescent-headed shaft severed the head of that noble man.

7.20.17 When that mighty bull among the chariot-warriors of the Pāñcālas was slain, Yudhiṣṭhira, in dread of Droṇa, withdrew on his swift horses.

7.20.18 The Pāñcālas, Kekayas, Matsyas, Cedis, Karūṣas, and Kosalas, looking to Yudhiṣṭhira, joyfully rushed upon Droṇa.

7.20.19 Then the teacher, slayer of throngs of foes, eager to reach Yudhiṣṭhira, scattered those battalions as the wind scatters a heap of cotton.

7.20.20 As Droṇa burned through those battalions again and again, Śatānīka, younger brother of the Matsya king, advanced against him.

7.20.21 With six arrows bright as the sun's rays and burnished by the smith, he pierced Droṇa together with his charioteer and horses, and roared aloud.

7.20.22 As he roared, Droṇa with a razor-headed shaft swiftly struck his head, with its earrings, from his body; and thereupon the Matsyas fled.

7.20.23 Having vanquished the Matsyas, the son of Bharadvāja conquered the Cedis, the Karūṣas, the Kekayas, the Pāñcālas, the Sṛñjayas, and the Pāṇḍus, again and again.

7.20.24 Seeing him of the golden chariot, wrathful, consuming the battalions like a raging fire a forest, the Sṛñjayas trembled.

7.20.25 As that swift-handed one drew his peerless bow and struck down his foes, the twang of his bowstring was heard in all the quarters.

7.20.26 Elephants, horses, and foot-soldiers, chariot-warriors and elephant-riders—the dreadful arrows loosed by that deft hand crushed them all.

7.20.27 Like a thundering rain-cloud mingled with wind at winter's end, he rained down what seemed a hail of stones, striking terror into the foe.

7.20.28 That mighty hero, the great archer, giver of safety to his friends, ranged over all the quarters as though convulsing the host.

7.20.29 Like lightning amid the clouds, we beheld in every quarter the gold-adorned bow of Droṇa of boundless splendor.

7.20.30 And Droṇa wrought great havoc in the Pāṇḍava host, as Viṣṇu, honored by gods and demons alike, once did among the throngs of the Daityas.

7.20.31 That hero, truthful in speech, wise, mighty, of true valor, and of great majesty—at the end of time, dreadful and terrifying to the timid—

7.20.32 a river whose waves were coats of mail and whose whirlpools were banners, sweeping away the banks of mortal men, with elephants and horses for its great crocodiles, swords for its fish, hard to cross,

7.20.33 with the bones of heroes for its gravel, dreadful, with kettledrums and tabors for its turtles, with shields and armor for its rafts, terrible, with hair for its waterweed and water-grass,

7.20.34 running with floods of arrows, its currents bows, thronged with arms for serpents, the dread stream that the battlefield bore along, the river of the Kurus and Sṛñjayas, with men's heads for stones, spears for fish, and maces for its boats,

7.20.35 with turbans for its foam and raiment, with spilled entrails for its crawling reptiles, fierce, bearing away heroes, terrible, its mire of flesh and blood,

7.20.36 with elephants for its alligators and banners for its trees, drowning the warriors, cruel, with heaped bodies for its rafts and cavalrymen for its crocodiles, impassable—such a river, flowing to the realm of Death, did Droṇa set coursing there.

7.20.37 It rang with the cries of flesh-eating throngs, swarmed with packs of dogs and jackals, and was haunted on every side by the most dreadful devourers of carrion.

7.20.38 As that lordly chariot-warrior, like Death itself, burned through their battalions, the sons of Kuntī at their head rushed upon Droṇa from every side.

7.20.39 But your kings and princes, their weapons raised, surrounded those heroic great archers on every side.

7.20.40 Then Droṇa, true to his word, like an elephant in rut, broke through the chariot-ranks and brought down Dṛḍhasena.

7.20.41 Then, falling upon king Kṣema as he struck fearlessly, he pierced him with nine arrows; and Kṣema, slain, dropped from his chariot.

7.20.42 Reaching the midst of the armies and ranging through all the quarters, he became the protector of others, while he himself could in no way be brought to bay.

7.20.43 With twelve arrows he struck Śikhaṇḍin, with twenty Uttamaujas, and with a broad-headed shaft he sent Vasudāna to the abode of Yama.

7.20.44 With eighty arrows he pierced Kṣatravarman, with twenty-six Sudakṣiṇa, and with a broad-headed shaft he struck Kṣatradeva from the seat of his chariot.

7.20.45 Having pierced Yudhāmanyu with sixty-four arrows and Sātyaki with thirty, he of the golden chariot swiftly rushed upon Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.20.46 Then Yudhiṣṭhira, best of kings, withdrew at once on his swift horses; and Kitava the Pāñcāla advanced against Droṇa.

7.20.47 Droṇa struck him down together with his bow, his horses, and his driver; and slain, he fell to the ground from his chariot, like a star from the sky.

7.20.48 When that prince, the glory of the Pāñcālas, was slain, a great tumult arose: "Slay Droṇa! Slay Droṇa!"

7.20.49 The mighty Droṇa threw into disorder those furiously enraged Pāñcālas, Matsyas, Kekayas, Sṛñjayas, and Pāṇḍavas.

7.20.50 Sātyaki and Cekitāna, Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Śikhaṇḍin, Vārdhakṣemi, Citrasena, Senābindu, and Suvarcas—

7.20.51 these and many others besides, lords of various realms, all of them Droṇa vanquished in battle, surrounded by the Kurus.

7.20.52 And your men, O great king, having won victory in that mighty battle, slew the Pāṇḍava forces as they fled in all directions.

7.20.53 Slain by the great-souled Droṇa as the Dānavas were once slain by Indra, the Pāñcālas, Kekayas, and Matsyas trembled, O Bhārata.

7.21.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When the Pāṇḍavas and all the Pāñcālas were broken by the son of Bharadvāja in that great battle, did any other turn back to face him,

7.21.2 having set his mind in battle upon the noble resolve that brings the warrior fame—shunned by cowards, embraced by bulls among men?

7.21.3 For that man, O charioteer, is a hero who turns back when others are routed. Alas, was there not a single man who stood firm at the sight of Droṇa,

7.21.4 who, like a yawning tiger, like an elephant in rut, laying down his very life in battle, stood armed and skilled in varied modes of warfare,

7.21.5 the great archer, that tiger among men, who multiplied the woes of his foes, grateful, devoted to truth, seeker of Duryodhana's good?

7.21.6 Seeing the son of Bharadvāja, that hero, thus standing firm in the front of battle, which heroes turned back to meet him? Tell me that, Saṃjaya.

7.21.7 Saṃjaya said: Seeing them shaken in the fray and driven off by Droṇa's arrows—the Pāñcālas, Pāṇḍavas, Matsyas, Sṛñjayas, Cedis, and Kekayas—

7.21.8 borne away by the life-stealing flood of arrows loosed from Droṇa's bow, like rafts swept off by the great current of a river,

7.21.9 the Kauravas, with lions' roars and the din of many instruments, with chariots, elephants, men, and horses, surrounded them on every side.

7.21.10 Beholding them, king Duryodhana, standing in the midst of his host and surrounded by his kinsmen, in high delight and as if laughing, spoke to Karṇa.

7.21.11 Behold, Rādheya, the Pāñcālas driven back by Droṇa's arrows, terrified by that mighty bowman as wild deer are terrified by a lion.

7.21.12 Never again, I think, will these men long for battle, broken as they are by Droṇa as great trees are broken by the wind.

7.21.13 Tormented by the gold-feathered shafts of that great-souled one, they flee by no single road, reeling this way and that.

7.21.14 Hemmed in by the Kauravas and by the great-souled Droṇa, these others have huddled into a ring, like elephants ringed about by fire.

7.21.15 Beset as if by swarming bees by Droṇa's whetted arrows, bent wholly on flight, they cling close to one another.

7.21.16 There stands Bhīma, fierce in his wrath, cut off from the Pāṇḍavas and the Sṛñjayas, ringed about by my warriors, and yet, Karṇa, he seems to threaten me still.

7.21.17 Plainly that fool sees the whole world made of Droṇa today; surely now the Pāṇḍava has given up hope of life and of his kingdom.

7.21.18 Karṇa said: Never, while he lives, will that mighty-armed one quit the fight, nor, O tiger among men, will he leave off these his lion-roars.

7.21.19 Nor, I think, will the Pāṇḍavas be broken in battle, for they are brave and strong, masters of weapons, and frenzied for the fray.

7.21.20 Remembering the poison, the fire, the gambling, and all their torments, and their exile in the forest, the Pāṇḍavas will not abandon the battle — so I judge.

7.21.21 Wronged as he has been, the mighty-armed Vṛkodara of measureless strength — that son of Kuntī — will slay our finest, the best of our great chariot-warriors.

7.21.22 With sword, with bow, with spear, with horses, elephants, men, and chariots, and with his iron mace, he will slay them in troop after troop.

7.21.23 And these chariot-warriors follow him, led by Sātyaki — the Pāñcālas, the Kekayas, the Matsyas, and above all the Pāṇḍavas themselves.

7.21.24 Brave they are, and strong, and valiant — great chariot-warriors — and above all spurred on by the wrathful Bhīma.

7.21.25 From every side, those bulls among the Kurus close in upon Droṇa, seeking to shield Vṛkodara, as banks of cloud close round the sun.

7.21.26 Gathered into one single path, these men might press hard upon the steadfast keeper of vows, were he left unguarded — as moths bent on their own death press upon a lamp; for beyond doubt they are masters of weapons and fit to hold him off.

7.21.27 Too heavy a burden, I think, has been laid upon the son of Bharadvāja; let us go swiftly to where Droṇa has taken his stand, lest, as crows would a great serpent, they slay the steadfast keeper of vows.

7.21.28 Saṃjaya said: Hearing the words of Rādheya, King Duryodhana then, together with his brothers, O king, set forth toward Droṇa's chariot.

7.21.29 There arose a mighty uproar from the Pāṇḍavas, who had turned back with their splendid horses of many hues, all eager to kill Droṇa alone.

7.22.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Tell me, Saṃjaya, the chariot-ensigns of every one of them — those who, with Bhīma at their head, in their fury bore down upon Droṇa.

7.22.2 Saṃjaya said: Seeing Vṛkodara striving on with horses the color of the antelope, the brave Śaineya, his steeds silver-white, then turned to join him.

7.22.3 Bearing Nakula swiftly on, the comely Kāmboja horses, decked in trappings green as parrots' wings, rushed upon your men.

7.22.4 And dark horses like thunderclouds, terrible in their speed and swift as the wind, bore Sahadeva, that tiger among men, his weapon raised on high.

7.22.5 With horses caparisoned in finest gold and matching the wind in speed, all the armies advanced about Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.22.6 Next to the king came the Pāñcāla king Drupada, beneath a parasol wrought of gold, guarded all about by his own men.

7.22.7 Drawn by handsome bay steeds, inured to every din of war, that mighty bowman, fearless and unmoved, advanced amid the kings.

7.22.8 Behind him followed Virāṭa with his brave great chariot-warriors; and the Kekayas, and Śikhaṇḍin, and Dhṛṣṭaketu likewise, each ringed by his own troops, followed the king of the Matsyas.

7.22.9 Excellent horses the color of trumpet-flowers, bearing on the foe-slaying king of the Matsyas, shone resplendent.

7.22.10 Swift horses turmeric-yellow in hue, garlanded with gold, bore in haste the son of King Virāṭa.

7.22.11 Borne by horses red as the cochineal insect came the five Kekaya brothers, gleaming like gold, every one of them under a crimson banner.

7.22.12 Those heroes, garlanded in gold, all skilled in war and clad in armor, appeared like raining storm-clouds.

7.22.13 Well-broken horses, copper-red and the color of unbaked clay, yoked to his car, bore the Pāñcāla Śikhaṇḍin of boundless might.

7.22.14 Twelve thousand were the great chariot-warriors of the Pāñcālas, and of these six thousand followed Śikhaṇḍin.

7.22.15 And the son of Śiśupāla, that lion among men, O sire, was borne along by dappled, fawn-colored horses that seemed to sport as they ran.

7.22.16 And Dhṛṣṭaketu, that bull among the Cedis, swollen with surpassing might and hard to conquer, advanced with dappled Kāmboja steeds.

7.22.17 And the delicate Bṛhatkṣatra of the Kaikeyas was borne swiftly on by excellent Saindhava horses the color of straw-smoke.

7.22.18 Bāhlika-bred horses, jasmine-eyed and lotus-hued, finely adorned, bore the brave Kṣatradeva, son of Śikhaṇḍin.

7.22.19 Excellent horses the color of the curlew bore into battle the youthful Sukumāra, that great chariot-warrior, son of Abhibhū the king of Kāśi.

7.22.20 White horses with black manes, swift as thought and obedient to the charioteer's command, bore the prince Prativindhya, O king.

7.22.21 Sutasoma, the son whom Pārtha had begged of Dhaumya, was borne in the battle by steeds the color of the bean-flower.

7.22.22 Bright as a thousand moons they shone; and because he was born in that city of the Kurus called Udayendu, amid the rite of pressing the Soma, therefore he became known as Sutasoma.

7.22.23 Horses like the blossoms of the sāla tree, radiant as the young rising sun, bore the praiseworthy Śatānīka, son of Nakula.

7.22.24 Horses with the sheen of a peacock's neck, harnessed with traces of gold, bore Śrutakarman, son of Draupadī, that tiger among men.

7.22.25 Excellent horses the color of the blue jay's wing bore Śrutakīrti, that treasure of renown, son of Draupadī, the peer of Pārtha in battle.

7.22.26 Tawny horses bore into the fray the boy Abhimanyu, of whom men said that in combat he was half again the worth of Kṛṣṇa and of Pārtha.

7.22.27 And Yuyutsu, who alone of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's sons had taken refuge with the Pāṇḍavas, was borne into battle by tall, great-bodied steeds.

7.22.28 Spirited horses, finely adorned and the color of straw-stalks, bore the swift Vārdhakṣemi in that most tumultuous battle.

7.22.29 White-footed horses, their breastplates leaved with gold, obedient to the charioteer's command, bore the young Saucitti into battle.

7.22.30 Horses smooth as silk, their backs strewn with gold, garlanded in gold and gentle of temper, bore Śreṇimat.

7.22.31 Spirited horses of golden hue, finely adorned and wearing golden garlands, the finest of steeds, bore the praiseworthy king of Kāśi.

7.22.32 Ruddy horses bore on the advancing Satyadhṛti, a master to the very end of weapons, of the science of the bow, and of the Vedic lore of Brahman.

7.22.33 Horses dove-gray in color bore Dhṛṣṭadyumna, that commander of the Pāñcāla host, who had marked out Droṇa as his appointed share.

7.22.34 Him there followed Satyadhṛti, and Saucitti frenzied for the fight, and Śreṇimat, and Vasudāna, and the son of the king of Kāśi, O lord.

7.22.35 Drawn by swift, gold-garlanded steeds of the finest Kāmboja breed, they struck terror into the enemy host, peers of Yama and of Vaiśravaṇa.

7.22.36 And the Prabhadraka Pāñcālas, six thousand strong with weapons raised, their chariots and banners bright with gold, came on with the finest horses of many hues.

7.22.37 Their bows full-drawn, shaking the foe with showers of arrows, vowed to a common death, they followed Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.22.38 Excellent horses the tawny color of silk, hung with garlands of choice gold, bore the unwearied-hearted Cekitāna.

7.22.39 Mounted on excellent, well-trained horses the color of Indra's bow, came Purujit Kuntibhoja, the maternal uncle of Savyasācin.

7.22.40 Horses the color of the sky, as though spangled with stars, bore King Rocamāna into the battle.

7.22.41 Excellent dappled horses with white feet, draped in netting of gold, bore Sahadeva, the son of Jarāsaṃdha.

7.22.42 Excellent dappled horses the color of the lotus-stalk, swift as hawks in speed, bore Sudāman.

7.22.43 Horses red as the hare, marked with pale streaks rising along their flanks, bore the Pāñcāla Siṃhasena, son of Gopati.

7.22.44 And he who was renowned among the Pāñcālas as Janamejaya, that tiger among men, had excellent horses the color of mustard-blossoms.

7.22.45 Swift, tall horses the color of beans, garlanded with gold, curd-white along the back and moon-faced, bore the Pāñcāla onward at speed.

7.22.46 And the brave and goodly horses, hued like reed-stalks and gleaming like the lotus-filament, bore Daṇḍadhāra.

7.22.47 Steeds wearing garlands of gold, their bellies ruddy as the cakravāka bird's, bore Sukṣatra, son of the lord of Kosala.

7.22.48 Dappled horses, tall and stately, well-broken and decked with garlands of pure gold, bore in battle Satyadhṛti, son of Kṣema.

7.22.49 Banner, armor, horses, and bow all of one single hue and all white, Śukla turned and came on, white himself.

7.22.50 Sea-bred horses, white as the hare-marked moon, bore Candradeva, son of Samudrasena, fierce in his splendor as Rudra.

7.22.51 Horses the color of the blue lotus, adorned with refined gold and bright with garlands, bore into battle Citraratha of the Śaibyas.

7.22.52 Excellent horses the color of the pea-flower, streaked with white and red, bore Rathasena, frenzied for the fight.

7.22.53 And the king whom men called braver than all other men, that slayer of the Paṭaccaras, was borne by parrot-green horses.

7.22.54 Excellent horses the color of kiṃśuka-blossoms bore Citrāyudha — bright of garland, bright of armor, weapon, and banner.

7.22.55 Banner, armor, bow, and chariot-steeds all of one single hue and all blue, Nīla came on, blue himself.

7.22.56 With car-guards, banners, and bows of varied form bright with gems, with motley horse-pennons and standards, Citra came on, dappled himself.

7.22.57 Excellent horses the color of the lotus-leaf bore the golden-hued son of Rocamāna.

7.22.58 And warlike, well-formed horses, bred along the Śaradaṇḍā and the Anudaṇḍā, white-flanked and gleaming like hens' eggs, bore Daṇḍaketu.

7.22.59 Horses gleaming like the blossoms of the āṭarūṣaka bore fourteen myriads of the foremost chariot-warriors who followed the Pāṇḍyas.

7.22.60 Horses of varied hue, their faces of strange and varied form, bore the hero Ghaṭotkaca, whose banner bore the device of a chariot-wheel.

7.22.61 Gold-colored, the finest of steeds bore Yudhiṣṭhira, knower of dharma, best of kings, as he stood amid his host; and on every side, behind him, came the Prabhadrakas with their noble horses of high and low celestial hues.

7.22.62 Vigilant and arrayed with Bhīmasena, their golden banners aloft, they appeared, O lord of kings, like the dwellers of heaven with Indra at their head.

7.22.63 Dhṛṣṭadyumna outshone all those gathered warriors; yet over all the armies, the son of Bharadvāja shone more brilliantly still.

7.23.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: These chariot-warriors, with Vṛkodara at their head, who wheeled back into the fray, could shake even the host of the gods in battle.

7.23.2 A man, it seems, is yoked fast to his fate; and within that fate alone are all his manifold ends seen to lie.

7.23.3 For a long span Yudhiṣṭhira dwelt exiled in the forest, his hair matted, clad in deerskin, and wandered unknown to the world.

7.23.4 That very man has now marshalled a mighty army for battle. What was this, if not the working of destiny, that has befallen my son?

7.23.5 Surely a man is born already bound to his lot, and is dragged along by it, not as he himself would wish.

7.23.6 Having fallen into the calamity of the dice, Yudhiṣṭhira was sorely afflicted; yet again, by his appointed fortune, he has gained allies.

7.23.7 Half the Kekayas have fallen to me, and the Kāśis, the Kosalas, the Cedis, and besides them the Vaṅgas have leaned upon me alone.

7.23.8 "Mine is the greater part of the earth, dear sire, not so the son of Pṛthā's" — thus, O sūta, did foolish Duryodhana speak to me then.

7.23.9 In the midst of that gathered host Droṇa was well guarded, yet he has been slain in the field by the son of Pṛṣata. What was this, if not the work of fate?

7.23.10 How did death come upon Droṇa — the mighty-armed, ever rejoicing in battle, master of every weapon — there in the very midst of kings?

7.23.11 Overtaken by anguish, I have sunk into utter bewilderment; hearing that both Bhīṣma and Droṇa are slain, I have no heart to live.

7.23.12 All that Vidura, seeing me greedy for my sons' sake, foretold to me, dear sire — all that, O sūta, has now come to pass for Duryodhana along with me.

7.23.13 Yet it would be the height of cruelty if, forsaking Duryodhana, I should seek to preserve my remaining sons; only hardship, and not death, would follow.

7.23.14 For the man who forsakes righteousness and becomes devoted to gain falls away from this world too, and sinks into baseness.

7.23.15 And now too, Saṃjaya, of this kingdom whose spirit is broken, I see no remnant left, its very hump crushed in.

7.23.16 How can anything remain when the two draught-bulls have passed away — those two forbearing bulls among men, upon whom we forever lived?

7.23.17 Tell me plainly how the battle unfolded: who fought, who drew back, and which base men fled in fear.

7.23.18 And tell me of Dhanaṃjaya, all that the bull among chariot-warriors did; for from him is our greatest fear, and from that foeman-cousin above all.

7.23.19 And when the Pāṇḍavas had wheeled about, Saṃjaya, how did the dreadful clash of what remained of my army come to be, and which of my heroes held off which foes there?

7.24.1 Saṃjaya said: A great terror seized us when the Pāṇḍavas had wheeled about, beholding Droṇa overspread by them as the sun by storm-clouds.

7.24.2 The fierce dust they raised wrapped your host in darkness, and when the line of sight was lost we believed Droṇa already slain.

7.24.3 But seeing those heroes, great archers bent on a cruel deed, Duryodhana swiftly urged on his own troops.

7.24.4 "To the utmost of your strength, your zeal, and your mettle, O kings, hold back as best you can the army of the Pāṇḍavas!"

7.24.5 Then your son Durmarṣaṇa, seeing Bhīma from afar, advanced upon him, scattering arrows, longing to preserve Droṇa's life.

7.24.6 Enraged, he covered Bhīma with shafts, like Death himself in battle; and Bhīma struck back at him with arrows, and a great tumult arose.

7.24.7 Those wise and valiant strikers, commanded by their lord, set aside all fear of death and stood firm against their foes in the fight.

7.24.8 Kṛtavarman, O lord of peoples, beset the grandson of Śini as he came on — that hero, ornament of the assembly, eager to reach Droṇa.

7.24.9 The grandson of Śini, enraged, held off the enraged Kṛtavarman with showers of shafts, and Kṛtavarman held off the grandson of Śini, as one rutting elephant another.

7.24.10 The Saindhava, fierce of bow and a great archer, with effort held back from Droṇa the onrushing Kṣatradharman, that wielder of arrow-floods.

7.24.11 Kṣatradharman, having shorn away the banner and bow of the lord of the Sindhus, struck him in wrath with many iron shafts in all his vital parts.

7.24.12 Then, taking up another bow, the Saindhava, deft of hand, pierced Kṣatradharman in the field with shafts wholly of iron.

7.24.13 Subāhu, with effort, held off from Droṇa his own brother — the great chariot-warrior Yuyutsu, that hero who strove for the Pāṇḍavas' cause.

7.24.14 As Subāhu, mace-like of arm, loosed his arrows, Yuyutsu severed both his arms, bow and shaft and all, with two whetted, gold-bright razor-shafts.

7.24.15 The king of the Madras held back King Yudhiṣṭhira, best of the Pāṇḍavas, the righteous-souled, as a shore holds back the heaving sea.

7.24.16 The King of Righteousness covered him with many vital-piercing shafts, and the lord of the Madras, having pierced him with sixty-four arrows, roared aloud.

7.24.17 As the Madra king roared, the best of the Pāṇḍavas struck off his banner together with his bow by two razor-shafts, and at that the people raised a shout.

7.24.18 Even so King Bāhlika, with his own host, held off with his shafts King Drupada, who came charging on with his host.

7.24.19 Terrible grew the battle of those two aged kings with their armies, like that of two great herd-leading elephants, both in rut.

7.24.20 The two Avanti princes, Vinda and Anuvinda, with their troops, fell upon Virāṭa the Matsya king and his host, as of old Indra and Agni fell upon Bali.

7.24.21 A churning, confused fight arose, like that of gods and demons, between the Matsyas and the Kekayas, with horse and chariot and elephant unafraid.

7.24.22 Bhūtakarman, lord of the assembly, held back from Droṇa the son of Nakula, Śatānīka, as he came on loosing nets of arrows.

7.24.23 Then the heir of Nakula, with three keenly whetted broad-headed shafts, made Bhūtakarman armless and headless in the fray.

7.24.24 Viviṃśati held back the valiant Sutasoma, that hero, as he rushed on with floods of arrows, his face set toward Droṇa.

7.24.25 But Sutasoma, in great wrath, having pierced his own uncle Viviṃśati with straight-flying shafts, did not turn back, armoured as he was.

7.24.26 Then Bhīmaratha, with six swift, whetted iron shafts, sent Śālva, together with his horses and driver, to the abode of Yama.

7.24.27 Śrutakarman, who came on with peacock-hued horses, was held back, O great king, by the son of Citrasena, your grandson.

7.24.28 Those two unassailable grandsons of yours, each seeking the other's death, waged a surpassing combat for the sake of their fathers' cause.

7.24.29 Seeing Prativindhya standing before him in the field, the son of Droṇa, doing honour to his father, held him back with his arrows.

7.24.30 In wrath Prativindhya pierced him back with whetted shafts — him whose ensign bore the lion's tail, who stood there for his father's sake.

7.24.31 As one scattering seed in the sowing-season, O bull among men, the son of Droṇa covered the son of Draupadī with showers of shafts.

7.24.32 He who was held the most valiant, O king, in both armies — that slayer of the Paṭaccaras — Lakṣmaṇa held back.

7.24.33 He, having severed Lakṣmaṇa's bow and his ensign, O Bhārata, loosing nets of arrows upon Lakṣmaṇa, shone forth exceedingly.

7.24.34 Vikarṇa, deeply wise, a youth himself, beset the young Śikhaṇḍin, son of Yajñasena, as he came on into the battle.

7.24.35 Then the son of Yajñasena enveloped him in a net of arrows; but your mighty son, shaking off that net of shafts, shone forth.

7.24.36 Aṅgada, turning to face the hero Uttamaujas in battle as he advanced toward Droṇa, held him back with calf-tooth shafts.

7.24.37 That tumultuous clash of those two lions among men heightened the delight of all the soldiers, and of the two themselves as well.

7.24.38 And the mighty Durmukha, a great archer, held back the hero Purujit Kuntibhoja as he advanced toward Droṇa.

7.24.39 He struck Durmukha with an iron shaft between the brows, and that face of his shone like a lotus upon its stalk.

7.24.40 And Karṇa held back with showers of shafts the five Kekaya brothers, their banners crimson, as they advanced toward Droṇa.

7.24.41 And they, in great wrath, covered him with masses of shafts, and he in turn overspread them again and again with nets of arrows.

7.24.42 Neither Karṇa nor those five could be seen, so wrapped were they in arrows — horses, drivers, banners, and chariots all studded with one another's shafts.

7.24.43 Your sons Durjaya, Jaya, and Vijaya — those three heroes — held off in turn the three: Nīla, the Kāśi prince, and Jaya.

7.24.44 Terrible grew that battle, heightening the delight of those who watched, as of lions, tigers, and hyenas with elephants, buffaloes, and bulls.

7.24.45 The two brothers Kṣemadhūrti and Bṛhanta hewed at the Sātvata in the fight with sharp shafts as he advanced toward Droṇa.

7.24.46 The combat of those two and of him became wondrous indeed, like that of a lion with two lordly elephants in rut in the forest.

7.24.47 And the king of the Cedis, loosing his shafts in wrath, held off from Droṇa the king of the Ambaṣṭhas, who alone rejoiced in battle.

7.24.48 The Ambaṣṭha pierced him through with a bone-cleaving dart, and he, letting go bow and arrow, fell from his chariot to the ground.

7.24.49 Kṛpa, son of Śaradvat, no mean warrior, with small arrows held off from Droṇa the wrathful-seeming Vārdhakṣemi of the Vṛṣṇis.

7.24.50 Those who watched Kṛpa and the Vṛṣṇi fighting, brilliant in combat, became so engrossed in the battle that they marked no other doings.

7.24.51 The son of Somadatta beset King Maṇimat, the unwearied, as he came on, thus increasing Droṇa's glory.

7.24.52 He, swiftly cutting away the son of Somadatta's bow and banner, then cast down his pennon, his driver, and his parasol from the chariot.

7.24.53 Then the foe-slayer whose ensign was the sacrificial post, leaping swiftly from his chariot, cut him to pieces — horses, driver, banner, and car — with his excellent sword.

7.24.54 And mounting his own chariot, taking up another bow, himself reining his horses, O king, he shattered the army of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.24.55 With pestles, mallets, discs, slings, and battle-axes, with dust and wind and fire and water, with ashes, clods, grass, and trees —

7.24.56 breaking, crushing, shattering, slaying, scattering, and hurling, terrifying the host, Ghaṭotkaca came on, eager to reach Droṇa.

7.24.57 But the rākṣasa Alambusa, in wrath, fell upon that rākṣasa with weapons of every kind and every variety of war-craft.

7.24.58 The battle of those two foremost chiefs of the rākṣasas became such as once befell of old between Śambara and the king of the gods.

7.24.59 Thus there were hundreds of single combats of chariots, elephants, and horsemen — and of foot-soldiers too — a mêlée, blessings upon you, between your men and theirs.

7.24.60 Never before had such a battle been seen, nor even heard of, as the one that broke out among those who were caught up in the doubt of whether Droṇa lived or was no more.

7.24.61 "This is terrible, this is wondrous, this is fierce!"—so men cried, O lord, and there many a combat was seen, drawn out and beyond counting.

7.25.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When those warriors had thus turned back and advanced again in their several divisions, how did the swift sons of Pṛthā and my own men do battle?

7.25.2 And what did Arjuna do against the host of the Saṃśaptakas, and what, Saṃjaya, did the Saṃśaptakas do against the son of Pṛthā?

7.25.3 Saṃjaya said: When they had thus turned back and advanced again in their several divisions, your son himself rushed upon Bhīma with a corps of elephants.

7.25.4 And Bhīma, challenged by the king himself—as elephant meets elephant, as bull meets bull—charged that corps of elephants in turn.

7.25.5 That son of Pṛthā, skilled in war and endowed with the strength of his arms, shattered the corps of elephants in but a moment, O venerable one.

7.25.6 Those elephants, huge as hills, oozing rut on every side, were turned back by Bhīmasena's iron shafts and stripped of their frenzy.

7.25.7 As the wind scatters the masses of cloud on every side, so did the son of the Wind scatter those formations.

7.25.8 Loosing his arrows among those elephants, Bhīma shone like the risen sun casting its rays over all the worlds.

7.25.9 Pierced by Bhīma's arrows in their hundreds, those elephants shone like the varied clouds in the sky shot through by the rays of the sun.

7.25.10 As the son of the Wind wrought such havoc among the elephants, Duryodhana in fury drew near and struck him back with sharpened arrows.

7.25.11 Then in an instant Bhīma, his eyes red as blood and bent on the king's destruction, pierced that lord of earth with keen feathered shafts.

7.25.12 His every limb studded with arrows, Duryodhana in wrath pierced the Pāṇḍava in return, smiting Bhīmasena with iron shafts bright as the sun's rays, and smiling the while.

7.25.13 With two broad-headed shafts the Pāṇḍava swiftly cut away the jewelled elephant, gleaming with gems, that stood upon his banner, and his bow as well.

7.25.14 Seeing Duryodhana hard pressed by Bhīma, O venerable one, the king of the Aṅgas, mounted upon an elephant, came on, eager to throw Bhīma into confusion.

7.25.15 As that elephant, with a trumpeting like the roar of a raincloud, came rushing on, Bhīmasena struck it hard between its frontal lobes with an iron shaft.

7.25.16 Piercing through its body, the shaft sank into the earth, and the elephant fell like a mountain struck by the thunderbolt.

7.25.17 And as that barbarian, his elephant toppling, was himself about to fall, swift-handed Vṛkodara severed his head with a broad-headed shaft.

7.25.18 When that hero had fallen, that host broke and fled, its horses, elephants, and chariots in panic, trampling down its own foot-soldiers.

7.25.19 And while all those formations were fleeing on every side, the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa then charged Bhīma upon his elephant.

7.25.20 That foremost of elephants—the very one on which Maghavan had conquered the Daityas and Dānavas—now rushed of a sudden upon Bhīma.

7.25.21 With its ears, its feet, and its coiled trunk, eyes rolling and enraged, it seemed as if it would burn the Pāṇḍava to ash.

7.25.22 Then there arose a mighty cry from the whole army: "Alas, alas! Bhīma is slain by the elephant!"—so it ran, O venerable one.

7.25.23 Alarmed by that cry, O king, the host of the Pāṇḍavas rushed of a sudden to where Vṛkodara stood.

7.25.24 Then King Yudhiṣṭhira, believing Vṛkodara slain, together with the Pāñcālas hemmed in Bhagadatta on every side.

7.25.25 Surrounding him on all sides with their chariots, those foremost of chariot-warriors showered him with sharp arrows by the hundred and by the thousand.

7.25.26 Warding off those shafts with his goad, the lord of the mountain land scattered the Pāṇḍus and Pāñcālas with his elephant.

7.25.27 A marvel we beheld in that battle, O lord of peoples—such was the feat of the aged Bhagadatta with his elephant.

7.25.28 Then the king of the Daśārṇas charged the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa with his elephant—a rutting beast, swift-moving, advancing aslant.

7.25.29 A battle arose between those two elephants of terrible form, as of old between two winged mountains clad with trees.

7.25.30 The elephant of the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa, closing in and then wheeling about, pierced the elephant of the lord of the Daśārṇas in the flank and brought it down.

7.25.31 Then with seven lances bright as the sun's rays, Bhagadatta struck down that foe upon his elephant, shaken now from his seat.

7.25.32 But Yudhiṣṭhira, drawing near to King Bhagadatta, encircled him on every side with a great corps of chariots.

7.25.33 Mounted on his elephant and ringed about on all sides by chariot-warriors, he shone like a blazing fire set amid the forest upon a mountain.

7.25.34 That elephant wheeled within the close-knit ring of fierce-bowed chariot-warriors as they poured down their showers of arrows.

7.25.35 Then the king of Prāgjyotiṣa, gathering up that bull among elephants, sent it of a sudden against the chariot of Yuyudhāna.

7.25.36 Seizing the chariot of the grandson of Śini, the great elephant hurled it away with force; but Yuyudhāna leaped clear.

7.25.37 His charioteer, raising up the great Saindhava horses, reached Sātyaki, and leaping aboard once more, stood firm with him in the chariot again.

7.25.38 That elephant, having found its opening, swiftly broke forth from the ring of chariots and then flung down all the kings about it.

7.25.39 Terrified by that swift-moving beast, those bulls among men, those hundreds of kings, deemed that one elephant in the battle to be a hundred.

7.25.40 The Pāṇḍavas were driven before Bhagadatta upon his elephant, as the Dānavas before the king of the gods mounted on Airāvata.

7.25.41 As the Pāñcālas fled hither and thither before him, a tremendous din arose, made by elephants and horses.

7.25.42 As the Pāṇḍus were driven before Bhagadatta in the battle, Bhīma in fury charged the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa once again.

7.25.43 As Bhīma charged, the elephant drenched his horses with water flung from its trunk and frighted them, and so they bore the son of Pṛthā away.

7.25.44 Then the son of Ruciparvan, like unto Death and standing upon his chariot, charged the elephant swiftly, drenching it with a shower of arrows.

7.25.45 Then with a smooth-jointed arrow the lord of the mountain Suparvan sent Ruciraparvan to the abode of the son of the Sun, Yama.

7.25.46 When that hero had fallen, the son of Subhadrā, the sons of Draupadī, Cekitāna, Dhṛṣṭaketu, and Yuyutsu fell upon the elephant and harried it.

7.25.47 They drenched it with streams of arrows, as raincloud's drench with downpours, roaring terrible cries and bent upon its slaughter.

7.25.48 Then, urged on by the skilled driver with heel and goad and thumb, the elephant, trunk outstretched, ears and eyes rigid, charged swiftly forward.

7.25.49 Treading down the horses of Yuyutsu with its feet, it crushed his charioteer; but your son, in confusion, sprang onto the chariot of Subhadrā's son.

7.25.50 That king, mounted on his elephant and loosing his shafts among his foes, shone like the sun casting his rays across the worlds.

7.25.51 Arjuna's son pierced him with twelve arrows, Yuyutsu with ten, and the sons of Draupadī and Dhṛṣṭaketu each with three.

7.25.52 That elephant, studded with the arrows driven home by his foes' striving, shone like a great cloud shot through by the rays of the sun.

7.25.53 Driven by the skill and effort of its master, though tormented by the foes' arrows, that elephant flung down those enemies to left and right.

7.25.54 As a herdsman with his staff drives the herds of beasts together in the forest, so did Bhagadatta hem in that army again and again.

7.25.55 Swift as the clamor of crows fallen upon by a hawk was the clamor of the Pāṇḍavas as they fled in utter rout.

7.25.56 That king of elephants, struck by the foremost of goads, was like a winged mountain of old, O king; and it sowed deep terror among the foes, as the storm-tossed ocean among bands of merchants.

7.25.57 Then a most fearful din, raised by elephants, chariots, horses, and kings fleeing in terror, filled the earth, the air, the heavens, and all the quarters and their bounds, O lord, in that battle.

7.25.58 With that foremost of elephants, the king plunged deep into the host of his foes, as of old Virocana into the well-guarded army of the gods in battle, defended though it was by the wise ones.

7.25.59 The friend of fire, the wind, blew strongly, and the dust shrouded the sky and again and again the soldiers; and men deemed that one elephant to be a whole troop of elephants charging swiftly on every side.

7.26.1 Saṃjaya said: Since you ask me of the deeds of the son of Pṛthā in the battle, hear now, O great king, what Pārtha did in the fray.

7.26.2 Seeing the dust risen up and hearing the trumpeting of the elephant as his men were broken by Bhagadatta, the son of Kuntī spoke to Kṛṣṇa:

7.26.3 "By the way the king of Prāgjyotiṣa has pressed swiftly forward with his elephant, O slayer of Madhu, this surely is the sound of that beast."

7.26.4 "In battle he is not inferior to Indra, and skilled in elephant-craft; first upon the earth, or second—such is my judgment of him."

7.26.5 "And that finest of elephants, never matched by any rival elephant in war, unshaken by every sound in battle, proven in its deeds and tireless—"

7.26.6 "—able to endure the fall of weapons and the touch of fire, O sinless one, that beast alone will plainly destroy the Pāṇḍava host this very day."

7.26.7 "And save we two there is no other able to withstand it; therefore make haste and drive to where the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa is."

7.26.8 "Proud through his friendship with Śakra, through the strength of his elephants, and through his years—him will I send this day, a welcome guest, to the slayer of Bala."

7.26.9 Then at the word of Savyasācin, Kṛṣṇa drove on to where the Pāṇḍava army was being rent apart by Bhagadatta.

7.26.10 As he set forth, the Saṃśaptakas, those great chariot-warriors, fourteen thousand strong, came up behind, calling him to combat.

7.26.11 Ten thousand of them were Trigartas, O lord of men, and four thousand were those who followed Vāsudeva.

7.26.12 Seeing his army being rent apart by Bhagadatta, O venerable one, and being challenged by the Saṃśaptakas, Arjuna's heart was torn in two.

7.26.13 Pondering which course would prove the more profitable—"Shall I turn back from here, or shall I go on to Yudhiṣṭhira?"—

7.26.14 weighing this in his mind, O foremost of the Kurus, Arjuna's stronger resolve settled firm upon the slaying of the Saṃśaptakas.

7.26.15 He whose banner bore the foremost of apes turned suddenly back, the son of Vāsava, alone, to slay thousands of chariots in the fray.

7.26.16 For such was the design of both Duryodhana and Karṇa, contrived as a means to Arjuna's slaying; by it they had wrought this division.

7.26.17 But the Pāṇḍava turned that very division back upon them, and with his single chariot he made the design of those foremost of chariot-warriors come to nothing.

7.26.18 Then, O king, the great chariot-warriors among the Saṃśaptakas loosed hundreds of thousands of smooth-jointed arrows upon Arjuna.

7.26.19 Then, O king, neither Pārtha the son of Kuntī, nor Kṛṣṇa Janārdana, nor the horses, nor the chariot could be seen, so thickly were they covered with arrows.

7.26.20 When Janārdana himself had fallen into a daze and was bathed in sweat, then Pārtha slew the most of them with the weapon of the thunderbolt.

7.26.21 By the hundreds their hands were severed, still gripping arrows, bowstrings, hand-guards and bows; standards, horses, charioteers, and warriors fell to the earth.

7.26.22 Like trees, like mountain peaks, like rain-clouds in form, the well-caparisoned elephants, their riders slain, fell to the ground, struck down by Pārtha's shafts.

7.26.23 Their saddle-cloths and reins flung apart, their trappings cut, their lives gone, the horses fell with their riders, mangled by Pārtha's arrows.

7.26.24 Sundered by the Diademed One's broad-headed shafts, the arms of men fell to earth still holding spears, shields, swords, nails, maces, and battle-axes.

7.26.25 O lord, heads like the rising sun, like lotuses, like the moon in their beauty, severed by Arjuna's arrows, came to rest upon the earth.

7.26.26 When the wrathful Phalguna struck down his foes, the host blazed with his ornamented, life-devouring, many-marked feathered shafts.

7.26.27 As Dhanaṃjaya churned the army like an elephant churning a lotus-pond, the hosts of spirits honored him, crying "Well done! Well done!"

7.26.28 Seeing that deed of Pārtha's, worthy of Vāsava himself, Mādhava fell into the utmost wonder and, clapping his hand, paid him homage.

7.26.29 Then, having slain most of the Saṃśaptakas who had stood their ground, Pārtha urged Kṛṣṇa on, saying, "Drive toward Bhagadatta."

7.27.1 Saṃjaya said: As Pārtha wished to set out, Kṛṣṇa then urged on his white steeds, swift as thought and decked in gold, toward Droṇa's array.

7.27.2 As that best of the Kurus set forth to save his own folk, who were sorely pressed by Droṇa, Suśarman, eager for battle, followed at his back together with his brothers.

7.27.3 Then he of the white horses, the unvanquished victor, said to Kṛṣṇa: "O Acyuta, here is Suśarman, with his brothers, challenging me."

7.27.4 "And in the north there our host is being rent asunder, O slayer of foes; today these Saṃśaptakas have made my mind divided in two."

7.27.5 "Shall I slay the Saṃśaptakas, or shall I guard my own who are afflicted by the foe? You know my thought in this — which course would be the right one?"

7.27.6 Thus addressed, the Dāśārha turned the chariot back to where the lord of the Trigartas was summoning the son of Pāṇḍu.

7.27.7 Then Arjuna, having pierced Suśarman with seven swift arrows, cut down his standard and his bow with two razor-edged shafts.

7.27.8 And the brother of the Trigarta lord, together with his horses and his charioteer, Pārtha swiftly dispatched to Yama's abode with six iron shafts.

7.27.9 Then Suśarman hurled at Arjuna an iron lance resembling a serpent, and at Vāsudeva a javelin.

7.27.10 Arjuna cut the lance apart with three arrows and the javelin with three, and having stunned Suśarman with a volley of shafts, he turned away.

7.27.11 O king, as he advanced like Vāsava, pouring forth a flooding rain of arrows, not one fierce warrior of your host could stay him.

7.27.12 Then Dhanaṃjaya pressed forward, slaying the great car-warriors of the Kurus with his arrows, as a fire consumes dry brushwood.

7.27.13 The irresistible onslaught of that wise son of Kuntī they could no more endure than living creatures can endure the touch of fire.

7.27.14 Enveloping the ranks with a downpour of arrows, the son of Pāṇḍu, O king, swept on toward the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa with the swoop of Suparṇa.

7.27.15 That bow which the victorious Jiṣṇu now drew — a bringer of safety in battle to the fleeing Bhāratas, and a multiplier of the tears of foes —

7.27.16 that very bow, O king, did Arjuna bend for the destruction of the warrior class, all on account of your son, that gambler at the wicked dice.

7.27.17 Thus shaken by Pārtha, your army was rent asunder, great king, like a boat that has struck against a mountain.

7.27.18 Then ten thousand bowmen turned back, heroes resolved in their wrath upon either victory or defeat in the fight.

7.27.19 His heart free of fear, that car-warrior — who in the law of dire need surpassed all others — Pārtha, who could bear every burden, took upon himself a heavy load in the battle.

7.27.20 As a rutting elephant of sixty years in its fury would trample a thicket of reeds, so did Pārtha, straining at his utmost, trample your host.

7.27.21 When that army had been thus crushed, King Bhagadatta on that elephant rushed all at once upon Dhanaṃjaya.

7.27.22 That tiger among men received him fearlessly with his chariot, and tumultuous was the clash between the car and the elephant.

7.27.23 Each equipped according to the rules of warfare — the one with his chariot, the other with his elephant — the two heroes, Bhagadatta and Dhanaṃjaya, ranged about in the battle.

7.27.24 Then, from his elephant huge as a thundercloud, Bhagadatta, overpowering like Indra, rained a flood of arrows upon Dhanaṃjaya.

7.27.25 But the valiant son of Vāsava cut apart with his own rain of arrows that shower of Bhagadatta's shafts even before it could reach him.

7.27.26 Then the king of Prāgjyotiṣa, having warded off that downpour of arrows, struck the mighty-armed Pārtha and Kṛṣṇa with his shafts, O Bhārata.

7.27.27 Then, having covered them both with a vast net of arrows, he goaded that elephant on to slay Acyuta and Pārtha.

7.27.28 Seeing that elephant bearing down upon them like wrathful Death itself, Janārdana swiftly wheeled the chariot to keep it on the left.

7.27.29 Though the great elephant had now wheeled close, Dhanaṃjaya, mindful of righteousness, did not wish to consign it and its rider to death.

7.27.30 But that elephant, O lord, crushing other elephants, chariots, and horses, dispatched them to the realm of death; thereupon Dhanaṃjaya grew wrathful.

7.28.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Thus angered, what did the son of Pāṇḍu do to Bhagadatta, or the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa to Pārtha? Tell me that exactly as it befell.

7.28.2 Saṃjaya said: When both the Dāśārha and the son of Pāṇḍu were locked in struggle with the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa, all creatures believed them brought near to death.

7.28.3 For indeed, O lord, Bhagadatta poured down unceasing showers of arrows from his elephant's shoulders upon the two Kṛṣṇas as they stood upon the chariot.

7.28.4 Then with shafts of black iron, gold-feathered and whetted on stone, loosed from a fully drawn bow, he pierced the son of Devakī.

7.28.5 Sharp as the touch of fire, those arrows, driven by Bhagadatta, pierced through the son of Devakī and then sank into the ground.

7.28.6 Pārtha cut his bow, struck down his quiver, and fought King Bhagadatta as though toying with him.

7.28.7 He hurled fourteen sharp javelins, bright as the rays of the sun; and Savyasācin cut each of them into three.

7.28.8 Then the son of the Chastiser of Pāka tore away the elephant's armor with a net of arrows, so that it shone like a cloudless king of mountains.

7.28.9 Then the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa hurled at Vāsudeva an iron lance with a golden shaft, and Arjuna cut it in two.

7.28.10 Then, having cut down the king's parasol and standard with his arrows, Arjuna swiftly pierced the lord of the mountains with ten shafts, smiling the while.

7.28.11 Deeply pierced by Arjuna's well-feathered shafts winged with heron-plumes, Bhagadatta then, full of wrath against the great-souled son of Pāṇḍu,

7.28.12 hurled javelins at the head of him whose steeds were white, and roared aloud; and by them Arjuna's diadem was knocked askew in the battle.

7.28.13 Setting his displaced diadem aright, Phalguna said to the king, "Take now a good last look at the world."

7.28.14 Thus addressed, he in great wrath took up his shining bow and rained arrows upon the son of Pāṇḍu together with Govinda.

7.28.15 Pārtha cut his bow, shattered his quivers, and in haste smote him in all his vital parts with seventy-two arrows.

7.28.16 Though so pierced, undismayed, he summoned forth the Vaiṣṇava weapon and, having charged his elephant-goad with mantras, in fury flung it at the breast of the son of Pāṇḍu.

7.28.17 That all-destroying weapon loosed by Bhagadatta, Keśava received upon his own breast, shielding Pārtha.

7.28.18 Upon Keśava's breast that weapon became a garland of victory; then Arjuna, troubled in mind, said to Keśava:

7.28.19 "I am the driver of the horses, taking no part in the fight — so you said, O Janārdana; yet, lotus-eyed one, you do not keep your own vow."

7.28.20 "Were I in distress, or unable to ward it off, then such a deed would fall to you; but it ought not to be done while I stand firm."

7.28.21 "With my arrows and my bow I am able to conquer these worlds with their gods, demons, and men — and this too is known to you."

7.28.22 Then Vāsudeva answered Arjuna with words full of meaning: "Hear this secret, O sinless Pārtha, even as it came to pass of old."

7.28.23 "In four forms am I forever exerted for the protection of the worlds; dividing myself here, I take up the welfare of the worlds."

7.28.24 "One of my forms, abiding on earth, performs austerities; another beholds the world doing its deeds, good and evil."

7.28.25 "Another, dwelling in the world of men, performs action; and a fourth lies asleep in a slumber of a thousand years."

7.28.26 "That form of mine which rises at the close of the thousand years bestows at that time the choicest boons upon those worthy of boons."

7.28.27 "Knowing that time was come, the Earth then begged of me a boon for the sake of Naraka — hear what it was."

7.28.28 "'Let my son be unslayable by gods and demons alike, endowed with the Vaiṣṇava weapon — this you ought to grant me.'"

7.28.29 "Hearing that prayer for a boon, I then, of old, gave to the son of the Earth that unfailing Vaiṣṇava weapon."

7.28.30 "And I declared: 'Let this weapon be unfailing and able to bear all; for the protection of Naraka, none shall be able to slay him.'"

7.28.31 "'Guarded by this weapon, your son, the crusher of hostile hosts, shall be unassailable in all the worlds for all time.'"

7.28.32 "Saying 'So be it,' the noble-minded goddess departed, her wish fulfilled; and so Naraka, the tormentor of foes, became unassailable."

7.28.33 "From him this weapon of mine has come down to the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa, O Pārtha; in the worlds, even with Indra and Rudra, none is beyond its slaying, O lord."

7.28.34 "For your sake I have made it null, disarming it of its supreme power; now, Pārtha, slay that great demon."

7.28.35 "Slay the foe, hard to vanquish in battle, Bhagadatta, the hater of the gods, even as I formerly slew Naraka for the good of all."

7.28.36 Thus addressed by the great-souled Keśava, Pārtha then suddenly covered Bhagadatta over with his sharp arrows.

7.28.37 Then the mighty-armed Pārtha, unflurried and high of heart, struck the elephant between its two frontal globes with an iron shaft.

7.28.38 Reaching that elephant, the arrow, like a thunderbolt striking a mountain, sank in up to its feathers, as a serpent enters an anthill.

7.28.39 And that great elephant, bracing its limbs, sank to the earth upon its tusks, and crying out in a voice of anguish, gave up its life.

7.28.40 Then with a straight-jointed arrow shaped like the half-moon's disc, the son of Pāṇḍu pierced the heart of King Bhagadatta.

7.28.41 King Bhagadatta, his heart pierced through by the Diademed One, let fall his bow and his arrows even as the life went out of him.

7.28.42 From his head the fine elephant-goad slipped loose and fell, as a petal falls from a lotus when the stalk is struck.

7.28.43 Garlanded in gold, he fell from the mountain-like elephant with its gilded trappings, like a karṇikāra tree in full blossom snapped by the rushing wind from the summit of a hill.

7.28.44 Having slain in battle that lord of men, valorous as Indra and Indra's own friend, the son of Indra then broke the rest of your warriors who longed for victory, as a mighty wind shatters the trees.

7.29.1 Saṃjaya said: Having slain the lord of Prāgjyotiṣa, the ever-dear friend of Indra and a man of measureless might, Pārtha circled him reverently to the right.

7.29.2 Then the two sons of the king of Gāndhāra, conquerors of hostile cities, the brothers Vṛṣaka and Acala, came upon Arjuna in the fray.

7.29.3 The two heroic bowmen, closing upon Arjuna from before and from behind, pierced him sorely with swift, sharp, fast-flying shafts.

7.29.4 With his keen arrows Pārtha shredded to bits the horses, the charioteer, the bow, the parasol, the car, and the banner of Vṛṣaka, son of Subala.

7.29.5 Then with floods of arrows and weapons of many kinds Arjuna once more threw into confusion the Gāndhāras led by the son of Subala.

7.29.6 Then in his wrath Dhanaṃjaya sped five hundred heroic Gāndhāras, their weapons upraised, with his shafts to the realm of Death.

7.29.7 Quickly leaping down from his car whose horses were slain, the mighty-armed one mounted his brother's chariot and took up another bow.

7.29.8 The two brothers Vṛṣaka and Acala, mounted now on a single car, pierced Bībhatsu again and again with a rain of arrows.

7.29.9 Your two great-souled brothers-in-law, the kings Vṛṣaka and Acala, smote Pārtha grievously, as the hosts of Vṛtra once smote Indra.

7.29.10 The two Gāndhāras, sure of their aim, struck the Pāṇḍava once more, as the months of summer and the rains drench the world with heat and water.

7.29.11 Those tigers among men, the kings Vṛṣaka and Acala, standing upon the car with bodies close pressed together, O king, Arjuna slew with a single arrow.

7.29.12 Lion-like, red-eyed, mighty-armed, those two heroes—born of one mother and alike in every mark—fell lifeless from the car.

7.29.13 The bodies of those two, beloved of their kinsmen, went from the car to the earth, having sent their holy fame abroad to the ten directions, where it stood fast.

7.29.14 Seeing their uncles, who never fled, slain in the fight, your sons, O lord of peoples, shed tears in plenty.

7.29.15 Seeing his brothers slain, Śakuni, skilled in a hundred sorceries, then wove an illusion to bewilder the two Kṛṣṇas.

7.29.16 Cudgels, iron balls, stones, and śataghnīs together with javelins; maces, iron bars, swords, spears, hammers, and battle-axes—

7.29.17 lances, double-edged blades, and clawed weapons, pestles and broad-axes, razors and razor-edged tubular darts, calf-tooth shafts and three-jointed missiles,

7.29.18 discs, barbed arrows, and pikes, and weapons of every kind, fell upon Arjuna from all the quarters and the points between.

7.29.19 Asses, camels, and buffaloes, lions, tigers, and antelopes and hawks, bears, wolves, and vultures, apes, and creeping serpents,

7.29.20 and demons of many kinds, ravenous and enraged, rushed against Arjuna, together with birds of every sort.

7.29.21 Then the valiant son of Kuntī, Dhanaṃjaya, knower of celestial weapons, loosing nets of arrows, struck them all down at once.

7.29.22 Smitten by the hero with his choicest, sturdy shafts, they shrieked with mighty cries and perished, slain on every side.

7.29.23 Then a darkness arose before Arjuna's car, and out of that darkness cruel voices reviled Pārtha.

7.29.24 That darkness Arjuna slew with the great weapon of light; and when it was destroyed, terrible floods of water appeared.

7.29.25 To destroy that water Arjuna then employed the weapon of the Sun, and by it the flood was for the most part dried away.

7.29.26 Thus the manifold illusions wrought again and again by the son of Subala, Arjuna, laughing, swiftly destroyed by the power of his weapons.

7.29.27 When his illusions were thus undone, Śakuni, struck by Arjuna's shafts and seized with terror, fled away on his swift horses like a common man.

7.29.28 Then Arjuna, displaying among his foes the supremacy of his skill in weapons, rained down a flood of arrows upon the host of the Kauravas.

7.29.29 That army of your son, smitten by Pārtha, split in two, O great king, like the Gaṅgā when she meets a mountain.

7.29.30 Some of the great car-warriors there made their way to Droṇa, and some, O king, sore pressed by the Diademed One, to Duryodhana.

7.29.31 After that we could not see that host, veiled as it was in darkness; but the twang of the Gāṇḍīva I heard upon the right.

7.29.32 The blare of conches and kettledrums and the sound of the instruments—the twang of the Gāṇḍīva overtopped them all and touched the heavens.

7.29.33 Then again on the right was the battle of those who fight in wondrous fashion; well fought was Arjuna's contest, but I followed after Droṇa.

7.29.34 The hosts of your sons, of many kinds, O Bhārata, Arjuna scattered, as in due season the wind scatters the clouds in the sky.

7.29.35 As he came on like Vāsava, pouring down great floods of arrows, that mighty bowman, that tiger among men—none could stay him.

7.29.36 Your men, smitten by Pārtha and grievously distressed, many of them in their flight hither and thither slew their own comrades.

7.29.37 The arrows loosed by Arjuna, heron-feathered and rending the body, fell like locusts, covering the ten directions.

7.29.38 Piercing through horse and car-warrior, elephant and foot-soldier alike, O sire, they entered the earth like serpents entering an anthill.

7.29.39 Not a second arrow did he loose against elephant, horse, or man; each, struck by a single shaft, fell down bereft of life.

7.29.40 With slain men and horses everywhere, and elephants struck down beneath the rain of arrows, the field of battle, loud with the cries of dogs and jackals and crows, became a strange and dreadful sight.

7.29.41 The father forsook the son, the friend his dearest friend, and the son likewise forsook his father, tormented by the arrows; bent now only upon saving themselves, men harried by Pārtha abandoned even their mounts.

7.30.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When those hosts were broken by the son of Pāṇḍu, O Saṃjaya, what was the temper of your minds as you wavered and took to flight?

7.30.2 Hard is it to rally hosts once shattered, when men can see no place to make their stand; tell me of that, Saṃjaya.

7.30.3 Saṃjaya said: Even so, O lord of peoples, seeking your son's good, those heroes, guarding their fame throughout the worlds, followed after Droṇa.

7.30.4 With weapons upraised, and Yudhiṣṭhira drawing near, in that fearful hour they wrought the deeds of noble men, like those who fear to break their word.

7.30.5 They sought to find an opening upon Bhīmasena of measureless might, and upon the valiant Sātyaki, and upon Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O lord.

7.30.6 "Droṇa! Droṇa!" the fierce Pāñcālas urged one another on; "Not Droṇa!" your sons cried, rousing all the Kurus.

7.30.7 "Droṇa! Droṇa!" cried the one side, "Not Droṇa!" the other; between the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas a gambling-match for Droṇa was being played.

7.30.8 Whatever band of Pāñcāla cars Droṇa fell upon, there at once the Pāñcāla prince Dhṛṣṭadyumna was set against him.

7.30.9 As the appointed ranks were thrown into confusion in that terrible battle, hero closed with hero, and the cowards went against the foe.

7.30.10 There the Pāṇḍavas stood unshaken by their enemies, and they shook the hostile hosts, remembering their own afflictions.

7.30.11 Yielding to wrath, full of self-respect and driven by their courage, they turned back ready to give up their lives, striving to slay Droṇa in that great battle.

7.30.12 It was like the clash of iron, like the crash of stones, as those men of boundless splendour gambled with their very lives in the tumultuous fight.

7.30.13 Not even the aged could recall a battle of such a kind, O great king, ever before seen or ever before heard.

7.30.14 The earth seemed to tremble in that destruction of heroes, weighed down and oppressed by the great flood of armies surging upon her.

7.30.15 From the reeling flood of warriors a roar arose, of the wrathful Ajātaśatru and of your son, as though it filled and stilled the very sky.

7.30.16 As Droṇa ranged through the battle, the hosts of the Pāṇḍavas, met by him in their thousands, were broken by his keen arrows.

7.30.17 As they were being crushed by Droṇa of wondrous deeds, the commander himself drew near and beset Droṇa on every side.

7.30.18 Wondrous then was the combat of Droṇa and the Pāñcāla prince; to it, I think, no comparison could be found.

7.30.19 Then Nīla, bright as fire, burned the Kuru army, his arrows for sparks and his bow for flame, like a fire consuming dry grass.

7.30.20 As he burned the hosts, the valorous son of Droṇa, speaking first and very smoothly, smiling, addressed him:

7.30.21 "Nīla, what use are the many warriors you have burned with your flaming shafts? Fight with me alone; in your wrath, strike at me with your swift arrows."

7.30.22 Him, who had the hue of a cluster of lotuses, whose eyes were like lotus-petals, whose face shone like a full-blown lotus, Nīla pierced with his shafts.

7.30.23 Sorely pierced by him, the son of Droṇa straightway, with three sharp broad-headed shafts, cut down his enemy's bow and banner and parasol.

7.30.24 Leaping down from his car, Nīla, bearing fine shield and sword, sought to take the head from the body of the son of Droṇa, swift as a bird.

7.30.25 As his sword was upraised, the son of Droṇa, smiling as it were, O sinless one, struck off with a broad-headed shaft that fair-nosed head with its earrings from the body.

7.30.26 His face bright as the full moon, his eyes like lotus-petals, tall and of the hue of a lotus's inner bloom, he fell slain to the earth.

7.30.27 Then the Pāṇḍava army was sorely shaken and thrown into confusion, when Nīla of blazing splendour was slain by the teacher's son.

7.30.28 And all the great car-warriors of the Pāṇḍavas thought to themselves, O sire: "How shall the son of Vāsava deliver us from our foes?"

7.30.29 Meanwhile, on the right of the army, the mighty one was making havoc of what remained of the Saṃśaptakas and of the Nārāyaṇa host.

7.31.1 Saṃjaya said: But Vṛkodara could not endure this check to the host; he pierced Bāhlika with sixty shafts and Karṇa with ten.

7.31.2 At him Droṇa, with keen iron arrows of sharp edge, seeking to end his life, swiftly struck at his vital parts.

7.31.3 Karṇa with twelve arrows, Aśvatthāman with seven, and King Duryodhana with six then covered him over.

7.31.4 Bhīmasena too, of great might, pierced them all in return: Droṇa with fifty arrows, Karṇa with ten,

7.31.5 Duryodhana with twelve, and the son of Droṇa with eight swift shafts; raising a tumultuous roar, he bore down upon them in the fight.

7.31.6 As he, ready to give up his life, was bringing it level with death itself, Ajātaśatru urged on his warriors, crying, "Save Bhīma!"

7.31.7 Then those warriors of boundless might—Yuyudhāna and the rest, together with the two sons of Mādrī—drew near to Bhīmasena.

7.31.8 United and roused to fury, those bulls among men joined forces, eager to break through Droṇa's host, which was guarded by the foremost of great archers.

7.31.9 On rushed those car-warriors of mighty valour, Bhīma at their head; and Droṇa too, the best of chariot-fighters, received them undismayed.

7.31.10 Casting all fear of death aside, your warriors advanced upon those Pāṇḍava heroes—mighty, surpassing car-warriors, splendid in battle.

7.31.11 Horseman struck down horseman, and likewise car-warrior smote car-warrior; there was a clashing of lances and swords, and the battle raged with battle-axes.

7.31.12 A close and bitter sword-fight broke out, fierce in its issue; and through the colliding masses of elephants the combat grew exceedingly terrible.

7.31.13 One man fell headlong from an elephant, another from a horse, and another, pierced through by an arrow, dropped from his chariot, O lord.

7.31.14 And there, in the crush, an elephant trod upon the breast of another man who had fallen, his armour stripped away, and crushed his head to pieces.

7.31.15 Other elephants slew other men who had fallen, and driving their tusks into the earth, ripped open many a car-warrior.

7.31.16 Elephants by the hundred roamed about, their tusks clotted and dripping with men's entrails, trampling men by the hundred.

7.31.17 The elephants ground down fallen men, horses, chariots, and elephants, clad in armour of bronze and iron, as though they were thick reeds.

7.31.18 Proud lords of men, ripened now by Time, lay down in anguish upon their beds—those couches haunted by vultures' wings.

7.31.19 There a father slew his son and drove his chariot over him, and a son in his bewilderment slew his father—all bounds were overthrown.

7.31.20 An axle was shattered, a banner cut down, a parasol flung to the earth; and a horse, dragging half a severed yoke, bolted away.

7.31.21 An arm fell, still grasping its sword; a severed head dropped with its earrings; and a mighty elephant, seizing a chariot, dashed it to splinters upon the ground.

7.31.22 An elephant, struck by a car-warrior's iron shaft, fell down lifeless; and a horse with its rider, smitten hard by an elephant, fell as well.

7.31.23 A great and most terrible battle raged on, with no bounds left: "Alas, father! Alas, my son! Friend, where are you? Stand! Whither do you flee?"

7.31.24 "Strike! Strike! Slay this one!"—with laughter and shouts and roaring, such varied cries were heard ringing forth.

7.31.25 The blood of man, of horse, and of elephant ran together and mingled; the dust of the earth was laid, and faintness came over the timid.

7.31.26 There was tearing of hair and a savage fight with fists, and combat with nails and teeth among warriors who, weaponless, sought weapons where there were none.

7.31.27 There one hero's upraised arm was severed, sword and all; and another's likewise, holding bow and arrow and goad together.

7.31.28 Here one man shouted at another, while another turned his back and fled; and one struck the head from the body of another who had come within his reach.

7.31.29 One charged toward a sound, while another fled hard away from a sound; one slew his own men, and another the foe, with whetted arrows.

7.31.30 There an elephant like a mountain-peak, struck down by an iron shaft, fell upon the earth like a riverbank crumbling in the hot season.

7.31.31 Likewise an elephant, like a streaming mountain, crushed a car-warrior, and pinned him to the ground beneath its foot, together with his horses and his charioteer.

7.31.32 At the sight of those many warriors, skilled in arms and bathed in blood, smiting on, a stupor seized the timid and faint of heart.

7.31.33 All became confusion; nothing could be discerned; and when the army was blotted out by dust, every bound was overthrown.

7.31.34 Then the commander, crying swiftly "Now is the hour!", urged on the Pāṇḍavas, ever eager though they already were.

7.31.35 Obeying his command, the glorious Pāṇḍava warriors swept down upon Droṇa's chariot, slaying as they came, like wild geese descending upon a lake.

7.31.36 "Seize them! Charge them! Cut them down without fear!"—such was the tumultuous din that rose about the chariot of the indomitable one.

7.31.37 Then Droṇa, Kṛpa, Karṇa, Droṇa's son, the king, Jayadratha, the two Avanti princes Vinda and Anuvinda, and Śalya held them back.

7.31.38 But the Pāñcālas, with the Pāṇḍavas—fired by the duty of the noble, irresistible, hard to assail—though sore wounded by arrows, would not abandon their assault on Droṇa.

7.31.39 Then Droṇa, transported with fury, loosing arrows by the hundred, wrought a great slaughter among the Cedis, the Pāñcālas, and the Pāṇḍavas.

7.31.40 The din of his bowstring and palm-guard, O lord, was heard in every quarter, like the crash of a thunderbolt, terrifying many of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.31.41 In that interval the mighty Jiṣṇu, having slain the Saṃśaptakas, hastened to the place where Droṇa was crushing the Pāṇḍavas.

7.31.42 Having crossed that great lake whose whirlpools were floods of arrows and whose waters were blood, and having slain the Saṃśaptakas, Phalguna came into view.

7.31.43 We beheld the emblem of that glorious one, splendid as the sun—his ape-bannered standard blazing with radiance.

7.31.44 Having dried up that ocean of the Saṃśaptakas with the beams of his weapons, that Pāṇḍava—a sun of the world's ending—scorched the Kurus as well.

7.31.45 Arjuna consumed all the Kurus with the blaze of his weapons, as the fire of doom, risen at the end of the age, consumes all beings.

7.31.46 Smitten by him with floods of arrows in their thousands, the warriors on elephants, horses, and chariots, their weapons dropping from their hands and tormented by his shafts, sank to the earth.

7.31.47 Some raised cries of anguish, others shrieked aloud, and some, struck down by Pārtha's arrows, fell lifeless.

7.31.48 Mindful of a warrior's vow, Arjuna did not slay those among them who fled, or who had fallen, or who turned their backs.

7.31.49 Their chariots, horses, and elephants shattered, the Kurus, mostly turned to flight, cried out "Karṇa! Karṇa!" and "Alas! Alas!"

7.31.50 Hearing that cry of the men who sought refuge, the son of Adhiratha answered, "Fear not!", and advanced to meet Arjuna face to face.

7.31.51 That best of Bhārata car-warriors, the delight of all the Bhāratas, foremost of those who knew weapons, brought forth the fiery Āgneya weapon.

7.31.52 Against him, blazing with floods of arrows and wielding a flaming bow, Dhanaṃjaya scattered those streams of shafts with a net of his own; and warding off weapon with weapon, he roared aloud as he loosed his arrows.

7.31.53 And Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Bhīma and the great car-warrior Sātyaki closed upon Karṇa and pierced him, each with three straight-flying shafts.

7.31.54 But the son of Rādhā, warding off Arjuna's weapon with showers of arrows, cut asunder the bows of those three with three keen shafts.

7.31.55 Their weapons cut away, those heroes—like serpents drained of venom—snatched up the lances of their chariots and roared aloud like lions.

7.31.56 Hurled with great force from the tips of their arms, those mighty lances, blazing and serpent-like, sped toward the son of Adhiratha.

7.31.57 Cutting them down, each with three sharp straight-flying arrows, the mighty Karṇa roared and loosed his shafts at Pārtha.

7.31.58 And Arjuna too, having pierced the son of Rādhā with seven swift shafts, slew Karṇa's younger brother with three whetted arrows.

7.31.59 Then, having slain Śatruṃjaya with six straight shafts, Pārtha straightway swept the head of Vipāṭa from his chariot with a broad-headed arrow.

7.31.60 Before the very eyes of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's sons, and in the presence of the charioteer's son, the Diademed One alone slew three brothers.

7.31.61 Then Bhīma, springing from his own chariot like the son of Vinatā, slew fifteen of Karṇa's followers with his excellent sword.

7.31.62 Mounting his chariot again and taking up another bow, he pierced Karṇa with ten arrows, and his charioteer and horses with five.

7.31.63 Dhṛṣṭadyumna too, taking up an excellent sword and a gleaming shield, slew Candravarman and Bṛhatkṣatra of the Paurava line.

7.31.64 Then mounting his chariot and taking up another bow, the Pāñcāla prince pierced Karṇa with seventy-three arrows, roaring in the battle.

7.31.65 The grandson of Śini too, taking up another bow that shone like Indra's rainbow, pierced the charioteer's son with sixty-four shafts and roared like a lion.

7.31.66 With two well-aimed broad-headed shafts he cut Karṇa's bow asunder, and again drove three arrows into Karṇa's arms and breast.

7.31.67 Then Duryodhana and Droṇa, and King Jayadratha as well, drew up the son of Rādhā, who was sinking, from the ocean that was Sātyaki.

7.31.68 And Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Bhīma, Subhadrā's son and Arjuna himself, Nakula and Sahadeva, guarded Sātyaki in the battle.

7.31.69 Thus did this most fearful battle rage on, for the destruction of all the bowmen—of your men and of the foe alike—who flung their very lives away.

7.31.70 With footmen, chariots, elephants, and horses—elephants, horses, chariots, and footmen; car-warriors with elephants, footmen, and horses; chariots and footmen with chariots and elephants—

7.31.71 horse locked with horse, elephant with elephant, car-warrior with car-warrior, and footman with footman, all were seen grappling together.

7.31.72 So tangled and terrible was that battle, a joy to the eaters of flesh, swelling the realm of Yama with those great and fearless warriors.

7.31.73 Then by men, chariots, horses, and elephants were slain, again and again, elephants and chariots, horses and footmen; elephants by elephants, chariots with raised weapons by car-warriors, horses by horses, and footmen by bands of footmen.

7.31.74 By chariots fell elephants, by lordly elephants the great horses, by horses men, and by mighty car-warriors the steeds—their tongues, teeth, and eyes torn out, their armour and ornaments crushed, they met their end upon the earth.

7.31.75 So too were they slain by the foe with many devices and excellent weapons, and sank to the earth, dreadful to behold—mangled, beaten down by the feet of horses and elephants, and crushed in their distress by chariot-wheels and rims and hooves.

7.31.76 While that terrible destruction of men went on, to the delight of beasts and birds and demons, those mighty warriors, enraged, ranged about with all their force, slaughtering one another.

7.31.77 Then, when both armies were sorely shattered and drenched in floods of blood, gazing upon one another, and the sun had slowly settled upon the western mountain, both withdrew to their camps, O Bhārata.

7.32.1 Saṃjaya said: When we had first been broken by Phalguna of boundless might, and Droṇa's purpose had come to nothing and Yudhiṣṭhira had been kept safe,

7.32.2 all your men, their armour shattered, vanquished in the fight, covered with dust and sorely troubled, stood gazing about them in all ten directions.

7.32.3 Then, having drawn back with the consent of Bharadvāja's son, they were dejected, while the foe had gained their aim, and they were bitterly mocked in the battle.

7.32.4 And as all beings extolled the boundless virtues of Phalguna, and the loving friendship of Keśava toward Arjuna was praised aloud, your men became as though accursed, and sank into a brooding silence.

7.32.5 Then, at the hour of dawn, Duryodhana spoke to Droṇa—out of affection, out of wounded pride, and out of grief at the growing power of the foe—heavy at heart, and skilled in speech he spoke in his fury, while all who stood there listened:

7.32.6 "Surely we belong to the side you would see slain, O best of those who know the sacred lore; for today you did not seize Yudhiṣṭhira, though he came within your reach.

7.32.7 Had you but wished it, no foe once come within your sight in battle could have escaped you, were you minded to seize him—though guarded by the Pāṇḍavas with the very gods themselves.

7.32.8 Having granted me a boon in your favour, you afterward turned against it. The noble never in any way break the hopes of one who is devoted to them."

7.32.9 Then, thus addressed and displeased, the son of Bharadvāja answered the king: "You ought not to think otherwise of me, who strive for your welfare.

7.32.10 The worlds entire — with their gods, asuras, and gandharvas, with yakṣas, serpents, and rākṣasas — are not equal to conquering in battle the host guarded by the Diademed One.

7.32.11 Where Govinda, maker of the universe, stands, and where Arjuna, the bane of armies, stands — whose strength could prevail there, save that of the three-eyed Lord himself?

7.32.12 Yet truly I tell you this day, and it shall in no way prove otherwise: this very day I shall bring down the foremost hero among them, a mighty car-warrior.

7.32.13 And I shall array such a battle-formation as not even the thirty gods could pierce; only, O king, by some device let Arjuna be drawn away.

7.32.14 For in battle there is nothing unknown to him, nothing beyond his power; from this source and that he has gathered to himself all knowledge in its strength.

7.32.15 When Droṇa had spoken thus, the bands of the Saṃśaptakas once again summoned Arjuna to battle, away toward the southern quarter.

7.32.16 There a battle arose between Arjuna and the foe — such a battle as no other was ever heard of or seen anywhere.

7.32.17 Then, O king, the formation arrayed by Droṇa shone forth, hard to look upon, like the sun blazing at midday as it moves through the heavens.

7.32.18 And at the word of his eldest uncle, O descendant of Bharata, Abhimanyu broke that wheel-formation in battle — hard though it was to pierce — in many places.

7.32.19 Having wrought that deed hard to accomplish and slain heroes by the thousand, locked in combat with six warriors, he fell into the power of Duḥśāsana's son.

7.32.20 We were filled with utmost joy, while the Pāṇḍavas were wasted with grief; and when the son of Subhadrā was slain, O king, they withdrew from the field.

7.32.21 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Hearing that the son of that lion among men — a boy who had not yet reached his youth, O Saṃjaya — was slain in battle, my heart is torn asunder.

7.32.22 Harsh indeed is this law of the warrior, ordained by the framers of duty, wherein heroes greedy for kingship let fall their weapons upon a child.

7.32.23 A boy reared in utmost ease, ranging the field unafraid — how did many trained in arms strike him down? Tell me, son of Gavalgaṇa, how it came to pass.

7.32.24 As the son of Subhadrā, of measureless might, sought to break the array of chariots and sported in the battle — tell me of that, Saṃjaya.

7.32.25 Saṃjaya said: That which you ask of me, O lord of kings — the felling of the son of Subhadrā — that I shall tell you in full; listen, O king, with a steady mind, how the prince sported as he sought to break the host.

7.32.26 Such was the terror of your men as the terror of forest-dwellers in a wood thick with thickets, grass, and trees, when the wildfire closes about them on every side.

7.33.1 Saṃjaya said: Most fierce in their deeds in battle, their toil made manifest by their feats, the five Pāṇḍavas, with Kṛṣṇa among them, are hard to assail even by the gods.

7.33.2 In courage, in deeds, in lineage, in wisdom, in nature, in fame, and in fortune, never has there been, nor will there be, a man equal in virtues to Kṛṣṇa.

7.33.3 Devoted to truth and duty, a giver, endowed with such virtues as reverence for the brāhmaṇas, King Yudhiṣṭhira has, they say, ever attained heaven itself.

7.33.4 The Ender at the close of an age, O king, the valiant son of Jamadagni, and Bhīmasena standing in battle — these three, men say, are alike.

7.33.5 For the bearer of the Gāṇḍīva, sure to fulfil his vows in deed, in battle — for the son of Pṛthā I can find no fitting likeness upon this earth.

7.33.6 Boundless tenderness toward his elders, modesty, discipline, self-restraint, beauty beyond compare, and valour — these six are fixed firm in Nakula.

7.33.7 In learning, gravity, sweetness, courage, vigour, and prowess, the hero Sahadeva is, they say, the equal of the two Aśvin gods.

7.33.8 All the abundant virtues that are in Kṛṣṇa, and all the virtues that are in the Pāṇḍavas — those gathered hoards of virtues, they say, are seen united in Abhimanyu alone.

7.33.9 In the steadfastness of Yudhiṣṭhira, in the conduct of Kṛṣṇa, and in the deeds of Bhīmasena of terrible feats, he was their match.

7.33.10 In the beauty, the prowess, and the learning of Dhanaṃjaya, and in the modesty of Sahadeva and of Nakula, he was their equal.

7.33.11 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Of Abhimanyu, the unconquered son of Subhadrā, O sūta, I wish to hear in full — how was he slain upon the field of battle?

7.33.12 Saṃjaya said: The wheel-formation, great king, was devised by the preceptor, and within it were stationed kings, every one the peer of Śakra.

7.33.13 There was then a gathering of all the princes, all bound by a common compact, all with banners wrought of gold.

7.33.14 All clad in crimson raiment, all in crimson ornaments, all with crimson pennons, and all garlanded with gold.

7.33.15 Of these firm-bowed warriors there were ten thousand, who set at their head your grandson, the fair-to-look-upon Lakṣmaṇa.

7.33.16 Sharing one another's sorrows, sharing one another's daring, vying each with each, and each devoted to the welfare of the rest.

7.33.17 Encircled by the great car-warriors Karṇa, Duḥśāsana, and Kṛpa, the king — like the lord of the gods, radiant, shaded by a white umbrella, fanned by the sweep of yak-tail whisks — was as the rising sun.

7.33.18 At the front of that army, with Droṇa stationed as its commander, the lord of the Sindhus took his stand, glorious and unmoving as Mount Meru.

7.33.19 At the side of the lord of the Sindhus, led by Aśvatthāman, stood your sons, great king — thirty of them, like unto the gods.

7.33.20 The king of Gāndhāra, the gambler, Śalya, and Bhūriśravas — these mighty car-warriors shone forth at the flank of the lord of the Sindhus.

7.34.1 Saṃjaya said: Against that host, unassailable and guarded by the son of Bharadvāja, the Pārthas advanced, with Bhīmasena at their head.

7.34.2 Sātyaki and Cekitāna, and Dhṛṣṭadyumna the grandson of Pṛṣata, and the valiant Kuntibhoja, and Drupada the great car-warrior;

7.34.3 the son of Arjuna, and Kṣatradharman, and the valiant Bṛhatkṣatra, the lord of the Cedis, and Dhṛṣṭaketu, the two sons of Mādrī, and Ghaṭotkaca;

7.34.4 the valorous Yudhāmanyu, and the unvanquished Śikhaṇḍin, and the unyielding Uttamaujas, and Virāṭa the great car-warrior;

7.34.5 the sons of Draupadī in their fury, and the valiant son of Śiśupāla, and the mighty Kekayas, and the Sṛñjayas in their thousands;

7.34.6 these and others with their bands, masters of arms and frenzied for war, rushed of a sudden upon the son of Bharadvāja, eager to do battle.

7.34.7 But the valiant son of Bharadvāja, all unshaken, held back all those gathered foes with a vast flood of arrows.

7.34.8 As great floods of water reaching a mountain hard to breach, as seas reaching the shore, they could not press past Droṇa.

7.34.9 Tormented, O king, by the shafts loosed from Droṇa's bow, the Pāṇḍavas could not stand before the face of the son of Bharadvāja.

7.34.10 We beheld then the marvellous strength of Droṇa's arms, in that the Pāñcālas together with the Sṛñjayas could not press past him.

7.34.11 Seeing Droṇa advancing in his wrath, Yudhiṣṭhira pondered in many ways how Droṇa might be held back.

7.34.12 Judging that Droṇa could be withstood by no other, Yudhiṣṭhira laid that heavy, unbearable burden upon the son of Subhadrā.

7.34.13 To Abhimanyu — no whit inferior to Vāsudeva, of measureless might like Phalguna, slayer of enemy heroes — he spoke these words:

7.34.14 So act, dear child, that Arjuna may not return and reproach us; for we know not by any means how to break the wheel-formation.

7.34.15 You, or Arjuna, or Kṛṣṇa, or Pradyumna alone could break this wheel-formation, mighty-armed one; a fifth there is none.

7.34.16 O Abhimanyu, dear child, you ought to grant the boon we beg — for the sake of your fathers and your uncles and all the host alike.

7.34.17 For Dhanaṃjaya, dear child, would return from the war and reproach us; so quickly take up your weapons and shatter Droṇa's array.

7.34.18 Abhimanyu said: Droṇa's foremost array, firm and unwavering in battle, I shall plunge into and shall break, longing for my fathers' victory.

7.34.19 For the art of breaking through a battle-array was taught me by my father; but to issue forth again, should some peril arise, that I am unable to do.

7.34.20 Yudhiṣṭhira said: Break the array, best of warriors, and open a gateway for us; we shall follow after you, dear child, by whatever path you go.

7.34.21 Holding you, dear child, the equal of Dhanaṃjaya in war, we shall follow close behind you in the fray, guarding you, facing every side.

7.34.22 Bhīma said: I shall follow you, and Dhṛṣṭadyumna, and Sātyaki, the Pāñcālas, the Kekayas, the Matsyas, and all the Prabhadrakas.

7.34.23 The formation once broken by you, here and there, again and again, we shall shatter it utterly, striking down the best of their warriors one upon another.

7.34.24 Abhimanyu said: I shall enter this unassailable array of Droṇa as a moth, all enraged, enters the blazing fire.

7.34.25 This day I shall do that deed which serves the good of both my lineages, and which shall bring joy to my uncle and to my father.

7.34.26 This day shall all beings behold the armies of the foe driven on in their multitudes in battle by a single child — by me.

7.34.27 Yudhiṣṭhira said: As you speak thus, son of Subhadrā, may your strength increase — you who dare to break Droṇa's array, so very hard to break;

7.34.28 guarded by tigers among men, great archers and smiters, like the Sādhyas, the Rudras, and the Maruts, with the prowess of the Vasus, of Agni, and of the Ādityas.

7.34.29 Saṃjaya said: Hearing those words of his, he urged on his driver: "Sumitrā, drive the horses swiftly into battle, toward Droṇa's array!"

7.35.1 Saṃjaya said: But the son of Subhadrā, having heard the word of the wise Dharma-king, urged on his driver toward Droṇa's array, O descendant of Bharata.

7.35.2 But the charioteer, thus urged on with "Go, go!", answered then, O king, and spoke these words to Abhimanyu:

7.35.3 Too heavy a burden, O long-lived one, have the Pāṇḍavas laid upon you; weigh well with your mind what is fitting, and only then ought you to fight.

7.35.4 For the preceptor Droṇa is accomplished, well-practised in the highest weapons, while you have been reared in utmost ease — though you too are skilled in war.

7.35.5 Then Abhimanyu, laughing, spoke these words to the charioteer: "O charioteer, who indeed is this Droṇa, or the whole warrior caste besides?

7.35.6 I would do battle at the forefront of the fray with Śakra himself, mounted upon Airāvata, together with all the host of gods; this day no awe of the warrior caste is in me. This army of the foe is not worth to me a sixteenth part.

7.35.7 Having for my uncle Viṣṇu, conqueror of all, and for my father Arjuna in battle, O son of a sūta, no fear shall ever come upon me.

7.35.8 Then Abhimanyu, making nothing of the charioteer's speech, said to him only, "Go, and tarry not — toward Droṇa's array!"

7.35.9 Then the sūta, his heart not over-glad, urged on his three-year-old steeds, decked in trappings of gold.

7.35.10 Those horses, sent on by Sumitrā toward Droṇa's array, rushed upon Droṇa, O king, with great speed and force.

7.35.11 Beholding him come on thus, all the Kauravas, led by Droṇa, advanced against him, and the Pāṇḍavas followed after him.

7.35.12 His banner raised high with a peerless karṇikāra blossom, clad in golden mail, the son of Arjuna — finer even than Arjuna — fell with eagerness for battle upon the great car-warriors led by Droṇa, as a lion's cub upon elephants.

7.35.13 Halting at twenty paces, intent, they joined the clash of arms; for a moment it was like the whirlpool of the Gaṅgā, like that of the ocean.

7.35.14 As the heroes fought, striking one another down, a tumultuous and most terrible battle arose, O king.

7.35.15 As that most terrifying battle raged on, the son of Arjuna, before Droṇa's very eyes, broke through the formation and entered it.

7.35.16 As that mighty one entered and struck down the foe in the enemy's midst, throngs of elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers, weapons upraised, closed in around him.

7.35.17 With the din of varied instruments, with whoops and shouts and roars, with snarls and lion-cries and cries of "Stand! Stand!",

7.35.18 with dreadful clamoring uproar—"Do not flee! Stand! Come to me! That one is mine, I am here!"—crying out again and again,

7.35.19 with the trumpeting of elephants, the jingling of ornaments, with laughter, and the clatter of hooves and wheel-rims, making the earth resound, they rushed upon the son of Arjuna.

7.35.20 As they fell upon him, the hero—swift of weapon and knowing the vital points—slew their bands first quickly, then surely, with shafts that pierced the vitals.

7.35.21 Though they were thus being slain by his sharp arrows of many kinds, they hurled themselves upon him in the fray like moths into a flame.

7.35.22 Then with their bodies and the limbs of their bodies he swiftly strewed the ground, as one strews the altar with kuśa grass at a sacrifice.

7.35.23 Their arms bound with iguana-hide and finger-guards, bearing arrows, shields, and bows, with swords, leather, goads, and reins, with lances and battle-axes,

7.35.24 with iron-tipped barbed javelins, with spears, lances, and tridents, with slings and clubs, with darts and excellent quivering pikes,

7.35.25 with goads and great conches, with barbed spears, with grappling-hooks, with mallets and slingstones, with nooses, bludgeons, and stones—

7.35.26 the rounded arms of your men, adorned with armlets and bracelets and anointed with fragrant unguents, the son of Arjuna severed by the thousand.

7.35.27 With those quivering, blood-drenched arms, O great king, the field shone as if with five-headed serpents cut asunder by Garuḍa, good sir.

7.35.28 With heads of fair noses, faces, and flowing hair, unblemished, with lovely earrings, with lips bitten in rage, streaming much blood,

7.35.29 with lovely garlands, crowns, and diadems, gleaming with gems and jewels, shaped like stalkless lotuses, with the radiance of sun and moon,

7.35.30 with many sweet-spoken heads of the foe, which had spoken kindly and well in their time and were of holy fragrance, the son of Phalguna covered the earth.

7.35.31 Chariots shaped like the cities of the gandharvas, fashioned according to rule—their shafts shattered, their triple-poles broken, their staves and yokes scattered,

7.35.32 their axles, poles, and pins gone, their rims gone, their drivers gone, their wheels, gear, and seats undone, their fittings broken as well,

7.35.33 their equipment hewn away, their warriors slain by the thousand—shattering them to fragments with his arrows, he was seen in every direction.

7.35.34 And again the elephants and their riders, the banners, goads, and standards, the quivers, the armor, the girths, the neck-ropes, the blankets,

7.35.35 the bells, the trunks, the tusk-tips, the foot-guards, and the attendants of the enemy—all these he cut down with his keen-edged, sharp-pointed arrows.

7.35.36 Steeds from Vanāyu, from the mountains, from Kāmboja, Āraṭṭa, and Bāhlika—of steady tails, ears, and eyes, swift and well-trained to bear,

7.35.37 well-mounted by trained warriors who fought with darts, lances, and javelins—their chowries and trappings undone, their plumes scattered about,

7.35.38 with tongues and eyes thrust out, with entrails, livers, and hearts spilling forth, their riders slain, their harness broken, a feast for the flesh-eating throngs,

7.35.39 their armor and mail cut away, drenched in dung and urine and blood—felling these fine horses of your men, he shone resplendent.

7.35.40 Alone, unfathomable as Viṣṇu, having wrought before this a deed hard to do, he so churned up the three branches of your great host; and he struck down the floods of your foot-soldiers as well, O descendant of Bharata.

7.35.41 Seeing that army thus grievously battered by Subhadrā's son alone with his sharp arrows, as the asuras' host was once smitten by Skanda,

7.35.42 your men and your sons, gazing about them in all ten directions, their mouths gone dry, their eyes darting, sweating, their hair on end,

7.35.43 bent on fleeing, drained of all heart for the conquest of the foe, calling out to one another by clan and name, longing for their lives,

7.35.44 abandoning their slain sons and fathers, their friends, kinsmen, and relations, they took flight, urging on their horses and elephants.

7.36.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing that host shattered by the son of Subhadrā of boundless might, Duryodhana, sorely enraged, advanced himself against the son of Subhadrā.

7.36.2 Then, seeing the king turn toward Subhadrā's son in the fray, Droṇa said to the warriors, "Shield the lord of men!

7.36.3 Before mighty Abhimanyu slays the mark of our gaze—rush upon him! Do not fear! Swiftly guard the Kaurava!"

7.36.4 Then those grateful, mighty comrades, flushed with victory yet harried by fear, surrounded your son to shield him from the hero.

7.36.5 Droṇa, the son of Droṇa, Kṛpa, Karṇa, Kṛtavarman, and the son of Subala, Bṛhadbala, the king of the Madras, Bhūri, Bhūriśravas, and Śala,

7.36.6 the Paurava and Vṛṣasena—loosing sharp arrows, they overwhelmed the son of Subhadrā with a great rain of shafts.

7.36.7 Having bewildered him, they then bore Duryodhana off to safety; but the son of Arjuna could not brook it, as a lion cannot brook a morsel snatched from its jaws.

7.36.8 With a great flood of arrows the son of Subhadrā turned those great chariot-warriors back, horses and drivers and all, and then let loose a lion's roar.

7.36.9 Hearing his cry, like that of a lion craving its prey, the chariot-warriors led by Droṇa, greatly incensed, could not endure it once again.

7.36.10 Penning him in with their array of chariots, good sir, they loosed nets of arrows of many kinds upon him in massed volleys.

7.36.11 Your grandson cut these apart in mid-air with his sharp arrows, and pierced those warriors in return—and that was a marvel to behold.

7.36.12 Then, provoked by him with arrows like venomous serpents, they surrounded the unflinching son of Subhadrā, bent on his death.

7.36.13 That ocean-host of yours, surging like the sea, Abhimanyu alone held back, as the shore holds back the abode of sea-monsters.

7.36.14 Among the heroes fighting and striking one another—Abhimanyu and the foe alike—not one turned his face away.

7.36.15 While that dreadful, terrifying battle raged on, Duḥsaha pierced Abhimanyu with nine arrows.

7.36.16 Duḥśāsana struck him with twelve, Kṛpa the son of Śaradvat with three, and Droṇa with seventeen arrows like venomous serpents.

7.36.17 Viviṃśati with twenty, Kṛtavarman with seven, Bṛhadbala likewise with eight, and Aśvatthāman with seven,

7.36.18 Bhūriśravas with three arrows, the lord of the Madras with six swift shafts, Śakuni with two, and king Duryodhana with three.

7.36.19 But he pierced each of them in return with three straight-flying shafts, as if dancing, O great king, bow in hand, that splendid warrior.

7.36.20 Then Abhimanyu, enraged and sorely pressed by your sons, displayed the mighty power of his training and his own native strength.

7.36.21 With horses swift as Garuḍa or the wind, tamed and obedient to their driver's word, he hastened to attack the heir of Aśmaka, pierced him with ten arrows, and cried, "Stand!"

7.36.22 With ten arrows Abhimanyu, smiling, brought down to earth his driver, his horses, his banner, his arms, his bow, and his head.

7.36.23 Then, when that hero, the lord of Aśmaka, was slain by the son of Subhadrā, the whole host wavered and gave itself over to flight.

7.36.24 Then Karṇa, Kṛpa, Droṇa, the son of Droṇa, the king of Gāndhāra, Śala, Śalya, Bhūriśravas, Krātha, Somadatta, Viviṃśati,

7.36.25 Vṛṣasena and Suṣeṇa, Kuṇḍabhedin, Pratardana, Vṛndāraka, Lalittha, Prabāhu, Dīrghalocana, and Duryodhana, all in fury, overwhelmed him with showers of arrows.

7.36.26 Greatly enraged by those mighty archers, Abhimanyu took up against Karṇa a straight-flying arrow that pierces the bodies of foes.

7.36.27 That swift shaft, cleaving his armor and piercing his body, entered the earth, O king, like a serpent entering an anthill.

7.36.28 Stricken by that mighty blow and reeling as if dazed, Karṇa swayed upon the field like a mountain in an earthquake.

7.36.29 Then with other keen arrows the mighty one, in his wrath, slew the three—Suṣeṇa, Dīrghalocana, and Kuṇḍabhedin—with three shafts.

7.36.30 Karṇa let fly at him twenty-five iron shafts, Aśvatthāman twenty, and Kṛtavarman seven.

7.36.31 His every limb tormented by arrows, the son of Indra's son, in his wrath, was seen ranging through the host like Death with noose in hand.

7.36.32 And with a rain of arrows he overwhelmed Śalya, who stood close by, that mighty-armed one crying aloud and striking terror into your armies.

7.36.33 Then, pierced by that master of weapons with straight shafts that cleave the vitals, Śalya, O king, sank down upon the floor of his chariot and swooned away.

7.36.34 Seeing him so pierced by the glorious son of Subhadrā, the whole host took to flight before the very eyes of the son of Bharadvāja.

7.36.35 Beholding that mighty-armed one encompassed by his gold-feathered arrows, your men too fled, like deer harried by a lion.

7.36.36 And he, honored for his glory in battle by the throngs of ancestors, gods, cāraṇas, siddhas, and yakṣas, and by the hosts of beings upon the earth, blazed forth like fire fed with clarified butter.

7.37.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: As that mighty archer, the son of Arjuna, churned them so with his straight shafts, which of my men all overwhelmed him?

7.37.2 Saṃjaya said: Hear, O king, the great sport of the youth in battle, as he sought to break through the chariot-array guarded by the son of Bharadvāja.

7.37.3 Seeing the lord of the Madras struck down by the son of Subhadrā with swift shafts in the fray, Śalya's younger brother, enraged, advanced upon him, scattering arrows.

7.37.4 Piercing the son of Arjuna, horses and driver and all, with ten arrows, he cried out in a great voice, "Stand! Stand!"

7.37.5 His head and neck, hands and feet, his bow, his horses, his parasol, his banner, his driver, the triple-pole, the pegs and gear,

7.37.6 the wheels, the yoke-shaft, the quivers, and the under-pole—with his arrows, and the pennon, the two wheel-guards, and all the fittings, the son of Arjuna shattered with such swiftness that none could mark how he did it.

7.37.7 He fell to the earth undone, his ornaments and garments scattered, like a great sacred tree snapped by the wind—broken by that one of boundless splendor; and his followers, terror-struck, fled in every direction.

7.37.8 Seeing that deed of the son of Arjuna, all beings on every side cried out with a great shout, "Well done! Well done!", O descendant of Bharata.

7.37.9 Now that Śalya's brother was struck down, his soldiers in great numbers, proclaiming aloud to the son of Arjuna the names of their clans and dwelling-places,

7.37.10 advanced in fury, weapons of every kind in hand, some with chariots, horses, and elephants, others on foot, swollen with strength.

7.37.11 With the great twang of bowstrings and the clatter of hooves and wheel-rims, with snarls, whoops, and shouts, with lion-roars and bellowings,

7.37.12 others with the twang of bowstring and finger-guard, roaring at the son of Arjuna and crying, "You shall not escape us alive while we yet live!"

7.37.13 Seeing them speak thus, the son of Subhadrā, as if smiling, pierced with his feathered shafts each man, one after another, who had first struck at him.

7.37.14 Meaning to display his weapons, both wondrous and swift, the heroic son of Arjuna fought on in the battle, gently at first.

7.37.15 Whatever weapon the son of Kārṣṇi had received from Vāsudeva and from Dhanaṃjaya, that he displayed, showing himself in no way inferior to the two Kṛṣṇas.

7.37.16 Shooting far, bearing the heavy burden, and pressing on again and again, nocking and loosing his arrows, he appeared without a single break in his motion.

7.37.17 Only the circle of his bow, quivering, was seen in every quarter, like the blazing disk of the sun as it destroys the darkness.

7.37.18 The twang of his bowstring was heard, and the terrible clap of his palm-guard, like the roar of a storm-cloud loosing its great thunderbolts in season.

7.37.19 Modest yet unforgiving, the son of Subhadrā, proud and fair to look upon, fought on, wishing even to do honor to the heroic archers.

7.37.20 Having been gentle, O great king, he turned terrible, like the blessed sun grown fierce in autumn after the rains have passed.

7.37.21 Wrathful, he loosed by the hundred his great and wondrous arrows, gold-feathered and whetted on stone, as the sun pours forth its rays.

7.37.22 With razor-edged shafts and calf-tooth points, with broad-headed and barbed arrows, with iron bolts and half-iron bolts, with crescent heads and finger-broad heads, the illustrious one fought;

7.37.23 he overwhelmed the chariot host before the very eyes of Bhāradvāja, and that army, sore pressed by his arrows, turned its face away.

7.38.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: My mind is torn in two, Saṃjaya, between shame and delight, that the son of Subhadrā held back the army of my son.

7.38.2 Tell me again in full detail, son of Gavalgaṇa, all the sport of that young prince, like Skanda's against the Asuras.

7.38.3 Saṃjaya said: Then I shall recount to you that most fearful struggle, and the tumultuous battle as it raged between the one and the many.

7.38.4 Abhimanyu, his ardor kindled, standing upon his chariot, dismayed all your warriors—those eager chariot-fighters and subduers of foes.

7.38.5 Droṇa, Karṇa, Kṛpa, Śalya, the son of Droṇa, the Bhoja, Bṛhadbala, Duryodhana, the son of Somadatta, and mighty Śakuni—

7.38.6 the many kings and sons of kings, and the manifold armies—ranging among them all like a whirling firebrand, he assailed them with his arrows.

7.38.7 Slaying his foes, the son of Subhadrā, master of supreme weapons, glorious and full of splendor, showed himself in every quarter, O Bhārata.

7.38.8 Seeing that exploit of the son of Subhadrā of measureless might, your armies trembled again and again.

7.38.9 Then the deeply wise and valiant Bhāradvāja, his eyes wide with delight, swiftly addressed Kṛpa and said:

7.38.10 As though striking at the vital parts of your son, O honored one, when he beheld Abhimanyu, that master of battle, in the fray—

7.38.11 "There goes the young son of Subhadrā, at the head of the Pārthas, gladdening all his friends and King Yudhiṣṭhira,

7.38.12 and Nakula and Sahadeva and Bhīmasena the Pāṇḍava, and his other kinsmen and relations, the neutrals and the well-wishers alike.

7.38.13 In battle I think no other bowman is his equal; should he wish it, he could slay this whole army—yet for some reason he does not so wish."

7.38.14 Hearing these words of Droṇa, spoken with affection, your son grew wrathful against the son of Arjuna, and looking at Droṇa he seemed to smile.

7.38.15 Then Duryodhana spoke to Karṇa, to Bāhlika, to Kṛpa, to Duḥśāsana, to the king of the Madras, and to those other great chariot-warriors:

7.38.16 "The preceptor of all the anointed kings, deepest knower of the Veda, has no wish here to strike down this deluded son of Arjuna.

7.38.17 For in battle not even Death himself, were he the assailant, could escape him—how much less any other mortal? I tell you the truth.

7.38.18 Out of regard for his pupil, he shields the son of Arjuna; for to the righteous, sons and pupils are dear alike, and so too is this their child.

7.38.19 Guarded by Droṇa, he fancies his own prowess; that vain fool, puffed up with self-conceit—crush him without delay!"

7.38.20 Thus addressed by the king, they rushed upon the son of the Sātvatī woman, furious and bent on killing him, before the very eyes of Bhāradvāja.

7.38.21 But Duḥśāsana, that tiger among the Kurus, having heard Duryodhana's words, then said this to Duryodhana:

7.38.22 "I shall slay him, great king—I tell you so. Before the watching eyes of the sons of Pāṇḍu and the Pāñcālas, this day I shall devour the son of Subhadrā as Rāhu devours the sun."

7.38.23 And shouting aloud, he spoke again these words to the king of the Kurus: "When the two over-proud Kṛṣṇas hear that the son of Subhadrā has been devoured by me, they will pass from the world of the living to the world of the dead—of this there is no doubt."

7.38.24 "And once those two are clearly dead, the sons sprung from Pāṇḍu's field, together with their company of friends, will in a single day yield up their lives out of despair."

7.38.25 "Therefore, when this enemy is slain, all your foes are slain. Bless me, O king, and think on my welfare; here I go to kill your enemy!"

7.38.26 Having spoken thus and roaring, O king, your son Duḥśāsana rushed in fury upon the son of Subhadrā and overwhelmed him with showers of arrows.

7.38.27 As your son came on in his wrath, Abhimanyu, that subduer of foes, met him with twenty-six keen arrows.

7.38.28 And Duḥśāsana, enraged like an elephant in rut, gave battle to the son of Subhadrā, and Abhimanyu fought him in turn upon the field.

7.38.29 Wheeling their chariots leftward and rightward in wondrous circling patterns, the two, skilled in the art of chariot-craft, fought on.

7.38.30 Then the men raised a mighty din of small drums and tabors and kettledrums, of cymbals and great war-drums and trumpets and rattles, mingled with a roar like that of the briny ocean.

7.39.1 Saṃjaya said: His limbs torn by arrows, wise Abhimanyu, smiling, then spoke to Duḥśāsana, who stood before him as his foe:

7.39.2 "By good fortune I behold, come into battle, my arrogant enemy—cruel, having cast off all righteousness, given over to reviling.

7.39.3 For in the assembly hall, while King Dhṛtarāṣṭra listened, you, drunk with triumph, provoked the Dharma King Yudhiṣṭhira with harsh words, and Bhīma too, prating much that was unseemly.

7.39.4 For the seizing of another's wealth, for unappeased wrath, for greed, for the ruin of wisdom, for grievous treachery,

7.39.5 and for the robbing of the kingdom of my fierce-bowed forefathers—this has now overtaken you, born of the wrath of those great-souled men.

7.39.6 Reap this very moment the fierce fruit of your unrighteousness, O evil-minded one! Today I shall chastise you with my arrows before the eyes of the whole army.

7.39.7 Today in this battle I shall free myself of the debt I owe to that wrath—to the indignant Kṛṣṇā and to the longing of my father.

7.39.8 Today, O Kaurava, I shall discharge in battle my debt to Bhīma. You shall not escape me alive unless you flee the fight."

7.39.9 Having spoken thus, the mighty-armed slayer of hostile heroes nocked an arrow to end Duḥśāsana, gleaming like the fire and wind of doomsday.

7.39.10 Swiftly reaching his breast, it pierced him through at the collarbone; and then once more he met him with twenty-five arrows.

7.39.11 Deeply pierced and racked with pain, Duḥśāsana sank down upon the floor of his chariot, O great king, and a great swoon came over him.

7.39.12 His charioteer in haste bore the senseless Duḥśāsana, sore pressed by the arrows of the son of Subhadrā, out of the thick of the battle.

7.39.13 The Pāṇḍavas and the sons of Draupadī, and Virāṭa, the Pāñcālas and the Kekayas, beholding this, then raised a lion's roar.

7.39.14 And the warriors of the Pāṇḍavas, filled with joy, sounded forth on every side all their instruments of many kinds.

7.39.15 They watched and smiled at the feat of the son of Subhadrā, seeing their utter and insolent foe defeated.

7.39.16 The sons of Draupadī, those great chariot-warriors, bore upon the tips of their standards the images of Dharma, the Wind-god, Śakra, and the two Aśvins.

7.39.17 Sātyaki and Cekitāna, Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Śikhaṇḍin, the Kekayas and Dhṛṣṭaketu, the Matsyas, the Pāñcālas, and the Sṛñjayas,

7.39.18 and the Pāṇḍavas, filled with gladness and led by Yudhiṣṭhira, advanced together, eager to break the host of Droṇa.

7.39.19 Then there arose a mighty battle between your men and their foes, between heroes who longed for victory and would never turn back.

7.39.20 Duryodhana, O great king, said this to the son of Rādhā: "Look at the hero Duḥśāsana, fallen into Abhimanyu's power!

7.39.21 And the Pāṇḍavas come rushing on, roused to rescue him, while the son of Subhadrā, blazing like the sun, strikes down his foes in battle."

7.39.22 Then Karṇa, enraged and acting for your son's good, rained keen arrows upon the unassailable Abhimanyu.

7.39.23 And on the field of battle that hero, with scorn, pierced with his keen, supreme shafts the followers of the son of Subhadrā.

7.39.24 But Abhimanyu, high-souled, eager to reach Droṇa, swiftly pierced the son of Rādhā with seventy-three stone-whetted arrows, O king.

7.39.25 None then could hold him back from Droṇa in the battle as he shattered the foremost chariot-warriors, like the Thunderbolt-bearer scattering the Asuras.

7.39.26 Then Karṇa, proudest of all bowmen and longing for victory, pierced the son of Subhadrā a hundredfold, displaying his supreme weapons.

7.39.27 With those weapons the valiant pupil of Rāma, foremost of those who know the weapons, harried in battle Abhimanyu, whom foes could not withstand.

7.39.28 Yet though thus harried by the son of Rādhā with showers of weapons, the son of Subhadrā, like a god in the battle, did not falter.

7.39.29 Then, with keen, stone-whetted, smooth-jointed broad-headed arrows, the son of Arjuna cut the bows of the heroes and tormented Karṇa; and severing his standard and his bow, he cast them to the ground.

7.39.30 Then, seeing Karṇa brought to grief, Karṇa's younger brother rushed swiftly upon the son of Subhadrā, raising his stout bow.

7.39.31 Then the Pārthas and the men who followed them shouted aloud, and sounded their instruments, and gave praise to the son of Subhadrā.

7.40.1 Saṃjaya said: Roaring aloud, bow in hand, drawing the string again and again, he swiftly closed the gap between the chariots of those two great-souled warriors.

7.40.2 Smiling, as it were, he swiftly pierced the unassailable Abhimanyu with ten arrows, together with his parasol, standard, charioteer, and horses.

7.40.3 Seeing the son of Kārṣṇi—who wrought superhuman deeds worthy of his father and forefathers—now wounded by arrows, your men rejoiced.

7.40.4 But Abhimanyu, drawing his bow with a smile, struck off that man's head with a single feathered shaft, and he fell from his chariot to the earth.

7.40.5 Seeing his brother slain—like a karṇikāra blossom torn by the wind and shaken from the mountain—Karṇa, O king, was struck with grief.

7.40.6 Having turned Karṇa away with his heron-feathered arrows, the son of Subhadrā at once rushed upon the other great archers as well.

7.40.7 Then the illustrious Abhimanyu broke through that wide-spread net of elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers, like an angry fish tearing through a snare.

7.40.8 And Karṇa, tormented by Abhimanyu's many arrows, withdrew upon his swift horses; thereupon the host was broken open.

7.40.9 With the sky covered over by Abhimanyu's arrows, as though by locusts or by torrents of rain, O king, nothing could be discerned at all.

7.40.10 And as your warriors were being cut down by his sharp arrows, none, O king, save the lord of the Sindhus, stood his ground.

7.40.11 Then Subhadrā's son, that bull among men, blew his conch and swiftly fell upon the army of the Bhāratas, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.40.12 Like fire let loose in dry brush, consuming his foes with sudden force, Arjuna's son ranged through the midst of the Bhārata host.

7.40.13 Tormenting chariots, elephants, horses, and men with his whetted shafts, he plunged in and made the earth thick with throngs of headless trunks.

7.40.14 Cut down by the matchless arrows sprung from Subhadrā's son's bow, men fled in their longing for life, striking even their own comrades who faced them.

7.40.15 Those dreadful broad-headed shafts, sharp and terrible in their work, slew chariots, elephants, and horses, and swiftly buried themselves in the earth.

7.40.16 In that battle there could be seen severed arms, still gripping weapons, still wearing finger-guards, swords, and armlets, adorned with golden ornaments.

7.40.17 Arrows and bows and swords, bodies and heads—wearing earrings and garlands—lay upon the ground by the thousands.

7.40.18 With wheel-frames and floor-boards, with poles, shafts, and seat-rails, with shattered axles and broken wheels, with chariots smashed in many ways, with spears, bows, and weapons, and with great fallen banners—

7.40.19 with slain warriors, horses, and elephants, O lord of peoples, in a moment the earth became all but impassable and most fearsome to behold.

7.40.20 From the princes being slaughtered, crying out to one another, there arose a mighty din that swelled the terror of the timid; and that sound, O best of the Bhāratas, made all the quarters resound.

7.40.21 Subhadrā's son charged the army, striking down horses, chariots, and elephants; he ranged through all the quarters and the intermediate quarters, crushing the foe.

7.40.22 We could not then make him out, veiled by the army's dust as he took the lives of elephants, horses, and men, O Bhārata.

7.40.23 In a moment we saw him again, O great king, like the noonday sun—Abhimanyu, scorching the hosts of his enemies.

7.40.24 Equal to Vāsava in battle, the son of Vāsava's son's son, Abhimanyu, O great king, shone resplendent in the midst of the army.

7.41.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: A boy, reared in utter ease, proud with irresistible strength, skilled in battle, a hero, a scion of a noble house, ready to lay down his life—

7.41.2 as he plunged into the ranks with his fine three-year-old steeds, did any chariot-warrior from Yudhiṣṭhira's army follow after him?

7.41.3 Saṃjaya said: Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīmasena, Śikhaṇḍin, Sātyaki, the twins, Dhṛṣṭadyumna, Virāṭa, Drupada with the Kekayas, the furious Dhṛṣṭaketu, and the Matsyas followed after him into the battle.

7.41.4 In their eagerness to protect him those smiters charged, their ranks arrayed; and seeing those heroes rushing on, your men turned their faces away.

7.41.5 Then, seeing the great host of your son turned away, your splendid son-in-law charged forward, resolved to hold the line.

7.41.6 The king Jayadratha, son of the lord of the Sindhus, O great king, held back the sons of Pṛthā together with their army as they pressed on, hungry to reach their son.

7.41.7 Of dreadful bow, a great archer, the son of Vṛddhakṣatra invoked a divine weapon and checked them, as one checks elephants charging down a slope.

7.41.8 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: A burden too great, I think, was laid upon the lord of the Sindhus, Saṃjaya, in that alone he held back the wrathful Pāṇḍavas longing to reach their son.

7.41.9 Most wondrous, I deem, are the strength and valor in the lord of the Sindhus. Tell me then of that great soul's prowess and his foremost deed.

7.41.10 What did the king of the Sindhus give, or offer in oblation, or sacrifice, or what austerity did he duly perform, that alone he could hold back the wrathful sons of Pṛthā?

7.41.11 Saṃjaya said: When, at the carrying off of Draupadī, that king was vanquished by Bhīmasena, then out of wounded pride, seeking a boon, he performed exceedingly severe austerity.

7.41.12 Drawing back his senses from their dear objects, enduring hunger, thirst, and heat, grown lean, his veins standing forth, he worshipped the god Śarva, reciting the eternal sacred word.

7.41.13 The Lord, compassionate to his devotees, then took pity on him; and at the end of a dream Hara said to the son of the lord of the Sindhus: 'Choose a boon, I am pleased, Jayadratha—what do you desire?'

7.41.14 So addressed by Śarva, Jayadratha, king of the Sindhus, bowing low before Rudra with joined palms, his soul composed, replied:

7.41.15 'May I, alone in battle, hold back the sons of Pāṇḍu, of terrible valor and might, all of them together'—so he prayed, O Bhārata.

7.41.16 So addressed, the lord of the gods then said to Jayadratha: 'I grant you the boon, gentle one—save only Pṛthā's son Dhanaṃjaya.

7.41.17 In battle you shall hold back the four sons of Pāṇḍu.' Saying 'So be it' to the lord of the gods, the king awoke.

7.41.18 By that granting of the boon and by the power of his divine weapon, he alone held back the host of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.41.19 At the twang of his bowstring and the slap of his palm, fear entered the warriors of the foe, while in your army there arose the highest joy.

7.41.20 And seeing the whole burden laid upon the lord of the Sindhus, the warriors, raising a shout, charged, O king, against Yudhiṣṭhira's host.

7.42.1 Saṃjaya said: As to the valor of the king of the Sindhus about which you ask me, O king of kings—hear it; I shall tell it all, how he fought the Pāṇḍavas.

7.42.2 Him the great Sindhu horses bore on, obedient to the charioteer, well-trained and high-mettled, prancing, swift as the wind.

7.42.3 His chariot, fashioned according to rule and shaped like a Gandharva's city, was adorned by a banner bearing a great silver boar.

7.42.4 With white parasol and pennants and with whisk and fan, he shone forth in those marks of royalty like the lord of the stars in the sky.

7.42.5 Adorned with pearls, diamonds, gems, and gold, his iron fender shone like the firmament strewn with stars.

7.42.6 Twanging his great bow and scattering many showers of shafts, he filled up that gap which the son of Arjuna had torn open.

7.42.7 He pierced Sātyaki with three arrows, Vṛkodara with eight, Dhṛṣṭadyumna with sixty, and Virāṭa with ten shafts;

7.42.8 Drupada with five keen ones, and Śikhaṇḍin with ten, the Kekayas with twenty-five, and the sons of Draupadī with three apiece;

7.42.9 and Yudhiṣṭhira with seventy; then he drove off the rest with a vast web of arrows—a thing that seemed a marvel.

7.42.10 Then, taking aim at his bow with a sharp, gold-bright broad-headed shaft, the mighty King Yudhiṣṭhira, the Dharma-born, laughing, cut it in two.

7.42.11 In but the twinkling of an eye he took up another bow and pierced him with ten shafts, O Pārtha, and the others, each with three.

7.42.12 Marking that lightness of hand, Bhīma with three broad-headed shafts swiftly brought down to the ground his bow, his banner, and his parasol.

7.42.13 The strong one, taking up another bow and stringing it, shattered Bhīma's banner, bow, and horses, O honored one.

7.42.14 His horses slain and his bow cut through, Bhīma leapt down from his splendid car and sprang onto Sātyaki's chariot, like a lion onto a mountain peak.

7.42.15 Then your men, exulting, cried out 'Well done! Well done!' beholding that supreme and scarcely credible feat of the king of the Sindhus.

7.42.16 That he alone, by the splendor of his weapons, held back the wrathful Pāṇḍavas—at that deed of his all beings did him homage.

7.42.17 The path opened for the Pāṇḍavas by the elephants—with their riders and weapons—earlier slain by Subhadrā's son, was now barred by the lord of the Sindhus.

7.42.18 Though those heroes strove—the Matsyas, the Pāñcālas, the Kekayas, and the Pāṇḍavas—they came against the lord of the Sindhus only one by one.

7.42.19 Whatever foe of yours strove to break through Droṇa's array, that one the lord of the Sindhus, by virtue of the god's boon, turned back.

7.43.1 Saṃjaya said: When the sons of Pāṇḍu, hungry for victory, had been checked by the lord of the Sindhus, a most terrible battle arose between your men and the foe.

7.43.2 Having entered that unassailable army, the son of Arjuna, true to his vow and full of splendor, churned it up as a sea-monster churns the ocean.

7.43.3 As that tamer of foes, Subhadrā's son, thus churned the host with his rain of arrows, the foremost of the Kurus, each in his rank, advanced upon him.

7.43.4 A fearsome and unbroken clash came to pass between them and him, as those of measureless might poured forth their showers of arrows.

7.43.5 Hemmed in by that throng of chariots, by those foes, Arjuna's son slew Vṛṣasena's charioteer and cut through his bow.

7.43.6 The strong one pierced his horses with straight-flying shafts, and by those steeds, now bolting like the wind, Vṛṣasena was carried off from the field.

7.43.7 In that interval Abhimanyu's charioteer drove his chariot forward; then the throngs of car-warriors, delighted, cried out 'Well done! Well done!'

7.43.8 As he came on from afar, wrathful as a lion, crushing his foes with arrows, the prince of the Vasātis met him and swiftly charged.

7.43.9 He showered Abhimanyu with sixty gold-feathered shafts and said: 'While I live, you shall not escape from me alive in battle.'

7.43.10 Him, clad in iron mail, Subhadrā's son pierced in the heart with a swift-falling arrow, and he fell lifeless to the earth.

7.43.11 Seeing the Vasāti slain, the bulls among warriors, enraged, then surrounded your grandson, O king, eager to kill him.

7.43.12 Twanging their bows of many shapes and many kinds, they fought a dreadful battle, the foes against Subhadrā's son.

7.43.13 Their arrows together with their bows, and their bodies and heads—wearing earrings and garlands—the wrathful son of Phalguna cut asunder.

7.43.14 Severed arms could be seen, still holding swords, finger-guards, spiked maces, and axes, adorned with golden ornaments.

7.43.15 With garlands, ornaments, and garments, with fallen great banners, with cuirasses, shields, necklaces, diadems, parasols, and whisks—

7.43.16 with wheel-frames and floor-boards, with poles, shafts, and seat-rails, with shattered axles and broken wheels, with yokes smashed in many ways—

7.43.17 with under-poles and pennants, with charioteers and steeds, with broken chariots and slain elephants, the earth was strewn.

7.43.18 Covered with slain warriors, heroes, lords of many lands, all hungry for victory, the earth became a fearsome thing.

7.43.19 As wrathful Abhimanyu ranged through all the quarters and the intermediate quarters in battle, his form vanished from sight.

7.43.20 Whatever golden armor and ornaments were his, and the gold of his bow and arrows—that alone could we see.

7.43.21 None then could gaze upon him with his eyes, as he took the warriors' lives with his shafts, standing in their midst like the sun.

7.44.1 Saṃjaya said: Taking the lives of heroes, the son of Arjuna became like the Ender of all beings, like Time itself come to seize their breath.

7.44.2 Valiant as Śakra, the mighty son of Śakra's son—Abhimanyu—shone surpassingly as he tossed that army into confusion.

7.44.3 Having plunged in, O king of kings, like Death to the lords of warriors, he took the life of Satyaśravas, as a tiger takes a fierce deer.

7.44.4 When Satyaśravas had been struck down, the great car-warriors in haste, seizing their broad weapons, rushed upon Abhimanyu.

7.44.5 'I first! I first!'—so vying with one another, the bulls among warriors came on together, bent on slaying Arjuna's son.

7.44.6 The ranks of warriors that came charging on he swallowed up as a great fish in the ocean falls upon and devours the little fish.

7.44.7 Whoever among the unflinching drew near to him never returned again, as rivers that have entered the sea do not flow back.

7.44.8 As though seized by a great sea-monster, tormented by terror of the wind's force, that army trembled and broke apart like a ship foundering on the ocean.

7.44.9 Then a mighty warrior named Rukmaratha, son of the lord of the Madras, himself unshaken, reassured the frightened host and spoke these words:

7.44.10 "Enough of your fear, O heroes! While I stand here he is nothing. I shall take him alive — of that there is no doubt."

7.44.11 Having spoken thus, the valorous one rushed upon the son of Subhadrā, borne along by a splendid, well-fitted chariot.

7.44.12 He pierced Abhimanyu in the chest with three arrows and roared aloud, struck him with three on the right arm and three sharp shafts on the left.

7.44.13 But the son of Phalguna, severing his bow, swiftly brought down to the earth both his arms, left and right, and his head with its fair eyes and brows.

7.44.14 Seeing Rukmaratha — Śalya's proud son who had sought to take him captive — broken thus by the glorious son of Subhadrā,

7.44.15 those princes, O king, battle-frenzied and hard-striking, comrades of Śalya's son, their banners wrought of gold,

7.44.16 those great chariot-warriors, drawing bows tall as palm-trees, hemmed in the son of Arjuna on every side with a downpour of arrows.

7.44.17 Seeing that lone hero, the unconquered son of Subhadrā, amid the fray, beset by valiant youths trained in skill and full of fury,

7.44.18 shrouded by their swarms of arrows, Duryodhana grew glad, for he reckoned that the youth had already gone to the abode of Yama, the son of Vivasvat.

7.44.19 With gold-feathered arrows of many marks, three by three, those king's sons in the twinkling of an eye made the son of Arjuna vanish from sight.

7.44.20 And his chariot, O sire, with its charioteer, horses, and banner, we saw so thickly covered with shafts that it was like a porcupine bristling with quills.

7.44.21 Deeply pierced and enraged, like an elephant goaded with hooks, he drew forth the Gāndharva weapon and called up the magic of chariot-craft.

7.44.22 With that weapon, which Arjuna had won through austerities from the Gandharvas led by Tumburu, he bewildered his foes.

7.44.23 That single warrior, O king, appeared a hundredfold, a thousandfold, swiftly displaying his weapons in the battle like a whirling brand of fire.

7.44.24 Having confounded them, O king, with his chariot-evolutions and the illusions of his weapons, that scorcher of foes pierced the bodies of the lords of the earth a hundredfold.

7.44.25 The life-breaths of those creatures, sped forth in battle by his sharp arrows, O king, attained the world beyond, while their bodies went down to the earth.

7.44.26 Their bows, horses, drivers, banners, and arms with their armlets, and their heads as well — all these the son of Phalguna sheared off with sharp broad-headed shafts.

7.44.27 As a mango grove in its fifth year of fruiting is shattered, so a hundred princes fell slain by the son of Subhadrā.

7.44.28 Seeing them — tender-bodied, bred to ease, yet like enraged venomous serpents — struck down by one man alone, Duryodhana was seized with fear.

7.44.29 Seeing chariot-warriors, elephants, horses, and footmen crushed alike, Duryodhana, unable to endure it, swiftly bore down upon him.

7.44.30 For but a moment the combat between the two ran its full course; then your son, tormented by a hundred arrows, turned his face from the fight.

7.45.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: As you tell me, O charioteer, of the tumultuous, dreadful battle of that one against the many, and of the high-souled youth's victory —

7.45.2 the prowess of the son of Subhadrā seems a marvel hard to believe; yet nothing is too wondrous for those whose refuge is righteousness.

7.45.3 When Duryodhana had turned away and a hundred princes lay slain, what counsel did my men take against the son of Subhadrā?

7.45.4 Saṃjaya said: With mouths gone dry, eyes darting, sweating and with hair standing on end, eager only to flee, with no heart left to vanquish the foe,

7.45.5 abandoning their slain brothers, fathers, sons, friends, kinsmen, and relations one after another, they fled together, urging on their horses and elephants.

7.45.6 Seeing them thus routed, Droṇa, the son of Droṇa, Bṛhadbala, Kṛpa, Duryodhana, Karṇa, Kṛtavarman, and the son of Subala —

7.45.7 these too, in great wrath, charged upon the unconquered son of Subhadrā; yet they also, O king, were for the most part turned back by your grandson.

7.45.8 But one — Lakṣmaṇa, reared in ease, fearless from youth and pride, skilled in arrows, full of fierce splendor — advanced upon the son of Arjuna.

7.45.9 Close behind him his father, doting on his son, turned back to the fight, and behind Duryodhana the other great chariot-warriors turned back as well.

7.45.10 They drenched him with arrows as clouds drench a mountain with rain; yet he alone scattered them as the wind scatters clouds in all directions.

7.45.11 But your grandson, the unassailable Lakṣmaṇa, fair to look upon, that hero standing near his father with bow upraised,

7.45.12 reared in utmost comfort, like a son of Kubera, lord of riches — him the son of Kṛṣṇa's sister met in battle as one rutting elephant meets another.

7.45.13 Closing with Lakṣmaṇa, the son of Subhadrā, slayer of hostile heroes, was struck on the arms and chest with keen, sharp-pointed arrows.

7.45.14 Then the mighty-armed one, enraged like a serpent struck with a staff — your grandson, O great king — spoke to your grandson:

7.45.15 "Look well upon this world, for you shall go to the next. Before the eyes of your kinsmen I send you to the abode of Yama."

7.45.16 Having spoken thus, the mighty-armed son of Subhadrā, slayer of hostile heroes, drew forth a broad-headed shaft that gleamed like a serpent freshly sloughed of its skin.

7.45.17 Loosed from his arm, it struck off Lakṣmaṇa's lovely head — fair-nosed, fair-browed, well-tressed, still wearing its earrings; and seeing Lakṣmaṇa slain, the people cried out, "Alas! Alas!"

7.45.18 Then Duryodhana, enraged at the fall of his dear son, that bull among warriors, cried out to the kṣatriyas, "Slay him!"

7.45.19 Then Droṇa, Kṛpa, Karṇa, the son of Droṇa, Bṛhadbala, and Kṛtavarman the son of Hṛdika — these six chariot-warriors closed in around him.

7.45.20 Piercing them with sharp arrows and turning them back, the son of Arjuna in his fury fell with speed upon the great host of the Saindhava.

7.45.21 The Kaliṅgas, the Niṣādas, and the valiant son of Krātha, mailed and ranged with their elephant-host, barred his path; and the fighting that followed, O lord of peoples, became unbroken and exceedingly fierce.

7.45.22 Then the son of Arjuna scattered that elephant-host in its insolence as the ever-moving wind scatters the rain-clouds by the hundred across the sky.

7.45.23 Then Krātha covered the son of Arjuna with showers of arrows; and the other chariot-warriors led by Droṇa, having rallied, brandishing their mightiest weapons, rushed once more upon the son of Subhadrā.

7.45.24 Warding them off with his arrows, the son of Arjuna then in his eagerness to slay tormented the son of Krātha with a measureless flood of shafts.

7.45.25 His two arms with their bow, arrows, and armlets, his head with its diadem, his parasol, his banner, his driver, and his horses — all these he brought down.

7.45.26 When that one — endowed with noble birth, character, learning, strength, renown, and mastery of weapons — was slain, the warriors for the most part turned away from the fight.

7.46.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When the young, unconquered son of Subhadrā had thus entered in, acting worthily of his lineage, never fleeing in battle,

7.46.2 yoked to strong, well-bred three-year-old horses, soaring as if through the sky — what heroes withstood him?

7.46.3 Saṃjaya said: No sooner had Abhimanyu, the delight of the Pāṇḍus, entered in than with his sharp arrows he turned back all your kings.

7.46.4 But Droṇa, Kṛpa, Karṇa, the son of Droṇa together with Bṛhadbala, and Kṛtavarman the son of Hṛdika — these six chariot-warriors encircled him.

7.46.5 But seeing the burden laid too heavily upon the Saindhava, your army, O great king, charged upon Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.46.6 The other great chariot-warriors, drawing bows tall as palm-trees, rained streams of arrows upon the heroic son of Subhadrā.

7.46.7 But all those mighty archers, accomplished in every branch of knowledge, the son of Subhadrā, slayer of hostile heroes, held in check with his arrows in the field.

7.46.8 He pierced Droṇa with fifty shafts, Bṛhadbala with twenty, Kṛtavarman with eighty, and Kṛpa with sixty arrows.

7.46.9 With ten arrows, gold-feathered and of great speed, drawn back to the ear, the son of Arjuna struck Aśvatthāman.

7.46.10 And the son of Phalguna, amid the enemy, struck Karṇa upon the ear with a sharp, yellow-tipped barbed arrow, a supreme shaft.

7.46.11 Having felled Kṛpa's horses and both his flanking charioteers, he struck him in return with ten arrows between the breasts.

7.46.12 Then the mighty one slew the hero Vṛndāraka, enhancer of the Kurus' fame, before the very eyes of your valiant sons.

7.46.13 The son of Droṇa let fly twenty-five small arrows at him as he, fearless, broke down the foremost of his foes one after another.

7.46.14 But the son of Arjuna, O sire, swiftly struck Aśvatthāman in return with sharp arrows, before the eyes of the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

7.46.15 With sixty arrows, keen-edged, well-sharpened, and fierce, the son of Droṇa pierced him, yet could not make him tremble — like Mount Maināka.

7.46.16 But he of great splendor and strength struck the son of Droṇa, his assailant, in return with seventy-three gold-feathered, straight-flying shafts.

7.46.17 Upon him Droṇa, doting on his son, let fall a hundred arrows, and Aśvatthāman eight more, seeking to shield his father in the fray.

7.46.18 Karṇa loosed twenty-two broad-headed shafts, Kṛtavarman fourteen, Bṛhadbala fifty, and Kṛpa the son of Śaradvat ten.

7.46.19 But the son of Subhadrā, tormented on every side by their sharp arrows, struck back at them all, ten arrows for each.

7.46.20 The lord of the Kosalas struck him in the chest with a barbed arrow; but he brought down to the earth that king's horses, banner, bow, and charioteer.

7.46.21 Then the king of the Kosalas, deprived of his chariot, taking up sword and shield, sought to strike the earringed head from the body of the son of Phalguna.

7.46.22 But he pierced through the heart with an arrow the prince Bṛhadbala, lord of the Kosalas, and with heart cleft asunder that king fell.

7.46.23 And he broke, O king, ten thousand great-souled warriors who bore swords and bows and hurled malign cries against him.

7.46.24 Having thus slain Bṛhadbala, the son of Subhadrā ranged through the battle, holding off your mighty archers and warriors with streams of arrows.

7.47.1 Saṃjaya said: Once more the son of Phalguna struck Karṇa upon the ear with a barbed arrow, and pierced him with fifty shafts, rousing him to great wrath.

7.47.2 The son of Rādhā struck him back with as many again; and with his every limb thickly studded with them, he shone resplendent, O descendant of Bharata.

7.47.3 In his rage he also made Karṇa stream with gushing blood; and Karṇa too, that hero, dappled with arrows and bathed in gore, shone forth.

7.47.4 Both those high-souled warriors, their limbs spangled with arrows and drenched in blood, appeared like two kiṃśuka trees in full flower.

7.47.5 Then the son of Subhadrā slew six valiant attendants of Karṇa, brilliant fighters, together with their horses, drivers, banners, and chariots.

7.47.6 Then, unflustered, he struck the other mighty archers in return, ten arrows for each — and that seemed a marvel indeed.

7.47.7 Then, slaying with six straight-flying arrows the youthful son of the Māgadha king, Aśvaketu, he brought him down together with his horses and his charioteer.

7.47.8 Then with a razor-edged shaft he hewed down the Bhoja of Mārtikāvata, whose banner bore an elephant, and roared aloud as he loosed his arrows.

7.47.9 Then the son of Duḥśāsana pierced his four horses with four shafts, struck his charioteer with one, and the son of Arjuna with ten.

7.47.10 Then the son of Kṛṣṇā's lord, having pierced the son of Duḥśāsana with seven swift arrows, his eyes red with fury, spoke aloud these words:

7.47.11 "Your father has fled the battle and gone away like a coward; by good fortune you too know how to fight—yet today you shall not escape."

7.47.12 Having spoken these words, he loosed at him an iron shaft burnished by the smith; but the son of Droṇa cut it apart with three arrows.

7.47.13 The son of Arjuna, having cut down his banner, struck Śalya with three shafts; and Śalya struck him in turn with nine vulture-feathered arrows.

7.47.14 The son of Arjuna cut down his banner and both his flanking charioteers, and pierced him with six iron shafts, so that he withdrew to another chariot.

7.47.15 Having slain these five—Śatruṃjaya, Candraketu, Meghavega, Suvarcas, and Sūryabhāsa—he pierced the son of Subala.

7.47.16 Subala's son, having pierced him with three shafts, then said to Duryodhana: "Let us all crush him together, before he destroys us one by one."

7.47.17 Then Karṇa Vaikartana, the bull among men, said to Droṇa: "Before he crushes us all, tell us quickly the means of his slaying."

7.47.18 Then Droṇa, the mighty archer, answered them all: "Does any one of you perceive a single flaw in this youth?

7.47.19 "Behold today the swiftness of this lion among men, this scion of Pāṇḍu, who ranges in every direction even as his father does.

7.47.20 "Along the courses of his chariot only the circle of his bow is seen, as he nocks his shafts and looses them with speed.

7.47.21 "Though he wrenches at my very life-breath and bewilders me with his shafts, this son of Subhadrā, slayer of enemy heroes, gladdens me all the more.

7.47.22 "This son of Subhadrā delights me beyond measure as he ranges through the battle—he whose flaw the furious great car-warriors cannot find.

7.47.23 "As he shoots his great arrows light-handed in every direction, I can see no difference in battle between him and the wielder of Gāṇḍīva."

7.47.24 Then Karṇa, tormented by the arrows of Arjuna's son, said again to Droṇa: "I hold my ground only because I must, though I am sorely pressed by Abhimanyu.

7.47.25 "The arrows of this fiery youth, most terrible, dreadful, blazing like fire, today waste away my very heart."

7.47.26 To this the preceptor said softly to Karṇa, as if with a smile: "His armor cannot be pierced, and the youth is swift in valor.

7.47.27 "The wearing of armor was taught by me to his father, and this conqueror of hostile cities knows it surely in its entirety.

7.47.28 "Yet his bow can be cut, and his bowstring too, with well-aimed arrows—and likewise his reins, his horses, and both his flanking charioteers.

7.47.29 "Do this, O mighty archer, son of Rādhā, if it can be done; then, having turned him away, strike him afterward.

7.47.30 "While he holds his bow, not even the gods and demons together could vanquish him; so, if you wish, make him chariotless and bowless."

7.47.31 Hearing the preceptor's word, Karṇa Vaikartana made haste, and with his shafts cut the bow of the light-handed archer as he shot.

7.47.32 The Bhoja slew his horses, Gautama his flanking charioteer, while the rest, his bow now severed, overwhelmed him with showers of arrows.

7.47.33 Hastening in the hour of haste, six great car-warriors, pitiless, overwhelmed with showers of arrows that one boy, now chariotless.

7.47.34 His bow cut, his chariot gone, yet upholding his own warrior's duty, the illustrious one, bearing sword and shield, leaped up into the sky.

7.47.35 With the gliding maneuvers called kaiśika and the rest, with lightness and with strength, the son of Arjuna ranged the heavens, much like the king of birds.

7.47.36 "He is falling upon me, sword in hand!"—thus with upturned gaze the mighty archers, watching for an opening in the fight, pierced him.

7.47.37 Droṇa cut off, at the hilt, his sword with its jewel-studded pommel, and the son of Rādhā shattered with his sharp arrows that excellent shield.

7.47.38 Bereft of sword and shield, his limbs full of arrows, he came down again from the sky to the earth, and lifting up a chariot-wheel, in his wrath he rushed upon Droṇa.

7.47.39 His limbs shining bright with the dust of the wheel, his wheel-bearing arm raised high, Abhimanyu, that night-born son of Subhadrā, blazed in the battle, imitating the very likeness of Vāsudeva.

7.47.40 His face dyed a single hue by the streaming blood, his brow knit and crooked with frowning, roaring like a great lion—the lord Abhimanyu of measureless strength shone resplendent in battle, set amid the foremost of kings.

7.48.1 Saṃjaya said: That peerless car-warrior, the joy of Viṣṇu's sister, adorned with the weapon of Viṣṇu, shone in the battle like a second Janārdana.

7.48.2 The lords of earth beheld his form—the ends of his hair tossed by the wind, his fine weapon raised against his foes—a form hard to look upon even for the gods.

7.48.3 Sorely alarmed, they cut that wheel apart in many pieces; then the great car-warrior, the son of Kṛṣṇa's sister, seized a great mace.

7.48.4 Stripped by those foes of bow, chariot, and sword, and made wheelless as well, Abhimanyu, mace in hand, rushed upon Aśvatthāman.

7.48.5 Seeing that uplifted mace blazing like a thunderbolt, that bull among men sprang from the floor of his chariot, taking three strides away.

7.48.6 Having slain with his mace that one's horses and both his flanking charioteers, the son of Subhadrā, his body bristling with arrows, appeared like a porcupine.

7.48.7 Then he crushed Kālakeya, the heir of Subala, and slew his followers, seventy and seven Gāndhāras.

7.48.8 Again he slew ten chariot-warriors of the Brahmavasātīyas, and having destroyed seven chariots of the Kekayas and ten elephants, he crushed with his mace the chariot of Duḥśāsana's son together with its horses.

7.48.9 Then the son of Duḥśāsana, enraged, O lord, raised his mace and rushed at the son of Subhadrā, crying, "Stand! Stand!"

7.48.10 Those two heroes, their maces upraised, each longing to slay the other—cousins both—fell upon one another like Tryambaka and the Ender of old.

7.48.11 Smiting each other with the heads of their maces, those two scorchers of foes fell to the ground in the midst of the battle, like two banners of Indra cast down.

7.48.12 Then the son of Duḥśāsana, that enhancer of the Kurus' fame, rose up first, and struck the son of Subhadrā upon the head with his mace as he was rising.

7.48.13 Stunned by the great force of the mace and by his own exertion, the son of Subhadrā, slayer of enemy heroes, fell senseless to the earth. Thus, O king, was he slain—one against many in the battle.

7.48.14 Having shaken the whole host as an elephant churns a lotus-pond, the slain hero shone even in death, like a wild elephant brought down by hunters.

7.48.15 As that hero lay thus fallen, your warriors surrounded him, as men gather round a fire grown calm at winter's end after it has burned the forest.

7.48.16 He was like the wind grown still after crushing the crowns of trees, like the sun gone to its setting after scorching the host of the Bhāratas;

7.48.17 like the moon overtaken by eclipse, like an ocean run dry—he whose face was as the full moon, whose eyes were framed by curling side-locks.

7.48.18 Beholding him fallen to the earth, your great car-warriors, filled with the highest joy, again and again roared aloud like lions.

7.48.19 Supreme was the gladness of your men, O lord of peoples; but from the eyes of the other heroes the tears came falling down.

7.48.20 The beings in the sky cried out in lamentation, O lord of peoples, beholding the hero fallen, like the moon dropped from the firmament.

7.48.21 "By six great car-warriors of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's side, led by Droṇa and Karṇa, this one alone has been slain and now lies dead—this we do not hold to be righteous."

7.48.22 When that hero was slain, the earth shone richly forth, even as the heavens, garlanded with their throng of stars, shine with the full moon.

7.48.23 It was strewn full with gold-nocked arrows, awash with floods of blood, and with the gleaming heads of heroes still wearing their earrings;

7.48.24 covered with many-hued saddle-cloths and with banners, with yak-tail fans and elephant-housings, and with scattered raiment of the finest sort;

7.48.25 with the bright ornaments of chariots, horses, men, and elephants, and with sharp, burnished swords cast loose like serpents from their sloughs.

7.48.26 Strewn with bows and broken arrows, with lances, javelins, darts, and battle-staves, and with many other weapons of every kind, the earth shone resplendent.

7.48.27 With lifeless horses, fair of limb and drenched in blood, brought down with their riders by the son of Subhadrā, the ground was made rugged;

7.48.28 with elephants—their goads and their drivers, their armor, weapons, and standards with them—shattered like mountains and crushed by his arrows;

7.48.29 and with foremost chariots strewn upon the ground, their horses, charioteers, and warriors gone, their elephants slain—like lakes whipped into turmoil.

7.48.30 With slain bands of foot-soldiers, adorned with weapons of every kind, the earth became a thing of dreadful aspect, begetting terror in the timid.

7.48.31 Seeing him fallen to the earth, him whose splendor was like the sun and the moon, supreme was the gladness of your men, and grief was upon the Pāṇḍavas.

7.48.32 When Abhimanyu was slain, O king—a child not yet come to his youth—the whole host fled in rout before the very eyes of the King of Righteousness.

7.48.33 Seeing his army breaking apart now that the son of Subhadrā was struck down, Ajātaśatru spoke these words to his heroes:

7.48.34 "This hero, slain with his face never turned away, has gone to heaven. Stand firm; fear not; we shall yet conquer our foes in the field."

7.48.35 Thus that mighty one of great splendor, the King of Righteousness, foremost of warriors, speaking to the grieving, drove away their sorrow.

7.48.36 For in the battle the son of Arjuna, having first slain many princes who were like venomous serpents in the fight, followed after them in death at last.

7.48.37 Having slain ten thousand warriors and the great car-warrior of Kosala, the son of Kṛṣṇa's sister, equal to Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna, has surely gone to the abode of Śakra.

7.48.38 Having destroyed chariots, horses, men, and elephants by the thousand, unsated still of battle, he is not to be mourned, for he wrought deeds of merit.

7.48.39 "But we, having slain the foremost of them, and ourselves tormented by their arrows, drew near to our camp at evening, drenched in blood."

7.48.40 "Gazing upon the battlefield, we and the foe alike withdrew slowly, O great king, overcome with weariness and bereft of our senses."

7.48.41 Then there came on, inauspicious and loud with the howling of jackals, the wondrous juncture of night and day, as the sun, like a chaplet of lotuses, lingered low and drew near the mountain of its setting.

7.48.42 Stealing away the brightness of fine swords, spears, lances, chariot-guards, shields, and ornaments, and seeming to draw heaven and earth together as one, the sun went to embrace the fire, his beloved form.

7.48.43 With many elephants resembling the peaks of great cloud-mountains, struck down as if by the thunderbolt—their pennons, goads, armor, and drivers with them—lying fallen, the earth seemed to groan, so heaped was she.

7.48.44 With great chariots shattered to pieces—their lords slain, their footmen and gear ground to dust, their horses and drivers killed, their flags and standards gone—the earth shone, O ruler of men, like cities laid waste by the foe.

7.48.45 With throngs of chariots and horses slain with their riders, their trappings and ornaments of every kind flung about, their tongues, teeth, entrails, and eyes torn out, the earth shone with an aspect dreadful and deformed.

7.48.46 Men whose armor and ornaments were flung aside, whose fine weapons lay scattered, whose elephants, horses, chariots, and attendants had perished—men ever wonted to costly beds and coverlets—lay slain upon the ground, as though forlorn and masterless.

7.48.47 Exceedingly glad were the dogs, jackals, and crows, the herons and great birds, the wolves and hyenas, the carrion fowl that drink blood, the hosts of rākṣasas, and the fearsome bands of piśācas upon that battlefield.

7.48.48 Tearing through the skin they drank the fat and the blood, and likewise devoured the marrow and the flesh; they ripped away the entrails, laughing and singing as they dragged off the corpses, many at a time.

7.48.49 It bore along masses of bodies, its water was blood, chariots were its rafts, hemmed in by elephants like crags; men's heads were its stones, flesh its mire, and it was garlanded with scattered weapons of every kind.

7.48.50 Set flowing then by the foremost warriors, a river dreadful and uncrossable as the Vaitaraṇī coursed mightily through the midst of the battlefield, terrifying, carrying along the living and the dead.

7.48.51 There the hideous, manifold, most frightful bands of piśācas drank and feasted, rejoicing greatly, terrible to all that breathe, sharing their feast alike with dogs, jackals, and birds.

7.48.52 That battlefield, grim to behold at the onset of night, resembling the realm of the lord of the dead, thronged with risen ghosts and heaps of headless trunks—gazing upon it, the men slowly withdrew.

7.48.53 Then the people beheld Abhimanyu, that great chariot-warrior equal to Śakra, cast down in battle, his precious ornaments fallen away and shattered—like a sacrificial fire in the assembly from which the oblation has been borne off.

7.49.1 Saṃjaya said: When that hero, the son of Subhadrā, leader of chariot-bands, had been slain, all the warriors loosened their chariot-armor and laid down their bows.

7.49.2 They sat down, encircling King Yudhiṣṭhira, brooding upon that one grief alone, their minds fixed upon the son of Subhadrā.

7.49.3 Then King Yudhiṣṭhira, sore stricken with grief, lamented, now that the hero Abhimanyu, his brother's son, that great chariot-warrior, was slain:

7.49.4 Wishing to do me a kindness, he broke through the impenetrable host of Droṇa and entered the battle-array, like a lion into the midst of a herd of cattle.

7.49.5 Before him the brave great archers who faced him in the hostile ranks, accomplished in arms and mad for war, were broken and turned back.

7.49.6 By his arrows Duḥśāsana, our bitterest foe, though he stood to face him in battle, was swiftly stunned and driven to flight.

7.49.7 Having crossed the unfordable great ocean that was Droṇa's host, that hero, the son of Kṛṣṇā, reached Duḥśāsana's son and then went to the abode of Vaivasvata.

7.49.8 How shall I look upon Arjuna, son of Kuntī, now that the son of Subhadrā is slain? Or upon the illustrious Subhadrā, who shall not see her beloved son?

7.49.9 What senseless, incoherent, unfitting words shall we two speak in answer to them both, to Hṛṣīkeśa and to Dhanaṃjaya?

7.49.10 It is I alone who, wishing to please Subhadrā and Keśava and Arjuna, longing for victory, have wrought this grievous wrong.

7.49.11 The greedy man perceives not the faults of his act; from delusion greed arises. Coveting the honey, I did not see this precipice before me.

7.49.12 He who should have been set first at the feast, in carriages, on couches, and in adornments—him, a mere boy, we set foremost in battle.

7.49.13 How could a boy, so young, unskilled in the ways of war, win safety in that perilous press, like a fine horse in a treacherous defile?

7.49.14 Surely we too shall lie down upon the earth beside him, scorched by the pitying glance of Bībhatsu, ablaze with wrath.

7.49.15 Free of greed, wise, modest, forbearing, handsome, strong, well-formed, honoring others, heroic, beloved, devoted to truth—

7.49.16 He whose mighty deeds even the gods extol—that valiant one slew the Nivātakavacas and the Kālakeyas.

7.49.17 By him the foes of great Indra who dwelt in Hiraṇyapura, the Paulomas with their hosts, were slain in the mere twinkling of an eye.

7.49.18 That mighty one who grants safety even to strangers who seek it of him—his own son we have not been able to save this day from peril.

7.49.19 A most dreadful fear has come upon the great host of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son; Pārtha, enraged at the slaying of his son, will wither the Kauravas away.

7.49.20 Mean himself and mean of allies, Duryodhana, beholding in his anguish the ruin of his own faction, will surely grieve and give up his life.

7.49.21 No victory gladdens me, nor kingdom, nor immortality, nor a place in the world of the gods—seeing him struck down, this matchless one in valor and manhood, the son of the son of the foremost of the gods.

7.50.1 Saṃjaya said: When that day had ended in dread destruction of living things, when the sun had set and the glorious hour of twilight had come,

7.50.2 and the armies had departed to their rest, O bull of the Bhāratas—having slain the bands of the Saṃśaptakas with celestial weapons, the warrior with the ape upon his banner,

7.50.3 Jiṣṇu, mounting that victorious chariot, set out for his own camp; and as he went, with choking voice he spoke to Govinda:

7.50.4 Why is my heart so troubled, Keśava, why does my speech falter, why do ill-boding tremors seize me and my limbs grow faint, O Acyuta?

7.50.5 An evil foreboding clings fast and will not depart from my heart; the fierce portents that show upon the earth and in every quarter affright me.

7.50.6 Of many kinds they appear, and all forebode calamity. May it yet be well with the king, with his counselors, and with my elders!

7.50.7 Vāsudeva said: Surely it shall be well with your brother and his counselors. Grieve not; yet some other misfortune there will be.

7.50.8 Saṃjaya said: Then, having performed their twilight worship, the two heroes, in their grief for heroes, went on mounted in the chariot, recounting what had befallen in the battle.

7.50.9 Then Vāsudeva and Arjuna, having wrought a most arduous deed, reached their own camp, now bereft of joy and bereft of splendor.

7.50.10 Marking the camp's downcast aspect, Bībhatsu, slayer of hostile heroes, his heart now ill at ease, said to Kṛṣṇa:

7.50.11 Today the auspicious instruments raise no joyful sound, Janārdana; no conches mingled with the boom of kettledrums and tabors, nor lutes, are played today with the beat of cymbals and time-keeping clappers.

7.50.12 Nor do the bards in my ranks sing or recite the auspicious, lovely songs full of praise.

7.50.13 And the warriors too, seeing me, turn away with downcast faces, and having done their tasks as before, do not greet me.

7.50.14 May it yet be well today with my brothers, Mādhava; for my mind cannot be eased, seeing my own people in such distress.

7.50.15 May all be whole, O bestower of honor, with the king of the Pāñcālas and with Virāṭa, and with all my warriors, O Acyuta.

7.50.16 And the son of Subhadrā does not, glad among his brothers as is his wont, come forth smiling to meet me today as I return from battle.

7.50.17 Conversing thus, the two entered their own camp, and beheld the Pāṇḍavas, sorely troubled and stricken out of their senses.

7.50.18 Seeing his brothers and his sons, and not seeing the son of Subhadrā, he of the ape-banner, downcast, spoke these words:

7.50.19 The hue of your faces, all of you, is seen to be joyless; I do not see Abhimanyu, nor do you greet me.

7.50.20 I have heard that Droṇa arrayed the wheel-formation, and that among you there was none to break it in battle save the son of Subhadrā.

7.50.21 But the way out of that array had not been taught to him by me. Surely you did not send the boy into the enemy's host?

7.50.22 Having broken the foes' array again and again in battle, that great archer, the son of Subhadrā, slayer of hostile heroes—surely he does not lie slain?

7.50.23 Red-eyed, mighty-armed, like a lion born among the mountains, like Upendra himself—tell me, how was he slain on the field?

7.50.24 That tender great archer, the son of the son of Vāsava, ever dear to me—tell me, how was he slain on the field?

7.50.25 That hero, beloved of the Vārṣṇeya woman, ever cherished by me, ever dear to his mother—who, driven by fate, has slain him?

7.50.26 In valor, in fame, in greatness of soul the equal of the lion of the Vṛṣṇis, the high-souled Keśava—how was he slain on the field?

7.50.27 Ever dear to Subhadrā, to Draupadī, and to Keśava—if I do not see my son, I shall go to the abode of Yama.

7.50.28 With soft, curling hair, a youth with the eyes of a young fawn, striding like a maddened elephant, sprung up like a young śāla tree—

7.50.29 Speaking with a smile, self-controlled, ever obedient to his elders' word, even in boyhood doing no boyish deeds, sweet of speech and without envy—

7.50.30 Of great resolve, mighty-armed, with long lotus-petal eyes, compassionate to those devoted to him, self-restrained, and following nothing base—

7.50.31 Grateful, endowed with knowledge, skilled in arms, never turning back, ever delighting in battle, increaser of his foes' woe—

7.50.32 Devoted to the welfare of his own, eager for his fathers' victory, never the first to strike, unflustered in battle—if I do not see my son, I shall go to the abode of Yama.

7.50.33 His fair brow, his fair hair, his lovely eyebrows, eyes, and lips—if I see not that face, what peace can there be for my heart?

7.50.34 His voice, sweet as the sound of strings, lovely, melodious as the male cuckoo's note—if I hear not that voice, what peace can there be for my heart?

7.50.35 That beauty without compare, hard to find even among the gods—if I see not the hero's beauty this day, what peace can there be for my heart?

7.50.36 Skilled in courteous salutation, devoted to the word of his elders—if I do not see him this day, what peace can there be for my heart?

7.50.37 That tender hero, ever fit for the most precious couch—he, surely the best of those who have protectors, now lies upon the bare earth like one forlorn.

7.50.38 He whom of old the loveliest women attended as he lay—him today, his limbs flung wide, the inauspicious she-jackals attend.

7.50.39 He whom of old, when he slept, the bards, heralds, and panegyrists awakened—him today, surely, the beasts of prey awaken with their hideous cries.

7.50.40 That fair face of his, accustomed to the shade of the parasol, the dust of battle will surely cover this day with grime.

7.50.41 Alas, my little son! How, by the working of time, are you torn by force from me—luckless, and never sated with the sight of my son!

7.50.42 Surely the city of restraint, the ever-lovely goal of the virtuous, lit by your own radiance, shines this day exceedingly because of you.

7.50.43 Surely Vaivasvata and Varuṇa, fond of guests, and Śatakratu and the lord of wealth honor you, the fearless one, now that you have come to them.

7.50.44 Having lamented thus in many ways, like a merchant whose ship is wrecked, overwhelmed by great grief, he questioned Yudhiṣṭhira:

7.50.45 Tell me, O son of Pāṇḍu, did that bull among men, having wrought havoc among the foes, go to heaven facing them, fighting in the battle?

7.50.46 Surely, fighting against many straining bulls among men, helpless and craving a helper, he thought of me, of that I am certain.

7.50.47 Tormented by arrows, the boy crying out, 'Father, come quickly to my aid!'—thus lamenting, I think, he was slain by many cruel men.

7.50.48 Yet, born of me, the sister's son of Mādhava too, sprung from Subhadrā—he is not one to speak so.

7.50.49 Surely my heart is made of the very stuff of adamant, so hard that it does not burst, though I see not that long-armed, red-eyed one.

7.50.50 How could those cruel men loose their vital-piercing arrows upon a boy, a great archer, the sister's son of Vāsudeva, my own son?

7.50.51 He who, never downcast in spirit, would ever come forth to greet me with joy as I drew near from slaying the foe—why does he not look upon me today?

7.50.52 Surely he lies fallen upon the earth, drenched in blood, gracing the ground with his limbs, like the sun cast down.

7.50.53 When she hears that he has been slain in battle, Subhadrā, stricken with grief, will surely perish. Not seeing Abhimanyu, what will she say to me? And Draupadī too, anguished with sorrow—what shall I say to them both?

7.50.54 Surely my heart is made of the hardness of the thunderbolt, that it does not shatter into a thousand pieces when I behold the young bride weeping, wasted away with grief.

7.50.55 I heard the lion's roar of the exultant sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and Yuyutsu too was heard by Kṛṣṇa, reproaching their warriors.

7.50.56 "Unable to face Bībhatsu, you great chariot-warriors who slew a mere boy—why do you roar, you who know nothing of dharma? Let your strength be shown against Pārtha himself!"

7.50.57 "Having wrought this outrage against Keśava and Arjuna in battle, why do you roar like lions in delight, when an hour of grief is upon you?"

7.50.58 "Swiftly the fruit of your evil deed will come upon you. A grievous unrighteousness has been done—how should it stay fruitless for long?"

7.50.59 Thus speaking against them, the high-minded son of the vaiśya woman cast aside his weapon and departed, filled with wrath and sorrow.

7.50.60 "Why, Kṛṣṇa, was this told to me in the field? Else I would have burned them all then—those cruel great chariot-warriors."

7.50.61 Restraining him as he was overwhelmed by anguish for his son, Vāsudeva—Kṛṣṇa—said "Not so!" to him who was filled with bitter grief.

7.50.62 "This is the path of all heroes who never turn back—above all of kṣatriyas, whose livelihood is war."

7.50.63 "This is the destiny ordained by those who know the law for heroes who fight and never retreat, O best of those who attain their goal."

7.50.64 "Death in battle is certain for heroes who never turn back. Abhimanyu has gone to the worlds of those who have done meritorious deeds—of this there is no doubt."

7.50.65 "And this is the very wish of all heroes, O bull of the Bhāratas: 'May we meet death face to face in battle,' O giver of honor."

7.50.66 "And he, having slain mighty heroes and princes in the field, has attained the death longed for by heroes, fronting it in battle."

7.50.67 "Grieve not, O tiger among men. This is the eternal law made by the righteous men of old: that the kṣatriyas should perish in battle."

7.50.68 "All these your brothers are downcast, O best of the Bhāratas, while you are overwhelmed by grief—and so are the kings, your friends."

7.50.69 "Comfort them with gentle words, O giver of honor. You know what is to be known; you ought not to give way to grief."

7.50.70 Thus consoled by Kṛṣṇa of wondrous deeds, Pārtha then spoke to all his brothers, who were choked with sobs.

7.50.71 That long-armed, broad-shouldered one, with eyes like long lotus-petals, said: "How Abhimanyu fell—just so I wish to hear it."

7.50.72 "You shall behold my son's foes slain by me in battle, together with their elephants, chariots, and horses, and all their kinsmen."

7.50.73 "How, with all of you accomplished in arms and weapons in hand, could the son of Subhadrā meet his death—he who could withstand even the wielder of the thunderbolt?"

7.50.74 "Had I known that the Pāṇḍavas and Pāñcālas were thus unable to protect my son, he would have been guarded by me."

7.50.75 "And how, while you stood in your chariots loosing showers of arrows, was Abhimanyu brought to his death, you being set at naught by the foe?"

7.50.76 "Alas, there is no manhood in you, nor any valor, since Abhimanyu was struck down in the battle before your very eyes."

7.50.77 "Nay, I should blame myself, that knowing you so feeble, so timid and untrained in toil, I yet went forth and left you."

7.50.78 "Or were your armor, weapons, and arms worn only for ornament, and your speeches only to be uttered in assemblies—since you did not guard my son?"

7.50.79 Having spoken these words, Bībhatsu stood there, the bearer of the bow and sword, and no one could bear to look upon him.

7.50.80 He was like Death enraged, sighing again and again, scorched by grief for his son, his face filled with tears.

7.50.81 His friends could neither speak to Arjuna nor even look upon him—none save Vāsudeva and the eldest son of Pāṇḍu.

7.50.82 Those two, devoted to Arjuna's welfare in all conditions and dear to his heart—they alone, through his high regard and love, were fit to address him.

7.50.83 Then to him, his mind sorely tormented by grief for his son, the lotus-eyed one in his wrath, the king spoke these words.

7.51.1 Yudhiṣṭhira said: When you had gone, O mighty-armed one, against the host of the Saṃśaptakas, the teacher made a fierce effort to take me captive.

7.51.2 We held Droṇa back on every side as he marshaled his battle-array, arraying our own host of chariots against him as he strove in the fight.

7.51.3 Though held off by the chariot-warriors who guarded me, he swiftly smote even us, harrying us with his whetted shafts.

7.51.4 So hard pressed by Droṇa, we could not even gaze upon Droṇa's array in the battle—how then could we break it?

7.51.5 Then all of us said to your son, the son of Subhadrā, peerless in valor: "Dear child, break the array, O lord!"

7.51.6 Thus urged by us, that valorous one, like a noble steed, set himself to bear even that unbearable burden.

7.51.7 Endowed with your instruction in arms and with his own prowess, the boy entered that host as Suparṇa plunges into the sea.

7.51.8 We followed that hero, the son of the Sātvata princess, into the fray, eager to enter by the very breach through which he had pierced the host.

7.51.9 Then the king of the Sindhus, the base Jayadratha, dear child, by a boon granted of Rudra held us all back.

7.51.10 Then Droṇa, Kṛpa, Karṇa, the son of Droṇa, Bṛhadbala, and Kṛtavarman—six chariot-warriors—surrounded the son of Subhadrā.

7.51.11 Hemmed in by all those great chariot-warriors, the boy, striving to the utmost of his strength, was deprived of his chariot by their many hands.

7.51.12 Then the son of Duḥśāsana, when he had thus been swiftly stripped of his chariot and brought to utter peril, dispatched him to his appointed end.

7.51.13 But he had slain thousands of riders on elephants, horses, and chariots, a full hundred foremost princes, and many unnamed heroes,

7.51.14 and having sent King Bṛhadbala to heaven in the fight—then that one of supremely righteous soul met his appointed end.

7.51.15 This is all that has befallen us, swelling our grief; and so that tiger among men has attained the world of heaven.

7.51.16 Saṃjaya said: Then Arjuna, hearing the words spoken by the Dharma-king, sighed "Alas, my son!" and, stricken, fell to the ground.

7.51.17 With downcast faces all of them clasped Dhanaṃjaya, and, wretched, gazed upon one another with unblinking eyes.

7.51.18 Then the son of Vāsava, regaining his senses, swooning with rage, trembling as if in a fever and sighing again and again,

7.51.19 wringing hand in hand, breathing hard, his eyes streaming with tears, glaring about him like a madman, spoke these words:

7.51.20 "Truly I vow to you: tomorrow I shall be the slayer of Jayadratha—unless, frightened by fear of death, he abandons the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra,

7.51.21 and unless he seeks refuge with us, or with Kṛṣṇa the supreme being, or with you, O great king—tomorrow I shall be the slayer of Jayadratha!

7.51.22 That doer of the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's pleasure, who has forgotten his friendship toward me, the wicked one who was the cause of the boy's death—tomorrow I shall be the slayer of Jayadratha!

7.51.23 And whoever shall fight against me while guarding him in the battle—even the heroes Droṇa and Kṛpa—those I shall cover over with my arrows.

7.51.24 "If I do not accomplish this thus in the battle, O bulls among men, may I not attain the worlds of the righteous, honored by heroes—

7.51.25 those worlds that are for slayers of mothers, for killers of fathers, for those who violate the teacher's wife, and for slanderers,

7.51.26 and for those who revile the good, and for backbiters, and for those who steal what is left in trust, and for betrayers of confidence;

7.51.27 the worlds of those who revile a woman they have once enjoyed, of speakers of evil, of slayers of brahmins, and of killers of cattle as well;

7.51.28 the worlds of those who eat in vain milk-pudding or barley-food, vegetables, or rice-and-sesame, wheat-cakes, baked sweets, or meat—into those very worlds may I go this day, if I do not slay Jayadratha.

7.51.29 "Those worlds to which a man goes who scorns a diligent student of the Veda, a steadfast and best of brahmins, the aged, the good, and his teachers—

7.51.30 the destiny one earns by touching a brahmin, a cow, or the fire with one's foot, the destiny of those who cast phlegm, ordure, or urine into the waters—to that dreadful destiny may I go, if I do not slay Jayadratha.

7.51.31 "The destiny of one who bathes naked, of one whose guest departs unfed, the destiny of takers of bribes, of liars, and of deceivers, the destiny of those who give themselves false airs and of those who bear false witness—

7.51.32 the destiny of the mean who, watched by their servants and dependents, their sons and wives, eat dainty food without sharing—to that dreadful destiny may I go, if I do not slay Jayadratha.

7.51.33 "He who, cruel of soul, forsakes a good man who has taken refuge with him and is devoted to his word, fails to support him, and reviles his benefactor;

7.51.34 he who gives no funeral offering to a worthy neighbor, and gives it instead to the unworthy, and the husband of a śūdra woman—

7.51.35 the drunkard, the breaker of bounds, the ingrate, the reviler of his brother—their destiny may I swiftly come to, if I do not slay Jayadratha.

7.51.36 "And the others fallen from dharma whom I have not named here, and those whom I have named—may I swiftly attain their destiny, if, when this night has passed, I do not slay Jayadratha tomorrow.

7.51.37 "And hear this further vow of mine besides: if the sun should go down while this wicked one is yet unslain, here on this very spot I shall enter the blazing fire.

7.51.38 "Asuras, gods, or men, birds or serpents, the fathers or the night-roamers, the brahmā-seers or the divine seers, all that moves and all that moves not, and whatever is beyond even that—none of these is able to guard that foe of mine from me.

7.51.39 "Though he enter the uttermost depths of the netherworld, or the sky, or the city of the gods, or the city of Diti—even there, at daybreak, with hundreds of arrows, falling fiercely upon him, I shall strike off my foe's head."

7.51.40 Having spoken thus, he drew the Gāṇḍīva to left and right; and surpassing his very voice, the twang of the bow touched the heavens.

7.51.41 When Arjuna had taken his vow, Janārdana, sorely wrathful, blew his conch Pāñcajanya, and Dhanaṃjaya his Devadatta.

7.51.42 That Pāñcajanya, its sound bursting forth from its well-filled belly through the breath of Acyuta's mouth, set the whole world trembling—with its netherworlds, its sky, and the guardians of the quarters—as at the ending of an age.

7.51.43 Then the sounds of instruments arose on every side, and the lion-roars of the Pāṇḍavas, when the great-souled one had taken his vow.

7.52.1 Saṃjaya said: But hearing that mighty uproar of the Pāṇḍavas who were grieving for the boy, and informed of it there by his spies, Jayadratha rose up,

7.52.2 his heart bewildered with grief, sorely smitten by sorrow, like one sinking in a fathomless, vast ocean of woe.

7.52.3 The lord of the Sindhus went, pondering much, to the assembly of the kings, and there in the presence of those god-like rulers he made his lament.

7.52.4 Fearful of Abhimanyu's father, abashed, he spoke these words: "That one who was begotten, they say, in Pāṇḍu's field by Śakra in his desire—

7.52.5 "that evil-minded one means, they say, to lead me alone to the abode of Yama. Therefore, fare you well—I shall go to my own home, in my longing to live.

7.52.6 "Or, if you are strong enough to save me, O bulls among kṣatriyas, then, heroes, grant me—whom Pārtha has marked for death—your protection."

7.52.7 Droṇa, Duryodhana, and Kṛpa, Karṇa, the lord of the Madras, and Bāhlika, Duḥśāsana and the rest are able to rescue even one beset by Death himself.

7.52.8 How much more, then, when it is a single Phalguna who seeks to slay me — could you not protect me, you lords of the earth, all together?

7.52.9 Hearing the exultation of the Pāṇḍavas, great is my fear, O kings; my limbs grow faint, as though I were a man about to die.

7.52.10 Surely my slaying has been vowed by the wielder of the Gāṇḍīva, for the Pāṇḍavas, even in a time of grief, shout aloud in their joy.

7.52.11 Neither gods nor gandharvas, nor asuras, serpents, or rākṣasas, dare to make it otherwise — how then could kings of men?

7.52.12 Therefore grant me leave, and may it be well with you, O bulls among men; I shall pass out of sight, where the Pāṇḍavas will not see me.

7.52.13 As he lamented thus, his mind distraught with fear, King Duryodhana, weighing the gravity of his own purpose, spoke to him.

7.52.14 You must not fear, O tiger among men; for who, O bull among men, would assail you in battle as you stand amid the kṣatriya heroes?

7.52.15 I myself, and Karṇa the son of Vikartana, Citrasena, Viviṃśati, Bhūriśravas, Śala, Śalya, and the unassailable Vṛṣasena;

7.52.16 Purumitra, Jaya, the Bhoja, and Sudakṣiṇa of the Kāmbojas, the mighty-armed Satyavrata, Vikarṇa, Durmukha, and Saha;

7.52.17 Duḥśāsana and Subāhu, and the Kaliṅga too, weapons upraised, Vinda and Anuvinda of Avanti, Droṇa, Droṇa's son, and the son of Subala —

7.52.18 and you yourself the best of chariot-warriors, a hero of boundless splendor — how then, O lord of the Sindhus, do you look in fear upon the Pāṇḍavas?

7.52.19 Eleven akṣauhiṇīs of mine, intent upon your protection, shall stand in battle — fear not, O lord of the Sindhus, let your terror depart.

7.52.20 Reassured thus, O king, by your son, the lord of the Sindhus, together with Duryodhana, went by night to Droṇa.

7.52.21 Having paid homage to Droṇa, O lord of peoples, and seating himself near him in reverence, he then asked this:

7.52.22 In taking aim, in striking from afar, in swiftness of hand, in piercing firmly — let the blessed one tell me the difference between myself and Phalguna.

7.52.23 I wish to know in truth, O teacher, the difference in skill between Arjuna and myself; declare it to me, O lord, exactly as it is.

7.52.24 Droṇa said: The instruction you received was the same, my child, as Arjuna's; yet through diligent practice and through being inured to hardship, Arjuna is therefore superior to you.

7.52.25 But you must feel no terror in battle on Pārtha's account in any way; for I shall be your protector from danger, my child — of this there is no doubt.

7.52.26 For against one guarded by my arm not even the immortals can prevail; and I shall array that battle-formation which Pārtha will not break through.

7.52.27 Therefore fight, and fear not; uphold your own duty, and follow the path of your fathers and forefathers, O ruler of men.

7.52.28 Having studied the Vedas as ordained, having duly fed the sacred fires, and having worshiped with many sacrifices, you need have no fear of death's terror.

7.52.29 Having attained great good fortune, hard for feeble mortals to win, you shall reach the celestial, unsurpassed worlds, earned by the valor of your arms.

7.52.30 The Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas, the Vṛṣṇis and other men, and I too together with my son — let it be considered that all are impermanent.

7.52.31 Each in his turn, all of us, struck down by mighty Time, shall pass to the other world, attended each by his own deeds.

7.52.32 Those worlds which ascetics attain by practicing austerity — those same worlds the heroic kṣatriyas attain who cleave to the warrior's duty.

7.52.33 Saṃjaya said: Reassured thus, O king, by the son of Bharadvāja, the lord of the Sindhus drove away his fear of Pārtha and set his mind upon battle.

7.53.1 Saṃjaya said: When Pārtha had vowed the slaying of the king of the Sindhus, then the mighty-armed Vāsudeva addressed Dhanaṃjaya.

7.53.2 Without learning the mind of your brothers, you have pledged with your word, 'Tomorrow I will slay the lord of the Sindhus' — a most reckless thing you have done.

7.53.3 Without taking counsel with me, this excessive burden has been taken up; how shall we not become a laughingstock to all the world?

7.53.4 Spies I had posted in the camp of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son — these, coming swiftly, now report to us the tidings.

7.53.5 When you had vowed the slaying of the king of the Sindhus, then a mighty lion-roar, mingled with instruments, was heard by them here.

7.53.6 Terrified by that sound, the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra together with the Saindhava took their stand, judging, 'This lion-roar is not without cause.'

7.53.7 A vast clash of sound arose among the Kauravas, O mighty-armed one — of elephants, horses, and foot-soldiers — and the terrible din of chariots.

7.53.8 'Having heard of Abhimanyu's slaying, surely Dhanaṃjaya in his anguish will sally forth this very night in wrath' — so judging, they stood ready.

7.53.9 By them, as they made ready, this truthful vow of yours, the truthful one, for the slaying of the king of the Sindhus was heard, O lotus-eyed one.

7.53.10 Then dejected, all of them, trembling like little deer, were Suyodhana's counselors, and King Jayadratha as well.

7.53.11 Then rising up with his counselors, downcast, the lord of the Sauvīras and the Sindhus, sorely grieved, came to his own tent.

7.53.12 In the hour of counsel, having deliberated upon all the measures that might serve his welfare, he spoke these words to Suyodhana in the assembly of kings:

7.53.13 'Branding me the slayer of his son, Dhanaṃjaya will march against me tomorrow; for in the midst of the army he has vowed my death.'

7.53.14 'That vow of Savyasācin, neither gods nor gandharvas, nor asuras, serpents, or rākṣasas dare to make otherwise.'

7.53.15 'Therefore guard me in the battle, lest Dhanaṃjaya, setting his foot upon your heads, attain his mark; let provision for this be made.'

7.53.16 'But if no protection is granted me in the fray, O delight of the Kurus, then give me leave, O king — I shall return to my home.'

7.53.17 Addressed thus, Suyodhana, his head bowed and his spirit cast down, hearing that you had pronounced this dread oath, fell to brooding.

7.53.18 Looking upon him so distressed, the king, the lord of the Sindhus, then spoke these words, gentle, mindful of his own welfare, and full of longing for aid:

7.53.19 'I see among you no bowman of such prowess as could ward off Arjuna's weapon with his own weapon in the great battle.'

7.53.20 'When he has Vāsudeva for his ally and brandishes the Gāṇḍīva bow, who could stand before Arjuna — even Śatakratu himself in person?'

7.53.21 'Even Maheśvara, it is told, was fought of old by Pārtha — the lord of mighty radiance, by one on foot, upon the Himālaya mountain.'

7.53.22 'Thousands of dānavas, dwellers in the City of Gold, he slew with a single chariot, urged on by the king of the gods.'

7.53.23 'Joined with the wise Vāsudeva, the son of Kuntī could destroy the three worlds together with their gods — such is my conviction.'

7.53.24 'So I desire either to be given leave, or to be protected by the great-souled hero Droṇa together with his son — if you think it good.'

7.53.25 By the king himself the teacher was earnestly implored, O Arjuna; and so the arrangement was made, and the chariots, it is said, were made ready.

7.53.26 Karṇa, Bhūriśravas, Droṇa's son, the unconquerable Vṛṣasena, and Kṛpa, and the king of the Madras — these six were his vanguard.

7.53.27 A half-formation shaped as a cart and a lotus was devised by Droṇa; and stationed at the heart of the lotus, within the needle's eye, the king of the Sindhus, Jayadratha, would stand, guarded by warriors mad for battle.

7.53.28 In bow, in weapon, in valor, in life-breath, and in steadfast chest, these six chariot-warriors are deemed most irresistible, O Pārtha; and without conquering them and their hosts, Jayadratha cannot be reached.

7.53.29 Consider one by one the valor of those six; for those tigers among men, united, cannot easily be conquered.

7.53.30 And I shall further devise a policy for my own welfare, together with counselors skilled in deliberation and with friends, for the achievement of the end.

7.53.31 Arjuna said: The six chariot-warriors of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son whom you reckon superior in strength — their valor, I judge, is not equal to even half of mine.

7.53.32 The weapon of every one of these, O slayer of Madhu, you shall see shattered by my own weapon, as I seek the slaying of Jayadratha.

7.53.33 Before the very eyes of Droṇa and his host, lamenting though they be, I shall bring down the head of the king of the Sindhus upon the earth.

7.53.34 If the Sādhyas and the Rudras, the Vasus together with the Aśvins, and the Maruts with Indra, the Viśvedevas, and the asuras as well;

7.53.35 the fathers together with the gandharvas, the great birds, the oceans and the mountains, the heaven, the firmament, and this earth, and the quarters with their guardian lords;

7.53.36 the creatures of village and forest, things that stand fast and things that move — if all these become protectors of the king of the Sindhus, O slayer of Madhu —

7.53.37 even then you shall see him slain tomorrow by my shafts in battle; by truth I swear it to you, Kṛṣṇa, and so I lay my hand upon my weapon.

7.53.38 And that great bowman who guards that wicked, evil-minded one — against him, against Droṇa first, I shall advance, O Keśava.

7.53.39 Upon him Suyodhana has staked this game; therefore, breaking through the very front of his host, I shall press on toward the Saindhava.

7.53.40 You shall see tomorrow the great bowmen, with my keen-edged iron shafts, cleft asunder by me in battle, like the peaks of a mountain by thunderbolts.

7.53.41 From the bodies of men, elephants, and horses, falling and fallen, riven by sharp arrows, the blood shall stream forth.

7.53.42 The arrows sped from the Gāṇḍīva, swift as the mind and the wind, shall by the thousand leave men, elephants, and horses bereft of life.

7.53.43 The dread weapons that I have received from Yama, Kubera, Varuṇa, Rudra, and Indra — those men shall behold in battle.

7.53.44 And with the brāhma weapon you shall see the weapons of all the protectors of the Saindhava struck down by me in the fight.

7.53.45 With the heads of kings shorn off by the rush of my arrows, you shall see the earth strewn over by me tomorrow in battle, O Keśava.

7.53.46 I shall sate the flesh-eaters, I shall put my foes to flight, I shall gladden my friends, and I shall lay low the Saindhava.

7.53.47 A doer of many wrongs, of evil kinship, sprung from a sinful land — slain by me, the king of the Sindhus shall set his own kin to mourning.

7.53.48 Eaters of every milk-rich food, evil in conduct, the Sindhus together with their king, driven by my arrows on the field of battle, shall perish.

7.53.49 At dawn I shall so act, Kṛṣṇa, that Suyodhana shall reckon no other bowman in the world to be my equal in battle.

7.53.50 The Gāṇḍīva is a celestial bow, and I am the warrior, O bull among men, and you are my charioteer, Hṛṣīkeśa — what then could remain unconquered by me?

7.53.51 As surely as there is the mark upon the moon, and as surely as there is water in the sea, so surely know this vow of mine to be true, O Janārdana.

7.53.52 Slight not my weapons, slight not my firm bow, slight not the strength of my arms, slight not Dhanaṃjaya.

7.53.53 As surely as, having gone into battle, I am not vanquished but conquer — by that truth know Jayadratha already slain in the fray.

7.53.54 Truth dwells assured in the Brāhmaṇa, humility assured in the good, prosperity assured in the able, and victory assured in Nārāyaṇa.

7.53.55 Saṃjaya said: Having spoken thus to Hṛṣīkeśa, Arjuna, the son of Vāsava, roaring aloud, charged his own self by his own resolve and addressed the lord Keśava.

7.53.56 "When night has brightened into dawn, let my chariot be made ready. So must you act, Kṛṣṇa, for a great deed is now undertaken."

7.54.1 Saṃjaya said: Through that night Vāsudeva and Dhanaṃjaya, stricken with grief and sorrow, hissing like serpents, found no sleep at all.

7.54.2 Knowing Nara and Nārāyaṇa to be enraged, the gods together with Vāsava grew troubled and pondered: "What now is to come of this?"

7.54.3 Harsh and savage winds blew, foreboding terror, and across the face of the sun there was seen a headless trunk and an iron bar.

7.54.4 Dry thunderbolts fell with crashing peals and lightning, and the earth trembled with its mountains, woods, and forests.

7.54.5 The oceans, abodes of sea-monsters, were churned into uproar, great king, and the rivers that flow to the sea began to run backward against their current.

7.54.6 Chariots, horses, men, and elephants were turned upside down, for the delight of the flesh-eaters and the swelling of Yama's realm.

7.54.7 The draught-animals let fall their dung and urine and wept aloud; and beholding all these dreadful, hair-raising portents—

7.54.8 —all your troops were filled with dismay, O bull of the Bhāratas, hearing the fierce vow of the mighty Savyasācin.

7.54.9 Then the mighty-armed son of the Chastiser of Pāka said to Kṛṣṇa: "Console your sister Subhadrā, and her daughter-in-law with her."

7.54.10 "Set the daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law, the blameless ones, free of grief, Mādhava; with gentle, true, and fitting words console them, O lord."

7.54.11 Then Vāsudeva, sore at heart, went to Arjuna's dwelling and consoled his grieving sister, stricken with sorrow for her son.

7.54.12 "Grieve not for the boy, daughter of the Vṛṣṇis, you and your daughter-in-law; for all living beings, O timid one, this is the end appointed by Time."

7.54.13 "For a hero born in a noble line, and most of all a Kṣatriya, such a death is befitting; grieve not for your son."

7.54.14 "By good fortune the heroic great warrior, equal in valor to his father, has by the law of the Kṣatriyas attained the goal that heroes long for."

7.54.15 "Having conquered foes in great numbers and sent them to their death, he has gone to the imperishable worlds of the doers of good, that yield every desire."

7.54.16 "That goal which the good seek through austerity, through chastity, through sacred learning and through wisdom—that goal your son has attained."

7.54.17 "You are the mother of a hero, the wife of a hero, kinswoman to heroic fathers-in-law; grieve not for your son, good lady, for he has gone to the highest goal."

7.54.18 "And that base Saindhava, the slayer of a boy, shall reap the fruit of his insolence, he together with his band of friends and kinsmen."

7.54.19 "When the night has passed, O fair-hipped one, that doer of evil deeds shall not escape Pārtha, even though he enter Amarāvatī itself."

7.54.20 "Tomorrow you shall hear that the head of that Saindhava has been struck off in battle, cast beyond Samantapañcaka. Be free of grief; weep not."

7.54.21 "Holding the law of the Kṣatriya foremost, the hero has gone to the goal of the good—the goal which we too may attain, and others who live by the sword."

7.54.22 "Broad-chested, mighty-armed, never turning back, humbler of the foremost foes—your son, O fair-hipped one, has gone to heaven. Cast off your fever of grief."

7.54.23 "Taking after his father and his mother's line, the valiant one, having slain enemies by the thousand, the heroic great warrior was himself slain."

7.54.24 "Console your daughter-in-law, O lady; grieve not so deeply, O Kṣatriya woman. Tomorrow, hearing tidings most welcome and great, you shall be free of grief, O joyful one."

7.54.25 "What Pārtha has vowed shall be so and not otherwise; for what your brother resolves to do can never come to nothing."

7.54.26 "Even if men and serpents, demons, night-rovers, and birds, gods and antigods, should rush to the side of the king of Sindhu in battle, he shall be no more, nor they with him, when morning comes."

7.55.1 Saṃjaya said: Having heard these words of the great-souled Keśava, Subhadrā, stricken with grief for her son and sorely afflicted, lamented aloud.

7.55.2 "Alas, my son! How is it that, going into battle, you who were equal to your father in valor have met your end, dear child, son of luckless me?"

7.55.3 "How is it that your face, dark as the blue lotus, with fine teeth and lovely eyes, is now seen, my darling, veiled in the dust of battle?"

7.55.4 "Surely they now look upon you, the hero fallen, who never turned back—fair of head, neck, arms, and shoulders, broad-chested, lean of belly—"

7.55.5 "—every limb beautifully formed, fair-eyed, strewn with weapon-wounds; surely the creatures gaze upon you as upon the risen moon."

7.55.6 "You whose couch was once spread with coverlets to be envied—how do you lie today upon the bare ground, flung down, you who were used to comfort?"

7.55.7 "The hero, mighty-armed, once waited upon by the loveliest of women—how is it that he, fallen in battle, is today waited upon by jackals?"

7.55.8 "He who was once praised by joyful bards, heralds, and minstrels is today attended by dreadful, howling packs of flesh-eaters."

7.55.9 "With the Pāṇḍavas for your protectors, O mighty one, and the heroes of the Vṛṣṇis and the heroes of the Pāñcālas—by whom were you slain, as though you had no protector at all?"

7.55.10 "Never sated with the sight of you, my blameless son, I, ill-fated, shall surely go today to the realm of Yama."

7.55.11 "Wide-eyed, fair-haired at the temples, sweet of speech and fragrant—when, my son, shall I look again upon your unwounded face?"

7.55.12 "A curse upon the strength of Bhīmasena, a curse upon Pārtha among the bowmen, a curse upon the prowess of the Vṛṣṇi heroes, and a curse upon the might of the Pāñcālas!"

7.55.13 "A curse upon the Kekayas, the Cedis, the Matsyas, and the Sṛñjayas, who knew not that you, the hero, had gone into the fray and been struck down."

7.55.14 "Today, not seeing Abhimanyu, with eyes troubled by grief, I behold the earth as if empty, its splendor put out."

7.55.15 "Sister's son of Vāsudeva, son of the wielder of the Gāṇḍīva—how shall I look upon you, the hero, robbed of your chariot and brought down by others?"

7.55.16 "Alas, hero, seen and then lost, you are to me like wealth in a dream! Ah, how fleeting is human life, unsteady as a bubble on the water!"

7.55.17 "This your young wife, overwhelmed with grief for you—how shall I sustain her, like a cow bereft of her calf?"

7.55.18 "Ah, you have set forth out of season, my little son, forsaking me—who longed so to see you—at the very time of harvest."

7.55.19 "Surely the course of Fate is hard to fathom even for the wise, since you, with Keśava for your protector, were slain in battle as though protectorless."

7.55.20 "That goal which belongs to performers of sacrifice, to the charitable, to the Brāhmaṇas of perfected souls, to those who have kept the vow of chastity and have bathed at holy fords—"

7.55.21 "—to the grateful, the generous, those devoted to the service of their elders, and those who give the thousandfold sacrificial fee—that goal may you attain."

7.55.22 "That goal which belongs to heroes fighting on and never turning back, who slay their foes and are themselves slain in battle—to that goal go."

7.55.23 "That goal which is the givers' of a thousand cows and of the offerings of sacrifice, that blessed goal of those who bestow a cherished dwelling—"

7.55.24 "—that goal which sages of strict vows reach through chastity, and which faithful wives of a single husband reach—to that goal go, my little son."

7.55.25 "That everlasting goal which comes to kings by their good conduct, and to those of the four life-stages, purified and well-guarded by their meritorious deeds—"

7.55.26 "—that goal of those who pity the wretched, who ever share what they have, and who have turned away from slander—to that goal go, my little son."

7.55.27 "That goal of those true to their vows, of righteous nature, devoted to the service of their elders, who never turn a guest away in vain—to that goal go, my little son."

7.55.28 "That goal of the high-minded who go to their own wives only in the proper season and never resort to the wives of others—to that goal go, my little son."

7.55.29 "That goal of those, free from envy, who approach all beings with gentleness, who wound no one and are forbearing—that goal may you attain."

7.55.30 "That goal of those who abstain from wine and flesh, who have renounced pride, hypocrisy, and falsehood, and the tormenting of others—to that goal go, my little son."

7.55.31 "That goal which the good attain—the modest, the masters of all the scriptures, content in knowledge, with senses subdued—to that goal go, my little son."

7.55.32 As Subhadrā lamented thus, forlorn and wasted with grief, the Pāñcāla princess, together with Virāṭa's daughter, then came to her side.

7.55.33 Having wept their fill and lamented in deep distress, those women, like ones gone mad, fell senseless to the ground, O king.

7.55.34 But Kṛṣṇa, himself sorely grieved, tended to her in her sorrow, sprinkling water upon her and reviving her, speaking now this, now that, kindly word.

7.55.35 To his sister—well-nigh senseless, weeping, fallen prostrate and trembling—the lotus-eyed one spoke these words:

7.55.36 "Subhadrā, grieve not for your son; with the Pāñcāla princess console Uttarā. Abhimanyu, that bull among Kṣatriyas, has gone to the renowned goal."

7.55.37 "And whatever other men there are in our line, O fair-faced one—may they all attain the goal of the glorious Abhimanyu."

7.55.38 "May we, and our friends as well, perform such a deed as your son, the lone great warrior, has wrought this day."

7.55.39 Having thus consoled his sister, and Draupadī and Uttarā as well, the mighty-armed subduer of foes returned to Pārtha's side.

7.55.40 Then the lord Kṛṣṇa, taking leave of the kings and the kinsmen, entered the inner apartments, O king, while the others went each to his own quarters.

7.56.1 Saṃjaya said: Then the lotus-eyed lord entered Arjuna's peerless dwelling, and having touched water, spread upon an auspiciously marked patch of cleared ground a fair bed of darbha grasses that gleamed like beryl.

7.56.2 Then with garlands, duly with parched grain and sweet auspicious perfumes, he adorned that bed, ringing it about with the finest weapons.

7.56.3 Then the well-trained attendants showed to Pārtha, who had touched water, the customary nightly offering to Tryambaka.

7.56.4 Then Pārtha, glad of heart, adorning Mādhava with perfumes and garlands, presented to him that nightly offering.

7.56.5 Govinda, smiling, answered Phalguna: "Let us take our rest, Pārtha; blessings upon you. I go now to ensure your welfare."

7.56.6 Then, having posted doorkeepers and armed men as guards, the glorious one, followed by Dāruka, entered his own pavilion and lay down upon a spotless couch, pondering the many tasks at hand.

7.56.7 In the Pāṇḍavas' camp no one slept that night; wakefulness came over every one of them, O lord of peoples.

7.56.8 For the slaying of the king of Sindhu had been vowed in haste by the great-souled wielder of the Gāṇḍīva, overwhelmed with grief for his son.

7.56.9 "How then shall the mighty-armed son of Vāsava, slayer of enemy heroes, make his vow bear fruit?"—thus they pondered together.

7.56.10 "Grievous indeed is this that the great-souled Pāṇḍava has resolved upon; scorched by grief for his son, he has made a mighty vow."

7.56.11 "And the valiant brothers too, and the vast hosts—all this has been laid before Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son."

7.56.12 "May Dhanaṃjaya, when he has slain the Saindhava in battle, return again to us; and having vanquished the hosts of his foes, may Arjuna fulfill his vow."

7.56.13 "For if he does not slay the king of the Sindhus, he will enter the smoke-bannered fire; yet Pārtha Dhanaṃjaya is not one to let his word prove false."

7.56.14 "How shall the king, the son of Dharma, fare if Arjuna dies? For upon him alone has the Pāṇḍava rested the whole of his hope of victory."

7.56.15 "If we have done any good deed, if we have given gifts or made oblation, then by the fruit of all of that may Savyasācin conquer his enemies."

7.56.16 As they spoke thus, O lord, longing for his victory, the night passed away, O king, only with the greatest difficulty.

7.56.17 In the middle of that night Janārdana awoke, and remembering the vow of Pārtha, he spoke thus to Dāruka:

7.56.18 "Arjuna, stricken with grief at the slaying of his kinsman, has vowed, O Dāruka: 'I shall slay Jayadratha when tomorrow has come.'"

7.56.19 "When Duryodhana hears of this, he will take counsel with his ministers, so that Pārtha may not slay Jayadratha in the fight."

7.56.20 "All those armies in their full array will guard Jayadratha, and so too will Droṇa with his son, who is master of every science of arms."

7.56.21 "Even the thousand-eyed one, the lone hero who crushes the Daityas and Dānavas, could not bring himself to slay him in battle when he is guarded by Droṇa."

7.56.22 "Therefore tomorrow I shall so contrive it that Arjuna, the son of Kuntī, shall slay Jayadratha before the sun reaches its setting."

7.56.23 "For not my wives, nor friends, nor kinsmen, nor any other dearer to me than the son of Kuntī—none is there dearer to me than Arjuna."

7.56.24 "A world without Arjuna I could not bear to look upon even for a moment, O Dāruka; nor shall it ever come to be so."

7.56.25 "For Arjuna's sake I shall destroy the bannered hosts of the foe, with their horses, chariots, and elephants, together with Karṇa and Suyodhana themselves."

7.56.26 "Tomorrow let the three worlds behold my prowess in the great battle, O Dāruka, as I exert myself in the fray for the sake of Dhanaṃjaya."

7.56.27 "Tomorrow thousands of kings and hundreds of princes, with their horses, elephants, and chariots, shall flee before me in battle, O Dāruka."

7.56.28 "Tomorrow you shall see the host of kings crushed by my discus, struck down in battle by me in my wrath for the Pāṇḍava's sake."

7.56.29 "Tomorrow all the worlds, with their gods, Gandharvas, Piśācas, Uragas, and Rākṣasas, shall know me to be the friend of Savyasācin."

7.56.30 "Whoever hates him hates me; whoever follows him follows me. Let it be understood with certainty in your mind: Arjuna is the half of my own body."

7.56.31 "While this night has not yet given way to dawn, do you, bound to your duty, make ready and bring forth my best of chariots according to the rule,"

7.56.32 "setting upon the chariot, O charioteer, the divine mace Kaumodakī, the spear, the discus, the bow and arrows, and all the other accoutrements as well."

7.56.33 "And having prepared upon the floor of the chariot a place for my banner—the heroic son of Vinatā, who graces the chariot in battle—"

7.56.34 "and the parasol with its nets of pure gold, bright as the sun and fire, fashioned by Viśvakarman, divine—and the horses, well adorned,"

7.56.35 "having yoked those best of steeds, Balāhaka, Meghapuṣpa, Saiṇya, and Sugrīva, stand ready and clad in armor, O Dāruka."

7.56.36 "And when you hear the terrible blast of Pāñcajanya, filled with a deep bull-like note, come swiftly to me."

7.56.37 "In a single day I shall sweep away all the indignation and all the sorrows of my cousin, the son of my father's sister, O Dāruka."

7.56.38 "By every means I shall strive so that Bībhatsu may slay Jayadratha in the battle before the very eyes of the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra."

7.56.39 "And against whomsoever Bībhatsu shall make his effort to slay, there, O charioteer, I am sure his victory is assured."

7.56.40 Dāruka said: "Victory indeed is assured to him—how could there ever be defeat for one whose charioteer you have become, O tiger among men?"

7.56.41 "And I shall do all this just as you command me, that this night may break in fair dawn for the victory of Vijaya."

7.57.1 Saṃjaya said: But the son of Kuntī, Dhanaṃjaya of inconceivable valor, even as he brooded upon that resolve and guarded his own vow, was overcome with bewilderment.

7.57.2 As he, the hero of the monkey banner, lay consumed with grief and lost in thought, the one of mighty splendor, he of the Garuḍa banner, came to him in a dream.

7.57.3 In every circumstance Dhanaṃjaya, righteous of soul, never failed in rising to greet Kṛṣṇa, always out of devotion and love.

7.57.4 And rising to greet Govinda, he gave him a seat; nor did Bībhatsu then set his own mind upon taking a seat himself.

7.57.5 Then Kṛṣṇa of great splendor, knowing the resolve of Pārtha, being seated, spoke these words to the son of Kuntī who stood before him:

7.57.6 "Set not your mind upon despair, O Pārtha; for Time is hard to conquer. Time draws all beings on, into the supreme ordinance."

7.57.7 "And why this despair of yours? Tell me, O best of speakers. The wise man should not grieve, for grief is the ruin of every undertaking."

7.57.8 "By grieving a man gladdens his enemies and wastes away his kinsmen, and is himself diminished. Therefore you ought not to grieve."

7.57.9 Thus addressed by Vāsudeva, the unconquered Bībhatsu, learned as he was, then spoke these meaningful words:

7.57.10 "A mighty vow has been made by me concerning the slaying of Jayadratha—that 'tomorrow I shall slay that evil-souled killer of my son,' O Keśava."

7.57.11 "To thwart my vow, O Acyuta, the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra will surely keep the Saindhava in the rear, guarded by all their great chariot-warriors."

7.57.12 "Eleven armies are theirs, O Kṛṣṇa, exceedingly hard to overcome; and should my vow fail, how could one such as I go on living?"

7.57.13 "My longing, O hero, turns toward a thing whose accomplishment is fraught with hardship, and the sun moves swiftly on—therefore I say this to you."

7.57.14 Having heard that ground of Pārtha's grief, Kṛṣṇa, whose emblem is the bird, touched water and then took his stand facing the east.

7.57.15 These words the lotus-eyed one of great splendor spoke, for the good of the son of Pāṇḍu, intent upon the slaying of the Saindhava:

7.57.16 "O Pārtha, there is the supreme and eternal weapon called Pāśupata, with which the god Maheśvara slew all the Daityas in battle."

7.57.17 "If that weapon be known to you today, you shall slay Jayadratha tomorrow. But if you would learn it, take refuge in your mind with the god of the bull banner."

7.57.18 "Meditating in your mind upon that god, remain in silence, O Dhanaṃjaya; then by his grace, being devoted, you shall obtain that mighty weapon."

7.57.19 Then, having heard the words of Kṛṣṇa, Dhanaṃjaya touched water and, seated upon the ground with single-pointed mind, went in thought to Bhava.

7.57.20 Then in the auspicious hour sacred to Brahmā, in that moment of fair omen, Arjuna beheld himself together with Keśava up in the sky.

7.57.21 And Pārtha, moving with the speed of the wind, together with Keśava, traversed the heaven, thronged with lights and frequented by Siddhas and Cāraṇas.

7.57.22 Held by the mighty Keśava upon his right arm, gazing upon many a wondrous form, he passed on through sights marvelous to behold.

7.57.23 In the northern quarter the righteous one beheld the White Mountain, and in Kubera's pleasure-grove a lotus-pool adorned with blossoms.

7.57.24 And he gazed upon the Gaṅgā, best of rivers, abounding in waters, set about with trees ever in flower and fruit, her stones of crystal,

7.57.25 thronged with lions and tigers, teeming with herds of many kinds of deer, holy with hermitages, lovely, and frequented by charming birds.

7.57.26 And he beheld the regions of Mandara, resounding with the songs of Kiṃnaras, their peaks of gold and silver lit up by many healing herbs, and graced too with flowering coral trees.

7.57.27 He reached the Kāla mountain, dark as a heap of glistening collyrium, the holy foothills of the Himavat, and Mount Maṇimat, and Brahmatuṅga, and other rivers as well, and the lands of men.

7.57.28 And Suśṛṅga, and Śataśṛṅga, and the forest of Śaryāti, and the holy seat of the Horse's-Head, and the abode of Atharvaṇa.

7.57.29 And Vṛṣadaṃśa, lord of mountains, and great Mandara as well, thronged with Apsarases and made beautiful by Kiṃnaras.

7.57.30 And as he journeyed past those mountains, Pārtha, together with Keśava, gazed upon them, blessed with fair cascades and adorned with veins of gold.

7.57.31 He beheld the earth, her form gleaming as in moonbeams, garlanded with cities, and the oceans of wondrous aspect, abounding in rich stores of treasure.

7.57.32 Gazing on the firmament, the heaven, and the earth, journeying through Viṣṇu's step, filled with wonder, he sped on with Kṛṣṇa, swift as an arrow loosed.

7.57.33 Then Pārtha beheld a mountain blazing as it were, of a radiance equal to that of the planets, the stars, the moon, the sun, and fire.

7.57.34 And drawing near to that mountain, he beheld upon its summit the high-souled god of the bull banner, ever steadfast in austerity.

7.57.35 He blazed with his own splendor like a thousand suns, bearing the trident, his hair matted, fair of hue, clad in bark and hide.

7.57.36 With his thousands of eyes, his body of marvelous form, of mighty power—the god, together with Pārvatī and with shining hosts of spirits—

7.57.37 amid the swelling of song and instruments, attended by dance kept to the beat, by leaping and clapping and loud shouts, and served by holy fragrances.

7.57.38 He was being praised with divine hymns by sages who expound the Veda—the protector of all beings, bearer of the bow, the unfallen one.

7.57.39 But Vāsudeva, beholding him, touched the earth with his head, together with Pārtha, the righteous one chanting the eternal sacred verse,

7.57.40 hailing him as the origin of the worlds, the all-maker, the unborn, the lord, the imperishable, the supreme source of mind, the ether, the wind, the treasury of all lights,

7.57.41 the creator of the streams of water, the supreme primal nature of the earth, the fulfiller of gods, Dānavas, Yakṣas, and men,

7.57.42 the supreme Brahman of the yogins, made manifest, the treasure of those who know the Brahman, the creator of all that moves and is unmoving, and its destroyer too,

7.57.43 the great-souled one whose wrath is Time itself, in whom arise the powers of Śakra and Sūrya—him Kṛṣṇa then worshipped with word, mind, intellect, and deed.

7.57.44 To Bhava, the unborn, whose essence is the cause, whom the wise perceive who seek the subtle station of the inner Self—to him the two went for refuge.

7.57.45 And Arjuna too bowed before that god again and again, knowing him to be the one, the origin of what is and what shall be, the source of the becoming of all beings.

7.57.46 Then Śarva spoke to the two who had come, as though smiling: "Welcome to you both, O best of men. Rise up, your weariness gone. And what is the desire of your hearts, O heroes? Tell it quickly."

7.57.47 "Whatever the purpose for which you two have come, that I shall accomplish for you. Choose what is for your own good, and all of it I shall grant you."

7.57.48 Then, hearing that speech, Vāsudeva and Arjuna, the two of mighty mind, stood up with hands joined in reverence and praised Śarva:

7.57.49 "Homage to Bhava, to Śarva, to Rudra, and to the giver of boons; ever homage to the lord of beasts, to the fierce one, to him of the matted braid."

7.57.50 "To Mahādeva, to the terrible one, to the three-eyed, to Śambhu, to Īśāna, to the destroyer of Bhaga—homage be to the slayer of Andhaka."

7.57.51 Ever to the teacher of Kumāra, to the blue-throated, to the ordainer, to the deep-red one, to the smoke-hued, to the hunter, to the unvanquished.

7.57.52 Ever to the dark-crested one, to the bearer of the trident, to the one of divine sight, to the slayer, to the protector, to the three-eyed, to the hunter, to him whose seed is the Vasus.

7.57.53 To the inconceivable, to the husband of Ambikā, to him praised by all the gods, to him whose banner bears the bull, to the tawny one, to the matted-haired, to the chaste celibate.

7.57.54 To him who performs austerities within the waters, to the friend of the brahmans, to the unconquered, to the soul of the universe, to the maker of the universe, to him who stands enveloping all that is.

7.57.55 Homage, homage to you, the worshipful, ever the source of all beings, to him from whose mouth issues the Veda, to Śarva, to Śaṃkara, and to Śiva.

7.57.56 Homage be to the lord of speech; homage to the lord of creatures; homage to the lord of all that is; homage to the lord of the great ones.

7.57.57 Homage to the thousand-headed, to him whose thousand arms hold fury, to him of a thousand eyes and feet, homage to him whose deeds are beyond number.

7.57.58 Homage to the golden-hued, to him clad in golden armor, to him who ever shows compassion to his devotees: may our boon be granted, O Lord.

7.57.59 Having thus praised Mahādeva, Vāsudeva together with Arjuna then propitiated Bhava, that they might obtain the weapon.

7.57.60 Then Arjuna, his heart gladdened, bowed to him whose banner bears the bull; with eyes wide in wonder he beheld him, the whole treasury of all splendors.

7.57.61 And he saw, set before the three-eyed god, the nightly offering that was his own daily rite, presented there by Vāsudeva.

7.57.62 Then the Pāṇḍava, having worshipped Śarva and Kṛṣṇa in his mind, said to Śaṃkara, "I desire the divine weapon."

7.57.63 Then the Lord, the god, perceiving Pārtha's words spoken to seek the boon, addressed Vāsudeva and Arjuna with a smile.

7.57.64 "There is a divine lake of ambrosia close at hand, O slayers of foes; there long ago I placed that divine bow of mine, and the arrow.

7.57.65 With it I struck down in battle all the enemies of the gods. Let that supreme bow with its arrow be fetched from there, O you two Kṛṣṇas."

7.57.66 Saying "So be it" to Śarva, who stood among his attendants, the two heroes set out for that divine lake, ringed about by a hundred wondrous marvels.

7.57.67 To that holy lake which the bull-marked god had pointed out, accomplisher of every aim, the two sages Nara and Nārāyaṇa went, undismayed.

7.57.68 Then, reaching that lake which shone like the orb of the sun, Arjuna and Acyuta beheld a dreadful serpent within the waters.

7.57.69 And they beheld a second serpent, another excellent one with a thousand heads, vomiting forth vast flame and blazing like fire.

7.57.70 Then Kṛṣṇa and Pārtha touched the water and, with hands joined, approached those two serpents, doing homage to him whose banner bears the bull.

7.57.71 Learned in the Veda, the two reciting the immeasurable sacred hymn, the Śatarudriya, drew near and bowed to Bhava with their whole being.

7.57.72 Then, through the majesty of Rudra, those two mighty serpents cast off their forms, and that pair became a bow and an arrow, destroyers of foes.

7.57.73 Then the two great-souled ones, well pleased, took up the bow and the bright arrow, carried them back, and gave them to the great-souled god.

7.57.74 Then from the side of the bull-marked god there came forth a celibate ascetic, tawny-eyed, a very field of austerity, mighty, dark-red of hue.

7.57.75 Taking up that finest of bows, he stood in his stance with collected mind, and drew the supreme bow with its arrow according to the rule.

7.57.76 Marking his bowstring, his grip, and his stance, and hearing the spell spoken by Bhava, the Pāṇḍava of inconceivable valor grasped it all.

7.57.77 And into the lake itself the mighty lord loosed that arrow, and again the hero placed the bow back within that lake.

7.57.78 Then Arjuna, mindful and aware that Bhava was pleased, recalled in his heart the boon granted him in the forest and the vision of Śaṃkara, and thought, "May that come to fulfillment for me."

7.57.79 Knowing his intent, Bhava, well pleased, granted him the boon—that dread Pāśupata weapon, and the means to fulfill his vow.

7.57.80 Thrilled to the roots of his hair, the unassailable one deemed his task accomplished; and the two, full of joy, bowed their heads to Maheśvara.

7.57.81 Granted leave at that moment by Bhava, Arjuna and Keśava, those two heroes, reached their own camp filled with the highest joy, as glad as Indra and Viṣṇu eager to slay Jambha.

7.58.1 Saṃjaya said: While the two, Kṛṣṇa and Dāruka, were yet conversing, the night passed away, O king, and then the king awoke.

7.58.2 Hand-clapping musicians, bards of Magadha, those who bear the honeyed welcome-draught, panegyrists, and charioteer-minstrels recited and sang the praises of that bull among men.

7.58.3 Dancers too danced, and singers of sweet and ardent voice sang songs whose burden was the glory of the Kuru line.

7.58.4 Tabors, jharjharas, kettledrums, small drums and large drums and cow-horn pipes, war-drums and conch-shells and deep-voiced great drums—

7.58.5 all these, O Bhārata, and yet other instruments besides, were sounded with delight by skilled and well-trained players.

7.58.6 That great sound, roaring like a thundercloud, touched the heavens and roused the sleeping Yudhiṣṭhira, foremost of kings.

7.58.7 Awakened, having slept at ease upon his costly and excellent couch, he rose and went thence to the bath-house to perform his needful duties.

7.58.8 Then a hundred and eight young attendants for the bath, clad in white and freshly washed, drew near with golden jars filled with water.

7.58.9 Seated well upon an auspicious seat, wearing a light garment, he bathed in waters charged with sandal and hallowed by sacred chants.

7.58.10 He was rubbed with astringent paste by strong, well-trained men, and bathed with perfumed water steeped in sweet-scented herbs.

7.58.11 Having anointed his body with yellow sandal, the great-armed one, garlanded and clad in spotless raiment, stood facing east with hands joined in reverence.

7.58.12 The son of Kuntī murmured the prayer fit for muttering, following the path of the good, and then humbly entered the blazing chamber of the sacred fire.

7.58.13 Having worshipped the kindled fire with pure oblations hallowed by sacred formulas, he then came forth from the chamber.

7.58.14 Passing into the second courtyard, that tiger among men, the king, beheld there brahmans versed in the Veda, bulls among the twice-born.

7.58.15 Self-controlled, bathed in the vows of the Veda and in the final ablutions of sacrifice, devotees of the sun attended by thousands—eight thousand of them, and a thousand more.

7.58.16 Having had them pronounce blessings with whole grains and flowers, the great-armed one honored those twice-born with honey and clarified butter and with choice and auspicious fruits.

7.58.17 The Pāṇḍava gave to each brahman a golden coin, and a hundred caparisoned horses, garments, and the gifts they wished as sacrificial fees.

7.58.18 The son of Pāṇḍu likewise gave tawny milk-cows together with their bulls, their horns gilded and their hooves shod with silver, and walked round them in reverence.

7.58.19 Golden svastikas and vardhamānas and nandyāvarta emblems, garlands and water-jars, and the blazing fire that bears the oblations;

7.58.20 vessels filled with whole grains, ornaments and yellow pigment, and fair, well-adorned maidens bearing curds, ghee, honey, and water—

7.58.21 auspicious birds too, and whatever else is held holy—all these the son of Kuntī beheld and touched, and then passed on to the outer courtyard.

7.58.22 Then, as that great-armed one stood there, his attendants brought a golden throne, auspicious on every side, adorned with pearls and cat's-eye gems—

7.58.23 spread with priceless coverings, furnished with a canopy above, opulent and divine, fashioned by Viśvakarman—that finest of seats they brought forth.

7.58.24 When the great-souled one was seated there, the servants brought him costly ornaments, gleaming and bright in every part.

7.58.25 When the great-souled son of Kuntī was fitted with ornament and array, his form, O great king, was such as to swell the grief of his foes.

7.58.26 Fanned with white yak-tail whisks gleaming like moonbeams and set on golden handles, he shone like a rain-cloud lit by flashes of lightning.

7.58.27 Extolled by minstrels, lauded by panegyrists, and hymned by gandharvas, the joy of the Kurus sat enthroned.

7.58.28 Then, within a moment, there arose a great clamor of bards, the rumble of chariot-wheel rims, and the clatter of horses' hooves.

7.58.29 With the jangle of elephant-bells, the blare of conches, and the tread of men's feet, the very earth seemed to tremble.

7.58.30 Then a man, reaching the inner apartments, knelt with both knees upon the ground and bowed his head to that lord of men, worthy of homage.

7.58.31 A youth, earringed, his sword girded on, his armor fastened, a doorkeeper, bowing his head to the son of Dharma, announced to that great-souled one that Hṛṣīkeśa had arrived.

7.58.32 That tiger among men replied, "Welcome indeed to Mādhava! Let the guest-offering and a seat, held in highest honor, be given to him."

7.58.33 Then, having ushered in the Vārṣṇeya and seated him upon a noble seat, and having honored him and been honored by him in turn, Yudhiṣṭhira made inquiry.

7.59.1 Yudhiṣṭhira said: Has the night passed pleasantly for you, O slayer of Madhu? And are all your faculties serene, O Acyuta?

7.59.2 Saṃjaya said: Vāsudeva too made fitting inquiry of Yudhiṣṭhira in turn; then the chamberlain announced that the chief subjects had come and were waiting.

7.59.3 Granted leave by the king, he ushered in those people: Virāṭa and Bhīmasena, Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Sātyaki,

7.59.4 Śikhaṇḍin and the twins, and Cekitāna and the Kekayas, and Yuyutsu of the Kuru line, and the Pāñcāla Uttamaujas.

7.59.5 These and many other warriors approached that great-souled bull among kṣatriyas and took their places upon the seats.

7.59.6 Upon a single seat sat two mighty heroes, Kṛṣṇa and Yuyudhāna, great-souled and of great splendor.

7.59.7 Then Yudhiṣṭhira, in the hearing of them all, addressed the lotus-eyed slayer of Madhu and spoke to him sweet words.

7.59.8 "Relying on you alone, as the immortals rely on the thousand-eyed Indra, we pray for victory in battle and for lasting happiness.

7.59.9 For you, Kṛṣṇa, know all our sufferings—the ruin of our kingdom, the humiliation at the hands of our foes, and our manifold afflictions.

7.59.10 In you, O lord of all, O lover of your devotees, the welfare of us all utterly depends, and our very course of action too, O slayer of Madhu.

7.59.11 Therefore act, O Vārṣṇeya, in accord with my trust in you, so that Arjuna's vow, which he longs to fulfill, may come true.

7.59.12 May you carry us across this vast ocean of sorrow and indignation; be this day our raft, O Mādhava, for we long to reach the farther shore.

7.59.13 For even a chariot-warrior the equal of Kārtavīrya cannot accomplish in battle, O Kṛṣṇa, what a charioteer who sets himself to the effort can accomplish."

7.59.14 Vāsudeva said: In all the worlds, even with their gods, there is no bowman of such a kind as Pārtha Dhanaṃjaya.

7.59.15 Valiant, accomplished in weapons, daring, of mighty strength, eager for battle, ever impatient of insult, in splendor the foremost of men—

7.59.16 that youth, bull-shouldered, long-armed, of mighty strength, with the gait of a lion and a bull, glorious—he shall slay your foes.

7.59.17 And I shall so contrive it that Arjuna, the son of Kuntī, shall burn up the armies of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son as a blazing fire that has flared up.

7.59.18 This very day Arjuna shall hurl that vile-doing, base slayer of Subhadrā's son down the road from which there is no return.

7.59.19 Today vultures and hawks and herons and jackals, and whatever other man-eating creatures there are, shall feast upon his flesh.

7.59.20 Even if all the gods together with Indra were his protectors, yet this day, slain in the press of battle, he shall reach the royal city of Yama.

7.59.21 Having slain the lord of the Sindhus, the victorious one shall come back to you this very day. Be free of grief and free of fever, O king, and let prosperity attend you.

7.60.1 Saṃjaya said: As they were thus conversing, Dhanaṃjaya appeared, eager to behold the king, that best of the Bhāratas, surrounded by his band of friends.

7.60.2 When Arjuna had entered the fair enclosure and, having made obeisance, stood before him, that bull among the Pāṇḍavas rose up and embraced him with love.

7.60.3 Kissing him upon the head and folding him in his arms, and pronouncing the highest blessings, he spoke to him, smiling.

7.60.4 Plainly, O Arjuna, your great victory in battle is assured, for such is the radiance of your countenance, and Janārdana is well content.

7.60.5 Then the victorious one answered him: I have beheld a great and surpassing marvel, born of the grace of Keśava—blessings be upon you.

7.60.6 Then Dhanaṃjaya, to hearten his friends, related as he had witnessed it his meeting with the three-eyed god.

7.60.7 Then all of them, wonder-struck, touched the earth with their heads, and bowing to the god whose emblem is the bull, cried, "Well done, well done!"

7.60.8 Then all the friends, given leave by the son of Dharma, well girt and full of gladness, hastened forth to battle.

7.60.9 Having saluted the king, Yuyudhāna, Acyuta, and Arjuna went forth rejoicing from the dwelling of Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.60.10 On a single chariot the unassailable heroes Yuyudhāna and Janārdana went together to the encampment of Arjuna.

7.60.11 Having gone there, Hṛṣīkeśa, like a charioteer, made ready for the foremost of chariot-warriors that battle-car which bore the ensign of the bull-like ape.

7.60.12 That noble chariot, roaring like a thundercloud and gleaming with the splendor of refined gold, when made ready shone like the newborn sun.

7.60.13 Then that tiger among men, himself accoutred, going before, presented the equipped chariot to Pārtha, who had performed his daily rites.

7.60.14 And the Diademed One, the best of men in the world, clad in golden mail and bearing his bow and arrows, walked round that vehicle in reverent circuit.

7.60.15 Then, hymned with blessings of victory by men ripe in learning and in years, given to holy rites and masters of their senses, he mounted the great chariot.

7.60.16 That best of chariots had already been consecrated with martial, victory-bringing spells, and the radiant hero mounted it as the rising sun mounts the horizon.

7.60.17 That foremost of car-warriors, clad in gold, upon his golden chariot shone spotless and radiant, like the sun upon Mount Meru.

7.60.18 Yuyudhāna and Janārdana mounted up after Pārtha, as the two Aśvins follow the god Indra when he comes to the sacrifice of Śaryāti.

7.60.19 Then Govinda, best of those who hold the reins, took up the reins, as Mātali did for Vāsava when he set forth to slay Vṛtra.

7.60.20 Pārtha, mounted upon that noblest of chariots together with those two, was like the moon flanked by Mercury and Venus, dispelling the darkness.

7.60.21 Eager to slay the lord of the Sindhus, that destroyer of throngs of foes set forth, like Indra in the war against Tāraka, accompanied by Varuṇa, lord of waters, and by Mitra.

7.60.22 Then, as Arjuna went forth, bards and panegyrists praised him with the sound of instruments and with auspicious, holy hymns.

7.60.23 That sound of bards and minstrels, attended with blessings of victory and with proclamations of the holy day, joined to the music of instruments, became to them a thing of delight.

7.60.24 A pure breeze, bearing holy fragrances, blew gently after him, gladdening Pārtha and withering his foes.

7.60.25 Many omens appeared, foretelling victory for the Pāṇḍavas and, for your men, the contrary, O venerable one.

7.60.26 Seeing the favorable omens of victory, Arjuna spoke these words to Yuyudhāna, the mighty archer.

7.60.27 O Yuyudhāna, this day my victory in battle is plainly assured, for such are the signs that appear, O bull of Śini's line.

7.60.28 I shall go thither, where the king of the Sindhus, ready to depart for the realm of Yama, awaits my prowess.

7.60.29 As the slaying of the lord of the Sindhus is my highest task, even so is the guarding of the king of righteousness a most weighty task.

7.60.30 Therefore do you this day, O mighty-armed one, guard the king, so that he may be as well protected by you as he would be by me.

7.60.31 Trusting in you, or in Pradyumna that great car-warrior, I shall be able to slay the lord of the Sindhus free of all anxiety, O bull among men.

7.60.32 No concern need you have on my account in any way, O Sātvata; the king is your supreme charge, to be guarded by you with all your soul.

7.60.33 For where the mighty-armed Vāsudeva stands fixed, and where I am as well, there no harm can ever befall—of that be sure.

7.60.34 Thus addressed by Pārtha, Sātyaki, slayer of hostile heroes, said, "So be it," and went thither where King Yudhiṣṭhira was.

7.61.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When the next day came, what did they do, beset with grief and sorrow? When Abhimanyu had been slain there, which of my men gave battle?

7.61.2 Knowing the deeds of Savyasācin, how could my Kurus, having wrought that sin, remain unafraid? Tell me.

7.61.3 How did they look upon that tiger among men in battle as he came on, scorched with grief for his son and wrathful as death the ender?

7.61.4 Seeing in the fray the bearer of the ape-king ensign, brandishing his mighty bow and stricken with grief for his son, what did my men do?

7.61.5 What befell Duryodhana in the battle, O Saṃjaya? Here I hear only great lamentation, and no word of rejoicing.

7.61.6 Those sounds that once charmed the mind and brought delight to the ear are none of them heard this day in the encampment of the lord of the Sindhus.

7.61.7 In the camp of my sons no longer are heard, anywhere, the voices of the throngs of bards and panegyrists and dancers raised in praise.

7.61.8 Where once my ears were filled unceasingly with their sounds, today I no longer hear that sound raised up by men now sunk in misery.

7.61.9 In the dwelling of Somadatta of steadfast vow, O Saṃjaya, as I sat there once before, my son, I used to hear a most excellent sound.

7.61.10 But today, stripped of my merit, I mark the dwelling of my sons resounding with cries of anguish, its spirit broken.

7.61.11 From Viviṃśati, from Durmukha, from Citrasena and Vikarṇa, and from my other sons, no such sound is heard as before.

7.61.12 Around the son of Droṇa, the mighty archer, the refuge of my sons, brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and pupils used to gather in attendance—

7.61.13 he who delights day and night in disputations and discourses and conversations, in oblations, in petitions and praises, and in songs of many cherished kinds—

7.61.14 attended by many of the Kurus, Pāṇḍavas, and Sātvatas—O bard, in the abode of that son of Droṇa there is today no such sound as before.

7.61.15 The singers and dancers who used to wait in great numbers upon the son of Droṇa, that mighty archer—their voices are no longer heard.

7.61.16 That great clamor that of an evening was heard in the camp of Vinda and Anuvinda, and in the dwellings of the Kekayas, is not so heard today.

7.61.17 And that great sound of cymbals and song from the ever-merry companies as they danced—that din, my son, is not heard today.

7.61.18 The officiating priests who, spreading out the seven-threaded sacrifice, used to wait upon Somadatta's son, that treasury of sacred lore—their voices are not heard.

7.61.19 The twang of bowstrings, the chanting of the Vedas, the clatter of lances and swords and chariots that sounded ceaselessly in the abode of Droṇa—that I no longer hear.

7.61.20 That great sound of songs arising from many lands, and of instruments resounding, is not heard today.

7.61.21 From the time that Janārdana, the imperishable one, came from Upaplavya, desiring peace out of compassion for all beings—

7.61.22 then, O bard, I said to the foolish Duryodhana: "Through Vāsudeva as your worthy mediator, my son, make peace with the Pāṇḍavas.

7.61.23 I think this fitted to the hour. Do not, O Duryodhana, overstep the bounds. If you reject Keśava when he sues for peace and speaks for your good, then there can be no victory for you."

7.61.24 But he rebuffed that bull of the Dāśārhas, the foremost of all bowmen, as he spoke words deserving of compliance, and out of waywardness he would not yield.

7.61.25 Then, forsaking me, that evil-minded one, dragged on by Fate, followed the counsel of those two, Duḥśāsana and Karṇa.

7.61.26 For I myself did not desire the gambling; Vidura did not approve it; the lord of the Sindhus did not wish for the game; Bhīṣma did not wish for the game;

7.61.27 Śalya and Bhūriśravas, Purumitra and Jaya, Aśvatthāman, Kṛpa, and Droṇa—none of them desired the game, O Saṃjaya.

7.61.28 Had my boy but known the mind of these and acted upon it, he, with his kinsmen and his allies and his friends, would have lived long and free of affliction.

7.61.29 Gentle, sweet of speech, kindly-spoken among their kin, well-born, honored, and wise, the Pāṇḍavas shall surely attain happiness.

7.61.30 The man who ever has regard for righteousness gains happiness everywhere, and in the world to come attains blessedness and grace.

7.61.31 They, possessed of power and resource, deserve to enjoy half the earth; and theirs too is the sea-girt land, inherited from their fathers and forefathers.

7.61.32 If so directed, the Pāṇḍavas will keep to the path of righteousness; and we have kinsmen, my son, to whom the Pāṇḍavas will hearken—

7.61.33 to Śalya, to Somadatta, to the great-souled Bhīṣma, to Droṇa and Vikarṇa, to Bāhlika and Kṛpa,

7.61.34 and to the other aged, great-souled Bhāratas; when these speak for your good, my son, the Pāṇḍavas will heed their wholesome word.

7.61.35 Which of them do you suppose would counsel you otherwise than this? Kṛṣṇa would not abandon righteousness, and all those others follow your lead.

7.61.36 I too have spoken to those heroes a word in keeping with righteousness; they will not act otherwise, for the Pāṇḍavas are devoted to dharma.

7.61.37 Thus, O bard, lamenting, I spoke to my son again and again; yet the fool would not heed me. I deem it the turning of the wheel of Time.

7.61.38 Where Vṛkodara and Arjuna are, and Sātyaki, the Vṛṣṇi hero, and Uttamaujas the Pāñcāla, and Yudhāmanyu hard to conquer,

7.61.39 and the unassailable Dhṛṣṭadyumna, and the unvanquished Śikhaṇḍin, the Aśmakas and the Kekayas, and Kṣatradharman the son of the Somakas,

7.61.40 and the Caidya and Cekitāna, and Abhibhū the son of the king of Kāśi, the sons of Draupadī, Virāṭa and Drupada that great car-warrior, the twins, those tigers among men, and the slayer of Madhu for counselor—

7.61.41 who in this world that wished to live would ever do battle with these subduers of foes, who wield and let loose the celestial weapons?

7.61.42 Apart from Duryodhana, from Karṇa, and from Śakuni the son of Subala, with Duḥśāsana as the fourth—I can see no fifth man among them.

7.61.43 Those upon whose chariot Viṣvaksena stands with the reins in his hand, and who have Arjuna for their armored warrior—for them there is no defeat.

7.61.44 Duryodhana would not remember these laments of mine. Now you tell me that the two tigers among men, Bhīṣma and Droṇa, are slain.

7.61.45 Seeing this ripening of the fruit of those far-seeing words once spoken by Vidura, I think my little sons now grieve.

7.61.46 As at winter's end a great fire, driven by the wind, burns up the dry brushwood, so does that Dhanaṃjaya consume my army.

7.61.47 Tell us the whole of it, for you are skilled, Saṃjaya—what came about toward evening, the wrong done to Pārtha. When Abhimanyu was slain, my son, what then was the mood among you?

7.61.48 Never, my son, having done so great a wrong, will my people be able to withstand in battle the deeds of him who wields the Gāṇḍīva bow.

7.61.49 What did Duryodhana resolve to do? What did Karṇa, what did Duḥśāsana and the son of Subala say must be done, matters having gone thus, when all my sons were assembled together, Saṃjaya?

7.61.50 What came to pass in the battle, my son, through the grievous misdeeds of that dull-witted one—his mind warped by greed, his self deformed by wrath—

7.61.51 of that fool who craves the kingdom, whose understanding is undone by passion—whether it was ill-counseled or well-counseled, that tell me, Saṃjaya.

7.62.1 Saṃjaya said: Come then, I shall relate it all to you, for I saw it with my own eyes. Listen, and be steadfast—for great indeed is the misdeed that is yours.

7.62.2 As the building of a dam once the water has run off, such is this lament of yours—fruitless, O king. Grieve not, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.62.3 This wondrous ordinance of Fate is not to be overstepped. Grieve not, O best of the Bhāratas—this was destined from of old.

7.62.4 Had you of old turned Yudhiṣṭhira the son of Kuntī, and your own sons, back from the dicing, this calamity would not have come upon you.

7.62.5 And again, when the time of war had come, had you even then turned back those who were inflamed, this calamity would not have come upon you.

7.62.6 And had you of old urged the Kurus, saying, 'Bind this unruly Duryodhana,' this calamity would not have come upon you.

7.62.7 This straying of your judgment the Pāṇḍavas will mark, and the Pāñcālas, and the Vṛṣṇis, and all the other great folk besides.

7.62.8 Had you, doing a father's duty and setting your son upon the good path, conducted yourself according to dharma, this calamity would not have come upon you.

7.62.9 But you, wisest of men in the world, forsaking the eternal dharma, followed the counsel of Duryodhana, of Karṇa, and of Śakuni.

7.62.10 All this lament of yours I have heard, O king—the lament of one who clings to his gain, like honey laced with poison.

7.62.11 Kṛṣṇa does not so esteem King Yudhiṣṭhira the Pāṇḍava of old, nor Bhīṣma, nor even Droṇa, as he esteems you, O king.

7.62.12 But from the moment he understood you to have fallen away from the king's duty, from then on Kṛṣṇa no longer holds you in such high regard.

7.62.13 And because you looked on indifferently while the sons of Pṛthā were addressed with harsh words, the consequence of that has overtaken you, who craved the kingdom for your sons.

7.62.14 The kingdom of your fathers and forefathers had then passed away from you, O blameless one; yet through the Pārthas you regained the whole earth they had conquered.

7.62.15 The kingdom won by Pāṇḍu, and the glory of the Kauravas—the Pāṇḍavas, walkers in dharma, made it yet greater than before.

7.62.16 That great work of theirs, coming to you, was rendered wholly fruitless, for by you, greedy for the spoil, they were cast out of their ancestral kingdom.

7.62.17 That now, in the time of war, you reproach your sons, O king, recounting their faults in many ways—this is not fitting today.

7.62.18 For kings who fight do not guard their lives in battle; plunging into the host of the Pārthas, those bulls among kṣatriyas do battle.

7.62.19 That army which Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna, which Sātyaki and Vṛkodara guard—who could give battle to such a host, save the Kauravas?

7.62.20 They whose warrior is Guḍākeśa, whose counselor is Janārdana, whose protector is Sātyaki, whose protector is Vṛkodara—

7.62.21 what bowman of mortal nature could endure to fight them, save the Kauravas and those who follow in their train?

7.62.22 As much as can be done by devoted kings, by heroes given to the duty of the warrior caste, so much the Kauravas are doing.

7.62.23 Now how that most terrible battle of the Kurus, those tigers among men, was waged together with the Pāṇḍavas—hear it all in truth.

7.63.1 Saṃjaya said: When that night had passed into dawn, Droṇa, best of those who bear arms, set about marshaling all his own divisions into array.

7.63.2 From the roaring heroes, O king—wrathful, unforgiving, each seeking the other's death—were heard manifold cries.

7.63.3 Twanging their bows in the fray and stroking the bowstrings with their hands, breathing hard, they cried aloud, 'Where now is that Dhanaṃjaya?'

7.63.4 And some flung up their swords—unsheathed, fair-hilted, well-whetted, well-tempered, polished, gleaming like the sky.

7.63.5 Practicing the ways of the sword and the ways of the bow with skill, heroes whose minds were set on battle were seen there by the thousand.

7.63.6 And others, hung with bells, smeared with sandal, adorned with gold and diamond, raising up their maces, kept asking after the Pāṇḍava.

7.63.7 Others, drunk with the pride of strength, mighty of arm, crowded the very sky with their iron clubs, like upraised banners of Indra.

7.63.8 And others, bearing weapons of every kind, decked with garlands of varied hue, heroes whose minds were set on battle, took their stations here and there.

7.63.9 'Where is Arjuna? Where Govinda? Where the proud Vṛkodara? Where are those friends of theirs?'—so they called out then in the battle.

7.63.10 Then Droṇa, having blown his conch and himself urging on his horses, ranging here and there to set them in order, moved about at speed.

7.63.11 When all those divisions, rejoicing in battle, stood in their places, the son of Bharadvāja, O great king, then spoke to Jayadratha:

7.63.12 'You, and the son of Somadatta, and Karṇa the great chariot-warrior, and Aśvatthāman, and Śalya, and Vṛṣasena, and Kṛpa as well—'

7.63.13 'a hundred thousand horse, sixty thousand chariots, fourteen thousand rutting elephants in their must,'

7.63.14 'and one-and-twenty thousand mailed foot-soldiers—take your stand at a distance of three leagues from me, without coming near.'

7.63.15 'Standing there, not even the gods with Vāsava could prevail against you—how much less all the Pāṇḍavas. Take heart, O lord of the Sindhus.'

7.63.16 So addressed and reassured, Jayadratha the king of the Sindhus set forth with the Gāndhāras, surrounded by those great chariot-warriors, by mailed riders ready and resolute, lances in hand.

7.63.17 All crowned with yak-tail plumes and adorned with the gold of the Jambū river, the horses of Jayadratha, O lord of kings, ran true and well—seven thousand of them, and two thousand Sindhu steeds besides.

7.63.18 Of must-maddened elephants, mounted by skilled drivers—great beasts of terrible shape, armored, of dreadful deeds—

7.63.19 with fifteen hundred of these your son Durmarṣaṇa took his stand at the head of all the armies, ready to fight.

7.63.20 Then Duḥśāsana and Vikarṇa, those sons of yours, for the accomplishing of the Sindhu king's purpose, took their places in the foremost division.

7.63.21 Twelve leagues long, and in its rear half five leagues broad, that 'wheel-and-cart' array was fashioned by the son of Bharadvāja.

7.63.22 With sundry heroic kings stationed here and there, with floods of chariots, horse, elephants, and foot, it was disposed by Droṇa himself.

7.63.23 In its rear half was a lotus, an inner array hard to break through; and within the heart of the lotus a needle-formation, a hidden array, was again contrived.

7.63.24 Having marshaled this great array thus, Droṇa took his stand; and at the mouth of the needle the great archer Kṛtavarman was posted.

7.63.25 Next to him the Kāmboja and Jalasaṃdha, O sire; and immediately after them Duryodhana together with his counselors.

7.63.26 Then hundreds of thousands of warriors who would never turn back were all stationed in the cart-array, guarding the needle.

7.63.27 And behind them, O king, encompassed by a great force, Jayadratha then took his stand at the noose of the needle.

7.63.28 At the mouth of the cart, O lord of kings, stood the son of Bharadvāja; behind him was the Bhoja, who then guarded him himself.

7.63.29 In white armor, white robe, and white turban, broad-chested and mighty-armed, twanging his bow, Droṇa stood like the wrathful Ender of all.

7.63.30 Beholding Droṇa's chariot—pennoned, drawn by red horses, bearing for its standard an altar and a black antelope-skin—the Kurus grew glad.

7.63.31 A very great wonder arose among the hosts of Siddhas and Cāraṇas as they beheld the array disposed by Droṇa, like a heaving ocean.

7.63.32 'This array would swallow up the whole earth, with its mountains, seas, and forests, thronged with its many peoples'—so thought the living beings.

7.63.33 Thronged with many chariots, men, horses, foot, and elephants, of fearful clamor and wondrous shape, rending the hearts of foes—beholding that vast cart-array thus made, the king rejoiced.

7.64.1 Saṃjaya said: Then, when the divisions had been marshaled and the war-cry raised, O sire, when the kettledrums were beaten and the tabors thundered,

7.64.2 amid the roar of the armies and the din of instruments, when the conches were sounded and the uproar was such as made the hair stand on end—

7.64.3 as the Bhāratas, eager for the fight, slowly advanced, and the dread hour came on, Savyasācin appeared.

7.64.4 Of herons and of crows, before Savyasācin, many thousands sported there, O Bhārata.

7.64.5 And beasts of dreadful cry, and jackals of ill-omened aspect, howled on the right hand of us as we marched forth.

7.64.6 Blazing meteors fell on every side with thunderous crashes, and the whole earth trembled as a dread terror arose.

7.64.7 Harsh winds raising thunderclaps and showering grit blew from every quarter as the son of Kuntī drew near and the battle was at hand.

7.64.8 Then Śatānīka the son of Nakula, and Dhṛṣṭadyumna the grandson of Pṛṣata—those two prudent ones—marshaled the divisions of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.64.9 Then with a thousand chariots, a hundred elephants, three thousand horse, and hundreds upon hundreds of foot-soldiers,

7.64.10 with full fifteen hundred bows, your son Durmarṣaṇa, taking his stand at the head of all the armies, spoke thus:

7.64.11 'This day I will hold back the wielder of the Gāṇḍīva, scorching and battle-mad, as the shore holds back the abode of the sea-monsters.'

7.64.12 'This day let them behold in battle the unforgiving Dhanaṃjaya, hard to assail, fastened upon me as a hammer of stone upon a stone.'

7.64.13 Speaking thus, O great king, that high-souled one of great mind, a mighty archer surrounded by mighty archers, took his stand, O king.

7.64.14 Then, like the wrathful Ender, like Vāsava bearing the thunderbolt, unbearable as Yama rod in hand—like Death itself driven on by Time—

7.64.15 Unshakable like the trident-bearer Śiva, like Varuṇa armed with his nooses, blazing like the fire at the end of an age about to burn up all creatures once more,

7.64.16 surging with the strength of wrath and indignation, the slayer of the Nivātakavacas, victory itself and the conqueror, firm in truth and resolved to carry his great vow through to its end,

7.64.17 his armor donned, his sword girt on, wearing a diadem of pure gold, clad in shining mail and raiment, with fair armlets and lovely earrings—

7.64.18 Nara, the follower of Nārāyaṇa, mounting his peerless chariot and brandishing the Gāṇḍīva in battle, shone like the risen sun.

7.64.19 Within bowshot of that great vanguard, the valiant Dhanaṃjaya, having drawn up his ready chariot, blew his conch.

7.64.20 Then Kṛṣṇa too, unflurried, together with Pārtha, O honored one, blew with all his might the Pāñcajanya, finest of conches.

7.64.21 At the blare of their conches, O lord of peoples, the men of your army bristled with horror, trembled, and lost their senses.

7.64.22 As all living things shudder at the crash of a thunderbolt, so at the blare of those conches your soldiers were seized with fear.

7.64.23 The beasts of burden everywhere let flow their dung and urine; thus the whole host, mounts and all, was thrown into turmoil.

7.64.24 The men sank down, O king, at the sound of the conch, O honored one; some fell senseless, and others, O king, were struck with terror.

7.64.25 Then the ape upon the banner, with the spirits that dwelt in it, raised a great roar with gaping jaws, terrifying your soldiers.

7.64.26 Then conches and kettledrums and tabors, together with the war-drums, were struck up once more to hearten your troops.

7.64.27 With the din of manifold instruments, with the tumult of shouts and the slapping of arms, with lions' roars mingled with music, the great chariot-warriors challenged one another.

7.64.28 Amid that wild uproar, which swelled the dread of cowards, the son of Indra, exceedingly elated, spoke to the Dāśārha:

7.64.29 "Drive on the horses, Hṛṣīkeśa, to where Durmarṣaṇa stands. Breaking through this elephant-host, I will plunge into the enemy's army."

7.64.30 Thus addressed by Savyasācin, mighty-armed Keśava urged the horses on to where Durmarṣaṇa stood.

7.64.31 Then there began a tumultuous and most terrible clash—between one man and many—a slaughter of chariots, elephants, and men.

7.64.32 Then Pārtha, with a downpour of arrows, like the rain-cloud Parjanya pouring water, drenched his foes as a cloud drenches the mountains.

7.64.33 And all those chariot-warriors too, swift and deft of hand, covered Kṛṣṇa and Dhanaṃjaya with nets of arrows.

7.64.34 Then the mighty-armed Pārtha, enraged, though held in check by his foes in the fight, struck the heads of the chariot-warriors from their bodies with his shafts.

7.64.35 The earth was strewn with handsome faces, their eyes rolling and their lips bitten, still wearing their earrings and helmets.

7.64.36 Scattered all about, the faces of the warriors gleamed like beds of white lotuses laid waste on every side.

7.64.37 Bright with golden ornaments and bathed in blood, they looked, O king, like masses of cloud lit by lightning.

7.64.38 The sound of the heads falling upon the ground, O king, was like that of ripe palmyra fruits dropping in their season.

7.64.39 Then here a headless trunk stood propped upon its bow, and there another stood with its sword drawn and raised aloft in its arm.

7.64.40 Those bulls among men did not even know their own heads had fallen to the earth—still unable to brook the son of Kuntī, still craving victory in the fight.

7.64.41 The earth was strewn with the heads of horses and the trunks of elephants, and with the arms and heads of heroes.

7.64.42 "Here is Pārtha! Where is Pārtha? This is Pārtha!"—so, O lord, among your troops it was as if the warriors saw nothing but Pārtha everywhere.

7.64.43 They even struck down one another, and some struck down themselves, deeming the whole world to have become Pārtha, deluded as they were by Time.

7.64.44 Many heroes lay there, moaning and bloodied, senseless and in sharp pain, calling out the names of their dear ones.

7.64.45 With slings and javelins, with lances, pikes, and battle-axes, with maces and swords, with bows and iron darts—

7.64.46 with arrows, armor, and ornaments, with clubs, still bearing their armlets in battle, arms like great serpents, like iron bludgeons,

7.64.47 writhed and twitched and curled in every direction, jerking in fury though severed by his keenest shafts.

7.64.48 Whatever man in the battle set himself in fury against Pārtha, upon that man's body an arrow crept like death itself.

7.64.49 As he danced along the chariot-tracks and bent his bow, not one there could spy in Pārtha even the smallest opening.

7.64.50 At the deftness with which the son of Pāṇḍu, striving hard, loosed his arrows so swiftly, the enemy host stood amazed.

7.64.51 Elephant and elephant-driver, horse and horseman alike, and chariot-warrior together with his charioteer—Phalguna pierced them all with his arrows.

7.64.52 Whoever wheeled about, whoever had turned away, whoever stood and fought, whoever stood before him in the van—there was none the Pāṇḍava did not slay.

7.64.53 As the rising sun in the sky dispels the great darkness, so did Arjuna destroy the elephant-host with his heron-feathered shafts.

7.64.54 With elephants fallen and shattered, your army looked like the earth at the end of time, strewn with mountains overthrown.

7.64.55 As the noonday sun is ever hard for living things to gaze upon, so was the wrathful Dhanaṃjaya hard for his foes to look upon in battle.

7.64.56 Thus, O scorcher of foes, was your son's army in the fight broken, routed, thrown into utter disorder, and grievously tormented by arrows.

7.64.57 That army, driven before him like a mass of clouds scattered by a mighty wind, could not so much as look upon him.

7.64.58 With goads and with the tips of their bows, with shouts and well-trained urging, with the lash and the strike of the heel, and with harsh words besides,

7.64.59 driving their horses on in haste, your men took to flight—riders, chariot-warriors, and foot-soldiers alike, tormented by Arjuna.

7.64.60 Others spurred their elephants on with heel and toe and goad, while still others, stupefied by his arrows, were borne straight toward him—your warriors then, their spirit broken and their minds awhirl.

7.65.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When that vanguard of the army was broken and being slaughtered by the Diademed One, what heroes there in the battle went forth to meet Dhanaṃjaya?

7.65.2 Or had they, their resolve undone, withdrawn into the cart-array, taking refuge behind Droṇa as behind a rampart, free from any fear?

7.65.3 Saṃjaya said: When that host of yours had thus been shattered by Arjuna, its heroes slain, its spirit gone, watching only for the moment to flee,

7.65.4 as it was struck again and again by the son of Indra with his finest shafts, no one there in the fight was able even to look upon Arjuna.

7.65.5 Then your son Duḥśāsana, O king, seeing his army brought to such a pass, exceedingly enraged, advanced upon Arjuna to do battle.

7.65.6 Clad in armor wrought with gold, his helmet of pure gold, that hero of fierce prowess,

7.65.7 with a great host of elephants, as though devouring this very earth, Duḥśāsana, O great king, hemmed in Savyasācin.

7.65.8 With the clamor of the elephants' bells, with the blaring of conches, with the twang of bowstrings, and with the trumpeting of the tuskers,

7.65.9 the earth, the quarters, and the sky were filled with the din; and for a moment it grew dreadful and terrifying.

7.65.10 Seeing them rushing swiftly down, urged on by goads, their trunks swinging, furious, like winged mountains,

7.65.11 with a mighty lion's roar that man-lion Dhanaṃjaya scattered the elephant-host of his foes on every side with his arrows.

7.65.12 Into that elephant-host, heaving with great waves like a vast ocean stirred up by the wind, the Diademed One plunged like a sea-monster.

7.65.13 Like the sun blazing past its bounds at the dissolution of an age, Pārtha, conqueror of hostile cities, was seen in every quarter.

7.65.14 With the clatter of the horses' hooves and the rumble of the chariot-rims, with the uproar of shouting and the twang of the bowstring, with the blast of the Devadatta and the thunder of the Gāṇḍīva,

7.65.15 those elephants grew sluggish and lost their wits, pierced through by Savyasācin with shafts whose touch was that of venomous serpents.

7.65.16 Those elephants, struck in every limb by the sharp barbless shafts sped from the Gāṇḍīva in the fight, in their many hundreds of thousands,

7.65.17 raising a tremendous outcry as they were slain by the Diademed One, fell ceaselessly to the earth like mountains with their wings shorn off.

7.65.18 Other elephants, struck by arrows in their tusk-sockets, their frontal bosses, and their temples, cried out again and again like the krauñca bird.

7.65.19 And the heads of the men mounted upon the elephants' shoulders were lopped off by the Diademed One with his broad-headed, smooth-jointed shafts.

7.65.20 With the masses of heads, still wearing their earrings, that fell to the ground like clusters of lotuses, Pārtha made, as it were, his offering.

7.65.21 Lashed to their seats, stripped of armor, anguished with wounds and drenched in blood, men hung dangling upon the elephants as they wheeled about in the battle.

7.65.22 Some, two and three together, pierced through by a single well-loosed feathered shaft, fell to the ground.

7.65.23 Bowstring and bow and banner, yokes and poles alike, of the chariot-warriors he hewed to pieces with his broad-headed, smooth-jointed shafts.

7.65.24 Not nocking, not aiming, not loosing, not drawing out—Pārtha was seen dancing, his bow bent into one continuous circle.

7.65.25 And other elephants, pierced deep by his iron shafts, vomiting blood from their mouths, in a moment fell to the earth.

7.65.26 Countless headless trunks were seen rising up on every side, O great king, in that supreme melee.

7.65.27 Severed arms, still grasping bows, still in their finger-guards, still gripping swords, still wearing their armlets and adorned with golden ornaments, were seen upon the field.

7.65.28 With well-fitted frames and platforms, with poles, shafts, and chariot-floors, with wheels crushed and axles and yokes broken in many pieces,

7.65.29 with armor, bows, and arrows scattered here and there, with garlands, ornaments, and garments, and with great banners fallen down,

7.65.30 with elephants and horses slain and warriors struck down, the earth there appeared dreadful to behold.

7.65.31 Thus the army of Duḥśāsana, as it was being slaughtered by the Diademed One, fled away, O great king, sorely shaken, along with its leader.

7.65.32 Then Duḥśāsana, terrified, his force tormented by arrows, longing for Droṇa as his protector, made for the cart-array.

7.66.1 Saṃjaya said: Having struck down the host of Duḥśāsana, Savyasācin Dhanaṃjaya, eager to reach the king of the Sindhus, fell upon Droṇa's array.

7.66.2 Then, coming upon Droṇa stationed at the head of the formation, he folded his hands in salutation and, with Kṛṣṇa's assent, spoke these words:

7.66.3 Think upon me with kindness, O brāhmaṇa, and pronounce your blessing over me. By your grace I wish to penetrate this army that none can break.

7.66.4 You are to me as a father, and as the Dharmarāja as well, and even as Kṛṣṇa himself — this I tell you in truth.

7.66.5 As Aśvatthāman, dear sir, is one to be guarded by you, O sinless one, so too am I ever to be guarded by you, O best of the twice-born.

7.66.6 By your grace I wish to slay the king of the Sindhus in battle, O best of men; uphold my vow, O mighty one.

7.66.7 Thus addressed, the preceptor answered, as if smiling: "Without first conquering me, O Bībhatsu, Jayadratha cannot be conquered."

7.66.8 Having said only this much, Droṇa, laughing, covered him over with floods of sharp arrows — together with his chariot, horses, banner, and charioteer.

7.66.9 Then Arjuna, warding off Droṇa's floods of arrows with his own shafts, assailed Droṇa with arrows of dreadful form and greater might.

7.66.10 And in the battle, O lord of peoples, having first sought his leave and abiding by the law of the warrior, he pierced Droṇa again with nine shafts.

7.66.11 Cutting down his arrows with arrows of his own, Droṇa pierced them both — Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍava — with shafts that blazed like poison and fire.

7.66.12 The Pāṇḍava sought to sever Droṇa's bow with his arrows; but while the great-souled Phalguna was still pondering thus, the valiant Droṇa, unflustered, swiftly cut the bowstring with his shafts.

7.66.13 And he pierced his horses, his banner, and his charioteer too, and, smiling, the hero covered Arjuna over with his shafts.

7.66.14 In that interval Pārtha, stringing his great bow afresh and bent on surpassing the preceptor, foremost of all who know the weapons, loosed six hundred arrows swiftly, as though he had taken but one.

7.66.15 Again he hurled seven hundred more, and a thousand unswerving shafts, and others by tens of thousands; and they slew that host of Droṇa's.

7.66.16 By those well-aimed weapons of that strong, skilled, and many-wiled fighter, men, horses, and elephants, pierced through, fell down with their lives gone.

7.66.17 And the chariot-warriors, their weapons and their lives cut short, fell scattered in the battle from their foremost cars, their horses with them, tormented by his arrows.

7.66.18 Like things pulverized, hurled down, and burnt by the thunderbolt, the wind, and the fire, the elephants fell, resembling the cloud-wreathed mansions upon mountain peaks.

7.66.19 Thousands of horses fell, struck down by Arjuna's arrows, like geese upon the ridge of Himavat beaten down by rain.

7.66.20 The floods of chariots, horses, elephants, and foot-soldiers, wondrous as floods of water, were slain by the Pāṇḍava's arrows that shone like the sun's rays at the end of an age.

7.66.21 That net of arrow-beams from the Pāṇḍava-sun, scorching the Kuru champions in the fight, the cloud that was Droṇa veiled over with the rush of its arrow-showers, as a cloud veils the rays of the sun.

7.66.22 Then with an iron shaft loosed with surpassing force, a feeder upon the lives of foes, Droṇa struck Dhanaṃjaya upon the breast.

7.66.23 His whole frame shaken, like a mountain in an earthquake, Bībhatsu, taking hold of his steadiness, pierced Droṇa with feathered shafts.

7.66.24 But Droṇa struck Vāsudeva with five arrows, and Arjuna with seventy-three, and his banner with three shafts.

7.66.25 And bent on outdoing his pupil, the valiant Droṇa, O king, made Arjuna invisible in the twinkling of an eye with showers of arrows.

7.66.26 We saw the shafts of Bhāradvāja falling in unbroken streams, and his bow, bent into a perfect circle, was a wondrous sight to behold.

7.66.27 They sped toward Vāsudeva and Dhanaṃjaya in the battle, O king — those very many shafts loosed by Droṇa, fledged with heron feathers.

7.66.28 Seeing such a combat then between Droṇa and the Pāṇḍava, Vāsudeva of great wisdom bethought himself of what must be done.

7.66.29 Then Vāsudeva spoke this word to Dhanaṃjaya: "Pārtha, Pārtha, O mighty-armed, let no waste of our time befall us.

7.66.30 Leaving Droṇa aside, let us go on; the task before us is far greater." And Pārtha too said to Kṛṣṇa, "As you wish, O Keśava."

7.66.31 Then the mighty-armed one, having circled Droṇa to the right, went on; and Bībhatsu, wheeling about, advanced, loosing his arrows.

7.66.32 Then Droṇa said, smiling: "Whither do you go, O Pāṇḍava? Surely you do not turn back without first conquering your foe in battle?"

7.66.33 Arjuna said: You are my teacher, not my foe; I am your pupil, like a son to you. Nor is there any man in this world who could vanquish you in battle.

7.66.34 Saṃjaya said: Speaking thus, Bībhatsu, eager for the slaying of Jayadratha, the mighty-armed one, in haste fell upon that host.

7.66.35 As he entered your forces, the two Pāñcāla guardians of his chariot-wheels, the great-souled Yudhāmanyu and Uttamaujas, followed close behind him.

7.66.36 Then, O great king, Jaya and Kṛtavarman of the Sāttvatas, and the Kāmboja, and Śrutāyus, withstood Dhanaṃjaya.

7.66.37 In their following were ten thousand chariot-warriors — the Abhīṣāhas, the Śūrasenas, the Śibis, and the Vasātis,

7.66.38 the Mācellakas and the Lalitthas, the Kekayas and the Madrakas, the Nārāyaṇa cowherds, and those clans that are the Kāmbojas' —

7.66.39 all conquered before by Karṇa, honored as heroes in battle — placing Bhāradvāja at their head and casting away their lives, they advanced against Arjuna.

7.66.40 Burning with grief for his son, wrathful as death the all-ender, ready to lay down his life in the tumult, armored, a fighter of many wiles,

7.66.41 plunging through the ranks like the lord of an elephant herd, the great archer of surpassing valor, that tiger among men — him they withstood.

7.66.42 Then there arose a tumultuous battle that made the hair stand on end, between those warriors and Arjuna, each striving against the other.

7.66.43 As that bull among men came on, longing to slay Jayadratha, they together held him back, as remedies hold back a risen disease.

7.67.1 Saṃjaya said: Though held back by them, Pārtha of mighty strength and valor, foremost of chariot-warriors, was also pursued in haste by Droṇa.

7.67.2 Scattering volleys of sharp arrows, as the sun scatters its own rays, he tormented that host as a host of diseases torments the body.

7.67.3 Horses were pierced, banners cut down, elephants with their riders fell, parasols were struck away, and chariots were left without their wheels.

7.67.4 The armies, afflicted by arrows, fled in all directions; so tumultuous was the battle that nothing whatever could be made out.

7.67.5 As they strove against one another in the battle with straight-flying shafts, Arjuna, O king, made the banner-bearing host tremble again and again.

7.67.6 Seeking to make his vow come true, true to his pledges, the white-steeded one rushed upon that foremost chariot-warrior whose horses were red.

7.67.7 Droṇa the preceptor assailed that great archer, his own pupil, with twenty-five straight-flying shafts that pierced the vital parts.

7.67.8 Swiftly Bībhatsu, foremost of all bearers of weapons, charged him, hurling arrows that broke the force of his arrows.

7.67.9 As he swiftly cast his broad-headed shafts, the immeasurable one struck them back with broad-headed shafts of smooth joints, invoking the Brahmā weapon.

7.67.10 We beheld that wondrous mastery of Droṇa in the fight — that though the youthful Arjuna strove, he could not strike him back.

7.67.11 As a great cloud pours down its streams of water by the thousand, so the cloud that was Droṇa rained showers of arrows upon the mountain that was Pārtha.

7.67.12 That rain of arrows, O sire, the radiant Arjuna received with the Brahmā weapon itself, scattering arrows with arrows.

7.67.13 But Droṇa afflicted the white-steeded one with twenty-five swift shafts, and Vāsudeva with seventy, upon the arms and the breast.

7.67.14 But the wise Pārtha, laughing, warded off the preceptor in battle as he poured forth floods of arrows, loosing his sharp shafts.

7.67.15 Then those two foremost of chariot-warriors, sore beset by Droṇa, turned aside the unassailable one, who had risen like the fire at the end of an age.

7.67.16 Avoiding the sharp arrows that issued from Droṇa's bow, the diademed and garlanded son of Kuntī struck down the army of the Bhoja.

7.67.17 Avoiding Droṇa as one avoids the Maināka mountain, he advanced between Kṛtavarman and the Kāmboja Sudakṣiṇa.

7.67.18 Then the Bhoja Duḥsaha, O best of the Kurus, unperturbed, swiftly pierced that tiger among men with ten heron-feathered shafts.

7.67.19 Arjuna pierced him in the fight, O king, with a sharp feathered shaft, and again with three other arrows, as if to bewilder the Sātvata.

7.67.20 But the Bhoja, laughing, planted twenty-five shafts in each — in Pārtha and in Mādhava, that is, Vāsudeva.

7.67.21 Cutting his bow, Arjuna pierced him with twenty-one arrows shaped like tongues of fire, like enraged venomous serpents.

7.67.22 Then, taking up another bow, the great chariot-warrior Kṛtavarman swiftly pierced him in the breast with five shafts, O Bhārata.

7.67.23 And again he pierced Pārtha with five sharp arrows; whereupon Pārtha struck him between the breasts with nine arrows.

7.67.24 Seeing the son of Kuntī held fast against Kṛtavarman's chariot, the Vārṣṇeya reflected: "Let there be no waste of our time."

7.67.25 Then Kṛṣṇa said to Pārtha: "Show no mercy to Kṛtavarman on the score of kinship with the Kurus; crush and scatter him."

7.67.26 Then Arjuna, having bewildered Kṛtavarman with his arrows, advanced with his swift horses upon the army of the Kāmbojas.

7.67.27 But the son of Hṛdika, indignant once the white-steeded one had passed within, brandishing his bow with arrow fitted, closed with the two Pāñcālas.

7.67.28 As the two Pāñcāla guardians of Arjuna's wheels, who followed in his track, came on, Kṛtavarman hemmed them in with his chariot-arrows.

7.67.29 Then the Bhoja pierced them both with arrows wholly of iron — Yudhāmanyu with three, and Uttamaujas with four.

7.67.30 They too pierced him, each with ten arrows, and they cut asunder both his banner and his bow.

7.67.31 Then the son of Hṛdika, taking up another bow, swooning with rage, having stripped the two heroes of their bows, covered them over with showers of arrows.

7.67.32 They, taking up two other strung bows, smote the Bhoja; and in that interval Bībhatsu entered the army of his foes.

7.67.33 But those two bulls among men, held back by Kṛtavarman, won no opening, though they strove, into the ranks of the Dhārtarāṣṭras.

7.67.34 Afflicting the ranks in the battle, the white-steeded slayer of foes, in his haste, did not slay Kṛtavarman, though he had him within reach.

7.67.35 Seeing him coming on thus, the heroic king Śrutāyudha, greatly enraged, rushed at him, brandishing his great bow.

7.67.36 He struck Pārtha with three shafts and Janārdana with seventy, and with a keen razor-edged arrow he hit Pārtha's banner.

7.67.37 Then Arjuna, exceedingly wrathful, struck him with ninety smooth-jointed arrows, as one goads a great elephant with hooks.

7.67.38 He could not brook that prowess of the Pāṇḍava, O king, and so he planted seventy-seven iron shafts in him.

7.67.39 Cutting his bow and severing his quiver, the wrathful Arjuna struck him upon the breast with seven smooth-jointed arrows.

7.67.40 Then, taking up another bow, that king, beside himself with rage, struck the son of Vāsava with nine arrows in the arms and in the breast.

7.67.41 Then Arjuna, tamer of foes, smiling all the while, harried Śrutāyudha with many thousands of arrows, O Bhārata.

7.67.42 Swiftly the great chariot-warrior slew his horses and his charioteer, and that mighty one pierced him with seventy iron shafts.

7.67.43 Abandoning his chariot, its horses slain, that valiant king Śrutāyudha rushed upon Pārtha in battle, lifting high his mace.

7.67.44 That heroic king Śrutāyudha was the son of Varuṇa, and his mother was Parṇāśā, the great river of cool waters.

7.67.45 For her son's sake his mother once spoke these words to Varuṇa: 'May this son of mine become unslayable by his enemies in the world.'

7.67.46 And Varuṇa, well pleased, replied: 'I grant him a boon for his welfare—a divine weapon, by which this son of yours shall be unslayable.'

7.67.47 'Yet immortality is in no wise possible for a mortal; whoever is born, O best of rivers, must of necessity die.'

7.67.48 'But through the power of this weapon he shall always be unassailable by his foes in battle; let the fever of your heart depart.'

7.67.49 So saying, Varuṇa bestowed a mace consecrated with sacred spells, by gaining which Śrutāyudha became unassailable in all the world.

7.67.50 And the lord of the waters spoke to him once more: 'It must not be loosed against one who does not fight; else it shall fall back upon you yourself.'

7.67.51 With that hero-slaying mace he smote Janārdana; but the valiant Kṛṣṇa received it upon his broad shoulder.

7.67.52 It did not shake the scion of Śūra, as the wind cannot shake the Vindhya mountain; flung back, it returned upon its own caster like an ill-conjured spell of witchcraft.

7.67.53 It struck down the wrathful hero Śrutāyudha as he stood there; and having slain the hero Śrutāyudha, it fell to the earth.

7.67.54 A great cry of dismay rose up among the troops there, when they saw Śrutāyudha, that tamer of foes, slain by his own weapon.

7.67.55 For it had been hurled by Śrutāyudha at Keśava, who was not then fighting, O lord of men; and therefore the mace slew him.

7.67.56 Even as Varuṇa had foretold, so did he meet his death in battle; and lifeless he fell to the ground before the eyes of all the bowmen.

7.67.57 As he fell, that dear son of Parṇāśā shone like a many-branched forest tree shattered by the wind.

7.67.58 Then all the troops, and the leaders of the host on every side, took to flight when they saw Śrutāyudha, tamer of foes, slain.

7.67.59 Then the brave Sudakṣiṇa, son of the king of the Kāmbojas, advanced with swift horses against Phalguna, slayer of foes.

7.67.60 Pārtha loosed seven arrows at him, O Bhārata; piercing through that hero, they sank into the surface of the earth.

7.67.61 Sorely wounded in the fray by the sharp shafts sped from the Gāṇḍīva, he pierced Arjuna in return with ten heron-feathered arrows.

7.67.62 Having pierced Vāsudeva with three shafts and Pārtha again with five, Pārtha then cut apart his bow and severed his banner, O sire.

7.67.63 The Pāṇḍava pierced him with two exceedingly keen broad-headed shafts; but he, having struck Pārtha with three, sent forth a lion's roar.

7.67.64 And the brave Sudakṣiṇa, in his wrath, hurled at the wielder of the Gāṇḍīva a dreadful all-iron lance hung with bells.

7.67.65 Blazing like a great meteor, scattering sparks, it reached that mighty chariot-warrior, pierced through, and fell upon the earth.

7.67.66 With fourteen heron-feathered iron shafts Pārtha of inconceivable prowess pierced him together with his horses, banner, bow, and charioteer, and with many other arrows shattered his chariot to pieces.

7.67.67 Then the Pāṇḍava pierced through the heart of Sudakṣiṇa the Kāmboja—his resolve and prowess now brought to naught—with a broad-bladed arrow.

7.67.68 His vital parts pierced, his limbs gone slack, his crown and armlets fallen away, that hero pitched forward like a banner released from its pole.

7.67.69 He was like a lovely karṇikāra tree, fair-branched and firmly rooted, born upon a mountain summit, broken down by the wind at winter's end.

7.67.70 Slain, he lay upon the bare ground—he who had been used to Kāmboja coverlets—fair to look upon, copper-eyed: that Sudakṣiṇa, son of the king of the Kāmbojas, struck down by Pārtha with a barbed shaft.

7.67.71 Then all the troops of your son took to flight, seeing Śrutāyudha slain and Sudakṣiṇa the Kāmboja as well.

7.68.1 Saṃjaya said: When Sudakṣiṇa was slain, O king, and the hero Śrutāyudha as well, your soldiers in fury rushed swiftly upon Pārtha.

7.68.2 The Abhīṣāhas, the Śūrasenas, the Śibis, and the Vasātis then rained showers of arrows upon Dhanaṃjaya, O king.

7.68.3 The Pāṇḍava crushed six thousand of those noble warriors with his arrows, and in terror they fled, like small deer before a tiger.

7.68.4 Turning back again, they hemmed Pārtha in on every side as he slew his adversaries in the fray and sought to conquer his foes in battle.

7.68.5 As they swiftly bore down upon him, Dhanaṃjaya struck off their heads and their arms with arrows sped from the Gāṇḍīva.

7.68.6 The ground there was packed close with fallen heads, and the battlefield grew dark, as if shadowed by clouds, with crows, vultures, and kites.

7.68.7 While they were being cut down, Śrutāyu and Acyutāyu, filled with wrath and indignation, fought against Dhanaṃjaya.

7.68.8 Those two heroes, strong, emulous, nobly born, and mighty of arm, poured showers of arrows upon him from the left and from the right.

7.68.9 Both swift, O great king, both seeking great renown and bent on Arjuna's slaying, those two bowmen fought for your son's sake.

7.68.10 In their wrath the two of them covered Arjuna with a thousand smooth-jointed feathered shafts, as rain-clouds fill a tank with water.

7.68.11 Then the wrathful Śrutāyu, foremost of chariot-warriors, struck Dhanaṃjaya with a sharp, gold-burnished lance.

7.68.12 Sorely wounded by his mighty foe, that scourge of his enemies sank into a deep swoon, dismaying Keśava in the battle.

7.68.13 At that very moment the great chariot-warrior Acyutāyu smote the Pāṇḍava with an exceedingly sharp spear.

7.68.14 He thus rubbed salt into the wound of the high-souled Pāṇḍava; and Pārtha, grievously stricken, leaned upon his banner-staff.

7.68.15 Then from all your host, O lord of peoples, there rose a great lion's roar, for they thought Dhanaṃjaya slain.

7.68.16 And Kṛṣṇa, sore distressed to see Pārtha senseless, comforted Dhanaṃjaya there with kindly, heartening words.

7.68.17 Then those two foremost of chariot-warriors, finding their mark, beset Dhanaṃjaya and Vāsudeva of the Vṛṣṇis with showers of arrows on every side.

7.68.18 They made the chariot, with its wheels and yoke-pole, its horses, banner, and pennon, invisible in the fray—a thing that seemed a marvel.

7.68.19 But Bībhatsu, recovering little by little, O Bhārata, was as one who had reached the city of the king of the dead and come back again.

7.68.20 Seeing his chariot, with Keśava upon it, shrouded in a net of arrows, and seeing his two foes confronting him, blazing like fires,

7.68.21 the great chariot-warrior Pārtha then brought forth the weapon of Indra, and from it came thousands of smooth-jointed arrows.

7.68.22 These struck down both those great archers, and the shafts loosed by the two of them, riven by Pārtha's arrows, scattered through the sky.

7.68.23 Having swiftly beaten back their arrows by the speed of his own, the Pāṇḍava pressed on here and there, doing battle with the great chariot-warriors.

7.68.24 And those two, their arms and heads shorn away by the floods of Phalguna's arrows, sank to the earth like trees felled by the wind.

7.68.25 The death of Śrutāyu and the slaying of Acyutāyu astonished the world, like the drying up of the ocean.

7.68.26 Having slain their followers, and five hundred chariots besides, Pārtha advanced upon the Bhārata host, striking down the noblest of the noble.

7.68.27 Beholding Śrutāyu slain and Acyutāyu likewise, Ayutāyu and Dīrghāyu were filled with wrath, O Bhārata—

7.68.28 the two sons of those slain heroes, best of men, advanced against the son of Kuntī, pouring forth arrows of every kind, sore stricken by their fathers' fall.

7.68.29 In an instant Arjuna, in his utmost wrath, dispatched the two of them with smooth-jointed arrows to the abode of Yama.

7.68.30 As he churned the hostile ranks like an elephant churning a lotus-pool, the bull-like warriors could not check Pārtha.

7.68.31 But the Aṅgas, wrathful and crested with plumes, hemmed in the Pāṇḍava with a host of elephants, by thousands, O king—those riders of elephants.

7.68.32 At Duryodhana's command came the kings of the East and the South, with the Kaliṅgas at their head, mounted on elephants like mountains.

7.68.33 As they swiftly bore down upon him, with arrows sped from the Gāṇḍīva he fiercely lopped off their heads and their well-adorned arms.

7.68.34 The earth, strewn with those heads and with arms still wearing their armlets, gleamed like a field of golden boulders overspread with serpents.

7.68.35 Arms cut off by his shafts, and heads struck away, were seen falling like birds tumbling down from trees.

7.68.36 The elephants, pierced by arrows in their thousands and streaming blood, looked like mountains in the rainy season pouring down red ochre-tinged water.

7.68.37 Others lay slain by Bībhatsu's keen shafts—barbarians mounted upon the elephants' backs, of strange and misshapen aspect.

7.68.38 In varied garb, O king, surrounded by floods of varied weapons, their limbs smeared with blood, they shone—slain by his many-hued arrows.

7.68.39 The elephants, struck by Pārtha's arrows, vomited forth blood by the thousand, their bodies torn, together with their riders and their attendants.

7.68.40 They shrieked and fell, while others wandered off in every direction; and greatly terrified, the maddened elephants, like sharp venom themselves, with the fighters mounted upon them, in their panic crushed many of their own by their trampling rush.

7.68.41 Those most dreadful, grim-eyed ones who know the wizardry of the Asuras—the Yavanas, the Pāradas, the Śakas together with the Sunikas,

7.68.42 the barbarians sprung of cattle, smiters fierce as Death himself, the Dārvābhisāras, the Daradas, and the Puṇḍras together with the Bāhlīkas—

7.68.43 those throngs, in their hundreds of thousands, could not be numbered; and such was the storm of their shafts, like an onrush of locusts.

7.68.44 Casting over the host with his arrows a shadow as of clouds, Dhanaṃjaya, by the magic of his weapons, cut down all those barbarians gathered there—the shaven, the half-shaven, the matted-haired, the unclean, the shaggy-faced.

7.68.45 Pierced by arrows in their hundreds, those bands that moved in bands fled in terror from the field—dwellers of mountain caverns.

7.68.46 From the elephants, horses, riders, and barbarians fallen by his hundreds of arrows, the kites, the herons, and the wolves drank the blood upon the ground with joy.

7.68.47 With footmen, horses, chariots, and elephants for its hidden fords, with showers of arrows for its rafts, dreadful, its weeds and grasses the hair of the slain, he set flowing a terrible river that surged with tides of blood.

7.68.48 With helmets for its little fish, gathered up by Time as at the end of an age, choked with elephants, he made a river overflowing with blood—drawn from the bodies of princes and of the riders of elephants, horses, and chariots.

7.68.49 As when Vāsava pours down rain no place stays high or low, so was the whole earth then made level, flooded over with blood.

7.68.50 That bull among warriors dispatched to the realm of death six thousand chosen heroes and yet another thousand choice warriors, all of them kṣatriyas.

7.68.51 Elephants pierced by arrows in their thousands, caparisoned in due order, sank to the ground and lay there like mountains struck down by the thunderbolt.

7.68.52 Slaying horses, chariots, and elephants, Arjuna ranged across the field like a rutting elephant trampling down a thicket of reeds.

7.68.53 As fire fanned by the wind burns down a forest dense with trees, creepers, and thickets, heaped with dry fuel, grass, and brushwood,

7.68.54 so did Dhanaṃjaya, the Pāṇḍava-fire, fanned by the wind that was Kṛṣṇa, with arrows for his flames, burn down in fury the forest of your army.

7.68.55 Emptying the chariot-seats and strewing the earth with men, Dhanaṃjaya, bow in hand, seemed almost to dance amid the press.

7.68.56 Making the earth flow over with blood by his thunderbolt-like shafts, the enraged Dhanaṃjaya plunged into the Bhārata host; but Śrutāyus and the Ambaṣṭha chief checked him as he advanced.

7.68.57 With sharp shafts fledged with heron feathers, O honored one, Arjuna swiftly brought down the horses of that struggling foe; and Pārtha, having sheared his bow apart with other arrows, pressed onward.

7.68.58 But the Ambaṣṭha chief, seizing his mace, his eyes clouded with wrath, fell upon Pārtha in battle and upon Keśava, that great chariot-warrior.

7.68.59 Then that hero, laughing aloud, O Bhārata, raised his mace and, blocking the chariot, smote Keśava with it.

7.68.60 Seeing Keśava struck by the mace, Arjuna, slayer of hostile heroes, blazed into utter fury against the Ambaṣṭha chief, O Bhārata.

7.68.61 Then with golden-shafted arrows he covered that best of chariot-warriors, mace and all, even as a cloud veils the risen sun in battle.

7.68.62 Then with still other arrows Pārtha smashed to powder the mace of that great-souled warrior; and the deed seemed a marvel.

7.68.63 Then, seeing that mace fallen, he caught up another mighty mace and struck again and again at Arjuna and Vāsudeva.

7.68.64 With two razor-edged arrows Arjuna severed both his upraised arms—shaped like Indra's banner—that still held the mace, and with a third feathered shaft his head.

7.68.65 Slain, he fell, O king, making the earth resound, like Indra's banner-pole let go when the fastenings of its mechanism are loosed.

7.68.66 Plunged deep within the chariot-ranks and ringed by hundreds of elephants and horses, Pārtha then appeared like the sun shrouded by clouds.

7.69.1 Saṃjaya said: Then, when the son of Kuntī had broken through Droṇa's division and the well-nigh impassable division of the Bhojas, bent on slaying the king of the Sindhus,

7.69.2 and when, O king, Sudakṣiṇa, heir of the Kāmboja, had been slain, and the valiant Śrutāyudha laid low by Savyasācin,

7.69.3 with the troops fleeing apart and shattered on every side, your son, seeing his own host broken, went up to Droṇa.

7.69.4 Hastening up on a single chariot, he came to Droṇa and said: "That tiger among men has passed through, after crushing this great army of ours."

7.69.5 "Consider now with your wisdom what must next be done to thwart Arjuna in this dreadful slaughter of men."

7.69.6 "Contrive it so that Jayadratha, that tiger among men, be not slain—blessings upon you—for you are our highest refuge."

7.69.7 "Yonder Dhanaṃjaya-fire, driven by the wind of his wrath, burns the dry brush of my army, like a blaze risen amid the thicket."

7.69.8 "For now that the son of Kuntī has burst through the army and passed beyond, O scorcher of foes, the guardians of Jayadratha have fallen into the gravest doubt."

7.69.9 "Firm had been the conviction of the lords of men, O best of the knowers of Brahman, that Dhanaṃjaya could never while living pass beyond Droṇa."

7.69.10 "Yet that Pārtha has passed through before your very eyes, O resplendent one; all this host I now reckon stricken—it is no longer an army of mine."

7.69.11 "I know you, O greatly blessed one, to be devoted to the welfare of the Pāṇḍavas; and so I am bewildered, O Brahman, when I ponder what is to be done."

7.69.12 "To the best of my power, O Brahman, I provide for your every want and please you as I am able; yet this you do not heed."

7.69.13 "Though we are ever devoted to you, O you of measureless prowess, you do not wish us well; you forever favor the Pāṇḍavas, who delight in our undoing."

7.69.14 "Living off us, you yet take pleasure in what harms us; I had not understood you to be like a razor smeared with honey."

7.69.15 "Had you not granted me a boon for the curbing of the Pāṇḍavas, I would never have stopped the lord of the Sindhus when he was going home."

7.69.16 "But I, in my folly, hoping for protection from you, reassured the lord of the Sindhus, and so, deluded, have delivered him over to death."

7.69.17 "A man caught between the fangs of Yama might yet escape; but Jayadratha, fallen into Arjuna's power, will never escape from the battle."

7.69.18 "So act, O you of the red steeds, that the Saindhava be saved; and be not angered at the laments of one in anguish—save the Saindhava."

7.69.19 Droṇa said: I take no offense at your words; to me you are as Aśvatthāman. But I shall tell you the truth—accept it, O lord of peoples.

7.69.20 Kṛṣṇa is a peerless charioteer, and his fine horses are swift; making but a small opening, Dhanaṃjaya passes through in an instant.

7.69.21 Do you not see the floods of Kirīṭin's arrows, loosed as he speeds swiftly on, falling fully a krośa behind his chariot?

7.69.22 And I, weighed down with years, am no longer fit for swift pursuit today; moreover, this force of the Pārthas stands here at the army's front.

7.69.23 And Yudhiṣṭhira is to be seized by me before the eyes of all the bowmen—thus have I vowed amid the kṣatriyas, O mighty-armed one.

7.69.24 Left behind by Dhanaṃjaya, he now stands before me; therefore I will not abandon the front of the array to go after Phalguna.

7.69.25 Go yourself, with comrades at your side, and fight that single foe, your equal in birth and in deeds; have no fear—you are the lord of this world.

7.69.26 You are a king, brave, accomplished, and skilled, and have stirred up enmity with the Pāṇḍavas; go yourself, O hero, swiftly to where Dhanaṃjaya has gone.

7.69.27 Duryodhana said: When Dhanaṃjaya, the best of all who bear arms, has passed even beyond you, how, O teacher, am I able to hold him off?

7.69.28 Puraṃdara, the thunderbolt-wielder himself, might be conquered in battle, but Arjuna, conqueror of hostile cities, cannot be conquered in war.

7.69.29 He by whose blaze of weapons the Bhoja, the son of Hṛdika, and you yourself—a peer of the gods—were vanquished, and Śrutāyus struck down;

7.69.30 by whom Sudakṣiṇa was slain, and King Śrutāyudha, and Śrutāyus and Acyutāyus, and the mlecchas slain in their hundreds—

7.69.31 how shall I fight against that unassailable Pāṇḍava in battle, who consumes so many of his foes? Tell me this, O master of weapons.

7.69.32 If you deem battle with him fitting for me today, then direct me; I am at your bidding, your servant—guard my honor.

7.69.33 Droṇa said: You speak truly, O Kaurava—Dhanaṃjaya is hard to assail. Yet I shall so contrive it that you will be able to withstand him.

7.69.34 Let all the bowmen in the world behold today a marvel: the son of Kuntī held fast in combat with you, while Vāsudeva looks on.

7.69.35 Behold, O king, I bind upon you a golden corselet, so fashioned that neither arrows nor missiles shall prevail against you in battle.

7.69.36 Though the gods with the asuras, with the yakṣas, serpents, and rākṣasas, and the three worlds together with men should war against you, you have nothing to fear.

7.69.37 Neither Kṛṣṇa, nor the son of Kuntī, nor any other bearer of arms in battle shall be able to lodge his shafts in this corselet of yours.

7.69.38 So, donning this corselet, go yourself in haste this day against the wrathful Arjuna in battle, and he shall not withstand you.

7.69.39 Saṃjaya said: Having spoken thus, Droṇa, in haste, touched water and bound on that most wondrous, gleaming corselet, murmuring the sacred formula in due form.

7.69.40 In that vast battle, for your son's victory, that foremost knower of Brahman, wishing to astonish the world with his lore, did so.

7.69.41 Droṇa said: May Brahmā grant you well-being, and the twice-born grant you well-being; and from those that are foremost among creeping things, well-being to you, O Bhārata.

7.69.42 May Yayāti and Nahuṣa, Dhundhumāra and Bhagīratha, and all the royal sages in every way work your well-being.

7.69.43 Well-being be yours from the one-footed and from the many-footed alike, and well-being from the footless ones, ever, in the great battle.

7.69.44 May Svāhā, Svadhā, and Śacī ever work your well-being; may Lakṣmī and Arundhatī make for your well-being, O sinless one.

7.69.45 May Asita and Devala, Viśvāmitra and Aṅgiras, Vasiṣṭha and Kaśyapa work your well-being, O king.

7.69.46 May Dhātṛ, Vidhātṛ, the Lord of the world, and the quarters with their guardians grant you well-being this day, and six-faced Kārttikeya as well.

7.69.47 May the blessed Vivasvān work your well-being in every way, and the four elephants of the quarters, the earth, the sky, the firmament, and the planets.

7.69.48 And he who from below forever upholds the earth, O king—that Śeṣa, foremost of serpents—may he grant you well-being.

7.69.49 O prince of Gāndhāra, of old the noblest of the gods, advancing in battle, were vanquished by the daitya Vṛtra, their bodies torn open in their thousands.

7.69.50 All the dwellers of heaven then, robbed of their splendor and strength, with Indra at their head, took refuge in Brahmā, in terror of Vṛtra, that great asura.

7.69.51 The gods said: To the gods crushed by Vṛtra, O noblest of deities, be a refuge, O best of the gods; save us from this great peril.

7.69.52 Droṇa said: Then to Viṣṇu, who stood at his side, and to Śakra and the other foremost gods—those noblest deities, downcast—Brahmā spoke this true word.

7.69.53 "The gods, with Indra and the twice-born, are ever to be protected by me. Most hard to withstand is the energy of Tvaṣṭṛ, by which Vṛtra was fashioned."

7.69.54 "By Tvaṣṭṛ of old, after he had practiced austerity for a hundred times ten thousand years and gained the leave of Maheśvara, was Vṛtra fashioned, O gods."

7.69.55 "That mighty foe can be slain only by His grace; yet the blessed Hara cannot be beheld without going to Śaṃkara's abode."

7.69.56 "Having beheld Him, you shall slay the foe; go quickly to Mandara, where dwells the source of all austerities, the destroyer of Dakṣa's sacrifice, the bearer of the Pināka, lord of all beings, who struck down Bhaga's eye."

7.69.57 The gods, going together with Brahmā to Mandara, beheld a mass of radiance bright as ten million suns.

7.69.58 He said: "Welcome, O gods; tell me what I am to do. The sight of me is never in vain; let your desire be fulfilled thereby."

7.69.59 Thus addressed, all those dwellers of heaven answered Him: "Our splendor has been carried off by Vṛtra; be the refuge of the dwellers of heaven."

7.69.60 "Behold our bodies, O god, battered to pieces by his blows; we have come to you for refuge—be our recourse, O Maheśvara."

7.69.61 Maheśvara said: I know, O gods, how this conjured being, of vast might and terrible, sprung from the energy of Tvaṣṭṛ, is hard for the unperfected of soul to ward off.

7.69.62 But surely I must render aid to all the dwellers of heaven. Take, O Śakra, this gleaming corselet born of my own body, and bind it on, O lord of the gods, with this mind-born formula.

7.69.63 Droṇa said: Having spoken thus, the boon-giver bestowed that armor together with its sacred spell; and guarded by that armor he went forth against the host of Vṛtra.

7.69.64 Though floods of weapons of every kind were hurled down upon it in the great battle, the seam of that armor's binding could not be sundered.

7.69.65 Then the lord of the gods himself slew Vṛtra in battle, and that armor with its spell-wrought binding he gave to Aṅgiras.

7.69.66 Aṅgiras imparted it to his son Bṛhaspati, knower of the spell; and Bṛhaspati in turn declared it to the wise Agniveśya.

7.69.67 Agniveśya bestowed it upon me, and with it, O best of kings, I now bind on your armor with the spell, this day, for the guarding of your body.

7.69.68 Saṃjaya said: Having spoken thus to your son, Droṇa of mighty splendor, that bull among teachers, softly addressed him with these further words.

7.69.69 With the thread of Brahman I bind on your cuirass, O king, even as Hiraṇyagarbha bound it on Viṣṇu of old in battle.

7.69.70 And as in the war over Tārakā the celestial cuirass of Śakra was bound on by Brahmā, so do I bind on yours.

7.69.71 Having bound on his cuirass with the spell according to rite, the brāhmaṇa sent forth the king to the great combat.

7.69.72 Thus arrayed for war by the great-souled teacher, that mighty-armed one set out, attended by a thousand chariots of the smiting Trigartas,

7.69.73 and by a thousand rut-maddened, valor-flush elephants, by a myriad of horses, and by other great car-warriors as well.

7.69.74 Surrounded thus, the mighty-armed one advanced toward Arjuna's chariot amid the din of many instruments, even as the son of Virocana once marched forth.

7.69.75 Then arose a mighty clamor from your armies, O Bhārata, as they beheld the Kaurava host setting forth, fathomless as the ocean.

7.70.1 Saṃjaya said: When the Pārtha and the Vārṣṇeya had entered the field, O great king, and when Duryodhana, that bull among men, had set out behind them,

7.70.2 the Pāṇḍavas together with the Somakas rushed upon Droṇa with great speed and a mighty roar, and then the battle was joined.

7.70.3 That battle between the Pāñcālas and the Kurus before the array grew terrible, tumultuous, hair-raising, and wondrous to behold.

7.70.4 O king, never had we seen, nor ever heard of, such a battle as raged when the sun stood at midheaven, O lord of peoples.

7.70.5 The Pārthas, led by Dhṛṣṭadyumna, their ranks marshaled and ready to strike, all together overwhelmed Droṇa's host with showers of arrows.

7.70.6 We, placing Droṇa at our head, that best of all who bear arms, rained shafts upon the Pārthas led by the son of Pṛṣata.

7.70.7 Like two great clouds risen up with mingling winds at winter's end, the two hosts shone resplendent at the van, gleaming and adorned with chariots.

7.70.8 Meeting, the two great armies wrought a surpassing onrush, like the rivers Gaṅgā and Yamunā in the rains, swollen with turbulent waters.

7.70.9 With manifold weapons for its forward gale, thronged with elephants, horses, and chariots, its lightning the maces, terrible and vast, rose the great storm-cloud of battle.

7.70.10 Driven up by the wind that was the son of Bharadvāja, bearing a thousand torrents of arrows, that most terrible cloud rained down upon the surging fire of the Pāṇḍava host.

7.70.11 As a dread great wind blowing at the close of the hot season churns the sea, so did that best of brāhmaṇas throw the ranks of the Pāṇḍavas into turmoil.

7.70.12 They too, with every effort, charged straight at Droṇa, like mighty floods of water seeking to breach a great dam.

7.70.13 But Droṇa held them back, as a mountain holds back the floodwaters—the wrathful Pāṇḍavas in battle, and the Pāñcālas with the Kekayas.

7.70.14 Then other kings as well, wheeling about on every side—mighty and heroic in battle—turned to check the Pāñcālas.

7.70.15 Then in the battle that tiger among men, the son of Pṛṣata, together with the Pāṇḍavas, struck again and again at Droṇa, seeking to breach the enemy's host.

7.70.16 Even as Droṇa rained showers of arrows upon the son of Pṛṣata, so did Dhṛṣṭadyumna rain showers of arrows in return.

7.70.17 With swords for its forward gale, thronged with spears, darts, and lances, the bowstring its lightning and the twang of bows its thunder, rose the storm-cloud that was Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.70.18 He loosed torrents of arrows like a hail of stones in every direction, and striking down floods of chariots, horses, and the best of warriors, he covered the host.

7.70.19 Whatever band of Pāṇḍava chariots Droṇa assailed with his shafts, from that very place the son of Pṛṣata drew Droṇa off with his arrows.

7.70.20 But while Droṇa strove thus in the fight, O Bhārata, his army, on encountering Dhṛṣṭadyumna, was split into three.

7.70.21 Some turned toward the Bhoja, others toward Jalasaṃdha, while still others, smitten by the Pāṇḍavas, fled straight to Droṇa.

7.70.22 And whatever ranks Droṇa, that best of car-warriors, mustered together, those Dhṛṣṭadyumna, the great car-warrior, scattered apart.

7.70.23 The sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, broken into three, were slain by the Pāṇḍavas and Sṛñjayas, like cattle without a herdsman in the forest set upon by many beasts of prey.

7.70.24 "Time itself is devouring the warriors, bewildered by Dhṛṣṭadyumna in that tumultuous battle"—so did men believe.

7.70.25 As the realm of a wicked king is harried by famine, sickness, and thieves, so was your host beset and driven into ruin by the Pāṇḍavas.

7.70.26 As the sun's rays broke and flashed upon the weapons and the cuirasses, the eyes of the soldiers were dazzled and struck blind by that glare and by the dust.

7.70.27 When his armies, split in three, were being slaughtered by the Pāṇḍavas, Droṇa, unable to bear it, then scattered the Pāñcālas with his shafts.

7.70.28 As he crushed those ranks and struck them down with his arrows, the form of Droṇa became like the blazing fire of doomsday.

7.70.29 Chariot and elephant and horse, and the foot-soldiers too, O lord of peoples—each one the great car-warrior pierced through with a single arrow in the fray.

7.70.30 Among the armies of the Pāṇḍavas there was not one, O Bhārata, who could withstand in battle the keen arrows loosed from Droṇa's bow.

7.70.31 Scorched by the sun and seared by Droṇa's shafts, the host of the son of Pṛṣata reeled and wandered here and there, O Bhārata.

7.70.32 And so too your force, harried by the son of Pṛṣata, blazed up on every side, like a dry forest set ablaze by fire.

7.70.33 As the armies were cut down by the shafts of Droṇa and of the son of Pṛṣata, the soldiers, abandoning all thought of their lives, fought on with the utmost of their strength.

7.70.34 Among your men and the foe alike as they fought, O bull of the Bhāratas, there was not one, great king, who forsook the battle out of fear.

7.70.35 Bhīmasena, the son of Kuntī, his own brothers hemmed in—Viviṃśati, Citrasena, and Vikarṇa the great car-warrior,

7.70.36 Vinda and Anuvinda of Avanti, and the valiant Kṣemadhūrti—these three came as followers of those three sons of yours.

7.70.37 The splendid king of the Bāhlīkas, nobly born and a great car-warrior, with his army and his counselors, held back the sons of Draupadī.

7.70.38 Govāsana, the Śaibya king, with no fewer than a thousand warriors, held back the valiant son of Abhibhū, the king of Kāśi.

7.70.39 Ajātaśatru, the son of Kuntī, blazing like fire—him, the king, did Śalya, lord of the Madras, hold in check.

7.70.40 But the unforbearing Duḥśāsana, having set his own division in array, advanced in wrath against Sātyaki, that hero and best of car-warriors, in the fight.

7.70.41 I myself, with my own division, clad in fastened mail, with four hundred mighty archers, held Cekitāna in check.

7.70.42 And Śakuni with his division held back the son of Mādrī, with seven hundred Gāndhārakas armed with bows, darts, arrows, and swords.

7.70.43 Vinda and Anuvinda of Avanti assailed Virāṭa of the Matsyas; those two great archers, ready to lay down their lives, rose up in battle for their friend's sake.

7.70.44 Śikhaṇḍin, the son of Yajñasena, unconquered and pressing forward to bar the way—him the valiant did Bāhlika, fully arrayed, hold in check.

7.70.45 And Dhṛṣṭadyumna the Pāñcāla, together with the fierce Prabhadrakas—him, raging in form, the king of Avanti with the Sauvīras held back.

7.70.46 The heroic Ghaṭotkaca, that rākṣasa and cruel fighter, advancing in wrath upon the field—Alāyudha swiftly rushed against him.

7.70.47 Alambusa, that lord of rākṣasas, raging in form—Kuntibhoja, the great car-warrior, joined by a mighty host, held in check.

7.70.48 The lord of the Sindhus stood at the rear of the whole army, O Bhārata, guarded by supreme archers, by Kṛpa and the other car-warriors.

7.70.49 Two mightiest guardians of his wheels had the lord of the Sindhus: the son of Droṇa on his right, O king, and the son of the sūta on his left.

7.70.50 And as guardians of his rear there were, led by the son of Somadatta, Kṛpa and Vṛṣasena, Śala and the unconquerable Śalya.

7.70.51 Wise in policy, mighty archers, all skilled in war—having thus arranged the protection of the lord of the Sindhus, they did battle then.

7.71.1 Saṃjaya said: O king, hear of the wondrous battle as I recount it—how the combat of the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas came to pass.

7.71.2 Coming upon the son of Bharadvāja stationed at the front of the array, the Pārthas fought him in battle, seeking to breach Droṇa's division.

7.71.3 Guarding their own array, the soldiers of Droṇa likewise fought the Pārthas in battle, longing for great renown.

7.71.4 Vinda and Anuvinda of Avanti struck Virāṭa with ten arrows, those two well-roused and seeking the welfare of your sons.

7.71.5 And Virāṭa, O great king, sallying forth in valor, gave battle to those two valiant ones stationed in the fray, together with their followers.

7.71.6 Their battle grew terrible, its waters running with blood, like the strife of a lion with two rut-streaming chief elephants in the forest.

7.71.7 Bāhlika, furious in the fight, the mighty son of Yajñasena struck with sharp, dreadful, barbless shafts that cleave the vitals and the bone.

7.71.8 And Bāhlika, sorely enraged, smote the son of Yajñasena hard with nine gold-shafted, stone-whetted arrows with bent knots.

7.71.9 That battle grew terrible, thick with arrows and spears, breeding terror in the timid and swelling the joy of the brave.

7.71.10 By the arrows loosed from those two, the sky and the quarters there were all so covered over that nothing whatever could be discerned.

7.71.11 Govāsana the Śaibya, with his host, gave battle to the great car-warrior, the son of Kāśi, as one elephant fights against another.

7.71.12 The king of the Bāhlīkas, enraged, fighting the great car-warriors who were the sons of Draupadī in the battle, shone like the mind contending with the five senses.

7.71.13 And they fought him fiercely with floods of arrows on every side, even as the objects of sense forever assail the body, O best of the embodied.

7.71.14 Sātyaki of the Vṛṣṇis your son Duḥśāsana struck in the fight with nine sharp arrows with bent knots.

7.71.15 Sorely pierced by that strong, mighty archer and bowman, Sātyaki of true valor swiftly sank into a faint for a while.

7.71.16 But the Vārṣṇeya, recovering himself, swiftly pierced your son, that great car-warrior, with ten heron-feathered arrows.

7.71.17 Each having pierced the other deeply, each gashed by the other's shafts, the two of them shone in the battle, O king, like two kiṃśuka trees in full bloom.

7.71.18 But Alambusa, enraged and tormented by Kuntibhoja's arrows, gleamed with surpassing splendor, like a kiṃśuka rich with blossoms.

7.71.19 Then that demon, having pierced Kuntibhoja with many iron shafts, roared a fearsome roar at the head of your army.

7.71.20 Then all beings beheld those two heroes contending against each other in the battle, as once they beheld Śakra and Jambha of old.

7.71.21 And the two sons of Mādrī, furious in the fray, O Bhārata, tormented with their arrows the impetuous Śakuni, who had wrought enmity against them.

7.71.22 From that source, O great king, arose this destruction of men—begotten in full measure by you, and swollen yet greater by Karṇa.

7.71.23 And the fire of wrath was fanned to flame by your son—that fire which, O king, rose up to consume this whole earth.

7.71.24 Turned to flight by the arrows of the two sons of Pāṇḍu, Śakuni could no longer find any feat of valor to perform in the fight.

7.71.25 And seeing him put to flight, the two great warriors, the sons of Mādrī, rained their arrows upon him again, as two clouds upon a great mountain.

7.71.26 Struck down by many smooth-jointed arrows, the son of Subala sped away on his swift horses toward Droṇa's division.

7.71.27 Ghaṭotkaca likewise advanced upon the valiant rākṣasa Alāyudha, impetuous in battle, taking up a moderate speed.

7.71.28 The combat between those two, O great king, took on a marvelous aspect, like that which long ago passed in the fray between Rāma and Rāvaṇa.

7.71.29 Then king Yudhiṣṭhira, having pierced the king of the Madras in battle with fifty arrows, pierced him again with seven.

7.71.30 Then there arose between those two a most wondrous combat, O lord of men, like the great battle of old between Śambara and the king of the gods.

7.71.31 Viviṃśati, Citrasena, and your son Vikarṇa, surrounded by a great host, gave battle to Bhīmasena.

7.72.1 Saṃjaya said: When that hair-raising battle was thus joined, the Pāṇḍavas fell upon the Kauravas, who had divided themselves into three.

7.72.2 The mighty-armed Bhīmasena held back Jalasaṃdha, while Yudhiṣṭhira with his host checked Kṛtavarman in the battle.

7.72.3 Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O great king, rushed in the fray upon Droṇa, who, pouring forth showers of arrows, shone like the radiant sun.

7.72.4 Then a battle arose between all those eager bowmen, the Kurus and the Somakas, each enraged against the other.

7.72.5 While that fearful carnage was thus going forward, the armies, paired off in single combats, fought on fearlessly.

7.72.6 Mighty Droṇa, contending with the mighty son of Pāñcāla, hurled torrents of shafts; it was a thing of wonder to behold.

7.72.7 Droṇa and the Pāñcāla strewed the heads of men in multitudes all around, like beds of white lotuses laid waste on every side.

7.72.8 Scattered all about among the ranks lay the garments, ornaments, and weapons of the heroes, their banners, armor, and arms.

7.72.9 With bodies adorned in bright gold and drenched in blood, they appeared like masses of clouds clinging together, lit with lightning.

7.72.10 The great warriors, drawing bows as tall as palm trees, felled elephants, horses, and men in the battle with their winged shafts.

7.72.11 Swords and shields, bows, heads, and coats of mail were scattered abroad in the onslaught of those great-souled heroes.

7.72.12 Countless headless trunks, risen upright on every side, were seen, O great king, in that utmost tumult.

7.72.13 Vultures, herons, kites, hawks, crows, and jackals, and many other flesh-eating creatures, were seen there, O honored one.

7.72.14 They devoured the flesh and drank the blood, and tore away the hair and marrow in many ways, O king.

7.72.15 They dragged about the corpses, and the severed limbs, and the heads of multitudes of men, horses, and elephants, hither and thither.

7.72.16 The skilled archers, consecrated by the vows of battle and bearing their arrows, fought fiercely then, longing for victory in the fray.

7.72.17 Your warriors plied many kinds of sword-strokes in the battle, with double-edged swords, lances, javelins, pikes, darts, and tridents.

7.72.18 Others, with maces and iron bars, and some even weaponless with bare arms, smote one another in their fury, those men come to the arena of war.

7.72.19 Car-warriors closed with car-warriors, horsemen with horsemen, mighty elephants with mighty elephants, and foot-soldiers with foot-soldiers.

7.72.20 Others, as if drunk and frenzied, like minstrels upon the stage, shouted aloud at one another and slew one another in the battle.

7.72.21 As that lawless battle was being waged, O lord of the people, Dhṛṣṭadyumna mingled his own horses with the horses of Droṇa.

7.72.22 Those horses, swift as the wind, shone splendidly thus commingled; dove-colored and blood-red, the steeds in that encounter gleamed, O king, like clouds shot through with lightning.

7.72.23 And the hero Dhṛṣṭadyumna, seeing Droṇa come close at hand, cast aside his bow and took up sword and shield, O Bhārata.

7.72.24 The son of Pṛṣata, slayer of hostile heroes, resolved to perform a difficult feat, and stepping across the chariot-pole, he mounted into Droṇa's car.

7.72.25 He stood in the midst of the yoke and upon the lashings of the yoke, and struck at the flanks of the horses; the armies applauded that deed.

7.72.26 As he ranged about with his sword, treading upon the red horses, Droṇa could find no opening against him; it was a thing of wonder.

7.72.27 As the swoop of a hawk greedy for flesh in the woods, so was his onset as he sought to slay Droṇa.

7.72.28 Then Droṇa shattered with a hundred shafts the hundred-mooned shield of Drupada's son, and his sword with ten arrows.

7.72.29 And the mighty one slew his horses with sixty-four arrows, and with two broad-headed shafts struck down his banner and his parasol and both his flank-charioteers.

7.72.30 Then in haste he loosed at him another arrow, a bringer of death, drawn back full to the ear, as the wielder of the thunderbolt hurls his bolt.

7.72.31 Sātyaki cut that arrow apart with fourteen arrows, and so released Dhṛṣṭadyumna, who had been seized by the foremost of preceptors.

7.72.32 As a deer seized by a lion, so was the Pāñcāla seized by that lion among men, Droṇa; and the bull of Śini's line, that lion among men, set him free, O honored one.

7.72.33 Seeing Sātyaki the protector of the Pāñcāla in that great battle, Droṇa swiftly assailed him with twenty-six arrows.

7.72.34 Then the grandson of Śini struck back at Droṇa, who was as if devouring the Sṛñjayas, piercing him in the breast with twenty-six sharp arrows.

7.72.35 Then, when the Sātvata had thus assailed Droṇa, all the Pāñcāla car-warriors, eager for victory, swiftly delivered Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.73.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When that arrow had been cut down and Dhṛṣṭadyumna had been set free by that foremost hero of the Vṛṣṇis, by Yuyudhāna, O Saṃjaya—

7.73.2 —what did that great archer Droṇa, the tiger among men, foremost of all bearers of arms, filled with indignation, do against the grandson of Śini in the fight?

7.73.3 Saṃjaya said: Rushing forward, his venom of wrath upraised, his bow a gaping mouth, his teeth the keen-edged arrows, his fangs the whetted iron shafts—

7.73.4 —his eyes red with fury and resentment, hissing like a great serpent, with his red horses of great speed, rejoicing among heroic men—

7.73.5 —as though leaping up to the sky, as though striding over all things, he sped upon Yuyudhāna, hurling gold-feathered arrows.

7.73.6 With its great downpour of falling arrows, with the rumble of chariots for its thundercloud, scattered abroad by the drawing of bows, lit with the lightning of its many iron shafts—

7.73.7 —bearing spears, swords, and bolts, risen up in the rush of his wrath, that irresistible cloud of Droṇa, driven on by the wind of his horses.

7.73.8 Seeing him bearing down thus, the heroic grandson of Śini, conqueror of hostile cities, mad with the lust of battle, said to his charioteer, laughing aloud:

7.73.9 "This cruel brahmin, who keeps not to his own appointed duty, the refuge of king Dhārtarāṣṭra, the bringer of sorrow and fear—

7.73.10 "—drive swiftly forth with hastening horses, joyfully, to meet this preceptor of the princes, who ever deems himself a hero."

7.73.11 Then the excellent horses of the Mādhava, silver-bright and swift as the wind, advanced quickly to face Droṇa.

7.73.12 Then there came a dreadful, unbroken darkness, veiled by a net of arrows, that seemed unassailable to all other heroes.

7.73.13 Then, between Droṇa and the Sātvata, those two lions among men skilled in swift weaponry, no gap could be seen in the showers of their arrows.

7.73.14 From the clashing together of the arrows there arose a sound, born of the striking of their streams, that was heard like the roar of thunderbolts loosed by Śakra.

7.73.15 The aspect of the arrows pierced deeply by the iron shafts shone forth, O Bhārata, like that of serpents bitten by venomous snakes.

7.73.16 The dreadful clamor of their bowstrings and palm-guards was heard unceasingly, as of mountain-peaks struck again and again by the thunderbolt.

7.73.17 The chariots of both, O king, their horses and their charioteers, covered with gold-feathered arrows, then shone forth in wondrous forms.

7.73.18 Most terrible, O lord of the people, was the falling together of those bright, straight iron shafts, that gleamed like venomous serpents loosed from their sloughs.

7.73.19 The parasols of both were struck down, and likewise both their banners fell; both had their limbs bathed in blood, and both were eager for victory.

7.73.20 With their limbs streaming blood, like two elephants in rut, they pierced each other with arrows that bring life to its end.

7.73.21 The roars, the shouts, the clamor, and the sound of conches and drums fell silent, O great king; no one spoke a word.

7.73.22 The hosts fell still, the warriors ceased from fighting, and the people, filled with wonder, gazed upon the single combat of those two.

7.73.23 Car-warriors, elephant-drivers, horsemen, and foot-soldiers, encircling those two bulls among chariot-fighters, looked on with unwavering eyes.

7.73.24 The divisions of elephants stood still, and so the divisions of horse, and the chariot-columns too stood ranged in their array.

7.73.25 With banners bright with pearl and coral and adorned with gems and gold, with brilliant ornaments and golden coats of mail,

7.73.26 with victory-pennons and flags, with caparisons and body-cloths, with bright and whetted weapons, and with the tail-fans of the horses,

7.73.27 and with frontlets of gold and silver upon the brows of the elephants, and the wreaths upon their temple-bosses and the bands about their tusks, O Bhārata—

7.73.28 —they appeared, with their cranes and fireflies, with their rainbows and lightnings, like the gathering nets of clouds in the season of heat.

7.73.29 Both our men and the followers of Yudhiṣṭhira stood and watched that combat of Yuyudhāna and of the great-souled Droṇa.

7.73.30 The gods, with Brahmā and Śakra at their head, borne aloft in the foremost of celestial cars, and the hosts of Siddhas and Cāraṇas, the Vidyādharas and the great serpents,

7.73.31 At the wondrous, weapon-shattering passes—advances, recoils, and feints of every kind—shown by those two lions among men, the onlookers were filled with amazement.

7.73.32 Displaying the deftness of their hands in the wielding of weapons, those two mighty warriors, Droṇa and Sātyaki, pierced each other with their shafts.

7.73.33 Then, O lord of great splendour, the Dāśārha swiftly cut apart Droṇa's arrows in the fray with his own well-feathered shafts, and severed his bow as well.

7.73.34 In the mere blink of an eye Bhāradvāja strung another bow, but that too Sātyaki swiftly cut to pieces.

7.73.35 Then in haste Droṇa stood once more with bow in hand; yet each time he strung it, Sātyaki cut it asunder again with his keen shafts.

7.73.36 Then, O king of kings, beholding in the combat the more-than-human feat of Yuyudhāna, Droṇa pondered thus in his heart:

7.73.37 "Such mastery of weapons as is found in this best of the Sātvatas was found only in Rāma, in Kārtavīrya, in Dhanaṃjaya, and in Bhīṣma, that tiger among men."

7.73.38 And Droṇa, that best of the twice-born, honoured his valour in his heart, beholding a deftness like Vāsava's own.

7.73.39 That foremost of those skilled in arms was well pleased, and so too were the gods together with Vāsava; yet for all their swiftness they could not discern the lightness of his hand.

7.73.40 The gods, O lord of peoples, and the Gandharvas, and the hosts of Siddhas and Cāraṇas, marked well that feat of Yuyudhāna and of Droṇa alike.

7.73.41 Then, taking up another bow, Droṇa, the crusher of warriors, that foremost of those who know weapons, did battle with his missiles, O Bhārata.

7.73.42 Sātyaki, beating back his missiles by the magic of his own weaponry, struck him with keen arrows—and that was a thing of wonder.

7.73.43 Beholding that more-than-human feat of his, unmatched by any other in the battle and joined with practised skill, your own men, who knew such skill, gave him their praise.

7.73.44 Whatever missile Droṇa hurled, that very missile Sātyaki hurled in turn; yet the preceptor, scorcher of foes, fought on undismayed.

7.73.45 Then, O great king, wrathful, that master who had reached the far shore of the science of archery raised a celestial weapon to slay Yuyudhāna.

7.73.46 Marking that terrible foe-destroying Āgneya weapon, that mighty archer raised in answer the celestial Vāruṇa weapon.

7.73.47 A great cry of dismay went up at the sight of the two wielders of celestial arms, and the very creatures that move through the sky ceased to range the heavens.

7.73.48 Those two weapons, of Varuṇa and of Agni, loosed by the pair upon their arrows, did not yet clash together—and meanwhile the sun began to decline.

7.73.49 Then King Yudhiṣṭhira, and Bhīmasena the Pāṇḍava, and Nakula and Sahadeva, closed round Sātyaki to guard him.

7.73.50 And led by Dhṛṣṭadyumna, Virāṭa together with the Kekayas, the Matsyas, and the host of the Śālveyas, came straight upon Droṇa.

7.73.51 Setting Duḥśāsana at their head, the king's sons by the thousand hastened to the aid of Droṇa, who was hemmed in by his foes.

7.73.52 Then, O king, a battle was joined between your bowmen and theirs, while the world was shrouded in dust and overspread with a netting of arrows.

7.73.53 All became confusion; nothing could be made out at all; and with the host smothered in dust the fighting raged on past all bounds.

7.74.1 Saṃjaya said: As the sun wheeled on, the soldiers there, blinded by the sun's rays and bestrewn with dust, grew faint and slack.

7.74.2 For those who stood firm, who fought on, who turned back again, who broke and fled, and who conquered, that day passed slowly away.

7.74.3 While the armies were thus locked together, greedy for victory, Arjuna and Vāsudeva pressed on straight toward the Saindhava.

7.74.4 With his keen shafts the son of Kuntī cleared there a path wide enough for a chariot, along which Janārdana drove.

7.74.5 Wherever the chariot of the great-souled Pāṇḍava went, O lord of peoples, there your armies were torn asunder.

7.74.6 And the valiant Dāśārha displayed his mastery of the chariot, tracing wheeling courses high and low and midway.

7.74.7 Those shafts, marked with his name, yellow, like the fire of doom, bound with sinew, well-jointed, broad, and far-flying—

7.74.8 shafts made of reed and of iron, well-drawn, of many-fashioned heads—drank, along with the birds of the air, the blood of living creatures in the fray.

7.74.9 The arrows that Arjuna, standing upon his car, loosed when foes were a krośa off—by the time his chariot had crossed that krośa, were striking down those very enemies.

7.74.10 With horses swift as Tārkṣya and the wind, well-trained to draw, Hṛṣīkeśa drove onward, filling the whole world with wonder.

7.74.11 Not so swiftly, O lord of peoples, moves the chariot of the Sun, nor of Indra, nor of Rudra, nor even of Vaiśravaṇa,

7.74.12 nor, O king, has the chariot of any other ever gone in battle as went the car of Arjuna, swift as the speeding of thought.

7.74.13 Plunging into the battle, O king, Keśava, slayer of hostile heroes, swiftly urged the steeds into the midst of the host, O Bhārata.

7.74.14 Then, having reached the midst of that flood of chariots, those noble horses, beset by hunger, thirst, and weariness, drew the car only with great labour.

7.74.15 Wounded by many weapons of the war-drunk foe, again and again they wheeled through their wondrous circling courses.

7.74.16 By the thousand they passed over the slain—horses and elephants and chariots together with their men—heaped up like hills.

7.74.17 At this juncture, O king, the two heroic brothers of Avanti, with their armies, fell upon the Pāṇḍava, whose horses were now wearied.

7.74.18 Filled with eager joy, the two pierced Arjuna with sixty-four arrows, Janārdana with seventy, and the horses with a hundred.

7.74.19 Those two, O great king, Arjuna in his wrath struck in the battle with nine smooth-jointed shafts, vital-piercing arrows loosed by one who knew the vital spots.

7.74.20 Then the two, enraged, covered Bībhatsu together with Keśava beneath a flood of arrows, and roared aloud their lion's roar.

7.74.21 But he of the white steeds swiftly, with two broad-headed shafts, cut apart their gleaming bows in the fight, and their standards bright with gold.

7.74.22 Then, O king, taking up other bows in the combat, the two, fiercely enraged, tormented the Pāṇḍava with their arrows.

7.74.23 But the son of Pāṇḍu, exceedingly wrathful, with two arrows swiftly cut their bows apart once again—Dhanaṃjaya did.

7.74.24 Then with other golden-shafted, stone-whetted arrows he swiftly slew their horses and the footmen with them, and the flanking charioteers of both.

7.74.25 And with a razor-edged shaft he severed the elder's head from his body; slain, he fell to the earth like a tree shattered by the wind.

7.74.26 Seeing Vinda slain, the mighty and valorous Anuvinda left his horseless chariot and took up his mace.

7.74.27 Remembering his brother's slaughter, that foremost of mace-wielders, that great chariot-warrior, rushed forward in the battle, mace in hand, as though dancing.

7.74.28 Anuvinda in his wrath struck the slayer of Madhu upon the brow with his mace, yet shook him no more than one might shake Mount Maināka.

7.74.29 With six arrows Arjuna shore off his neck, his feet, his arms, and his head; thus dismembered, he fell like a heap of mountain crags.

7.74.30 Then, O king, seeing those two slain, their followers rushed forward in fury, showering arrows by the hundred.

7.74.31 Swiftly slaying them with his shafts, O bull of the Bhāratas, Arjuna shone forth like a fire that has burnt up a forest at winter's end.

7.74.32 Passing through the army of those two and emerging from it with hard labour, Dhanaṃjaya shone like the risen sun breaking through the clouds.

7.74.33 Beholding him, the Kurus were stricken with fear, then took heart again, O bull of the Bhāratas, and rained their shafts on Pārtha from every side.

7.74.34 Marking that he was wearied, and knowing the Saindhava still far off, they hemmed him in on all sides with a mighty lion's roar.

7.74.35 Seeing them in their high fury, that bull among men, Arjuna, smiling, spoke softly these words to the Dāśārha:

7.74.36 "The horses are wounded by arrows and spent, and the Saindhava is still far off. What course seems best to you to be taken next?

7.74.37 Tell me truly, Kṛṣṇa, for you are ever the wisest of all; with you as their guide the Pāṇḍavas shall surely conquer their foes in battle here.

7.74.38 As for what I must do next, hear it from me: unyoke the horses and ease them, and draw the arrows from their flesh, O Mādhava."

7.74.39 Thus addressed by Pārtha, Keśava answered him: "This too is my own mind, O Pārtha, even as you have spoken."

7.74.40 Arjuna said: "I will hold off all the armies, Keśava; and you, meanwhile, do here in due order what next must be done."

7.74.41 Saṃjaya said: Then, descending undismayed from the floor of his chariot, Dhanaṃjaya took up the Gāṇḍīva bow and stood unshaken as a mountain.

7.74.42 The warriors, longing for victory, rushed shouting upon him, judging this their opening, since Dhanaṃjaya now stood upon the ground.

7.74.43 With a great array of chariots they encircled him alone, drawing their bows and loosing their arrows.

7.74.44 In their wrath they displayed there their many wondrous weapons, veiling Pārtha with arrows as the clouds veil the sun.

7.74.45 With great force the warriors, lordly upon their cars, rushed upon that bull among warriors, that lion among chariot-fighters, as rutting elephants rush upon a lion.

7.74.46 Then was seen the mighty strength of Pārtha's two arms, in that, enraged, he held off the numerous armies from every side.

7.74.47 Warding off the weapons of his foes with his own weapons on every hand, the mighty one swiftly enveloped them all with his many shafts.

7.74.48 There in the middle air, O lord of peoples, from the friction of the densely massed arrows there arose a great blazing fire.

7.74.49 There on every side, with mighty bowmen panting and bathed in blood, with horses and elephants gashed and screaming and harrowing their foes—

7.74.50 and with furious heroic foes, craving victory in the fray, gathered many in one place and enraged—there arose as it were a scorching heat.

7.74.51 Its waves were arrows, its whirlpools banners, its crocodiles elephants—hard to cross; thick with footmen for its fish, resounding with the blare of conches and kettledrums—

7.74.52 numberless and shoreless, its dust a fearful murk; covered over with turbans for its tortoises, garlanded with foam of fluttering pennons—

7.74.53 that unfathomable ocean of chariots, strewn with the bodies of elephants for its rocks—Pārtha, become its very shore, held back with his feathered shafts.

7.74.54 Then in the battle the mighty-armed Janārdana, unperturbed, spoke these words to Arjuna, his beloved, that best of men:

7.74.55 "There is no well here for the horses upon the battlefield, Arjuna; they crave water to drink, yet not for bathing."

7.74.56 Saying calmly, "Here it is," Arjuna smote the earth with a weapon and made a fair lake for the watering of the horses.

7.74.57 With a lattice of arrows, with pillars of arrows, with a wondrous roof of arrows, Pārtha fashioned a chamber of arrows, like Tvaṣṭṛ the worker of marvellous deeds.

7.74.58 Then Govinda laughed and cried, "Well done! Well done!" when Pārtha had fashioned that house of arrows there in the midst of the great battle.

7.75.1 Saṃjaya said: When that water had been brought forth by the great-souled son of Kuntī, when the enemy host had been held off and the house of arrows wrought,

7.75.2 Vāsudeva of great splendour swiftly dismounted from the chariot and unyoked the horses, pierced as they were by heron-feathered shafts.

7.75.3 Beholding that thing never seen before, a mighty lion-roar arose on every side from the hosts of Siddhas and Cāraṇas and from the soldiers.

7.75.4 Yet those bulls among men could not hold back the son of Kuntī as he fought on foot — and that was as if a marvel.

7.75.5 Though floods of chariots came rushing on, thick with elephants and horses, Pārtha was not dismayed — and this surpassed all other men.

7.75.6 Those kings loosed floods of arrows against the Pāṇḍava, yet the righteous son of Vāsava, slayer of hostile heroes, did not falter.

7.75.7 Those nets of arrows, those maces and javelins that came upon him, the valiant Pārtha swallowed up as the ocean swallows the rivers.

7.75.8 With the great speed of his weapons and the strength of his arms, Pārtha swallowed up the finest shafts of all those lords of kings.

7.75.9 That prowess of both Pārtha and Vāsudeva, O great king, the Kauravas extolled as utterly wondrous.

7.75.10 What greater marvel has ever been in the world, or shall ever be, than that Pārtha and Govinda should unyoke their horses in the very midst of battle?

7.75.11 Those two best of men struck vast fear into us and displayed their fierce energy, wholly unconcerned at the very front of the fray.

7.75.12 Then Hṛṣīkeśa, smiling, as though amid women, O Bhārata, when Arjuna had made that inner chamber of arrows on the field,

7.75.13 The lotus-eyed one, untroubled, led those horses round, before the very eyes of all your hosts, O lord of peoples.

7.75.14 Their fatigue and faintness, their trembling, their retching, their wounds — all of it Kṛṣṇa drove away, skilled as he was in the handling of horses.

7.75.15 Drawing out the barbs with his hands and rubbing down those horses, he turned them about in due order and gave them the water to drink.

7.75.16 Then, well pleased, he yoked them once more to that finest of chariots — watered, washed, fed, and freed of weariness.

7.75.17 Then Śauri of great splendour, foremost of all who bear arms, mounted that excellent chariot together with Arjuna and swiftly drove on.

7.75.18 Seeing the chariot of that best of warriors yoked with horses now watered, the foremost of the Kuru host grew downcast once again.

7.75.19 Hissing, O king, like serpents whose fangs are broken, they each cried out, "Shame, oh shame! Pārtha and Kṛṣṇa have slipped away!"

7.75.20 Before the eyes of all the warriors, those two mailed in armour, with a single chariot, made our might contemptible, as though it were a child's plaything.

7.75.21 While we cried out and strove against them, those two scorchers of foes, untouched, displayed their valour and passed on through all the kings.

7.75.22 Seeing the two pressing on again, other soldiers then cried, "Make haste, all you Kurus, to slay Kṛṣṇa and the Diademed One!"

7.75.23 "For the Dāśārha, having yoked the chariot before the eyes of all the bowmen, drives on toward Jayadratha, making mock of us in battle!"

7.75.24 There some of the kings spoke among themselves, O king, beholding in that battle that great marvel never seen before:

7.75.25 "All these hosts, and King Dhṛtarāṣṭra too, are come to ruin; through Duryodhana's offence the whole warrior race and the entire earth,

7.75.26 "have come to dissolution, and yet the king does not perceive it." Thus did the warriors there speak, and others too, O Bhārata.

7.75.27 "Whatever rites are due for the king of the Sindhus, now gone to Yama's abode, let Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son perform — he of vain vision, ignorant of the means."

7.75.28 Then the Pāṇḍava drove faster still toward the Saindhava, as the fierce-rayed sun was sinking, with horses now glad and watered.

7.75.29 The warriors could not hold back that mighty-armed one, foremost of all who bear arms, as he drove on like Death enraged.

7.75.30 Then the Pāṇḍava, tormentor of foes, having scattered the host, churned it up for the Saindhava's sake as a lion churns a herd of deer.

7.75.31 Plunging into the ranks, the Dāśārha swiftly urged on the crane-coloured horses and made Pāñcajanya resound.

7.75.32 The arrows loosed in front by the son of Kuntī fell behind him, so swiftly — faster than fast — did those wind-swift horses bear him on.

7.75.33 Beholding that terrible ape-bannered chariot, its pennon tossing in the wind, rumbling like a thundercloud, the chariot-warriors fell into despair.

7.75.34 And as the sun was thickly veiled on every side by dust, the warriors, sore beset by arrows, could not even look upon the two Kṛṣṇas in the fight.

7.75.35 Then the kings, enraged, encircled Dhanaṃjaya, and many other warriors as well, as he sought the slaying of Jayadratha.

7.75.36 While the barbs were being drawn out, Duryodhana came hastening against Pārtha, that steadfast bull among men, in the great battle.

7.76.1 Saṃjaya said: The very marrow of your men seemed to melt with fear, O king, when they saw Vāsudeva and Dhanaṃjaya break clean through.

7.76.2 Yet all the great-souled ones, stung to wrath, full of shame, urged on by their own courage, stood firm and went forth again to meet Dhanaṃjaya.

7.76.3 Those who went against the Pāṇḍava in the fight, filled with wrath and indignation — even now they do not turn back, as rivers do not turn back from the sea.

7.76.4 But the base ones turned away, as unbelievers turn from the Vedas, and, partaking of hell, they came into sin.

7.76.5 Those two bulls among men, having passed beyond the chariot-array and broken free, appeared like two suns escaped from the maw of Rāhu.

7.76.6 As two fishes that have rent a great net are freed of their distress, so did the two Kṛṣṇas appear, having torn through that net of the army.

7.76.7 Set free from the press of weapons, from Droṇa's array so hard to pierce, those two great-souled ones appeared like two risen suns of the Doom-time.

7.76.8 Released from the crush of missiles, freed from the throng of weapons, those two great-souled ones appeared, dealers of distress to their foes.

7.76.9 Freed from a touch like fire, as two fishes from the jaws of a crocodile, the two convulsed the host as a pair of sea-monsters convulse the ocean.

7.76.10 Your men and your sons, while those two were still within Droṇa's array, resolved in their minds: "These two shall not pass beyond Droṇa."

7.76.11 But when they saw those two of great splendour break past Droṇa's array, O great king, they no longer hoped for the life of the king of the Sindhus.

7.76.12 A strong hope had been your sons', O king: "From Droṇa and the son of Hṛdika the two Kṛṣṇas shall not escape," O lord.

7.76.13 Making that hope fruitless, those two scorchers of foes crossed beyond Droṇa's array, O great king, and the Bhoja array so hard to pass.

7.76.14 Then, seeing the two pass through like blazing fires, they grew hopeless and no longer looked for the life of the king of the Sindhus.

7.76.15 And the two — Kṛṣṇa and Dhanaṃjaya, fearless and striking fear into others — spoke together such words as these concerning the slaying of Jayadratha:

7.76.16 "Yonder Saindhava, set in the midst by six great car-warriors, sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, has come within range of our sight; he shall not escape us."

7.76.17 "Even though Śakra with the hosts of gods should guard him in the battle, even so we shall slay him" — thus spoke the two Kṛṣṇas.

7.76.18 As the two mighty-armed Kṛṣṇas spoke thus to each other, gazing upon the king of the Sindhus, your sons overheard them.

7.76.19 Like two thirsting elephants who, having crossed a desert waste, drink water and are refreshed and pass on, so stood those two subduers of foes.

7.76.20 Like men who have crossed mountains thronged with tigers, lions, and elephants, the two mighty-armed ones appeared, as though gone beyond death and old age.

7.76.21 "Such indeed is the look upon the faces of these two," so thought your men, and seeing them broken free, they cried out on every side.

7.76.22 From Droṇa, shaped like a venomous serpent, like a blazing fire, and from the other kings, the two shone forth radiant as twin suns.

7.76.23 Those two subduers of foes, freed from Droṇa's array that was like an ocean, appeared filled with joy, as men who have crossed over the sea.

7.76.24 Freed from the vast floods of weapons guarded by Droṇa and the son of Hṛdika, the two appeared resplendent in the fight, the equals of Indra and Agni.

7.76.25 Their blood welling forth, the two Kṛṣṇas, studded with the sharp shafts of Bhāradvāja, shone like two mountains decked with karṇikāra blossoms.

7.76.26 Released from the lake whose crocodile was Droṇa, beset with the venomous serpents of its spears, with iron arrows for its fierce sea-monsters, with the foremost warriors for its waters —

7.76.27 — with the twang of bowstrings and the slap of palms for its roar, with maces and swords for its lightning: from that cloud of Droṇa's weapons the two broke free, like sun and moon from the dark.

7.76.28 As though they had crossed by their own arms the brimming rivers that run to the sea, the Sindhu sixth among them, swollen at summer's end and teeming with great monsters —

7.76.29 — so did all beings deem the two Kṛṣṇas, those great archers renowned throughout the worlds for their glory, in their wonder at the might of Droṇa's weapons.

7.76.30 Gazing with longing to slay upon Jayadratha, who stood close by, the two waited like tigers eager to take a ruru-deer at the watering place.

7.76.31 "Such indeed is the look upon the faces of these two," thought your warriors, O great king, and they counted Jayadratha already slain.

7.76.32 Red-eyed and mighty-armed, intent upon their purpose, Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍava, gazing upon the king of the Sindhus, roared again and again in their gladness.

7.76.33 From Śauri with the reins in his hands and from Pārtha bearing his bow there came a radiance as of the sun and fire.

7.76.34 Joy alone was theirs, freed now from Droṇa's array, as they saw the Saindhava close at hand, as two hawks behold their prey.

7.76.35 Beholding the Saindhava as though within their very reach, the two, enraged, swooped down at once and swiftly, like two hawks upon their prey.

7.76.36 But seeing Hṛṣīkeśa and Dhanaṃjaya break through, your son strode forth in valour to guard the king of the Sindhus.

7.76.37 His armour fastened on by Droṇa, King Duryodhana, knowing well the management of horses, then drove into the battle with a single chariot, O lord.

7.76.38 Passing the great archers Kṛṣṇa and Pārtha, your son then went forth to confront the lotus-eyed one face to face, O ruler of men.

7.76.39 Then throughout all the hosts the instruments sounded out joyfully when your son had passed beyond Dhanaṃjaya.

7.76.40 And lion-roars arose, mingled with the blare of conches and drums, as they saw Duryodhana standing there before the two Kṛṣṇas.

7.76.41 And those who were the guardians of the king of the Sindhus, like flames of fire, rejoiced in the battle to behold your son, O lord.

7.76.42 But seeing Duryodhana come forth with his followers, Kṛṣṇa spoke to Arjuna, O king, these words befitting the hour:

7.77.1 Vāsudeva said: Behold this Suyodhana come forth before us, Dhanaṃjaya; fallen into peril, I deem him — there is no chariot-warrior the equal of his.

7.77.2 A great archer whose shafts fly far, accomplished in arms, drunk with the lust of battle, firm in his weapons and a wily fighter — such is the mighty son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

7.77.3 Reared amid boundless ease and honored by the great car-warriors, ever adept, O Pārtha, he forever hates the Pāṇḍavas.

7.77.4 With him, O sinless one, I judge that the hour of battle has come for you; here the dicing of you both has arrived again — for victory, or else for the other end.

7.77.5 Here, O Pārtha, loose the venom of your wrath, long stored up; this great car-warrior is the very root of the Pāṇḍavas' miseries.

7.77.6 He has come within your reach — behold the fruit of your own striving. How else should a king bent on the kingdom come to do battle with you?

7.77.7 By good fortune he has now come within the range of your arrows; act so, O Dhanaṃjaya, that he may yield up his life.

7.77.8 Deluded by the intoxication of sovereignty, he has never known sorrow, nor does he know your valor in battle, O bull among men.

7.77.9 For the three worlds, O Pārtha, with their gods, demons, and men, cannot prevail to conquer you in battle — how much less Suyodhana alone?

7.77.10 By good fortune he has come near your chariot, O Pārtha; slay him, mighty-armed one, as Puraṃdara slew Vṛtra.

7.77.11 For he has ever striven for your ruin, O sinless one, and by trickery he cheated the King of Righteousness at the dice.

7.77.12 Many a cruel deed has this man of evil mind wrought, O giver of honor, against you who are blameless, and that without ceasing.

7.77.13 That ignoble, ever-base man, who follows only his own willful desire — bend your mind to noble battle, O Pārtha, and slay him without hesitation.

7.77.14 Holding in your heart, O son of Pāṇḍu, the theft of the kingdom by fraud, the dwelling in the forest, and the abuse of Kṛṣṇā, put forth your might.

7.77.15 By good fortune he moves within the range of your arrows; by good fortune he strives at the forefront to thwart your purpose.

7.77.16 By good fortune he knows at last that he must fight with you in battle; by good fortune, O Pārtha, all your cherished desires are now fulfilled.

7.77.17 Therefore slay in battle, O Pārtha, this son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the disgrace of his line, as of old Jambha was slain by Indra in the war of gods and demons.

7.77.18 With him slain by you, let this host, left without a lord, break apart; this is the final bath that ends the feud — cut away the root of these evil-souled men.

7.77.19 Saṃjaya said: "So be it," answered Pārtha; "this is the very deed for me. Heeding nothing else, drive on to where Suyodhana stands.

7.77.20 By whom our kingdom was so long enjoyed unopposed — let me press forward in the fray and strike off his head in battle.

7.77.21 Would that I might reach, O Mādhava, the day of reckoning for the undeserved torment of Kṛṣṇā, for the seizing of her hair.

7.77.22 Speaking thus, the two Kṛṣṇas, exultant, urged on their splendid white steeds in the battle, eager to come at that lord of men.

7.77.23 When your son had come near the two, O bull of the Bhāratas, he showed no fear, though a great peril had come upon him, O venerable one.

7.77.24 For this all the warriors there honored him: that he went out without hesitation to meet Arjuna and Hṛṣīkeśa.

7.77.25 Then from all your host, O lord of peoples, there rose a great roar there, beholding the king in the battle.

7.77.26 While that dreadful clamor of men went up, your son, making light of the danger, held back his foe.

7.77.27 But the son of Kuntī, checked by your bowman son, flew into still greater fury; and that scorcher of foes flamed up against him.

7.77.28 Seeing the two, Duryodhana and Dhanaṃjaya, thus enraged against each other, the kings of terrible aspect gazed upon them from every side.

7.77.29 But beholding Pārtha enraged, and Vāsudeva too, O venerable one, your son, as though smiling, eager for the fight, called them out.

7.77.30 Then the joyful Dāśārha and the son of Pāṇḍu, Dhanaṃjaya, raised a great war-cry and blew their finest conch-shells.

7.77.31 Seeing the two so full of gladness, the Kauravas on every side grew hopeless of your son's life.

7.77.32 And the Kurus all fell into deepest grief, and deemed your son already cast as an oblation into the mouth of Vaiśvānara.

7.77.33 Beholding thus the joyful Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍava, those warriors, stricken with fear, cried out, "The king is slain, the king is slain!"

7.77.34 But Duryodhana, hearing the clamor of the host, said: "Let your fear depart; I shall send the two Kṛṣṇas to death."

7.77.35 Having so spoken to all his soldiers, that lord of men, looking for victory, addressed Pārtha and in his fury uttered these words:

7.77.36 "O Pārtha, whatever weapon you have learned, divine or human, show it on me at once — if indeed you were begotten of Pāṇḍu.

7.77.37 Whatever strength and valor are yours, and Keśava's as well, exert it on me at once — let us see your manhood.

7.77.38 Out of our sight, men tell of deeds you are said to have done, deeds meant to win your master's favor — show those very deeds here."

7.78.1 Saṃjaya said: Having so spoken to Arjuna, the king pierced him in return with three arrows that pierced the vitals, and with four swift shafts struck his four horses.

7.78.2 And he pierced Vāsudeva with ten arrows between the breasts, and cutting his goad with a broad-headed shaft, cast it to the ground.

7.78.3 Him Pārtha, unflurried, swiftly pierced with fourteen stone-whetted shafts of gaily feathered shanks; but they glanced off from his armor.

7.78.4 Seeing them fall fruitless, he loosed again fourteen more sharp arrows; and these too glanced off from his armor.

7.78.5 Seeing those twenty-eight shafts that he had shot fall in vain, Kṛṣṇa, slayer of hostile heroes, spoke these words to Arjuna:

7.78.6 "A thing never seen before I now behold — your arrows creep away like stones. The feathered shafts you send, O Pārtha, accomplish nothing.

7.78.7 Is the life of the Gāṇḍīva still the same, O bull of the Bhāratas? Is your grip as of old, and the strength of your two arms?

7.78.8 If this be not the last hour decreed by fate, come today for you and for this foe — then tell me, who ask you.

7.78.9 Great is my wonder, O Pārtha, to see these arrows of yours fall vainly in battle against Duryodhana's chariot.

7.78.10 Your arrows, terrible as the thunderbolt and the lightning, cleavers of an enemy's body, accomplish nothing — what mockery is this today, O Pārtha?"

7.78.11 Arjuna said: This device, O Kṛṣṇa, was set by Droṇa upon the son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra; this fitting of armor is the last of the lore of weapons.

7.78.12 In this armor, O Kṛṣṇa, even the three worlds lie hidden and warded; Droṇa alone knows this art, and I from that best of men.

7.78.13 This armor cannot be pierced by arrows in any wise, O Govinda — no, not by the thunderbolt itself in the hand of Maghavat in battle.

7.78.14 Knowing all this, O Kṛṣṇa, why do you seek to bewilder me? Whatever has passed in the three worlds, and whatever now comes to pass, O Keśava,

7.78.15 and whatever shall be — all of it is known to you; nor does any other know it as you do, O slayer of Madhu.

7.78.16 This Duryodhana, O Kṛṣṇa, wearing this armor wrought by Droṇa, stands fearless in the battle.

7.78.17 But the rite that must here accompany it he does not know, O Mādhava; like a woman he wears this well-fitted armor in vain.

7.78.18 Behold the might of my arms and of my bow, O Janārdana; I shall overcome the Kaurava, guarded by his armor though he be.

7.78.19 This shining armor the Lord of the gods once gave to Aṅgiras; and again the lord of the gods gave to me that armor together with its mystic rite.

7.78.20 Though this armor of his be divine, or fashioned by Brahmā himself, it shall not save that fool today, smitten by my arrows.

7.78.21 Saṃjaya said: Having so spoken, Arjuna, charging his arrows with sacred spells, drew them back; but as he drew those shafts set at the middle of the bow, the son of Droṇa cut them apart with his weapon that destroys all weapons.

7.78.22 Seeing those arrows cut down from afar by that knower of the sacred word, the white-steeded warrior, amazed, made it known to Keśava:

7.78.23 "This weapon I cannot loose a second time, O Janārdana, for the weapon would then turn and slay me; yet behold today my strength."

7.78.24 Then Duryodhana, O king, pierced the two Kṛṣṇas in battle with nine smooth-jointed arrows like venomous serpents, and again rained his shafts upon Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍava in the fray.

7.78.25 At that great rain of arrows your men rejoiced, and raised the din of instruments and roars like lions.

7.78.26 Then Pārtha, enraged in battle, licking the corners of his mouth, looked but could find no limb of his that was not guarded by the armor.

7.78.27 Then with sharp arrows, well loosed and like Death himself, he made his horses lifeless, and both his flank-charioteers as well.

7.78.28 The valiant one cut his gaily-wrought bow and his hand-guard, and the Ambidextrous Archer set about to splinter his chariot to pieces.

7.78.29 And Duryodhana, now bereft of his chariot, Arjuna then pierced in both palms of his hands with two keen arrows.

7.78.30 Seeing him fallen into so dire a strait, tormented by Dhanaṃjaya's shafts, the foremost bowmen rushed up, eager to rescue him.

7.78.31 With chariots by the many thousands, with elephants and horses arrayed, and with raging floods of foot-soldiers, they hemmed in Dhanaṃjaya.

7.78.32 Then neither Arjuna nor Govinda, nor even their chariot, could be seen, so enveloped were they by the great rain of weapons and the throngs of men.

7.78.33 Then Arjuna, by the might of his weapons, smote that host; there, maimed by the hundred, fell the chariots and the elephants.

7.78.34 Slain and being slain, they yet hemmed in that noblest of chariots; halted in its course, it stood there, ringed about for a krośa on every side.

7.78.35 Then the hero of the Vṛṣṇis swiftly said to Arjuna: "Twang your bow with all your might, and I shall blow my conch."

7.78.36 Then, twanging the Gāṇḍīva mightily, Arjuna smote his foes with a great rain of arrows and with the clap of his bowstring on his palm.

7.78.37 And Keśava blew the Pāñcajanya loud and shrill, the edges of his eyelashes clogged with dust, his face streaming heavily with sweat.

7.78.38 At the blast of that conch and the twang of that bow, the men, both the spiritless and the stout-hearted, fell then to the earth.

7.78.39 Freed of them, the chariot shone like a cloud driven on by the wind; thereupon the guardians of Jayadratha, with their followers, were thrown into turmoil.

7.78.40 But the guardians of the lord of the Sindhus, seeing Pārtha suddenly upon them, raised cries of many kinds, making the earth tremble.

7.78.41 Those great-souled warriors sent forth fierce twangings of arrows mingled with the blare of conches, and roars like lions as well.

7.78.42 Hearing that terrible din arisen from your men, Vāsudeva and Dhanaṃjaya then blew their conches.

7.78.43 By that mighty blast this earth was filled, with its mountains, its sea-girt isles, and its nether realms, O lord of peoples.

7.78.44 That sound, O best of the Bhāratas, spreading through all the ten directions, echoed back upon the very hosts of the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas.

7.78.45 Beholding Kṛṣṇa and Dhanaṃjaya there, your car-warriors, the great chariot-fighters, were seized with the utmost fury and hastened forward.

7.78.46 Then your warriors, seeing the two illustrious Kṛṣṇas clad in their armor, rushed against them in wrath, and that was a wondrous thing to behold.

7.79.1 Saṃjaya said: But your men, the moment they caught sight of the foremost of the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas and Kurus, pressed forward eager to slay them; and even so did Vijaya, eager to slay his foes.

7.79.2 With their great chariots gleaming with gold and clothed in tiger-skins, resounding as they rolled, they lit up all the directions as though with blazing fires.

7.79.3 With their bows gold-backed and hard to gaze upon, O lord of the earth, twanging forth incomparable notes like enraged serpents,

7.79.4 Bhūriśravas, Śala, Karṇa, Vṛṣasena, Jayadratha, Kṛpa, the king of the Madras, and the son of Droṇa, foremost of car-warriors —

7.79.5 those eight great chariot-warriors, seeming as if to drink up the sky with their steeds, made the ten directions resplendent with their tiger-skin coverings adorned with golden orbs.

7.79.6 Armored and furious, with their chariots rumbling like masses of clouds, they covered all the directions, and Pārtha as well, with their sharp shafts.

7.79.7 The spirited horses of the Kulūta breed, dappled and swift, bearing those great car-warriors, shone forth then, lighting up the ten directions.

7.79.8 With steeds of noble lineage and great speed, sprung from many lands — mountain-bred, river-born, and of the Sindhu country, the finest of horses —

7.79.9 the foremost of the Kuru warriors, O king, longing to protect your son, swiftly assailed the chariot of Dhanaṃjaya from every side.

7.79.10 Those best of men, taking up their great conches, blew them, filling heaven, O king, and the earth with its seas.

7.79.11 In like manner Vāsudeva and Dhanaṃjaya, the foremost of all beings, blew their two conches, the best of all conches on earth — the son of Kuntī his Devadatta, and Keśava his Pāñcajanya.

7.79.12 The sound of Devadatta, sent forth by Dhanaṃjaya, filled the earth, the firmament, and all the directions.

7.79.13 So too the Pāñcajanya, sounded by Vāsudeva, surpassing all other sounds, filled heaven and earth.

7.79.14 While that terrible tumult of clamor raged on, striking terror into the timid and swelling the joy of the brave,

7.79.15 while kettledrums, jharjharas, tabors, and tom-toms were beaten, O lord of kings, sounding forth in countless number,

7.79.16 those renowned as mighty car-warriors, the well-wishers of Duryodhana, unable to brook that sound, the wrathful and supreme bowmen, kings of many lands, guardians of their own troops,

7.79.17 those heroes, the great chariot-warriors, in their indignation blew their great conches, resolved to answer the deed of Keśava and Arjuna.

7.79.18 That army of yours, stirred by the blasts of the conches, with its chariots, elephants, and horses thrown into agitation, seemed, O lord, as though disquieted.

7.79.19 The sky, as it were, set ringing by the heroes with the blare of conches, became greatly troubled, as though resounding with thunderclaps.

7.79.20 That mighty sound, O king, made all the directions resound and terrified that army, gathering like the doom of the world's end.

7.79.21 Then Duryodhana and those eight kings, the great car-warriors, surrounded the son of Pāṇḍu for the protection of Jayadratha.

7.79.22 Then the son of Droṇa struck Vāsudeva with seventy-three arrows, and Arjuna with three broad-headed shafts, his banner and his horses with five.

7.79.23 Arjuna, exceedingly enraged because Janārdana had been struck, smote him in turn with six hundred arrows.

7.79.24 Piercing Karṇa with twelve arrows and Vṛṣasena with three, the valiant one cut asunder, at the grip, the bow of Śalya together with its arrow.

7.79.25 Taking up another bow, Śalya pierced the son of Pāṇḍu; and Bhūriśravas struck him with three arrows, gold-feathered and whetted on stone.

7.79.26 Karṇa with thirty-two, Vṛṣasena with five, Jayadratha with seventy-three, Kṛpa with ten arrows, and the king of the Madras with ten — all pierced Phalguna in the battle.

7.79.27 Then the son of Droṇa covered Pārtha with sixty arrows, Vāsudeva with seventy, and Pārtha again with five.

7.79.28 But that tiger among men, of the white steeds and with Kṛṣṇa for his charioteer, laughing, pierced them all in return, displaying the swiftness of his hand.

7.79.29 Piercing Karṇa with twelve and Vṛṣasena with three arrows, he cut off Śalya's bow at the place of the grip in the fight.

7.79.30 Piercing the son of Somadatta with three arrows and Śalya with ten sharp shafts shaped like tongues of flame, he struck the son of Droṇa with eight.

7.79.31 He smote Gautama with twenty-five, the ruler of the Sindhus with a hundred, and the son of Droṇa again with seventy arrows.

7.79.32 But Bhūriśravas, greatly enraged, cut off the goad of Hari and struck Arjuna with seventy-three arrows.

7.79.33 Then he of the white steeds, wrathful, swiftly checked those foes with hundreds of sharp arrows, as a mighty wind scatters the clouds.

7.80.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Of the banners of many shapes, gleaming with surpassing splendor, both of the sons of Pṛthā and of my own men — tell me of those, Saṃjaya.

7.80.2 Saṃjaya said: Hear of the banners of many shapes belonging to those high-souled ones; learn from me their forms, their colors, and their names.

7.80.3 Upon the chariots of those who rode therein, O lord of kings, divers banners were seen, blazing like fires.

7.80.4 Golden they were, with golden crests, adorned with golden wreaths, like the golden peaks of the great golden mountain.

7.80.5 Those banners of theirs, wrapped about on every side with pennants of varied and brilliant hues, shone forth, encompassed all around.

7.80.6 And those pennants, stirred by the wind, were seen dancing, like graceful courtesans amid the dancing-ground.

7.80.7 The pennants, glowing with the hues of Indra's bow, O bull of the Bhāratas, fluttering, lent beauty to those great car-warriors.

7.80.8 With its lion's tail and fierce mouth, the banner bearing the sign of the ape — Dhanaṃjaya's, terrible to behold — we beheld in the battle.

7.80.9 That foremost of apes, O king, adorned with pennants — the banner of the wielder of Gāṇḍīva — struck terror into that army.

7.80.10 In like manner, O Bhārata, we beheld the lion's-tail crest atop the banner of Droṇa's son, radiant as the rising sun.

7.80.11 Golden, tossed by the wind, splendid as the banner of Śakra, gladdening the lords of the Kurus, the emblem of Droṇa's son was raised on high.

7.80.12 And again, a golden elephant-girth was upon the banner of the son of Adhiratha, which in the battle, O great king, seemed to fill the very sky.

7.80.13 Decked with pennants and golden wreaths, the banner of Karṇa in the fight seemed to dance upon the chariot-platform, stirred by the wind.

7.80.14 And the preceptor of the Pāṇḍus, the illustrious Brāhmaṇa Gautama, Kṛpa, bore a bull most finely wrought.

7.80.15 With that bull, O king, the great car-warrior shone, even as the chariot of the destroyer of Tripura is resplendent with its bull.

7.80.16 Vṛṣasena's peacock, golden and set with gems and jewels, stood as if about to cry out, lending beauty even to the van of the host.

7.80.17 With that peacock the chariot of that high-souled one shone, O lord of kings, even as Skanda's is resplendent with its glittering peacock.

7.80.18 Atop the banner of Śalya, king of the Madras, we beheld a golden plough-furrow, peerless and fair, like a tongue of flame.

7.80.19 That furrow shone, set upon his chariot, O sire, as a furrow sprung up with every kind of seed, encompassed with splendor.

7.80.20 The boar of the king of the Sindhus, of silver, gleamed atop his banner, bright as the unreddened sun and wrought with a net of gold.

7.80.21 With that silver standard Jayadratha shone forth, even as Pūṣan of old shone in the war of the gods and the asuras.

7.80.22 Again, the banner of the son of Somadatta — that wise one devoted to sacrifice — bore a sacrificial post that shone like the sun, and upon it the moon could be seen.

7.80.23 That golden sacrificial post of the son of Somadatta was resplendent, O king, like the post raised aloft at the Rājasūya, the foremost of sacrifices.

7.80.24 And Śala's standard, O great king, was a great silver elephant, adorned with peacocks whose limbs were variegated with gold.

7.80.25 That standard lent beauty to your army, O bull of the Bhāratas, even as the great white elephant graces the host of the king of the gods.

7.80.26 The king's banner was an elephant fashioned of gems, sheathed in gold, ringing with a hundred little bells, shining upon his splendid and excellent chariot.

7.80.27 Your son shone forth exceedingly, O king, O lord of peoples, with that mighty banner in the battle — that bull among the Kurus.

7.80.28 These nine supreme banners, raised aloft in your host, lit up the army, resembling the suns of the world's end.

7.80.29 But the tenth was Arjuna's — that one mighty ape alone — by which Arjuna blazed forth like the Himālaya wrapped in fire.

7.80.30 Then those great car-warriors, scorchers of foes, swiftly took up their bows — variegated, bright, and very great — for the sake of opposing Arjuna.

7.80.31 And so too Pārtha, the destroyer of foes, of divine deeds, drew his Gāṇḍīva, O king — all owing to your evil counsel.

7.80.32 For through your fault many men, summoned from every quarter, were slain in the battle, together with their horses, their chariots, and their elephants.

7.80.33 There arose a fierce exchange of blows among them, as they roared at one another — those led by Duryodhana and that bull among the sons of Pāṇḍu.

7.80.34 There the son of Kuntī, with Kṛṣṇa for his charioteer, wrought a supreme marvel, in that, alone, he closed fearlessly with many.

7.80.35 The mighty-armed one shone as he wielded the Gāṇḍīva bow, eager to vanquish those tigers among men and to slay Jayadratha.

7.80.36 There Arjuna, O great king, the tormentor of foes, with arrows loosed by the thousand, made your warriors invisible.

7.80.37 Then those tigers among men too, all the great car-warriors, made Pārtha invisible in the battle with floods of arrows from every side.

7.80.38 When Arjuna, that bull among the Kurus, was thus enveloped by those lions among men, a mighty uproar arose from that army.

7.81.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When Arjuna had reached the ruler of the Sindhus, what did the Pāñcālas, hemmed in by the son of Bharadvāja together with the Kurus, do, Saṃjaya?

7.81.2 Saṃjaya said: In the afternoon, O great king, amid the hair-raising combat, a gambling-match was waged between the Pāñcālas and the Kurus over Droṇa.

7.81.3 For the Pāñcālas, eager to slay Droṇa, with hearts elated, poured down showers of arrows, roaring, O sire.

7.81.4 Then a most tumultuous and wondrous battle was waged between them, between the Pāñcālas and the Kurus, terrible and like the war of the gods and the asuras.

7.81.5 All the Pāñcālas, together with the sons of Pāṇḍu, reaching the chariot of Droṇa and seeking to pierce that division, displayed their great weapons.

7.81.6 The car-warriors, mounted upon their chariots, advanced right up to the chariot of Droṇa, making it tremble, pressing on at a moderate speed.

7.81.7 Against him advanced Bṛhatkṣatra, the great chariot-warrior of the Kekayas, sowing whetted arrows that resembled the thunderbolt of mighty Indra.

7.81.8 But the illustrious Kṣemadhūrti swiftly rose to meet him, loosing whetted arrows by the hundred and by the thousand.

7.81.9 And Dhṛṣṭaketu, the bull of the Cedis, risen up in surpassing strength, rushed in haste upon Droṇa as great Indra upon Śambara.

7.81.10 As he bore down all at once, like Death with gaping jaws, the mighty archer Vīradhanvan hastened forth to confront him.

7.81.11 Then, O great king, the valiant Droṇa held back Yudhiṣṭhira, who stood firm with his host, eager for victory.

7.81.12 Your valiant son Vikarṇa, O lord, went forth against Nakula, skilled and prowess-filled in battle, as he came on.

7.81.13 And as Sahadeva likewise advanced, Durmukha, the harrier of foes, overwhelmed him with many thousands of swift-flying shafts.

7.81.14 Vyāghradatta held off Sātyaki, that tiger among men, with keen and sharpened arrows, shaking him again and again.

7.81.15 Saumadatti held back the sons of Draupadī, those tigers among men, foremost of chariot-warriors, who in their fury loosed their finest shafts.

7.81.16 And the great chariot-warrior Ārṣyaśṛṅgi, dreadful and fearsome in form, withstood the wrathful Bhīmasena as he came on.

7.81.17 A battle arose between the two of them on the field, that man and that rākṣasa, O king, even such as once took place between Rāma and Rāvaṇa.

7.81.18 Then Yudhiṣṭhira struck Droṇa with ninety smooth-jointed arrows in all his vital parts, O best of the Bhāratas, O Bhārata.

7.81.19 Droṇa, enraged by the illustrious son of Kuntī, struck him in turn between the breasts with twenty-five shafts, O best of the Bhāratas.

7.81.20 And once more Droṇa covered him over with a score of arrows, together with his horses, charioteer, and banner, before the eyes of all the bowmen.

7.81.21 But the righteous son of Pāṇḍu warded off those arrows loosed by Droṇa with a shower of his own, displaying the swiftness of his hand.

7.81.22 Then Droṇa the bowman, exceedingly wroth, suddenly cut asunder in the fray the bow of that high-souled king of righteousness.

7.81.23 And as his bow was severed, the great chariot-warrior in haste covered him over on every side with many thousands of arrows.

7.81.24 Seeing the king made invisible by the shafts of Bharadvāja's son, all beings thought Yudhiṣṭhira already slain.

7.81.25 Some thought him thus turned away in flight: "The king is carried off," O lord of kings, "by the illustrious brāhmaṇa."

7.81.26 The king of righteousness, Yudhiṣṭhira, fallen into the utmost extremity, cast aside that bow cut down by Bharadvāja's son in the fray and took up another, a celestial bow, burden-crushing and swifter still.

7.81.27 Then the hero cut to pieces in the battle all those arrows loosed by Droṇa by the thousand, and it was as a marvel to behold.

7.81.28 And having cut those shafts apart, the king, his eyes red with wrath, seized in the battle a spear that could rend even mountains, gold-shafted, most terrible, hung with eight bells, and dread to behold.

7.81.29 And raising it aloft in his joy, the mighty one roared with a great roar, as if terrifying all beings with that cry, O Bhārata.

7.81.30 Seeing the spear uplifted by the king of righteousness in the fray, all beings cried out at once, "Hail to Droṇa! May it be well with Droṇa!"

7.81.31 Loosed from the king's arm, like a serpent that has cast its slough, blazing across the sky and the quarters and the intermediate quarters, it drew near to Droṇa like a flaming-mouthed she-snake.

7.81.32 Seeing it bearing down upon him all at once, O lord of peoples, Droṇa, the best of those versed in weapons, brought forth the brāhma weapon.

7.81.33 That weapon reduced to ashes the spear of dreadful aspect and sped swiftly toward the chariot of the illustrious son of Pāṇḍu.

7.81.34 Then King Yudhiṣṭhira, exceedingly wise, quelled that uplifted weapon of Droṇa with the brahma weapon itself, O Bhārata.

7.81.35 And he pierced Droṇa in the fight with five smooth-jointed shafts, and with a sharp razor-headed arrow cut asunder his great bow.

7.81.36 Casting aside that severed bow, Droṇa, the crusher of kṣatriyas, suddenly hurled a mace at the son of Dharma, O worthy one.

7.81.37 Seeing that mace bearing down on him all at once, Yudhiṣṭhira, scorcher of foes, in his wrath seized a mace of his own and hurled it.

7.81.38 Those two maces, suddenly loosed, met each other and, striking out fire from their collision, came together upon the ground.

7.81.39 Then Droṇa, exceedingly enraged, O worthy one, slew the horses of the king of righteousness with four keen and sharpened, choicest shafts.

7.81.40 With a single arrow he cut his bow, and with one he severed his banner that rose like Indra's standard, and with three he tormented the son of Pāṇḍu.

7.81.41 Leaping down swiftly from his chariot with its slain horses, King Yudhiṣṭhira stood with arms upraised, weaponless, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.81.42 Beholding him bereft of his chariot and weaponless besides, Droṇa threw the foes and all their armies into confusion, O lord.

7.81.43 Loosing volleys of sharp arrows, swift of hand and firm of vow, he rushed upon the king as a fierce lion upon a deer.

7.81.44 Seeing him thus assailed by Droṇa, the slayer of foes, a sudden cry of "Alas! Alas!" arose all at once among the Pāṇḍavas.

7.81.45 "The king is carried off, the king is carried off by Bharadvāja's son!" O worthy one, such was the mighty clamor that rose on every side from the army of the sons of Pāṇḍu.

7.81.46 Then King Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Kuntī, swiftly mounting Sahadeva's chariot, withdrew with its fleet horses.

7.82.1 Saṃjaya said: As Bṛhatkṣatra the Kekaya, firm in valor, came on, Kṣemadhūrti, O great king, pierced him in the breast with arrows.

7.82.2 But King Bṛhatkṣatra, eager in the fight to breach Droṇa's array, swiftly struck him with ninety smooth-jointed shafts.

7.82.3 But Kṣemadhūrti, greatly enraged, cut asunder the bow of the high-souled Kekaya with a sharp, yellow-burnished broad-headed arrow.

7.82.4 And as his bow was severed, he swiftly pierced in the heart with a smooth-jointed shaft that foremost of all the bowmen.

7.82.5 Then taking up another bow, Bṛhatkṣatra, as if with a smile, stripped the great chariot-warrior Kṣemadhūrti of his horses, charioteer, and banner.

7.82.6 Then with another sharp, yellow-burnished broad-headed arrow he severed from the king's body his head with its blazing earrings.

7.82.7 That head of his, suddenly severed, with its curling locks and its diadem, falling to the earth, shone like a star fallen from the sky.

7.82.8 Having slain him in battle, the great chariot-warrior Bṛhatkṣatra, exultant, fell suddenly upon your host for the sake of the sons of Pṛthā.

7.82.9 And as Dhṛṣṭaketu came on, the valiant mighty archer Vīradhanvan held him back for Droṇa's sake, O Bhārata.

7.82.10 Closing with each other, those two swift warriors, their teeth as arrows, struck one another with many thousands of shafts.

7.82.11 Those two tigers among men fought with each other like two leader-elephants of the herd, fierce with rut, in a great forest.

7.82.12 Like two enraged tigers met within a mountain cavern, those two mighty heroes fought, each seeking to slay the other.

7.82.13 That battle was tumultuous and worth the beholding, O lord of peoples, a marvelous and wondrous sight for the throngs of Siddhas and Cāraṇas.

7.82.14 Then Vīradhanvan, enraged, cut Dhṛṣṭaketu's bow in two with a broad-headed arrow, as if with a laugh, O Bhārata.

7.82.15 Casting aside that severed bow, the great chariot-warrior, king of the Cedis, seized a broad spear, gold-shafted and wrought of iron.

7.82.16 Drawing back that mighty spear with both arms, O Bhārata, he hurled it all at once, with full effort, against the chariot of Vīradhanvan.

7.82.17 Struck hard by that hero-slaying spear, his heart pierced through, he swiftly fell from his chariot to the earth.

7.82.18 When that hero, the great chariot-warrior of the Trigartas, was slain, your force was broken on every side by the Pāṇḍavas, O lord.

7.82.19 Then Durmukha cast sixty arrows at Sahadeva and roared a great roar, threatening the son of Pāṇḍu in the fray.

7.82.20 Then the son of Mādrī, enraged, pierced the oncoming Durmukha with ten arrows, brother piercing brother, as if with a laugh.

7.82.21 Seeing the mighty Sahadeva impetuous in battle, Durmukha smote him with nine arrows, O Bhārata.

7.82.22 But the mighty Sahadeva, having cut down Durmukha's banner with a broad-headed arrow, slew his four steeds with four whetted shafts.

7.82.23 And with another sharp, yellow-burnished broad-headed arrow he severed from the charioteer's body his head with its blazing earrings.

7.82.24 And with a sharp razor-headed arrow Sahadeva cut asunder in the fight the great bow of the Kaurava and pierced him with five shafts.

7.82.25 Then Durmukha, dejected, abandoning his chariot with its slain horses, mounted the chariot of Niramitra, O king, O Bhārata.

7.82.26 Then Sahadeva, the slayer of hostile heroes, in his wrath struck down Niramitra in the great battle, in the midst of the host, with a broad-headed arrow.

7.82.27 Niramitra, lord of men, son of the king of the Trigartas, fell from the floor of his chariot, troubling your host as he fell.

7.82.28 Having slain him, the mighty-armed Sahadeva shone forth as Rāma, the son of Daśaratha, when he had slain the mighty Khara.

7.82.29 A great cry of dismay arose among the Trigartas, O lord of men, when they saw the mighty prince Niramitra slain.

7.82.30 Nakula, O king, overcame your son Vikarṇa of the large eyes in battle within a moment, and it was as a marvel.

7.82.31 But Vyāghradatta made Sātyaki, together with his horses, charioteer, and banner, invisible amid the host with smooth-jointed arrows.

7.82.32 Warding off those arrows, the hero, the grandson of Śini, with the skill of a master hand, brought down Vyāghradatta with his shafts, together with his horses, charioteer, and banner.

7.82.33 When that prince, the son of the king of Magadha, was slain, O lord, the men of Magadha, straining on every side, rushed upon Yuyudhāna.

7.82.34 Hurling by the thousand arrows and lances, slings and javelins, maces and pestles as well,

7.82.35 those heroes did battle in the fray with the Sātvata, mad for combat; but the mighty Sātyaki, himself mad for combat, vanquished them all without great trouble, as if with a laugh, O bull among men.

7.82.36 Seeing the men of Magadha, those who survived the slaughter, fleeing on every side, your force, tormented by the arrows of Yuyudhāna, was broken, O lord.

7.82.37 Having destroyed your host in the fight, the illustrious chief of the Mādhavas shone forth, brandishing his excellent bow.

7.82.38 The force being broken, O king, by the high-souled Sātvata, terrified by the long-armed hero, did not turn back to the battle.

7.82.39 Then Droṇa, exceedingly enraged, his eyes suddenly rolling, himself rushed upon Sātyaki of the truthful deeds.

7.83.1 Saṃjaya said: The illustrious Saumadatti, having pierced each of the mighty-archer sons of Draupadī with five arrows, pierced them again with seven.

7.83.2 Sorely pressed by that fierce warrior all at once, O lord, they were so dazed that they could not tell what was to be done in the fray.

7.83.3 But Śatānīka, Nakula's son, that scorcher of foes, having pierced Saumadatti, that bull among men, with two arrows, roared aloud in delight.

7.83.4 And the others too, steadfast in the battle, swiftly pierced the wrathful Saumadatti, each with three straight-flying shafts.

7.83.5 Against them, O great king, that warrior of high renown hurled five arrows, striking each one of them in the heart with a single shaft.

7.83.6 Then the five brothers, pierced by the shafts of that great-souled one, surrounded the hero with their chariots and pierced him sorely with their arrows.

7.83.7 But the son of Arjuna, filled with wrath, dispatched his horses to the abode of Yama with four whetted shafts.

7.83.8 The son of Bhīmasena, having cut the bow of the great-souled Saumadatti, roared a mighty roar and pierced him with sharpened arrows.

7.83.9 The son of Yudhiṣṭhira, cutting down his banner, brought it to the ground, while Nakula's son swept the charioteer from the chariot-box.

7.83.10 But the high-minded son of Sahadeva, perceiving him turned aside by his brothers, severed his head, O king, with a razor-headed shaft.

7.83.11 That head, adorned with refined gold, fell to the earth, lighting up that quarter of the battlefield, radiant as the rising sun.

7.83.12 Seeing the head of the great-souled Saumadatti falling, your warriors, O king, took fright and fled in many directions.

7.83.13 But Alambusa, full of wrath, fought in battle with the mighty Bhīmasena, as the son of Rāvaṇa fought with Lakṣmaṇa.

7.83.14 Seeing those two, the man and the rākṣasa, locked together in combat, wonder and delight then arose in all beings.

7.83.15 Then Bhīma, laughing, O king, pierced the son of Ṛśyaśṛṅga, that wrathful lord of rākṣasas, with nine whetted shafts.

7.83.16 That rākṣasa, pierced in the fight, raised a terrifying roar and rushed upon Bhīma, together with those who followed in his train.

7.83.17 Having pierced Bhīma with five smooth-jointed arrows, that subduer of foes swiftly slew thirty chariots of Bhīma's followers, and again, after slaying four hundred, he pierced Bhīma with a feathered shaft.

7.83.18 Then the mighty Bhīma, deeply pierced by the rākṣasa, sank down upon the floor of his chariot, overwhelmed by a swoon.

7.83.19 Regaining his senses, the son of the Wind-god, beside himself with rage, drew his dreadful bow, that supreme weapon of heavy work, and tormented Alambusa on every side with keen arrows.

7.83.20 Pierced by many shafts, that rākṣasa, dark as a heap of black collyrium, shone all over, O king, like a kiṃśuka tree in full blossom.

7.83.21 As he was being struck in the fight by the arrows loosed from Bhīma's bow, he remembered the slaying of his brother by the great-souled son of Pāṇḍu.

7.83.22 Then, assuming a fearsome form, he addressed Bhīmasena: "Stand now in the battle, O son of Pṛthā, and behold this day my prowess."

7.83.23 "There was one named Baka, O fool, a mighty chief among rākṣasas; out of my sight that deed was done, when my brother was slain by you."

7.83.24 Having spoken thus, then, vanishing from sight, he covered Bhīma utterly with a mighty downpour of arrows.

7.83.25 But Bhīma in the battle, O king, when the rākṣasa had become invisible, filled the sky with his smooth-jointed shafts.

7.83.26 Struck by Bhīma, that vile one, in the twinkling of an eye, now mounting his chariot, now reaching the earth, and now suddenly springing into the sky.

7.83.27 He took on many forms, high and low, and uttered on every side voices loud and faint.

7.83.28 By him the elephants of the Pāṇḍava army were crushed in the fight, and many horses too, O king, and foot-soldiers as well; and the chariot-warriors, struck by his arrows, fell from their chariots.

7.83.29 With blood for its water, chariots for its whirlpools, thronged with elephants for its crocodiles, parasols for its swans, mire for its silt, and crowded with severed arms for its snakes—

7.83.30 —he set flowing a river teeming with hosts of rākṣasas, bearing along in many places, O king, the Cedis, the Pāñcālas, and the Sṛñjayas.

7.83.31 As he ranged thus fearlessly through the battle, O king, the Pāṇḍavas, deeply troubled, beheld his prowess.

7.83.32 But among your troops great delight arose, and there rose a fierce and mighty din of instruments that made the hair stand on end.

7.83.33 Hearing that dreadful clamor of your host, the son of Pāṇḍu could not brook it, even as an elephant cannot brook the clapping of hands.

7.83.34 Then, his eyes red with wrath and scorching like a blazing fire, he fitted the weapon of Tvaṣṭṛ, himself like Tvaṣṭṛ in person, O sire.

7.83.35 Then thousands of arrows appeared on every side, and by those arrows a great rout of your army was wrought.

7.83.36 That weapon, loosed by Bhīmasena in the encounter, after destroying the great magic of the rākṣasa, tormented the rākṣasa himself.

7.83.37 That rākṣasa, struck in many ways by Bhīmasena, abandoning Bhīma in the encounter, ran toward the division of Droṇa.

7.83.38 When that lord of rākṣasas had been vanquished by the great-souled one, O king, the Pāṇḍavas made all the quarters resound with their lion-roars.

7.83.39 And, filled with joy, they honored the mighty son of the Wind-god, as the hosts of the Maruts honored Śakra when he had vanquished Prahlāda in battle.

7.84.1 Saṃjaya said: As Alambusa ranged thus fearlessly through the battle, the son of Hiḍimbā advanced swiftly upon him and pierced him with sharpened arrows.

7.84.2 Terrible was the combat of those two lions among rākṣasas, as they wrought their manifold illusions, like that of Śakra and Śambara.

7.84.3 Alambusa, exceedingly wrathful, struck Ghaṭotkaca; but Ghaṭotkaca, having pierced Alambusa between the breasts with twenty iron shafts, roared again and again like a lion.

7.84.4 In the same way Alambusa, O king, piercing again and again the son of Hiḍimbā, that warrior maddened with battle, roared in delight, filling the sky on every side.

7.84.5 Thus those two mighty lords of rākṣasas, exceedingly enraged, fought each other without distinction by means of their illusions.

7.84.6 Sending forth a hundred illusions, proud, bewildering each other, well skilled in the warfare of illusion, they fought a battle of illusion.

7.84.7 Whatever illusion Ghaṭotkaca displayed in the fight, O king, that very illusion Alambusa, O monarch, destroyed by illusion in turn.

7.84.8 Seeing Alambusa, that lord of rākṣasas, fighting thus and skilled in the warfare of illusion, the Pāṇḍavas grew wroth.

7.84.9 Greatly enraged, those foremost warriors, Bhīmasena and the rest, O king, rushed upon him in their wrath from every side with their chariots.

7.84.10 Hemming him in with the array of their chariots, O sire, they showered him from all sides with arrows, as men beset an elephant with firebrands.

7.84.11 Having warded off the force of their weapons by the magic of his own weapons, he broke free from that ring of chariots like an elephant escaping a forest fire.

7.84.12 Twanging his dreadful bow, whose sound was like the thunderbolt of Indra, he pierced the son of the Wind-god with twenty-five shafts, the son of Bhīmasena with five, Yudhiṣṭhira with three, and Sahadeva with seven.

7.84.13 And having pierced Nakula with seventy-three shafts and the sons of Drupada each with five, O sire, he uttered a dreadful roar.

7.84.14 Bhīmasena pierced that rākṣasa in return with nine shafts, Sahadeva with five, Yudhiṣṭhira with a hundred, Nakula with sixty-four, and the sons of Draupadī each with three.

7.84.15 The son of Hiḍimbā, having pierced that rākṣasa in the fight with fifty arrows, pierced him again with seventy, and the mighty one roared aloud.

7.84.16 That mighty bowman, deeply pierced on all sides by those great chariot-warriors, pierced them all in return, each with five shafts.

7.84.17 That rākṣasa, the son of Hiḍimbā, O best of the Bhāratas, enraged in turn against the enraged rākṣasa in the fight, pierced him with seven arrows.

7.84.18 That mighty lord of rākṣasas, deeply pierced by the strong one, swiftly loosed arrows feathered with gold and whetted on stone.

7.84.19 Those smooth-jointed arrows then entered the rākṣasa as fierce and mighty serpents in their fury enter a mountain.

7.84.20 Then those Pāṇḍavas, O king, troubled, dispatched sharpened arrows from all sides, and so did Ghaṭotkaca, the son of Hiḍimbā.

7.84.21 As he was being struck in the battle by the Pāṇḍavas flushed with victory, he seized that rākṣasa—like the scorched peak of a mountain, like a riven heap of black collyrium—

7.84.22 —and lifting him up with both arms and whirling him round again and again, he swiftly dashed him upon the earth, as one dashes a full pitcher against a rock.

7.84.23 Endowed with strength and dexterity, and endowed with prowess as well, the son of Bhīmasena, wrathful in the fight, struck terror into all the troops.

7.84.24 With all his limbs shattered and the ornaments of his bones ground to powder, that rākṣasa Sālakaṭaṅkaṭa was slain by the hero Ghaṭotkaca.

7.84.25 Then the sons of Pṛthā, joyful at heart when that night-ranger was slain, raised lion-roars and waved their garments.

7.84.26 And your troops, O bull of the Bhāratas, seeing that mighty lord of rākṣasas, Alambusa of fearsome form, slain like a mountain crumbled to ruin, raised a cry of woe.

7.84.27 And the people beheld that rākṣasa, filled with wonder, fallen by chance to the earth like the planet Mars.

7.84.28 And Ghaṭotkaca, having slain that rākṣasa, foremost among the mighty, let forth a powerful roar, as Vāsava did when he had slain Bala.

7.84.29 Honored by his fathers and kinsmen for that hard deed accomplished, Ghaṭotkaca then, having slain his foe, rejoiced indeed, having taken Alambusa as one gathers a ripe āḍambusa fruit.

7.84.30 Then a great clamor arose, mingled with conch-blasts and the din of arrows of every kind; and hearing it the Kauravas roared in answer, and that sound thereupon touched the very world with its might.

7.85.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: How did Yuyudhāna withstand the son of Bharadvāja in the battle? Tell me truly, Saṃjaya, for great is my curiosity.

7.85.2 Saṃjaya said: Hear, O king of great wisdom, of the hair-raising battle of Droṇa with the Pāṇḍavas, led on by Yuyudhāna.

7.85.3 Seeing his force being struck down by Yuyudhāna, O sire, Droṇa himself rushed upon Sātyaki of unfailing prowess.

7.85.4 As that great chariot-warrior, the son of Bharadvāja, came swiftly on, Sātyaki met him with twenty-five small arrows.

7.85.5 Droṇa too, valiant in the fight and intent, swiftly pierced Yuyudhāna with five gold-feathered arrows whetted on stone.

7.85.6 Those shafts, feeders on the flesh of foes, having pierced his stout armor, entered the earth, O king, hissing like serpents.

7.85.7 The long-armed warrior, enraged like an elephant goaded by the hook, pierced Droṇa with fifty iron shafts resembling fire.

7.85.8 The son of Bharadvāja, swiftly pierced in the battle by Yuyudhāna, pierced in return the striving Sātyaki with many arrows.

7.85.9 Then that mighty bowman of great strength, enraged once more, oppressed the Sātvata with a hundred smooth-jointed shafts.

7.85.10 Sātyaki, being struck down in the battle by the son of Bharadvāja, could find nothing whatever that should be done, O lord of peoples.

7.85.11 And Yuyudhāna, O king, grew downcast of countenance, seeing the son of Bharadvāja in the battle loosing his sharpened arrows.

7.85.12 Beholding him thus, O lord of peoples, your sons and your soldiers, their hearts filled with joy, roared again and again like lions.

7.85.13 Hearing that terrible roar, and that Mādhava was being hard pressed, Yudhiṣṭhira, O king, addressed all his armies, O descendant of Bharata.

7.85.14 Yonder the foremost of the Vṛṣṇis, the hero Sātyaki, doer of true deeds, is being devoured in battle by a hero as the sun is devoured by Rāhu. Charge, hasten to where Sātyaki is fighting!

7.85.15 And the lord of men spoke thus to Dhṛṣṭadyumna of the Pāñcālas: "Charge swiftly upon Droṇa! Why do you stand idle, O son of Pṛṣata? Do you not see the terrible peril that has come upon us from Droṇa?"

7.85.16 That mighty bowman Droṇa toys with Yuyudhāna in the battle as a child toys with a bird bound by a string.

7.85.17 Let all the chariot-warriors, with Bhīmasena at their head, joined with you and resolute, go there toward Yuyudhāna's chariot.

7.85.18 I myself, with my troops, shall follow behind you. Deliver Sātyaki today, who has passed between the very fangs of Yama.

7.85.19 Having spoken thus, the king, the son of Pāṇḍu, then charged upon Droṇa in battle with all his army for Yuyudhāna's sake.

7.85.20 Then there arose a mighty uproar—blessings upon you!—from the Pāṇḍavas and the Sṛñjayas on every side, all eager to do battle with Droṇa alone.

7.85.21 Those tigers among men, closing in, rained down upon the great chariot-warrior, the son of Bharadvāja, sharp arrows fledged with the feathers of heron and peacock.

7.85.22 But Droṇa, smiling, received those heroes himself, as one receives guests arrived, with water and a seat.

7.85.23 They were gratified by the arrows of that bowman, the son of Bharadvāja, O king, as guests are gratified on reaching a hospitable house.

7.85.24 And none of them could so much as look upon the son of Bharadvāja, O lord, who was like the thousand-rayed sun arrived at midday.

7.85.25 And Droṇa, foremost of weapon-bearers, scorched all those mighty bowmen with showers of arrows, as the sun scorches with its rays.

7.85.26 Slain in the battle, O king, the Pāṇḍavas and the Sṛñjayas alike found no deliverer, like elephants sunk in the mire.

7.85.27 And Droṇa's great arrows were seen darting forth, blazing on every side like the rays of the sun.

7.85.28 In that fight twenty-five Pāñcālas were slain by Droṇa, men renowned as great chariot-warriors and esteemed by Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.85.29 Throughout all the armies of the Pāṇḍus and of the Pāñcālas alike, they beheld the valiant Droṇa striking down their best warriors one after another.

7.85.30 Having slain a hundred of the Kekayas and driven them off on every side, Droṇa stood, O great king, like Death with gaping jaws.

7.85.31 The mighty-armed Droṇa vanquished the Pāñcālas, the Sṛñjayas, the Matsyas, the Kekayas, and the Pāṇḍavas too, by the hundreds and by the thousands.

7.85.32 From them, as they were slain by Droṇa's arrows, arose a clamor like that of forest-dwellers being burned in the woods by the fire.

7.85.33 Thereupon the gods, the Gandharvas, and the ancestors said, O king: "Yonder the Pāñcālas and the Pāṇḍavas flee with their troops."

7.85.34 As Droṇa thus struck down the Somakas in the fray, some would not advance against him at all, and others did not even pierce him.

7.85.35 As that fearful slaughter of the foremost heroes was thus proceeding, Pārtha of a sudden heard the blast of the Pāñcajanya.

7.85.36 Filled with breath by Vāsudeva, the king of conches sounded loud, while the heroes who guarded the Saindhava fought on, and the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra roared against the chariot of the victorious one.

7.85.37 And as the twang of the Gāṇḍīva died away utterly on every side, the king, the son of Pāṇḍu, smitten with dismay, fell to brooding.

7.85.38 "Surely it is not well with Pārtha, the way the king of conches blares, and the way the Kauravas roar exultantly again and again."

7.85.39 Having pondered thus, with his inmost soul in turmoil, Ajātaśatru, the son of Kuntī, spoke to the Sātvata.

7.85.40 In a voice choked with tears, faltering again and again, looking to what must next be done, he addressed the grandson of Śini, that bull of Śini's line.

7.85.41 "That eternal duty which the good of old beheld, O grandson of Śini—the service a friend renders in the hour of crisis—the time for it has now come.

7.85.42 Reflecting upon all the warriors, O bull of Śini's line, I can recognize none a dearer friend than you, O Sātyaki.

7.85.43 For he who is ever loving of heart, and who is ever devoted—it is my conviction that such a one is to be appointed to a task in a time of crisis.

7.85.44 As Keśava is ever the refuge of the Pāṇḍavas, so too are you, O Vārṣṇeya, equal to Kṛṣṇa in prowess.

7.85.45 Therefore I shall lay this burden upon you; it is for you to bear it. And my wish you ought never to render vain.

7.85.46 So do you, O bull among men, render aid in this peril to my brother Arjuna in the battle—your friend and your teacher as well.

7.85.47 For you are vowed to truth, a hero, a giver of fearlessness to friends; you are renowned in the world, O hero, by your deeds as a man of true word.

7.85.48 For he who, fighting for a friend's sake, O grandson of Śini, lays down his body, and he who gives the whole earth to the twice-born—the two are equal.

7.85.49 And we have heard of many kings who went to heaven, having given this whole earth to the Brāhmaṇas according to the ordinance.

7.85.50 So I too beseech you, O righteous one, with joined palms: the reward shall be equal to the gift of the earth, or even greater, O mighty one.

7.85.51 Kṛṣṇa alone has ever been a giver of fearlessness to friends, ready to lay down his life in battle—and you, O Sātyaki, are the second such.

7.85.52 For a valiant hero who seeks glory in battle, only a brave man can be a fit companion—not some other, common fellow.

7.85.53 And in such a crushing onslaught as is now under way, O Mādhava, there is no protector of the victorious one in battle other than you.

7.85.54 For the son of Pāṇḍu, praising your deeds a hundredfold and kindling joy in me, recounted them again and again:

7.85.55 "Swift of hand with weapons, fighting in dazzling fashion, nimble in valor, wise, knowing every weapon, a hero—he is never bewildered in battle.

7.85.56 Broad of shoulder, broad of chest, mighty-armed, wielder of a great bow, of great strength and great might, that great-souled one is a great chariot-warrior.

7.85.57 My pupil and my friend as well—I am dear to him and he is dear to me. Yuyudhāna, my ally, will crush the Kauravas.

7.85.58 And, O lord of kings, were Keśava to arm himself for our sake, or Rāma, or Aniruddha, or Pradyumna the great chariot-warrior,

7.85.59 or Gada, or Sāraṇa, or Sāmba together with the Vṛṣṇis, to lend their aid, O great king, at the forefront of the great battle—

7.85.60 even then I would appoint to that aid the grandson of Śini, that tiger among men of true valor; for I have no other equal to him."

7.85.61 Thus, dear one, in the Dvaita forest, Dhanaṃjaya spoke to me, recounting your true qualities in your absence, in the assembly of the noble.

7.85.62 You ought not, O Vārṣṇeya, to render vain such a resolve of his—of Dhanaṃjaya, and of myself and Bhīma, both of us.

7.85.63 And when, journeying on pilgrimage to the holy fords, I went toward Dvārakā, there too I beheld your devotion toward Arjuna.

7.85.64 Such friendship as you show us, dwelling at Upaplavya, I have marked in none other, O grandson of Śini.

7.85.65 Therefore, for the sake of your noble birth and your devotion, for friendship's sake and the sake of your tutelage, for affection and valor and high lineage, O Mādhava,

7.85.66 and for the sake of truth, O mighty-armed one, and out of compassion as well—it is for you, O great bowman, to do a deed befitting all this.

7.85.67 For Duryodhana has swiftly gone forth, armed, with Droṇa; and the great chariot-warriors of the Kauravas had set out before him.

7.85.68 And a very great roar is heard against the victorious one. Therefore, O grandson of Śini, O Mādhava, it is for you to go there with all speed.

7.85.69 Bhīmasena and I myself, made ready with our troops, will hold off Droṇa, should he move against you.

7.85.70 Behold, O grandson of Śini, the armies fleeing in the battle, and the mighty din in the fray, and the host of the Bhāratas being torn asunder—

7.85.71 the force of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's sons, dear one, scattered by Savyasācin as the sea is by the rush of a great wind at the turning of the moon.

7.85.72 With chariots dashing about in all directions, and with men and with horses, this army, wrapped in the dust it has raised, whirls round and round.

7.85.73 Phalguna, the slayer of enemy heroes, is hemmed in by the men of Sindhu and Sauvīra, warriors fighting with claw-like spears and javelins, valiant and ever honored.

7.85.74 Without first turning back this host, Jayadratha cannot be slain; for all these have laid down their lives for the Saindhava's sake.

7.85.75 Behold this army of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's sons, a forest of arrows, spears, and banners, thronged with horses and elephants, exceedingly hard to assail.

7.85.76 Hear the thunder of the kettledrums, and the abundant blasts of conches, and the lion-roars, and likewise the rumble of chariot-wheels.

7.85.77 Hear too the noise of the elephants, and of the foot-soldiers by the thousands, and hear the horsemen as they charge, making the earth tremble.

7.85.78 In front is the Saindhava's host, and at the rear the host of Droṇa; by its very numbers, O tiger among men, it could press hard even upon the lord of the gods.

7.85.79 Sunk within that boundless host, he might lay down his very life; and were he slain in that battle, how could one like me go on living? In every way, alas, my life has come to a most grievous pass.

7.85.80 Dark of hue, youthful, with thick locks, fair to look upon—the son of Pāṇḍu, swift of hand and dazzling in fight, has plunged, dear one, into the host of the Bhāratas.

7.85.81 At sunrise the mighty-armed one went forth, and now the day is wearing away; whether he lives or not, O Vārṣṇeya, I do not know. And that army of the Kurus is vast, like the very ocean.

7.85.82 And Bībhatsu, the mighty-armed, has plunged alone, dear one, into the host of the Bhāratas, unassailable even by the gods, in that great battle.

7.85.83 And today my mind cannot rest at all upon the battle; Droṇa too, fierce in the fray, presses hard upon my force—before your very eyes, O mighty-armed one, you see how that twice-born one ranges.

7.85.84 And you are skilled in tasks that crowd upon you all at once; it is for you, O Mādhava, to do the great thing, joined with swiftness.

7.85.85 Of all my purposes, this has ever been the purpose I hold supreme: that the rescue of Arjuna must be accomplished in the battle.

7.85.86 I do not grieve for the Dāśārha, the protector of the world, its lord; for he, dear one, is able in battle to conquer even the three worlds when they stand together.

7.85.87 This I tell you in truth, O tiger among men—how much the more, then, this army of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son, which is so very weak.

7.85.88 But Arjuna himself, O Vārṣṇeya, pressed hard by many in the fight, might yield up his life in the battle—and therefore I am seized with dismay.

7.85.89 Go you upon his track, as those like you ought to go, urged on by one like me at such a time on behalf of such a one as he.

7.85.90 Of the foremost heroes of the Vṛṣṇis, two only are reckoned supreme chariot-warriors in battle: the mighty-armed Pradyumna, and you, O renowned Sātvata.

7.85.91 In weapons you are the equal of Nārāyaṇa, in strength the equal of Saṃkarṣaṇa, and in heroism, O tiger among men, you are indeed the equal of Dhanaṃjaya.

7.85.92 Passing over Bhīṣma and Droṇa, the good in the world today proclaim you, O tiger among men, the most skilled in all warfare.

7.85.93 In this world there is nothing Sātyaki cannot achieve, O Mādhava; therefore do that which I am about to ask of you, O mighty-armed one.

7.85.94 The world's high regard rests upon both you and Pārtha alike; it must not be otherwise, O mighty-armed one—you must make it good here and now.

7.85.95 Forsaking your own dear life, range across the battlefield like a hero; for the Dāśārhas, O Śaineya, do not guard their lives in war.

7.85.96 To refuse to fight, to falter, to flee from the field—this is the path of cowards and base men; it is not the way the Dāśārhas walk.

7.85.97 Arjuna, righteous of soul, is your teacher, dear child, O bull of the Śinis, and Vāsudeva too is the teacher both of you and of the wise Pārtha.

7.85.98 Knowing these two grounds, I have spoken to you thus; do not scorn my word, for I am the teacher even of your teacher.

7.85.99 This is the will of Vāsudeva, and mine, and Arjuna's as well; what I have told you is the truth. Go now to where Dhanaṃjaya is.

7.85.100 Heeding this word of mine, O you of true valor, break into this army of the evil-minded son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, dear child.

7.85.101 And having entered as is fitting, and closed with the great chariot-warriors, show forth in battle the deeds worthy of yourself, O Sātvata.

7.86.1 Saṃjaya said: That speech—affectionate and heartfelt, sweet of syllable, timely and finely turned, and spoken with his own native grace—

7.86.2 having heard that speech of the King of Righteousness, Sātyaki, the bull of the Śinis, O best of the Bhāratas, answered Yudhiṣṭhira thus.

7.86.3 I have heard all of this speech of yours as you uttered it, O unshaken one—just and finely framed, and glorious in its purpose for Phalguna's sake.

7.86.4 At such a moment as this, O lord of kings, having regarded one esteemed like me, it is right that you should speak to me even as to Pārtha himself.

7.86.5 For Dhanaṃjaya's sake my own life is in no wise to be guarded; and once dispatched by you, what would I not do in the great battle?

7.86.6 At your command I would do battle with the three worlds, gods, asuras, and men together, O lord of men—how much more, then, with this feeble host?

7.86.7 This day I shall give battle on every side to Suyodhana's army, and I shall conquer it in the field, O king; this I tell you for truth.

7.86.8 Safe and well I shall reach Dhanaṃjaya, safe and well, and once Jayadratha is slain, O king, I shall return again to your side.

7.86.9 Yet of necessity I must make all of this known to you, O ruler of men—the word of Vāsudeva and of the wise Phalguna.

7.86.10 For I was firmly bound by Arjuna, again and again, in the midst of the whole army, while Vāsudeva listened.

7.86.11 "This day, O Mādhava, watch over the king vigilantly, holding firm to your noble resolve in the fighting, until I slay Jayadratha."

7.86.12 "Having entrusted the king to you, O mighty-armed one, or to the great chariot-warrior Pradyumna, I would go untroubled against Jayadratha."

7.86.13 "For you know Droṇa to be impetuous in battle and held the foremost of all, and you have ever heard, O Mādhava, of Droṇa's vow."

7.86.14 "The son of Bharadvāja longs to capture the King of Righteousness, and Droṇa is indeed able in battle to seize Yudhiṣṭhira."

7.86.15 "Having thus committed the King of Righteousness, that best of men, into your charge, I shall set out this day to slay the lord of the Sindhus."

7.86.16 "Having slain Jayadratha I shall surely return, O Mādhava—lest Droṇa should seize the King of Righteousness by force in the field."

7.86.17 "For if that best of men were captured by the son of Bharadvāja, O Mādhava, the slaying of the Saindhava would avail nothing, and so my joy would turn to grief."

7.86.18 "In such a case, O best of men—should the truth-speaking Pāṇḍava be taken—it is clear that we should have to go once more into the forest."

7.86.19 "And so my victory would plainly come to nothing, if Droṇa, wrathful in battle, should seize Yudhiṣṭhira."

7.86.20 "Therefore this day, O mighty-armed Mādhava, for my sake, and for victory, and for honor, guard the king in the battle."

7.86.21 You, my lord, have been laid upon me as a sacred trust by Savyasācin, who ever foresees danger to you from the son of Bharadvāja.

7.86.22 And he too, O mighty-armed lord, ever sees in the fray no other fit to oppose the wise son of Bharadvāja in combat, save the son of Rukmiṇī—or else myself.

7.86.23 And so I cannot bring myself to set aside that honor and the teacher's charge, nor to abandon you, O lord of the earth.

7.86.24 For the teacher, by the swiftness of his hand and clad in armor none can pierce, would, once he found you in battle, toy with you as a child toys with a bird.

7.86.25 If the son of Kṛṣṇa, bow in hand and bearing the sea-monster banner, were here, to him I would commit you, and he would guard you even as Arjuna would.

7.86.26 See to your own protection: who shall be your guardian once I am gone—one who could withstand Droṇa in battle—while I go to the Pāṇḍava?

7.86.27 And let there be no fear in you this day, O king, on Arjuna's account; never does that mighty-armed one falter once he has taken up his burden.

7.86.28 The warriors of the Sauvīras, and the men of Sindhu and of Pūru, the northerners and the southerners, and whatever other great chariot-warriors there are—

7.86.29 and those eminent chariot-warriors renowned with Karṇa at their head, O king—all these are not worth a sixteenth part of the wrathful Arjuna.

7.86.30 Though the whole earth should rise up in arms, with gods, asuras, and men, with the hosts of the rākṣasas, O king, with kiṃnaras and great serpents,

7.86.31 all that moves together with all that stands still—none of it is a match for Pārtha in combat. Knowing this, O great king, let your fear for Dhanaṃjaya depart.

7.86.32 Where the two heroes, those mighty archers, the two Kṛṣṇas of true valor, are present, there no mischance to the undertaking can ever come to be.

7.86.33 Call to mind your brother's destiny, his mastery of weapons, his discipline, his unrelenting wrath in war, his gratitude, and his compassion.

7.86.34 And when I have departed, gone forth toward Arjuna, bear in mind too, O king, Droṇa's wondrous skill with weapons in the fray.

7.86.35 For the teacher, O king, hungers keenly to take you captive, guarding his own vow and resolved to make it good, O Bhārata.

7.86.36 See this day to your own protection: who shall be your guardian once I am gone, O Pārtha—one in whom I might trust as I set out toward Phalguna?

7.86.37 For never, O great king, shall I go anywhere in this great battle without first entrusting you to safe keeping, O Kaurava; this I tell you for truth.

7.86.38 Having weighed this many times with your mind, O best of the wise, and discerned with judgment the highest good, then, O king, command me.

7.86.39 Yudhiṣṭhira said: It is even so, O mighty-armed Mādhava, as you say; yet my heart is not at ease concerning him of the white horses, O worthy one.

7.86.40 I shall make the utmost effort for my own protection; go, then, with my leave, to where Dhanaṃjaya has gone.

7.86.41 My own safety in battle and your going toward Arjuna—having weighed these two with reason, I judge your going there the better course.

7.86.42 So make ready then for the journey to where Dhanaṃjaya has gone; the mighty Bhīma will see to my protection.

7.86.43 The son of Pṛṣata with his brothers, and the mighty kings, and the sons of Draupadī will guard me, dear child—of that there is no doubt.

7.86.44 The five Kekaya brothers, and the rākṣasa Ghaṭotkaca, Virāṭa and Drupada, and Śikhaṇḍin the great chariot-warrior—

7.86.45 and the mighty Dhṛṣṭaketu, and Kuntibhoja, O worthy one, Nakula and Sahadeva, and the Pāñcālas and the Sṛñjayas—all these, intent and ready, will guard me, dear child, without doubt.

7.86.46 Droṇa, together with his army, and Kṛtavarman as well, will not be able to reach me in the fray, nor shall they overpower me.

7.86.47 And Dhṛṣṭadyumna, scorcher of foes, will boldly hold off the wrathful Droṇa in battle, as the shore holds back the abode of sea-monsters.

7.86.48 Wherever in the battle the son of Pṛṣata, slayer of enemy heroes, takes his stand, there Droṇa's mighty host can in no way advance.

7.86.49 He sprang from the sacrificial fire for the destruction of Droṇa—armored, bearing arrows, sword, and bow, and adorned with splendid ornaments.

7.86.50 Go with confidence, O Śaineya; have no anxiety on my account. Dhṛṣṭadyumna, wrathful in battle, will hold Droṇa at bay.

7.87.1 Saṃjaya said: Having heard that speech of the King of Righteousness, the bull of the Śinis, fearing both peril from Pārtha and the charge of abandoning the king,

7.87.2 and guarding himself above all from the world's reproach—lest, as he went toward Phalguna, men should say of him, "He is afraid"—

7.87.3 having thus resolved the matter in many ways, that Sātyaki, drunk with the lust for battle, spoke this word to the King of Righteousness, O bull among men.

7.87.4 If you deem your protection assured, may it be well with you, O lord of peoples; I shall follow after Bībhatsu and carry out your bidding.

7.87.5 For in the three worlds there is none dearer to me than the Pāṇḍava, O king; this I tell you for truth.

7.87.6 I shall go upon his track at your command, O giver of honor; for your sake there is nothing whatsoever I would leave undone.

7.87.7 For just as my teacher's word stands high with me, O best of two-footed beings, so your word too stands even higher with me.

7.87.8 For the two brothers, Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍava, abide in your love; and know me too, O bull among kings, to stand within the love of those two.

7.87.9 Taking your command upon my head, for the Pāṇḍava's sake, O lord, I shall break through this army that none can break and go forth, O best of men.

7.87.10 Even now, in my wrath, I enter Droṇa's host as a great fish enters the ocean; there I shall go, where that king Jayadratha is, O king.

7.87.11 where, sheltered behind the army, he stands in dread of the Pāṇḍava, guarded by the foremost of great chariot-warriors—Droṇa's son, Karṇa, Kṛpa, and the rest.

7.87.12 I reckon that road from here to be three yojanas, O lord of peoples—to where Pārtha stands bent upon the slaying of Jayadratha.

7.87.13 Though he has gone three yojanas away, I shall follow his footsteps, O king, with a steadfast inner resolve, until the lord of the Sindhus is slain.

7.87.14 What man, unbidden by his teacher, would do battle? But once bidden by you, O king, what man like me would not fight? I know well that ground whither I shall go, O lord.

7.87.15 That ocean of an army—dense with shields, spears, maces, javelins, swords, bucklers, lances, and pikes, thronged with arrows and the finest weapons—I shall set churning.

7.87.16 That host of elephants, a thousand strong, which you behold yonder—those mighty beasts are of the lineage called Añjanaka.

7.87.17 Mounted by many barbarians, battle-hardened and fierce in the strike, those elephants are like clouds, O king, raining down like rain-clouds in their rut.

7.87.18 Never would these turn back once urged on by their riders; save by death alone, O king, there is no defeating them.

7.87.19 And those chariot-warriors whom you see on every side, O king—these are the princes called the Rukmarathas, great chariot-warriors all.

7.87.20 Skilled in chariots, in weapons, and in elephants, O lord of peoples, masters who have reached the far shore of the science of archery, and adept in fist-fighting,

7.87.21 expert in the special arts of mace-combat and skilled likewise in close grappling, practiced in the wielding of the sword and in the clash of blade and shield.

7.87.22 They are heroes, masters of their craft, and they vie with one another; ever, O king, do they long to conquer their fellow men in battle.

7.87.23 Subdued by Karṇa, O king, they are devoted followers of Duḥśāsana; even Vāsudeva praises these noble chariot-warriors.

7.87.24 Always eager to please, they stand under Karṇa's command; it was at his word, O king, that they turned back from him whose steeds are white.

7.87.25 Unwounded and unwearied, with sturdy armor and bows, they wait now on my account, surely by the command of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son.

7.87.26 Crushing these in battle for your pleasure, O Kaurava, I shall afterward set out upon the track of Savyasācin.

7.87.27 And those others you behold, O king—seven hundred elephants sheathed in armor, mounted by Kirātas—

7.87.28 these the king of the Kirātas, taken captive by Savyasācin, gave as servants, well adorned, desiring to keep his own life.

7.87.29 Formerly, O king, these were your steadfast servants; today they are eager to fight against you. Behold the turning of time!

7.87.30 Their mahouts are these Kirātas, frenzied for battle, skilled in the lore of elephants, and all of them sprung from fire.

7.87.31 All these were vanquished in battle by Savyasācin; today, arrayed against me, they follow the will of Duryodhana.

7.87.32 Having shattered these battle-maddened Kirātas with my arrows, O king, I shall follow the Pāṇḍava, intent on the slaying of the Saindhava.

7.87.33 And those mighty elephants born of the line of Añjana—rugged yet well trained, their cheeks and trunks streaming with rut—

7.87.34 all richly adorned with armor of pure gold, unerring of aim in battle, O king, the equals of Airāvaṇa in war—

7.87.35 these, from the northern mountain, are ridden by fierce marauders, rugged and matchless warriors clad in coats of black iron.

7.87.36 Among them are some of cattle-born stock and some of monkey-born stock, and others of manifold origin, and some of human origin as well.

7.87.37 Smoke-colored, this host of the wicked rises up—of Mlecchas, doers of evil, dwellers in the fastnesses of Himavat.

7.87.38 Having gained this whole circle of elephants, Duryodhana, driven by his doom, holds in contempt Kṛpa, the son of Somadatta, Droṇa best of chariot-warriors,

7.87.39 the king of the Sindhus, and Karṇa too, and disdains the Pāṇḍavas, and reckons his own purpose already accomplished.

7.87.40 And all these, once come within range of my iron shafts, shall not escape, O son of Kuntī, even were they swift as thought.

7.87.41 Ever favored by him who lives upon the valor of others, they shall go to their destruction, beaten down by the floods of my arrows.

7.87.42 And those chariot-warriors you see, O king, with banners of gold—these are the Kāmbojas called Durvāraṇa, if you have heard of them.

7.87.43 Heroes, masters of their craft, accomplished in the science of the bow, tightly knit together, each seeking the welfare of the others.

7.87.44 Whole armies of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son, roused to fury, O Bhārata, stand ready on my account, guarded round by the Kuru heroes.

7.87.45 Vigilant, O great king, they have ranged themselves against me; yet I shall consume them as fire consumes blades of grass.

7.87.46 Therefore, O king, let the chariot-fitters set in proper order upon my car all the quivers and all the equipment.

7.87.47 In this battle indeed weapons of many kinds must be taken up; as the teachers have prescribed, the chariot must be fivefold furnished.

7.87.48 For I shall meet the Kāmbojas, enraged and like venomous serpents, masters of many missiles, warriors of manifold weapons.

7.87.49 And I shall meet the Kirātas, smiters like poison, ever cherished by the king and seeking Duryodhana's good.

7.87.50 And I shall meet the Śakas too, in prowess the equals of Śakra, like fire itself, unassailable, blazing as kindled flames.

7.87.51 And with many other warriors of every kind, like Death itself and hard to withstand, I shall close in battle, O king—with hosts of them, frenzied for war.

7.87.52 Therefore let my chief horses, rested and of auspicious marks, watered and given drink, be yoked again to my chariot.

7.87.53 For him the king had set upon the chariot all the quivers and all the equipment and weapons of many kinds.

7.87.54 Then the men, unyoking on every side the four fine steeds, gave them a savory draught to drink, a brew that quickened their spirit.

7.87.55 The four horses, watered and turned out, bathed, fed with grain, well adorned, their thorns and burrs removed, garlanded with gold,

7.87.56 these, ready and gleaming gold of hue, well broken, swift of foot, glad of heart and unflustered—they yoked to the chariot duly made ready,

7.87.57 a chariot crowned with a great lion-standard maned in gold, hung about with golden ensigns inlaid with gems and coral, and adorned with banners bright as pale clouds,

7.87.58 a chariot with a parasol raised on a golden staff and arrayed with many weapons—to it they yoked them duly, decked in golden trappings.

7.87.59 Dāruka's younger brother, his charioteer and dear friend, announced the yoked chariot, as Mātali does to Vāsava.

7.87.60 Then, bathed and made pure, the rites of good omen performed, Sātyaki, best of the glorious, caused golden coins to be given to a thousand graduate Brahmins, and was enfolded in their blessings.

7.87.61 Then, worthy of the honey-offering, having drunk the mead of Kailāvata, the red-eyed one shone there, his eyes swimming with its potency.

7.87.62 Touching the hero's bowl, filled with great gladness, his splendor redoubled, blazing like fire, the best of chariot-warriors took up upon his lap his bow with its arrows,

7.87.63 the rites of blessing done for him by the Brahmins—armored, well adorned, greeted with parched grain, fragrances, and garlands, and by maidens.

7.87.64 Having saluted the feet of Yudhiṣṭhira with joined palms, and kissed by him upon the head, he mounted his great chariot.

7.87.65 Then those Saindhava steeds, glad and well nourished, swift as the wind and unconquerable, drew that conqueror along, prancing as they went.

7.87.66 Then Sātyaki, his every limb flooded with joy, said to Bhīma: "Do you, Bhīma, guard the king; that is the foremost of your duties.

7.87.67 I shall break through and enter this host now ripened for doom; both for the time to come and for the present, the guarding of the king is the greater good."

7.87.68 "You know my valor, and I yours, O scourge of foes; therefore, Bhīma, turn back, if you wish me well."

7.87.69 So addressed, he said to Sātyaki: "Go you to the accomplishing of your task; I shall keep guard over the king, O best of men."

7.87.70 Thus addressed, that Mādhava replied to Bhīmasena: "Go, go swiftly, O Pārtha; sure is my victory this day.

7.87.71 For you, loving and devoted, stand today obedient to me, and the omens speak of good fortune to me, O Bhīma.

7.87.72 When the wicked Saindhava is slain by the great-souled Pāṇḍava, I shall embrace the king, that soul of righteousness—of this there is no doubt."

7.87.73 Having said this much to Bhīma and taken his leave of him, the great-spirited one surveyed your army as a tiger surveys the herds of deer.

7.87.74 Seeing him about to enter, O lord of men, your army was bewildered yet more and trembled exceedingly.

7.87.75 Then Sātyaki advanced at once against your host, longing to behold Arjuna, O king, at the command of the Dharma King.

7.88.1 Saṃjaya said: When Yuyudhāna had advanced against your army in his eagerness for battle, the Dharma King, O great king, encircled by his own troops, set forth behind Yuyudhāna, seeking to reach Droṇa's chariot.

7.88.2 Then the son of the Pāñcāla king, frenzied in battle, and the prince Vasudāna cried aloud within the Pāṇḍava host:

7.88.3 "Come on, strike, run swiftly hither and yon, so that Sātyaki, frenzied for battle, may pass through with ease.

7.88.4 For many great chariot-warriors will strive for his defeat." So saying, they fell with fury upon your host.

7.88.5 We, seeking to overcome them, rushed against them there; then a mighty din arose about Yuyudhāna's chariot.

7.88.6 The great army of your son, shaken by the Sātvata, O great king, was rent asunder a hundredfold.

7.88.7 As it was being torn apart, the grandson of Śini, that great chariot-warrior, crushed seven heroic, mighty archers in the forefront of the host.

7.88.8 Terrified, ground down and swept away by the long-armed one, those heroes abandoned the field of battle, seeing him more than human.

7.88.9 With chariots whose axles were broken and whose frames were shattered, O sire, with wheels crushed and split, and banners cast down,

7.88.10 with chariot-poles, pennants, golden helmets, and arms smeared with sandal and braced with armlets, O lord of the people,

7.88.11 and with the thighs of men, like the trunks of elephants, like the coils of serpents, was the earth strewn over, O best of men.

7.88.12 With the fallen faces of bull-eyed men, faces like the moon and adorned with lovely earrings, the earth shone, O Bhārata.

7.88.13 And with elephants hewn in many pieces, lying like mountains, the ground gleamed exceedingly, as though strewn with shattered hills.

7.88.14 With harness of bright gold, decked with nets of pearl, and with bright-figured breast-plates, the horses gleamed—lifeless now, fallen to the earth, swept down by the long-armed one.

7.88.15 Having slain your troops of many kinds, the Sātvata pierced deep into your host, and put your army to violent flight.

7.88.16 Then Sātyaki sought to go by that very road by which Dhanaṃjaya had passed; but he was checked by Droṇa.

7.88.17 Coming upon the son of Bharadvāja, Yuyudhāna, O sire, though enraged, advanced no farther—as the sea does not pass its shore.

7.88.18 Having stayed in battle Yuyudhāna, that great chariot-warrior, Droṇa pierced him with five sharp, vital-rending arrows.

7.88.19 But Sātyaki in the fight pierced Droṇa, O king, with seven shafts of golden notch, whetted on stone, fledged with heron and peacock feathers.

7.88.20 With six arrows Droṇa struck him, together with his horses and his driver; but Yuyudhāna, that great chariot-warrior, would not brook this from Droṇa.

7.88.21 Then, with a lion's roar, Sātyaki pierced Droṇa with ten arrows, and with six others, and with eight again.

7.88.22 Yuyudhāna pierced Droṇa once more with ten arrows, and his charioteer with one, and his four horses with four, and with a single shaft he pierced his banner in the fight, O sire.

7.88.23 Him, with his horses and driver, his chariot and banner, Droṇa swiftly covered with his fleet arrows, as with swarms of locusts.

7.88.24 And in the same way Yuyudhāna too, unflinching, covered Droṇa with many fleet arrows; then Droṇa spoke:

7.88.25 "Your teacher has left the battle and gone, like a coward; for he forsook me while I fought, and turned aside, keeping me on his right.

7.88.26 You shall not escape me with your life today while I do battle, O Mādhava—unless you too forsake me in the fight and flee in haste, as your teacher did."

7.88.27 Sātyaki said: At the command of the Dharma-king I am following the track of Dhanaṃjaya. Fare you well, O brāhmaṇa—let no time of mine be lost.

7.88.28 Saṃjaya said: Having said only this much, O king, the grandson of Śini avoided the preceptor and swiftly drove on, and he spoke thus to his charioteer:

7.88.29 Droṇa will make every effort to bar my way. Drive on with care in the battle, O charioteer, and hear besides this further word of mine.

7.88.30 There is seen the army of the Āvantyas, of great splendour; and next to it that mighty host of the southerners.

7.88.31 And next to that is this great force of the Bāhlīkas; and close beside the Bāhlīkas, joined with them, is also the mighty host of Karṇa.

7.88.32 These armies, though distinct one from another, O charioteer, lean each upon the other and will not abandon the field of battle.

7.88.33 Reaching the gap between them, urge on the horses gladly; holding a middling pace, carry me through there, O charioteer.

7.88.34 There where the Bāhlīkas are seen, raising their varied weapons, and the many southerners with the Sūta's son at their head—

7.88.35 and that division which is seen thronged with elephants, horses, and chariots, and beset with foot-soldiers risen from many lands—

7.88.36 Having said this much to his driver, and shunning the brāhmaṇa, he passed on to where stood the fierce and exceeding mighty force of Karṇa.

7.88.37 Wrathful, Droṇa pursued him, scattering many shafts—Yuyudhāna the mighty-armed, who advanced and would not turn back.

7.88.38 Having struck Karṇa's great host with his sharp arrows, that Sātyaki entered the boundless Bhārata army.

7.88.39 When Yuyudhāna had entered and the soldiers had fled, the unforbearing Kṛtavarman moved to hem Sātyaki in on every side.

7.88.40 As he rushed upon him, the valiant Sātyaki struck him with six shafts and swiftly smote his four horses with four arrows.

7.88.41 Then again, with sixteen swift, smooth-jointed arrows, Sātyaki pierced Kṛtavarman in the centre of the chest.

7.88.42 Tormented by the Sātvata with many shafts of keen point, O great king, Kṛtavarman could not endure it.

7.88.43 Fitting a calf-tooth arrow, like a fire that flies aslant, and drawing it back to his ear, O king, he pierced Sātyaki in the breast.

7.88.44 That arrow, feathered to its butt, having cleft the armour that guarded his body and his body too, entered the earth, drenched with blood.

7.88.45 Then Kṛtavarman, master of the highest weapons, with many arrows cut asunder Sātyaki's bow, O king, together with its arrow and its string.

7.88.46 And in fury, O king, he pierced Sātyaki of true valour in the centre of the chest with ten keen shafts in that battle.

7.88.47 Then, his bow being shattered, Sātyaki, foremost of the mighty, struck Kṛtavarman's right arm with a spear.

7.88.48 Then the hero Sātyaki, taking up another very stout bow, quickly loosed his shafts by hundreds and by thousands.

7.88.49 That Sātyaki covered Kṛtavarman together with his chariot on every side, and screened the son of Hṛdika utterly in the battle.

7.88.50 Then with a broad-headed shaft he severed the head of his charioteer; slain, the driver of the son of Hṛdika fell from that great car, and, the driver being slain, the horses bolted wildly.

7.88.51 But the Bhoja chief, unflustered, himself reined in the horses and stood, arrows and bow in hand—and the armies honoured him for it.

7.88.52 Having recovered breath for a moment, he urged on his good horses; free of fear, he carried great terror into the foes. Sātyaki passed on from him, while Kṛtavarman rushed upon Bhīma.

7.88.53 Yuyudhāna too, O lord of kings, having issued forth from Droṇa's division, sped swiftly and at once toward the great host of the Kāmbojas.

7.88.54 Though there hemmed in by many heroic great car-warriors, Sātyaki of true valour did not waver then, O king.

7.88.55 And Droṇa, having marshalled his division and laid the burden of it upon the Bhoja, pursued Yuyudhāna in battle with intent to fight, full of care.

7.88.56 As he thus pursued, following at Yuyudhāna's back, the mightiest warriors in the Pāṇḍava army, greatly enraged, held him off.

7.88.57 But the Pāñcālas, with Bhīmasena at their head, having closed with the son of Hṛdika—foremost car among cars—lost their ardour; for though they showed their prowess, they were held back, O king, by the hero Kṛtavarman.

7.88.58 All of them, striving on yet somewhat bereft of their senses, their mounts grown weary, he warded off on every side with floods of arrows.

7.88.59 Checked by the Bhoja, those heroes who longed to break through the Bhoja division stood their ground in battle like noblemen, seeking great renown.

7.89.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: An army so manifold, so excellently arrayed, so marshalled in due order, and so vast, O Saṃjaya—

7.89.2 ever honoured by us and ever well-disposed toward us, mature, of most wondrous aspect, and steadfast in valour in the van—

7.89.3 neither too old nor too young, neither lean nor over-stout, nimble and long of wind, sturdy of limb and free of sickness—

7.89.4 furnished with donned armour, equipped with manifold weapons, and perfected in the many arts of wielding arms—

7.89.5 skilled in mounting and in leaping down, in charging and in vaulting across, in striking truly, in advancing and in withdrawing—

7.89.6 tested again and again upon elephants, horses, and chariots, and, once duly tested, provided with its wages—

7.89.7 in my army there was none who came uninvited, none unpaid—not through mere fellowship, nor flattery, nor by reason of kinship.

7.89.8 manned by high-born and honourable folk, contented and well-nourished, unarrogant, shown honour and good service, glorious and high of spirit—

7.89.9 and guarded, my son, by other chief counsellors—many of them, doers of foremost deeds, like the guardians of the worlds, those best of men—

7.89.10 protected by many kings who sought to do us pleasure, who had come to us of their own desire with their forces and their followers—

7.89.11 full like the great ocean filled on every side by rivers, encompassed by chariots and horses that, though wingless, were like winged birds—

7.89.12 a fearsome sea whose inexhaustible waters were its warriors, whose surging waves were its mounts, teeming as with fishes with slings, swords, maces, lances, arrows, and javelins—

7.89.13 thronged with banners and ornaments, heaped with bands of jewels, and stirred to trembling, as by the speed of the wind, by its onrushing mounts—

7.89.14 with Droṇa for its deep abyss, Kṛtavarman for its great whirlpool, Jalasaṃdha for its mighty shark, and roused high by Karṇa as by the moon's rising—

7.89.15 when the bull of the Pāṇḍavas had gone, cleaving through that ocean of my host by his swiftness, O Saṃjaya, and Yuyudhāna too, with but a single chariot—

7.89.16 once Savyasācin had entered, and the high-souled Sātvata car-warrior, I see no remnant of my army there, O Saṃjaya.

7.89.17 Seeing those two impetuous and fearless warriors break clean through, and beholding the king of the Sindhus within the range of Gāṇḍīva's arrows—

7.89.18 what task did the Kurus then set themselves, driven on by fate? And how did they bear themselves in that dread and narrow pass of time?

7.89.19 For I think the Kauravas are seized, my son, gripped close by death; for their prowess in battle no longer shows itself today as it once did.

7.89.20 Unhurt, Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍava have penetrated into that battle, and there is no one here to bar them, O Saṃjaya.

7.89.21 And many warriors were maintained, great car-warriors taken on only after testing, with fitting pay—and others with kindly words.

7.89.22 In my army, my son, there is none kept on without cause; for the wages of a retainer are earned by service that befits them.

7.89.23 And there was not, O Saṃjaya, a single warrior in my army maintained on scant gifts, my son, nor any man hired with paltry goods.

7.89.24 For they were honoured to my utmost means with gifts, with respect, and with seats of rank—by me, and by my sons, my son, and by my kinsmen and their relations alike.

7.89.25 Yet these very men, when they met them in battle, were vanquished by Savyasācin and overwhelmed by the grandson of Śini. What is this but the work of destiny?

7.89.26 He who is guarded in battle, O Saṃjaya, and those who are his guardians—one common road lies before the guarded and his guards alike.

7.89.27 Seeing Arjuna stationed in battle before the Saindhava, what course did my son, sorely bewildered, resolve upon?

7.89.28 And seeing Sātyaki entering the battle fearlessly, what task fit for the hour did Duryodhana then deem to be his?

7.89.29 Seeing those two best of car-warriors, surpassing all in arms, enter the army, what firmness in the fight did my people muster?

7.89.30 Beholding Kṛṣṇa the Dāśārha set there for Arjuna's sake, and the bull of the Śinis as well, I think my poor sons are grieving.

7.89.31 Seeing the army broken through by the Sātvata and by Arjuna, and the Kurus in flight, I think my poor sons are grieving.

7.89.32 Seeing the car-warriors scattered, void of zeal to conquer the foe and bent all their zeal upon flight, I think my poor sons are grieving.

7.89.33 Beholding the chariot-platforms emptied by the Sātvata and by Arjuna, and the warriors slain, I think my poor sons are grieving.

7.89.34 Seeing heroes there by the thousand, stripped of horses, elephants, and chariots, running distraught about the field, I think my poor sons are grieving.

7.89.35 Seeing the horses left riderless and the men left chariotless there by Sātyaki and Pārtha, I think my poor sons are grieving.

7.89.36 Seeing the bands of foot-soldiers running every which way in the battle, all of them despairing of victory, I think my poor sons are grieving.

7.89.37 Seeing those two unconquered heroes break clean through Droṇa's division in an instant, I think my poor sons are grieving.

7.89.38 I am sorely bewildered, my son, to hear that Kṛṣṇa and Dhanaṃjaya, together with the Sātvata, those unfaltering ones, have entered my army.

7.89.39 When that foremost car-warrior of the Śinis had entered the host and broken through the Bhoja division, how then fared the Kauravas?

7.89.40 And when the Pāṇḍavas were held in check by Droṇa in the battle, how did the fighting go there? Tell me that, O Saṃjaya.

7.89.41 For Droṇa is strong, a hero, accomplished in arms, and firm in valour; how did the Pāñcālas fight against that great archer in the battle?

7.89.42 They had sworn a bitter feud with Droṇa and sought the Dharma-king's victory; and the great car-warrior, the son of Bharadvāja, had likewise sworn enmity against them.

7.89.43 And whatever Arjuna did toward the slaying of the king of the Sindhus, tell me all of that, O Saṃjaya, for you are skilled in the telling.

7.90.1 Saṃjaya said: This calamity has arisen from your own offence, O bull of the Bhāratas; having met with it, O hero, you ought not to grieve like a common man.

7.90.2 Knowing your want of virtue, your partiality toward your sons, your double-mindedness in matters of duty, your spite against the Pāṇḍavas, and your many wails of distress, O best of rulers of men—

7.90.3 Vāsudeva, the lord who knows the truth of all the worlds, the teacher of all the worlds, thereupon brought about this great war of the Kurus.

7.90.4 From your own offence has this exceedingly vast destruction come upon you; for no good deed of yours is seen at the beginning, nor in the middle, nor at the end, O Bhārata—the defeat has its root in you alone.

7.90.5 Therefore now, holding yourself steady and grasping the world's appointed end, hear how the battle was waged—terrible, like the war of gods and demons.

7.90.6 When the Śaineya of true valor had entered your army, the sons of Pṛthā with Bhīmasena at their head advanced against your host.

7.90.7 As they came on suddenly, wrathful in aspect and with their followers, Kṛtavarman the great chariot-warrior alone held back the Pāṇḍavas in battle.

7.90.8 As the shore holds back the surging ocean of waters, so in the fray did the son of Hṛdika hold back the Pāṇḍava army.

7.90.9 There they deemed it a marvel, the prowess of the son of Hṛdika, that the sons of Pṛthā united could not overpass him in the battle.

7.90.10 Then Bhīma, having pierced Kṛtavarman with three iron shafts, the mighty-armed one blew his conch, gladdening all the Pāṇḍavas.

7.90.11 Sahadeva with twenty, the King of Righteousness with five, and Nakula too with a hundred shafts pierced the son of Hṛdika.

7.90.12 The sons of Draupadī with seventy-three, Ghaṭotkaca with seven, and Dhṛṣṭadyumna with three afflicted Kṛtavarman; Virāṭa and Drupada, and the son of Yājñasenī, each with five.

7.90.13 And Śikhaṇḍin too, having pierced the son of Hṛdika with five swift arrows, struck him again with twenty shafts, as though laughing.

7.90.14 Then, O King, Kṛtavarman, piercing each one of those great chariot-warriors all about with five shafts apiece, struck Bhīma with seven; and, intent, he cast his bow and his banner from the chariot down to the earth.

7.90.15 Then upon him whose bow was severed, the great chariot-warrior in haste and wrath struck him on the chest with seventy sharpened shafts.

7.90.16 Deeply wounded by the son of Hṛdika's finest shafts, the mighty one, standing in the midst of his chariot, swayed like a mountain in an earthquake.

7.90.17 Seeing Bhīmasena thus, those led by the King of Righteousness, loosing terrible shafts, afflicted Kṛtavarman.

7.90.18 Having thus penned him in with a wall of chariots, O honored one, they joyfully pierced him with shafts to protect the son of the Wind-god in the fray.

7.90.19 Then, having regained his senses, Bhīmasena of mighty strength seized in battle a golden-shafted iron spear and swiftly hurled it from his chariot at the chariot of Kṛtavarman.

7.90.20 Released from Bhīma's arm, like a serpent that has cast its slough, dreadful, it blazed up all about Kṛtavarman.

7.90.21 As it fell suddenly upon him, gleaming like the fire at the end of an age, the son of Hṛdika then cut it in two with a pair of shafts.

7.90.22 Severed, the gold-adorned spear fell to the earth, lighting up the quarters, O King, like a great meteor fallen from the sky; and seeing the spear struck down, Bhīma grew exceedingly wrathful.

7.90.23 Then, taking up another bow, swift and of mighty twang, Bhīmasena, wrathful in the battle, beset the son of Hṛdika.

7.90.24 Then Bhīma of terrible strength struck him with five arrows between the breasts, O King—and all by your ill counsel.

7.90.25 The Bhoja, every limb wounded by Bhīmasena, O honored one, shone upon the field of battle like a red aśoka tree in full bloom.

7.90.26 Then in wrath, as though laughing, he struck Bhīmasena hard with three arrows in the fight, and shot back at all of them.

7.90.27 The mighty archer struck those striving great chariot-warriors with three shafts each, and they in turn pierced him back with seven shafts apiece.

7.90.28 Then the great chariot-warrior, wrathful, with a razor-tipped shaft cut Śikhaṇḍin's bow in the battle, as though laughing, O Bhārata.

7.90.29 Then Śikhaṇḍin, wrathful at his bow being cut, quickly seized in the battle a sword and a gleaming hundred-mooned shield.

7.90.30 Whirling his great gold-adorned shield, he sent that sword flying toward the chariot of Kṛtavarman.

7.90.31 That great sword, having cut his bow together with the arrow upon it in the fray, fell to the earth, O King, like a star fallen from the heavens.

7.90.32 At that very moment the great chariot-warriors, hastening, pierced Kṛtavarman deeply with shafts in the battle.

7.90.33 Then, casting aside that great shattered bow and taking up another, the son of Hṛdika, slayer of enemy heroes, O best of the Bhāratas,

7.90.34 pierced the Pāṇḍavas in the fight with three straight-flying shafts each, and pierced Śikhaṇḍin with three and then with five.

7.90.35 But Śikhaṇḍin of great renown, taking up another bow, held back the son of Hṛdika with swift tortoise-nailed shafts.

7.90.36 Then, wrathful in the battle, O King, the son sprung from Hṛdika rushed swiftly upon the son of Yājñasenī, that great chariot-warrior,

7.90.37 upon him who in battle was the cause of high-souled Bhīṣma's death, O King—the hero displaying his strength like a tiger against an elephant.

7.90.38 Those two, like the elephants of the quarters, blazing like flames, those two tamers of foes, closed upon each other with masses of arrows.

7.90.39 Shaking their splendid bows, nocking their shafts, and loosing them by the hundred like two suns sending forth their rays,

7.90.40 scorching each other with sharp shafts, those two great chariot-warriors, those heroes like the end of an age, shone like two suns.

7.90.41 But Kṛtavarman, fiercely piercing the son of Yājñasenī, that great chariot-warrior, with seventy-three arrows, struck him again with seven.

7.90.42 Deeply wounded and distressed, he sank down upon the floor of his chariot, letting fall his bow with its arrow, overwhelmed by a swoon.

7.90.43 Seeing him sunk down in his chariot, your men, O bull of the Bhāratas, honored the son of Hṛdika and waved their garments aloft.

7.90.44 Knowing Śikhaṇḍin thus tormented by the son of Hṛdika's shafts, his charioteer in haste bore the great chariot-warrior away from the battle.

7.90.45 But seeing Śikhaṇḍin laid low upon the floor of his chariot, the sons of Pṛthā swiftly hemmed in Kṛtavarman with their chariots in the battle.

7.90.46 There Kṛtavarman the great chariot-warrior wrought a surpassing marvel, in that alone in battle he held back the sons of Pṛthā with their followers.

7.90.47 Having vanquished the sons of Pṛthā, Kṛtavarman the great chariot-warrior overcame the Cedis, the Pāñcālas, and the Sṛñjayas too, and the mighty Kekayas.

7.90.48 The Pāṇḍavas, being struck down in battle by the son of Hṛdika, running this way and that, could find no firmness in the fray.

7.90.49 Having vanquished the sons of Pāṇḍu in the fight, those led by Bhīmasena, the son of Hṛdika stood in the battle like a smokeless fire.

7.90.50 Those great chariot-warriors, driven off in the battle by the son of Hṛdika and afflicted by his showers of arrows, were turned to flight.

7.91.1 Saṃjaya said: Hear with single mind, O King, that which you ask of me, when that host was being driven off by the high-souled son of Hṛdika.

7.91.2 And while your men rejoiced and the Pāṇḍavas were bowed down with shame, he who had been an island to them as they sought a foothold in fathomless depths—

7.91.3 hearing the terrible roar of your men in the great battle, the Śaineya in haste, O King, advanced upon Kṛtavarman.

7.91.4 But Kṛtavarman, son of Hṛdika, in great wrath covered the Śaineya with sharpened shafts; thereat Sātyaki grew wrathful.

7.91.5 Then the Śaineya sent a well-sharpened broad-headed shaft at Kṛtavarman in the battle, and four other arrows besides.

7.91.6 They slew his horses; with a broad-headed shaft he severed his bow, and he pierced the rear-guard and the charioteer too with sharpened shafts.

7.91.7 Then, having made him chariotless, Sātyaki of true valor afflicted his army with smooth-jointed shafts.

7.91.8 Then that host, tormented by the Śaineya's shafts, broke apart; and Sātyaki of true valor pressed swiftly onward.

7.91.9 Hear, O King, what that valiant one did among your troops, when, O great King, he had passed beyond the great ocean that was Droṇa's host.

7.91.10 And the hero, gladdened at having vanquished Kṛtavarman in the battle, said calmly and without flurry to his charioteer, "Go on slowly."

7.91.11 But beholding that army of yours, thronged with chariots, horses, and elephants and filled with foot-soldiers, he spoke again to his charioteer:

7.91.12 "That vast elephant-division, dark like a cloud, to the left of Droṇa's host, whose front is the warrior of the golden chariot—

7.91.13 these many, O charioteer, are hard to ward off in battle—commanded by Duryodhana, having given up their lives for my sake, princes and mighty archers, all of them warriors of daring valor.

7.91.14 The noble chariot-warriors of the Trigartas, with banners wrought of gold, those heroes stand drawn up facing me alone, ready to fight.

7.91.15 Bring me there quickly; urge on the horses, O charioteer—I shall fight with the Trigartas before the very eyes of the son of Bharadvāja."

7.91.16 Then the charioteer, abiding by the Sātvata's wish, advanced slowly with the chariot sun-hued, gleaming, and bannered.

7.91.17 Obedient to the charioteer, prancing, the excellent horses bore him, swift as the wind in battle, gleaming like jasmine, the moon, and silver.

7.91.18 As that chariot rushed on with its conch-hued excellent horses, the heroes then hemmed it in on every side with an elephant-division, scattering various sharp, swift-piercing shafts.

7.91.19 The Sātvata too with whetted arrows assailed the elephant-division, as a great cloud assails the mountains with rain at the end of the hot season.

7.91.20 Struck by arrows whose touch was like the thunderbolt and lightning, sped by the strength of Śini's line, the elephants fled, abandoning the battle.

7.91.21 Their tusks broken, bleeding, the bony swellings of their heads burst open, ears, mouths, and trunks torn, bereft of drivers and banners,

7.91.22 their armor and bells shattered, their great standards cut down, their riders slain and their housings fallen, they fled, O King, in all directions.

7.91.23 Bellowing manifold cries, with a din like that of clouds, they were torn open by the Sātvata with iron shafts and calf-tooth arrows.

7.91.24 When that elephant-division was put to flight, Jalasaṃdha the great chariot-warrior, intent, brought his elephant toward the silver-horsed chariot.

7.91.25 The hero, gold-hued of hand, with armlets of refined gold, pure, wearing earrings, a crown, and a conch-armlet, smeared with red sandal,

7.91.26 bearing on his head a blazing garland wrought of refined gold, bearing on his breast a golden ornament and a gleaming neck-chain,

7.91.27 and brandishing a bow wrought with gold upon the elephant's head, shone, O great King, like a rain-cloud charged with lightning.

7.91.28 As the Magadha king's noble elephant rushed suddenly on, Sātyaki held it back as the shore holds the surging sea.

7.91.29 Seeing his elephant held back by the Śaineya's finest shafts, Jalasaṃdha of mighty strength grew wrathful in the battle, O King.

7.91.30 Then the wrathful mighty archer Jalasaṃdha pierced the grandson of Śini upon the broad chest with shafts that bear a heavy work.

7.91.31 Then with another broad-headed shaft, yellow and sharpened, he cut asunder the bow of the Vṛṣṇi hero as he was shooting.

7.91.32 At Sātyaki, whose bow was severed, as though laughing, O Bhārata, the Magadha hero shot, striking him with five sharpened shafts.

7.91.33 Though pierced by many arrows from Jalasaṃdha, the valiant, mighty-armed one did not waver—and that was as it were a marvel.

7.91.34 Heeding the arrows not at all, the mighty one, without much flurry, took up another bow and said, "Stand, stand!"

7.91.35 Having spoken thus, the grandson of Śini pierced Jalasaṃdha full in his broad chest with sixty arrows, driving them home with force, as though laughing the while.

7.91.36 And with a yellow razor-edged shaft he cut through Jalasaṃdha's great bow at the grip, and struck him with three more arrows.

7.91.37 But Jalasaṃdha, casting aside that bow with its arrow, swiftly hurled a lance at Sātyaki, O honoured one.

7.91.38 Having pierced through the left arm of the Mādhava in that great battle, the dreadful weapon plunged into the earth, hissing like a mighty serpent.

7.91.39 Though his left arm was pierced through, Sātyaki of true valour smote Jalasaṃdha with thirty sharp shafts.

7.91.40 Then mighty Jalasaṃdha, seizing a sword and a great bull's-hide shield adorned with a hundred moons, and whirling that sword, flung it at the Sātvata.

7.91.41 That sword, having cut through the bow of the grandson of Śini, fell to the earth, and lying upon the ground it gleamed like a whirling circle of firebrand.

7.91.42 Then, taking up another bow that could tear through any body, like the trunk of a śāla tree, twanging like Indra's thunderbolt, the wrathful one drew it and pierced Jalasaṃdha with an arrow.

7.91.43 Then with two razor-shafts the foremost of the Mādhavas, as though laughing, cut off both of Jalasaṃdha's arms, still bearing their ornaments and armlets.

7.91.44 Those two arms, like iron bludgeons, fell from that finest of elephants, dropping from him who bore them earthward, like a pair of five-hooded serpents.

7.91.45 Then with a third razor-shaft Sātyaki severed his head, fine of tooth and jaw, with comely earrings and a lifted nose.

7.91.46 That headless, armless trunk, terrible to behold, drenched Jalasaṃdha's elephant with its blood.

7.91.47 Having slain Jalasaṃdha in the fray, the Sātvata in haste struck down the Niṣāda prince too from the elephant's shoulders, O lord of peoples.

7.91.48 Jalasaṃdha's elephant, its limbs bathed in blood, bore upon it the splendid seat hanging askew and clinging fast to its back.

7.91.49 Tormented by the Sātvata's arrows, the great elephant, trampling its own ranks and uttering a dreadful cry of anguish, fled away.

7.91.50 A great cry of woe arose among your troops, O honoured one, when they saw Jalasaṃdha slain by that bull of the Vṛṣṇis.

7.91.51 Your warriors, turning their faces away, fled on every side, eager now for flight and without heart to vanquish the foe.

7.91.52 At that moment, O king, Droṇa, foremost of those who bear arms, advanced with swift horses upon Yuyudhāna, the great chariot-warrior.

7.91.53 Seeing the grandson of Śini thus raging, the bulls of the Kurus, wrathful, together with Droṇa hemmed Sātyaki in on all sides.

7.91.54 Then there broke out a battle between the Kurus and the Sātvata, and between Droṇa and him in that fray, O king — dreadful, like the war of gods and demons.

7.92.1 Saṃjaya said: All those striking warriors, straining to the utmost and showering volleys of arrows, fought Yuyudhāna in haste, O great king.

7.92.2 Droṇa struck him with seventy-seven sharp arrows, Durmarṣaṇa with twelve, and Duḥsaha with ten shafts.

7.92.3 And Vikarṇa pierced him with thirty sharp heron-feathered arrows in the left flank, and in the space between his breasts.

7.92.4 Durmukha struck the grandson of Śini with ten arrows, Duḥśāsana with eight, and Citrasena with two, O honoured one.

7.92.5 And Duryodhana with a great rain of arrows beset the Mādhava in the battle, O king, as did other heroic great chariot-warriors.

7.92.6 Though pierced on every side by your sons, those great chariot-warriors, the grandson of Śini struck back at each of them severally with straight-flying shafts.

7.92.7 He struck the son of Bharadvāja with three arrows, Duḥsaha with nine, Vikarṇa with twenty-five, and Citrasena with seven.

7.92.8 He struck Durmarṣaṇa with twelve, Viviṃśati with four, Satyavrata with nine, and Vijaya with ten arrows.

7.92.9 Then, brandishing his gold-banded bow, the great chariot-warrior Sātyaki swiftly advanced upon your son, that great chariot-warrior.

7.92.10 He smote with deep-driven arrows that king of all the world, that best of all who bear weapons; then there arose a battle between the two.

7.92.11 Loosing sharp arrows and fitting fresh shafts to string, those two great chariot-warriors made each other invisible in the battle.

7.92.12 Sātyaki, pierced deep by the king of the Kurus, shone resplendent, the blood flowing freely from him like sap from a sandal tree.

7.92.13 And your son, pierced through by the floods of the Sātvata's arrows, gleamed like a tall sacrificial post crowned with a golden wreath.

7.92.14 But the Mādhava in that fray, O king, swiftly cut through the bow of the Kuru king, that bowman, with a razor-shaft, as though laughing; and then, his bow severed, he covered him with many arrows.

7.92.15 Pierced by the arrows of that swift-acting foe, the king could not endure in battle this mark of his enemy's triumph.

7.92.16 Then, taking up another bow, gold-backed and hard to withstand, he swiftly pierced Sātyaki with a hundred shafts.

7.92.17 Sorely pierced by your mighty son, that bowman, and overcome with fury, he beset your son in turn.

7.92.18 Seeing the king hard pressed, your sons, those great chariot-warriors, at once covered the Sātvata with a rain of arrows.

7.92.19 Covered by your many sons, those great chariot-warriors, he pierced each of them with five arrows and then struck them again with seven.

7.92.20 And swiftly he pierced Duryodhana with eight fleet shafts, and laughing, he cut through his bow that struck terror in foes.

7.92.21 With his arrows he brought down the jewelled serpent-banner, and slaying the four horses with four sharp shafts, the illustrious one struck down the charioteer with a razor-shaft.

7.92.22 And at that same moment, exulting, he overwhelmed the Kuru king, that great chariot-warrior, with many arrows that pierce the vital parts.

7.92.23 Struck down in the fray by the finest arrows of the grandson of Śini, your son Duryodhana suddenly fled, O king, and leapt up into the chariot of Citrasena the bowman.

7.92.24 The whole world cried out in dismay to see the king in that battle being devoured by Sātyaki, as the moon in the sky is devoured by Rāhu.

7.92.25 Hearing that great clamour, Kṛtavarman, the great chariot-warrior, rushed at once to the place where the lordly Mādhava stood.

7.92.26 Brandishing his excellent bow, urging on his horses, and fiercely chiding his charioteer, he cried in haste, "On, on!"

7.92.27 Beholding him bearing down like Death with gaping jaws, Yuyudhāna, O great king, spoke thus to his driver:

7.92.28 "Kṛtavarman, armed with arrows, comes swiftly upon us in his chariot. Drive forward to meet him, this foremost of all bowmen."

7.92.29 Then, with horses urged to full speed and his chariot duly arrayed, he closed in battle with the Bhoja, the very measure of all archers.

7.92.30 Then those two tigers among men, blazing in utmost wrath like two fires, came together like two swift and furious tigers.

7.92.31 Kṛtavarman assailed the grandson of Śini with twenty-six sharp, keen shafts, and his charioteer with seven.

7.92.32 And with four excellent arrows he struck the four noble horses of the Sātvata, those well-trained steeds of the Sindhu breed.

7.92.33 He of the golden banner, the golden armlets, and the golden mail, twanging his great gold-backed bow, poured forth gold-feathered arrows.

7.92.34 Then the grandson of Śini, intent and eager to behold Dhanaṃjaya, swiftly sped eighty shafts at Kṛtavarman.

7.92.35 Sorely pierced by his mighty foe, that scorcher of foes, unassailable though he was, trembled as a mountain trembles in an earthquake.

7.92.36 With sixty-three sharp arrows Sātyaki swiftly pierced Kṛtavarman's four horses, and his charioteer with seven.

7.92.37 Fitting a gold-feathered shaft to his bow, Sātyaki loosed it, blazing with great flame like an enraged serpent.

7.92.38 That arrow, like the rod of Yama, entered Kṛtavarman, and piercing through his shining armour wrought of gold, it plunged fierce into the earth, drenched with blood.

7.92.39 Bleeding in the fray and tormented by the Sātvata's arrows, he reeled, and letting fall his bow, sank down upon his splendid chariot.

7.92.40 That bull among men, lion-toothed and of measureless valour, tormented by Sātyaki's arrows, fell to his knees upon the floor of his chariot.

7.92.41 Having checked Kṛtavarman — peer of the thousand-armed Arjuna, unshakable as the ocean — Sātyaki then passed onward.

7.92.42 Strewn with swords, spears, and bows, thronged with elephants, horses, and chariots, made to flow with rivers of dread blood by hundreds of bulls among the warriors —

7.92.43 — through the midst of that host the bull of the Śinis broke, before the eyes of all the troops, cleaving the army as the slayer of Vṛtra cleaves the demon array.

7.92.44 And the son of Hṛdika, having recovered himself and taken up another great bow, stood his ground there, mighty as he was, holding back the Pāṇḍavas in the fight.

7.93.1 Saṃjaya said: As the troops were being driven hither and thither by the grandson of Śini, the son of Bharadvāja overwhelmed him with great showers of arrows.

7.93.2 Tumultuous grew that combat between Droṇa and the Sātvata, before the eyes of all the troops, like the strife of Bali and Vāsava.

7.93.3 Then Droṇa pierced the grandson of Śini in the forehead with three bright all-iron arrows shaped like venomous snakes.

7.93.4 With those straight-flying arrows fixed in his forehead, Yuyudhāna shone, O great king, like a three-peaked mountain.

7.93.5 Then the son of Bharadvāja, watching for his opening, sped at him still more arrows that rang like Indra's thunderbolt in the fray.

7.93.6 Those arrows loosed from Droṇa's bow as they came flying, the Dāśārha, that master of supreme weapons, cut down two by two with well-feathered shafts.

7.93.7 Beholding that nimbleness of his, O lord of peoples, Droṇa laughed and suddenly pierced the bull of the Śinis with twenty arrows.

7.93.8 Again he assailed him with fifty arrows and then with a hundred, surpassing Yuyudhāna's nimbleness with his own swiftness of hand.

7.93.9 As angry great serpents dart up from an anthill, so, O king, did the body-cleaving shafts dart up from Droṇa's chariot.

7.93.10 And in like manner the arrows loosed by Yuyudhāna in their hundreds and thousands, those blood-drinking shafts, rained down upon Droṇa's chariot.

7.93.11 Between the swiftness of hand of that foremost of brāhmaṇas and of the Sātvata, O honoured one, we could mark no difference: those two bulls among men were equal.

7.93.12 Then Sātyaki, sorely wroth, smote Droṇa with nine smooth-jointed arrows, and his banner with sharp shafts, and his charioteer with a full hundred, while the son of Bharadvāja looked on.

7.93.13 Seeing Yuyudhāna's swiftness of hand, Droṇa, the great chariot-warrior, pierced Sātyaki with seventy arrows, his horses with three apiece, and with a single shaft struck the banner standing on the Mādhava's chariot.

7.93.14 Then with another gold-feathered, broad-headed winged shaft he cut through, in the battle, the bow of the high-souled Mādhava.

7.93.15 Then Sātyaki, that great chariot-warrior, wroth, cast aside his bow, seized a mighty mace, and hurled it at the son of Bharadvāja.

7.93.16 That iron mace bound about with cloth, as it came hurtling on, Droṇa warded off with many arrows of manifold forms.

7.93.17 Then Sātyaki, whose valor was unfailing, took up another bow and pierced the hero, the son of Bharadvāja, with many shafts whetted on stone.

7.93.18 Having wounded Droṇa in the battle, he let loose a lion's roar; but Droṇa, foremost of all who bear arms, would not endure it.

7.93.19 Then, taking up a spear of iron with a golden shaft, he hurled it with force toward the chariot of the Mādhava.

7.93.20 But that spear, like unto Death, failing to reach the grandson of Śini, cleaved through the chariot and, fierce and dreadful in its sound, plunged into the earth.

7.93.21 Then, O king, the grandson of Śini pierced Droṇa with a winged shaft, striking his right arm and afflicting him sorely, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.93.22 Droṇa too, O king, in the battle severed the great bow of the Mādhava with a crescent-headed arrow, and struck down his charioteer with a chariot-lance.

7.93.23 His charioteer, smitten by the chariot-lance, swooned away; sinking down into the floor of the car, he sat there senseless for a while.

7.93.24 Then Sātyaki, O king, performed there a more than human feat, for he both fought against Droṇa and himself took up the reins.

7.93.25 Then the great car-warrior Yuyudhāna, his face glad with joy, O lord of peoples, pierced the brāhmaṇa in the battle with a hundred shafts.

7.93.26 Droṇa sent against him five arrows, O Bhārata; piercing his armor, they drank his blood in the fray.

7.93.27 Sorely pierced by those dreadful shafts, Sātyaki grew exceedingly wrathful, and the hero loosed his arrows against the golden-charioted one.

7.93.28 Then, having felled Droṇa's driver to the ground with a single arrow, with his shafts he drove off the horses of that high-souled one, now bereft of their charioteer.

7.93.29 That chariot, careering through the battle, traced circles by the thousand, O king, shining like the radiant sun.

7.93.30 "Charge! Seize Droṇa's horses! Run!" — thus did all the princes, together with their kings, cry out.

7.93.31 Setting Sātyaki aside in haste, O king, those great car-warriors all at once rushed forward to wherever Droṇa was.

7.93.32 Seeing them all in flight, tormented by the arrows of the Sātvata, your army, broken once more, fell again into confusion.

7.93.33 Having gone again to the gate of the battle-array, Droṇa took his stand there, carried thither by those horses that ran like the wind, sorely afflicted by the shafts of the Vṛṣṇi.

7.93.34 Beholding his array shattered by the Pāṇḍavas and the Pāñcālas, the valiant one made no further effort against the grandson of Śini, but turned to the guarding of the array itself.

7.93.35 Driving back the Pāṇḍavas and Pāñcālas, Droṇa, like a fire consuming all, stood there blazing with the fire of his wrath, like the sun of doom risen high.

7.94.1 Saṃjaya said: That foremost of men, the hero of Śini's line, having vanquished Droṇa and likewise your warriors led by the son of Hṛdika, laughed and spoke these words to his charioteer, O chief among the bulls of the Kurus.

7.94.2 "We are but the instrument here, O charioteer; the foes have been consumed by Keśava and Phalguna. Here we but slay the already slain — through that bull among men, sprung from the very self of the lord of the gods."

7.94.3 Having spoken thus, that bull of Śini's line, the foremost bowman, the slayer of foes, the mighty one, scattering his shafts on every side at once in that great battle, swooped down as a hawk upon its prey.

7.94.4 As he advanced, borne by horses of the hue of the moon and the conch, plunging into the host, that foremost of men, that chief of warriors, equal to the rays of the sun, they could not on any side hold him back.

7.94.5 Him of irresistible prowess and undaunted spirit, hard to withstand, O Bhārata, all those companies found unbearable — equal in might to the thousand-eyed one, like the sun in the sky when the clouds have passed.

7.94.6 But Sudarśana, that best of kings, filled with wrath, a wondrously skilled fighter, a great bowman clad in golden mail, by main force checked the onrushing Sātyaki.

7.94.7 Then there arose between the two, O Bhārata, a most terrible encounter, which both your warriors and the Somakas applauded, even as the hosts of the immortals praised the combat of Vṛtra and Indra.

7.94.8 With keen shafts by the hundred Sudarśana pierced the chief of the Sātvatas in the battle; but that bull of Śini's line cut those arrows asunder with his own shafts before ever they reached him.

7.94.9 In like manner, the arrows that Sātyaki, the peer of Śakra, hurled at Sudarśana, Sudarśana, mounted on his excellent car, split into two and into three with his choicest shafts.

7.94.10 Beholding his arrows then struck down by the force of Sātyaki's shafts, Sudarśana, of fierce energy, as though about to consume him in his wrath, loosed arrows bright as burnished gold.

7.94.11 Again, with three arrows like unto fire, drawn back to the ear, keen and well-feathered, he pierced him; breaking through his body-armor, they entered Sātyaki's flesh.

7.94.12 Then likewise the king's son, fixing other blazing arrows to the string, struck by main force, with four shafts, those four horses bright as silver.

7.94.13 Thus smitten by him, the swift grandson of Śini, whose valor was equal to Indra's, swiftly slew Sudarśana's horses with his keen volleys of arrows and sounded a roar.

7.94.14 Then, having cut off the head of his charioteer with a broad-headed shaft like the thunderbolt of Indra, the hero of Śini's line by main force severed the head of Sudarśana himself with a razor-edged arrow.

7.94.15 That radiant face, decked with earrings and bright as the full moon, he struck from the body, even as of old the wielder of the thunderbolt by force struck off the head of the exceedingly mighty Bala in battle, O king.

7.94.16 Having slain in battle that son and grandson of kings, the swift bull of the Yadus, that high-souled one, filled with the highest joy, shone forth, O king, like the king of the gods.

7.94.17 Then, holding back your host with floods of arrows, that hero among men set forth toward Arjuna, riding on a chariot yoked with goodly steeds, as if to fill the worlds with wonder as he went.

7.94.18 That supreme and marvelous deed of his the assembled foremost warriors honored — that he consumed with his shafts the foes who came within the range of his arrows, even as the fire-god devours all.

7.95.1 Saṃjaya said: Then that wise and high-souled Sātyaki, the bull of the Vṛṣṇis, having slain Sudarśana in the battle, spoke thus to his charioteer:

7.95.2 "Choked with chariots, horses, and elephants, garlanded with waves of arrows and spears, with swords for its fishes and maces for its sea-monsters, loud with the din of the weapons of heroes;

7.95.3 life-stealing and terrible, resounding with the clamor of war-instruments, painful to the touch of warriors, unassailable to those who longed to conquer it —

7.95.4 we have crossed, dear friend, that hard-to-cross great ocean which is Droṇa's army, beset in battle by the force of Jalasandha as if by man-eating demons.

7.95.5 The remnant of the host beyond this I deem but a paltry rivulet, fordable and shallow of water; urge on the horses, untroubled.

7.95.6 Now that I have vanquished in battle the irresistible Droṇa together with his followers, I count Savyasācin as good as reached by my hand.

7.95.7 Having overcome the son of Hṛdika, that best of warriors, I count Dhanaṃjaya as reached; for no fear arises in me at the sight of these manifold hosts, which are to me like dry grass and reeds before a blazing fire in summer.

7.95.8 Behold the ground traversed by the diademed chief of the Pāṇḍavas, made rough with the fallen masses of foot-soldiers, horses, chariots, and elephants.

7.95.9 I deem him near at hand — him of the white steeds, whose charioteer is Kṛṣṇa; for there, lo, is heard the sound of Gāṇḍīva of boundless might.

7.95.10 By such omens as appear to me, before the sun has set Arjuna shall slay the ruler of the Sindhus.

7.95.11 Soothing the horses gently, drive on with care against the enemy's host, to where these warriors clad in armor stand, led by Suyodhana —

7.95.12 the mailed Kāmbojas of cruel deeds, frenzied for battle, bearers of arrows and bows, and the Yavanas, hard smiters,

7.95.13 the Śakas, Kirātas, Daradas, Barbaras, and the men of Tāmralipta, and many other barbarians, weapons of every kind in hand — all stand facing me, eager for the fight.

7.95.14 Once I have slain these in battle, with their chariots, elephants, horses, and foot-soldiers, know this dread and most terrible stronghold to be already crossed.

7.95.15 The charioteer said: No agitation is in me, O scion of the Vṛṣṇis, O thou of unfailing valor, even were the wrathful son of Jamadagni to stand before us;

7.95.16 or Droṇa, the best of car-warriors, or Kṛpa, or even the lord of the Madras — still no agitation would there be, leaning upon thee, O mighty-armed one.

7.95.17 Very many hast thou vanquished in battle, O slayer of foes, and never before has any agitation come upon me at any time — how much less now, O hero, on meeting this mere cow's-hoofprint of a fight?

7.95.18 O long-lived one, by which way shall I bring thee to Dhanaṃjaya? Against whom art thou wrathful, O scion of the Vṛṣṇis? For whom has death drawn near? Whose minds are eager today to go to the city of Yama?

7.95.19 Who, beholding thee in battle ranging in thy prowess, like Yama the ender at the time of doom, endowed with valor, shall flee in the fray? Of whom does king Vaivasvata think today, O mighty-armed one?

7.95.20 Sātyaki said: These shaven-headed ones I shall slay, as Vāsava slew the Dānavas; I shall fulfill my vow. Bear me straight against the Kāmbojas; having wrought their slaughter today, swiftly shall I go to the Pāṇḍava.

7.95.21 Today shall the Kauravas with Suyodhana behold my valor, O charioteer, when the host of the shaven-headed ones, and all the armies, are slain again and again.

7.95.22 Today, hearing the manifold outcry of the Kaurava host as it is rent asunder in the battle, Suyodhana shall be consumed with grief.

7.95.23 Today, in the battle, I shall display the path of mastery taught me by my teacher — the high-souled chief of the Pāṇḍavas, him of the white steeds.

7.95.24 Today, beholding the foremost warriors slain by my shafts in their thousands, king Duryodhana shall fall into remorse.

7.95.25 Today the Kauravas shall behold my bow, as I let fly my choicest arrows with swift hand, like a wheel of blazing firebrands.

7.95.26 Beholding the slaughter of the soldiers, their limbs studded with my shafts and streaming much blood, Suyodhana shall be consumed with grief.

7.95.27 Today, as I strike down the best of the best in my form of wrath, that Suyodhana shall deem this world to hold a second Arjuna.

7.95.28 Today, beholding kings by the thousand slain by me in the battle, king Duryodhana shall be consumed with grief in that great encounter.

7.95.29 Today, slaying kings by the thousand, I shall show forth among the kings my love and my devotion to the high-souled Pāṇḍavas.

7.95.30 Saṃjaya said: Thus addressed, the charioteer then urged on sharply the well-trained, smoothly-bearing steeds, white as the moon.

7.95.31 Those excellent horses, swift as thought and wind, as if drinking up the sky, bore Yuyudhāna swiftly to the Yavanas.

7.95.32 Coming upon Sātyaki, who never turned back in battle, many of them, light of hand, covered him with showers of arrows.

7.95.33 But their arrows and their weapons Sātyaki cut down with swift, smooth-jointed shafts, O king, and those arrows of theirs did not reach him.

7.95.34 With keen, straight-flying shafts, gold-nocked and winged with vulture-feathers, the fierce one struck off the heads of the Yavanas, and their arms as well.

7.95.35 Cleaving on every side their armor of wrought iron and of bronze, and likewise their bodies, his arrows passed on into the surface of the earth.

7.95.36 Those barbarians, smitten by the hero Sātyaki in the battle, fell there by the hundred, lifeless, upon the bosom of the earth.

7.95.37 With shafts loosed from a fully-drawn bow, falling unbroken and close-clustered, he pierced the Yavanas five, six, seven, and eight at a time.

7.95.38 With the thousands of the Kāmbojas and of the Śakas, O lord of peoples, of the Śabaras, the Kirātas, and the Barbaras as well,

7.95.39 the grandson of Śini made the earth there impassable to look upon, a mire of flesh and blood, as he wasted away your host.

7.95.40 With the helmeted heads of the marauders, their locks shorn off, the earth was strewn here and there, as if with plumeless birds.

7.95.41 Covered all over with those headless trunks, every limb sprinkled with blood, that battlefield shone like the sky overspread with coppery clouds.

7.95.42 Slain by his well-jointed, straight-flying shafts, whose touch was as the thunderbolt and the lightning, they, together with their horses and chariots, lay covering the earth.

7.95.43 Few left remaining, broken, their lives barely clinging, bereft of sense — thus, O great king, were the mailed warriors vanquished in battle by Yuyudhāna.

7.95.44 Goading their horses with heels and whips, the warriors took to their swiftest pace and fled in terror in every direction.

7.95.45 Having routed the Kāmboja host, hard to vanquish in battle, O Bhārata, and the army of the Yavanas and the great force of the Śakas,

7.95.46 that tiger among men, Sātyaki of true valour, having joyfully conquered your troops, urged his charioteer, saying, 'Drive on!'

7.95.47 As he rode on, the guardian of Arjuna's rear, O lord of peoples, the Cāraṇas beheld him with delight, and even your own warriors paid him honour.

7.96.1 Saṃjaya said: Having conquered the Yavanas and the Kāmbojas, Yuyudhāna, that foremost of chariot-warriors, then advanced toward Arjuna through the midst of your army.

7.96.2 That tiger among men, sharp-fanged and gleaming in his many-coloured armour, terrified your army as a tiger sniffing out deer strikes fear into them.

7.96.3 Coursing along the paths in his chariot, he whirled his bow with great force—a bow gold-backed, mighty in might, studded with golden crescents.

7.96.4 With golden armlets and golden helm, encased in golden mail, that hero of the splendid golden banner shone like a peak of Meru.

7.96.5 His drawn bow bent into a circle in the fray, radiant with beams of brilliant lustre, that sun among men blazed forth like the autumn sun newly risen.

7.96.6 Striding with shoulders like a bull's, bull-eyed, that bull among men shone amid your troops as a bull amid the cattle.

7.96.7 Resembling a rutting elephant, moving with the gait of a rutting elephant, standing like a must elephant with temples streaming in the midst of his herd—your men, like tigers bent on the kill, rushed upon him in battle.

7.96.8 He had passed through Droṇa's division and the Bhoja division, hard to cross, and had crossed the ocean-like array and the host of the Kāmbojas as one fords a flood-swollen sea.

7.96.9 As he won free of that sea of soldiers, with Hārdikya for its sea-monster, and crossed it, your chariot-warriors in great wrath encircled Sātyaki.

7.96.10 Duryodhana, Citrasena, Duḥśāsana and Viviṃśati, Śakuni and Duḥsaha, the youth Durmarṣaṇa, and Krātha—

7.96.11 and many other heroes, weapon-bearing and unassailable, gave chase, enraged, to Sātyaki as he rode ahead of them.

7.96.12 Then there arose a mighty din from your army, O sire, like that of the sea whipped to fury by the wind on the day of the full moon.

7.96.13 Beholding them all rushing upon him, that bull of Śini's line said to his charioteer, smiling, as it were, 'Drive on, but slowly.'

7.96.14 'See how the host of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son comes surging on, straight and swift against me, with its elephants, horse, chariots, and foot.'

7.96.15 'It makes all the quarters resound with the rumble of its chariots, O charioteer, and makes the earth and the sky tremble, and the very seas besides.'

7.96.16 'This ocean of armies, my friend, I shall stem in the great battle, as the shore stems the swollen waters on the night of the full moon.'

7.96.17 'Behold my prowess in the great fray, O charioteer, like that of Indra; see, I scatter the armies of the foe with my whetted shafts.'

7.96.18 'Behold foot, horse, chariots, and elephants slain in battle by my shafts, bright as fire, robbed of their lives by the thousand.'

7.96.19 As Sātyaki of measureless might spoke thus, your soldiers, eager for the fight, swiftly closed upon him, crying, 'Strike! Charge! Stand fast! Look there, look there!'

7.96.20 As those heroes shouted thus, Sātyaki with his keen shafts slew three hundred of their horses and four hundred of their elephants.

7.96.21 That tumultuous clash between him and those bowmen, like the war of gods and demons, set in motion a great slaughter of men.

7.96.22 The grandson of Śini received the army of your son, dense as a mass of clouds, O sire, with shafts that were like venomous serpents.

7.96.23 Though veiled over in the battle by nets of arrows, that valiant one, unflustered, O great king, slew many of your warriors.

7.96.24 A very great marvel did I behold there, O lord of kings: not one shaft of Sātyaki's, O lord, fell in vain.

7.96.25 Thick with chariots, elephants, and horses, churning with waves of foot-soldiers, that vast ocean of an army, reaching the shore that was the scion of Śini, came to a halt.

7.96.26 With its men, elephants, and horses thrown into confusion, it wheeled about again and again; that army, smitten on every side by his arrows, milled hither and thither like cattle tormented by the cold.

7.96.27 Footman, chariot, elephant, horseman, and horse alike—not one did I see there unpierced by the shafts of Yuyudhāna.

7.96.28 Not such havoc, O king, did Phalguna work there as the destruction Sātyaki wrought among the divisions; the grandson of Śini fought surpassing even Arjuna, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.96.29 Then King Duryodhana pierced the charioteer of the Sātvata with three keen shafts, and with four more his four horses.

7.96.30 Having struck Sātyaki with three shafts, he pierced him again with eight, while Duḥśāsana pierced that bull of Śini's line with sixteen.

7.96.31 Śakuni with twenty-five, Citrasena with five, and Duḥsaha with fifteen pierced Sātyaki in the breast.

7.96.32 That tiger of the Vṛṣṇis, smiling though thus smitten with arrows, pierced every one of them, O great king, with three shafts apiece.

7.96.33 Having pierced his foes deeply with those exceedingly sharp arrows, the scion of Śini ranged through the battle like a hawk, swift and nimble in his movements.

7.96.34 Having cut Saubala's bow and severed his leather hand-guard, he struck Duryodhana with three arrows between the breasts.

7.96.35 That bull of Śini's line pierced Citrasena with a hundred shafts, Duḥsaha with ten, and Duḥśāsana with twenty.

7.96.36 Then your brother-in-law, taking up another bow, O lord of peoples, pierced Sātyaki with eight shafts and again with five.

7.96.37 And Duḥśāsana with ten, Duḥsaha with three shafts, and Durmukha with twelve, O king, pierced Sātyaki.

7.96.38 Duryodhana, O Bhārata, having pierced the Mādhava with seventy-three shafts, then struck his charioteer with three keen arrows.

7.96.39 All those heroes together, those mighty car-warriors straining their utmost, Sātyaki pierced again, each with five arrows.

7.96.40 Then that foremost of chariot-warriors swiftly struck the charioteer of your son with a broad-headed shaft, and the slain man fell to the ground.

7.96.41 When that charioteer was struck down, the chariot of your son, O lord, was carried off from the field by those horses that ran like the wind.

7.96.42 Then your sons, O king, and the soldiers, O lord of peoples, beholding the king's chariot borne away, fled by the hundreds.

7.96.43 Seeing that army in flight, O Bhārata, Sātyaki overwhelmed it with sharp arrows, gold-feathered and whetted on stone.

7.96.44 Having routed all your troops on every side, Sātyaki went on, O king, toward the chariot of him whose steeds were white.

7.96.45 As he took up his arrows, guarded his charioteer, and delivered his own self from peril, your warriors paid him honour.

7.97.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When the scion of Śini, having crushed that great army, was going on toward Arjuna, what did my shameless sons do then, O Saṃjaya?

7.97.2 And how, in such a battle, could there be any firmness left in those doomed men, when they had seen the scion of Śini bear himself like Savyasācin himself?

7.97.3 What will they say of their warriorhood, vanquished there in the midst of the host? And how did Sātyaki of great renown pass them by in the battle?

7.97.4 And how, while my sons yet lived, did the scion of Śini press on there in the fight, O Saṃjaya? Tell me that truly.

7.97.5 Most wondrous is this that I hear from you, my son—the battle of one man against many foes, all of them mighty car-warriors.

7.97.6 I deem it an ill omen turned against my luckless sons, that they should be cut down in battle by the high-souled Sātvata.

7.97.7 For my whole army is not a match for that one man, O Saṃjaya—for Yuyudhāna in his wrath; let all the Pāṇḍavas stand aside!

7.97.8 Having vanquished in battle Droṇa, the skilled, the unconquerable in war, he slays my sons as a lion slays a herd of beasts.

7.97.9 By Kṛtavarman and the many other heroes, striving hard in the fray, Yuyudhāna, that bull among men, could not be slain.

7.97.10 Not such a fight did Phalguna wage there as the fight that the grandson of Śini, of great renown, has waged.

7.97.11 Saṃjaya said: This is the fruit of your ill counsel, O king, and of Duryodhana's deeds. Listen attentively to what I shall tell you, O Bhārata.

7.97.12 They turned back once more, binding themselves to one another as sworn warriors, setting their hearts firmly upon battle, at the command of your son.

7.97.13 Three thousand horsemen, with Duryodhana at their head—Śakas, Kāmbojas, Bāhlīkas, Yavanas, and Pāradas as well—

7.97.14 Kuṇindas, Taṅgaṇas, Ambaṣṭhas, and the Paiśācas together with the Mandaras—rushed upon the scion of Śini as locusts rush upon a flame.

7.97.15 And the harnessed chariots of the highlanders who fight with stones, five hundred heroes strong, O king, charged upon the scion of Śini.

7.97.16 Then with a thousand chariots and a hundred mighty car-warriors, with a thousand elephants and two thousand horses,

7.97.17 those great car-warriors, loosing showers of arrows of every kind, rushed upon the scion of Śini, together with footmen past counting.

7.97.18 Urging them all on with the cry 'Slay him!', O Bhārata, Duḥśāsana, O great king, hemmed Sātyaki round about.

7.97.19 There we beheld the great and wondrous feat of the scion of Śini—that he alone fought, unflinching, against so many.

7.97.20 He slew the chariot-division and that force of elephants, and all the horsemen, and the barbarians too, every one of them.

7.97.21 There, with wheels crushed and the finest weapons shattered, with axles broken in many places, and shafts, poles, and chariot-frames,

7.97.22 with splintered chariot-poles and banners struck down, with coats of mail and yak-tail whisks, the earth lay all bestrewn.

7.97.23 With garlands, ornaments, garments, and chariot-trappings, O sire, the earth was covered over there, as the sky is covered with planets, O Bhārata.

7.97.24 And lordly elephants, mountain-like in form, lay fallen—born of the line of Añjana and of Vāmana, O Bhārata, born of the line of Supratīka and of the line of Mahāpadma as well,

7.97.25 and of the line of Airāvaṇa, and of yet other lines as well—those choicest of tuskers, O king, lay there slain in great numbers.

7.97.26 Horses of the finest breed—from Vanāyu, from the hill-country, from Kāmboja, Āraṭṭa, and Bāhlika—Sātyaki slew there, O king.

7.97.27 And footmen sprung from many lands and of many races the scion of Śini slew there by the hundreds and by the thousands.

7.97.28 As they were being driven before him, Duḥśāsana said to the barbarians, 'Turn back, you who know no law! Fight on! What good is your fleeing?'

7.97.29 And looking upon them all, your son Duḥśāsana spurred on the highland heroes who fought with stones.

7.97.30 'You are skilled in battle with stones; this Sātyaki knows it not. He knows not stone-warfare—slay him, this man so eager for the fight!'

7.97.31 'Just so, none of the Kurus are versed in battle with stones. Charge on, fear not! Sātyaki shall not overtake you.'

7.97.32 Then the mountain-dwellers, taking up boulders as large as young elephants, stood facing Yuyudhāna, longing for death.

7.97.33 Others too, hurling missiles and seeking the death of the Sātvata, urged on by your son, hemmed him in from every side.

7.97.34 As they rushed upon him, eager to wage war with stones, Sātyaki took aim and let fly thirty arrows.

7.97.35 That tumultuous rain of stones, loosed by the mountaineers, the bull of Śini's line shattered with iron shafts like serpents.

7.97.36 By the splinters of stone, blazing like swarms of fireflies, the troops for the most part were struck down, crying out in dismay, O honored one.

7.97.37 Then five hundred warriors, their great stones raised aloft, their arms severed, O king, fell to the surface of the earth.

7.97.38 He slew many thousands of those stone-fighting warriors who stood their ground and struggled on; and that seemed a marvel.

7.97.39 Then once more, on every side, a rain of stones was cast by the goat-faced ones, by the Ayohastas, the spear-wielders, the Daradas, and the throngs of Khaśas.

7.97.40 As the Ambaṣṭhas and the Kuṇindas hurled them again and again, the mighty Sātyaki, watching keenly, pierced each in turn with iron arrows.

7.97.41 As the boulders were split in mid-air by his sharp arrows, at that din, O king, the elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers fled.

7.97.42 Covered over with stone-dust, both men and birds were unable to hold their ground, as though stung by bees.

7.97.43 The elephants that survived the slaughter, streaming blood, their temple-bosses split open, turned away from the path of Yuyudhāna's chariot.

7.97.44 Then there arose from your army, tormented by the Mādhava, a din terrible as the roar of the ocean, O honored one.

7.97.45 Hearing that tumultuous din, Droṇa said to his charioteer: "Yonder, O charioteer, is the wrathful great warrior of the Sātvatas in battle.

7.97.46 Rending the host in many places, he ranges over the field like Death itself. Where that tumultuous din is heard, there, O charioteer, drive the chariot.

7.97.47 Surely Yuyudhāna has clashed with the stone-fighters, for all our chariot-warriors are being borne away by their bolting horses.

7.97.48 Stripped of weapons and armor, shattered, they fall here and there, and the drivers cannot rein in their horses amid the tumult."

7.97.49 As the wise son of Bharadvāja spoke thus, O king, the charioteer then answered Droṇa, foremost of weapon-bearers:

7.97.50 "O long-lived one, the Kaurava host is fleeing on every side. Behold the warriors broken in battle, running this way and that.

7.97.51 And these heroic Pāñcālas, united with the Pāṇḍavas, seeking to slay you yourself, are rushing forward from all sides.

7.97.52 Determine here what the moment demands, O tamer of foes—whether to stand fast or to advance; for Sātyaki has gone far afield."

7.97.53 Even as the son of Bharadvāja was speaking thus, O honored one, the scion of Śini came into view, striking down chariots of every kind.

7.97.54 Your men, being slaughtered in battle by Yuyudhāna, abandoned Yuyudhāna's chariot and fled toward Droṇa's division.

7.97.55 And those chariots with which Duḥśāsana had earlier turned to the fight—all of them, terrified, ran toward Droṇa's chariot.

7.98.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing Duḥśāsana's chariot drawn up close at hand, the son of Bharadvāja then spoke these words to Duḥśāsana:

7.98.2 "Duḥśāsana, why have all these chariots fled away? Is it well with the king? Does the lord of the Sindhus yet live?

7.98.3 You are here a king's son, a king's brother, a great chariot-warrior who has attained the rank of crown prince. Why then do you flee from the battle?

7.98.4 Having yourself stirred up this great enmity with the Pāñcālas and the Pāṇḍavas, how is it that on meeting Sātyaki alone you are afraid in battle?

7.98.5 Long ago, while you grasped the dice in the gaming hall, you did not know that these arrows would come to be, cruel as venomous serpents.

7.98.6 The speaking of harsh words to the Pāṇḍavas in particular, and the affliction of Draupadī—of these you alone were the root, long ago.

7.98.7 Where now is your pride and your arrogance? Where, O hero, is that roaring of yours? Having enraged the Pārthas, who are like venomous serpents, where will you go?

7.98.8 Pitiable is this army of the Bhāratas, and pitiable is King Suyodhana, whose hard-hearted brother you are—you who are bent on flight.

7.98.9 Surely, O hero, this host being torn apart and stricken with fear ought to have been guarded by you, relying on the might of your own arms; yet you this day, forsaking the battle in your terror, gladden the foe.

7.98.10 When you, the leader of the host, have fled, O slayer of foes, who else will stand his ground in battle, the fearful taking refuge in one already afraid?

7.98.11 Today, fighting against the Sātvata alone, O blameless one, your mind turns to flight from the battle.

7.98.12 When you behold in battle the wielder of the Gāṇḍīva, and Bhīmasena, O Kaurava, and the twins, then what will you do?

7.98.13 Not equal to Phalguna's arrows in battle, whose splendor is like the sun and fire, are these shafts of Sātyaki from which you flee in terror.

7.98.14 If indeed your mind is set on flight, then let the earth be given over to the King of Righteousness, and so make peace.

7.98.15 While Phalguna's iron shafts, like serpents loosed from their slough, have not yet entered your body, make your peace with the Pāṇḍavas.

7.98.16 While the high-souled Pārthas, having slain your hundred brothers in battle, have not yet seized the earth, make your peace with the Pāṇḍavas.

7.98.17 While King Yudhiṣṭhira, son of Dharma, is not yet wrathful, nor Kṛṣṇa who glories in battle, make your peace with the Pāṇḍavas.

7.98.18 While mighty-armed Bhīma, plunging into the great host, has not yet crushed your own brothers, make your peace with the Pāṇḍavas.

7.98.19 Long ago your brother Suyodhana was told by Bhīṣma: 'The Pāṇḍavas are unconquerable in war, O gentle one; make your peace with the Pāṇḍavas.' Yet that dull-witted brother of yours, Suyodhana, did not do so.

7.98.20 Now, summoning steadfastness in battle, fight on with effort against the Pāṇḍavas. Go swiftly by chariot to where Sātyaki stands.

7.98.21 This host, bereft of you, will scatter, O Bhārata. For your own sake, give battle in the field to Sātyaki of true valor."

7.98.22 Thus addressed, your son answered not a word, but, treating what he had heard as though unheard, set out toward where Sātyaki was.

7.98.23 Joined with a great host of unyielding Mlecchas, and reaching the field, he strove and gave battle to Yuyudhāna.

7.98.24 Droṇa too, foremost of chariot-warriors, in great wrath rushed upon the Pāñcālas and the Pāṇḍavas, holding to a measured speed.

7.98.25 And entering the array of the Pāñcālas in battle, Droṇa put their warriors to flight by hundreds and by thousands.

7.98.26 Then Droṇa, O great king, proclaiming his name aloud in the battle, wrought a great slaughter among the Pāṇḍavas, Pāñcālas, and Matsyas.

7.98.27 As the son of Bharadvāja was conquering the divisions on every side, the radiant Vīraketu, son of the Pāñcāla king, advanced against him.

7.98.28 He pierced Droṇa with five arrows of well-smoothed joints, struck his standard with one, and his charioteer with seven.

7.98.29 There, O great king, I beheld a marvel in the battle: that Droṇa did not at once move against the impetuous Pāñcāla prince in the fight.

7.98.30 Seeing Droṇa held in check in the battle, O honored one, the Pāñcālas, desiring the victory of Dharma's son, surrounded him on every side, O king.

7.98.31 With arrows like fire, with costly lances, and with weapons of every kind, O king, they overwhelmed Droṇa alone.

7.98.32 Droṇa struck down those swarms of arrows on every side, O king, as the wind sweeping the sky scatters great rain-clouds.

7.98.33 Then the slayer of enemy heroes fitted to his bow a most dreadful arrow, like the sun and fire, aimed at Vīraketu's chariot.

7.98.34 That arrow, O king, piercing the Pāñcāla prince, the delight of his line, swiftly entered the earth, wet with blood and blazing as it went.

7.98.35 Then the Pāñcāla prince, the delight of his line, fell swiftly from his chariot, like a great campaka tree from a mountain peak, beaten down by the wind.

7.98.36 When that mighty-armed prince, a great archer, was slain, the Pāñcālas in haste surrounded Droṇa on every side.

7.98.37 Citraketu and Sudhanvan, and Citravarman, O Bhārata, and Citraratha as well, racked by grief at their brother's ruin,

7.98.38 rushed together upon the son of Bharadvāja, eager to fight, loosing showers of arrows like rain-clouds at the close of the hot season.

7.98.39 Assailed in many ways by those princely great chariot-warriors, he, enraged in battle, stripped those youths of their horses, charioteers, and cars.

7.98.40 And with other keen-edged broad arrows, the illustrious one struck down their heads, as though plucking flowers.

7.98.41 Slain, those splendid warriors fell from their chariots to the earth, O king, as the Daiteyas and Dānavas fell of old in the war of the gods and demons.

7.98.42 Having slain them in battle, O king, the valiant son of Bharadvāja whirled his unassailable, gold-backed bow.

7.98.43 Seeing the godlike Pāñcāla great chariot-warriors slain, Dhṛṣṭadyumna, exceedingly wrathful, letting tears fall from his eyes, advanced in his fury toward Droṇa's chariot in the battle.

7.98.44 Then of a sudden a cry of "Alas! Alas!" arose, O king, when men saw Droṇa hemmed in by the arrows of the Pāñcāla prince in the battle.

7.98.45 Though covered over in many ways by the high-souled grandson of Pṛṣata, Droṇa did not waver, but fought on, even smiling.

7.98.46 Then the Pāñcāla prince, O great king, beside himself with rage, struck Droṇa upon the chest in his wrath with ninety arrows of bent joints.

7.98.47 Deeply wounded by that strong warrior, the illustrious son of Bharadvāja sank down upon the floor of his chariot and fell into a swoon.

7.98.48 Seeing him brought to such a pass, the valiant, heroic Dhṛṣṭadyumna swiftly cast aside his bow and seized his sword.

7.98.49 Leaping down from his chariot, that great warrior in haste swiftly mounted the chariot of the son of Bharadvāja, O honored one, his eyes red with wrath, longing to sever the head from his body.

7.98.50 Then the mighty Droṇa, recovering, took up his bow and, with span-long arrows ever fit for close fighting, O king, gave battle in the field to the great chariot-warrior Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.98.51 Those arrows called span-long, made for fighting at close quarters and well known to Droṇa, O king, beat Dhṛṣṭadyumna back.

7.98.52 Assailed by those many shafts, that mighty and valiant one, his onset broken, leaped swiftly down from the chariot.

7.98.53 Mounting his own chariot, the hero, the great warrior Dhṛṣṭadyumna, took up his mighty bow and pierced Droṇa in the battle.

7.98.54 That marvelous combat between the two the hosts of beings hailed with praise, and the kṣatriyas too, O great king, and whatever other soldiers were there.

7.98.55 "Droṇa, now joined in combat with Dhṛṣṭadyumna, will surely fall into the power of our king"—so the Pāñcālas cried aloud.

7.98.56 But Droṇa, swift in battle, struck off the head of Dhṛṣṭadyumna's charioteer, as one knocks a ripe fruit from a tree; and thereupon the horses of that high-souled one bolted away, O king.

7.98.57 As they fled in rout, Droṇa, valorous everywhere upon the field, drove off the Pāñcālas and the Sṛñjayas in the battle.

7.98.58 Having vanquished the Pāṇḍavas and Pāñcālas, the majestic son of Bharadvāja, that subduer of foes, took his stand once more within his own array and stood unshaken; nor did the Pāṇḍavas dare to conquer him in battle, O lord.

7.99.1 Saṃjaya said: Then, O king, Duḥśāsana rushed upon Śaineya, scattering arrows by the thousand like a rain-laden thundercloud.

7.99.2 Though he pierced Sātyaki with sixty arrows and then with sixteen more, he could not make him waver, who stood firm in the fight like Maināka, the mountain.

7.99.3 But that hero covered Duḥśāsana thickly with his shafts, as a spider, with its web, enmeshes a gnat that has blundered into it.

7.99.4 Seeing Duḥśāsana so studded with a hundred arrows, the king urged on the Trigartas against the chariot of Yuyudhāna.

7.99.5 Those doers of cruel deeds drew near to Yuyudhāna—three thousand chariot-warriors of the Trigartas, skilled in battle.

7.99.6 They surrounded him with a vast host of chariots, having steadied their resolve for the fight, bound to one another as sworn confederates unto death.

7.99.7 As they strove in the fight and loosed their showers of arrows, he crushed five hundred of their foremost warriors in the front of the array.

7.99.8 Swiftly slain by the shafts of the chief of the Śinis, they fell like great trees shattered by the force of a mighty gale.

7.99.9 With chariots broken in many parts, with banners, O lord of peoples, and with horses adorned in gold all fallen there, the earth was strewn.

7.99.10 With those mangled by Śaineya's arrows and drenched in floods of blood, the field shone, O great king, as though with kiṃśuka trees in full flower.

7.99.11 Slaughtered in battle by Yuyudhāna, your men found no deliverer, like elephants sunk fast in the mire.

7.99.12 Then they all turned back toward Droṇa's chariot, as great serpents flee to their holes in dread of the king of birds.

7.99.13 Having slain five hundred warriors with arrows like venomous serpents, that hero advanced slowly toward the chariot of Dhanaṃjaya.

7.99.14 As that best of men went forward, your son Duḥśāsana swiftly pierced him with nine arrows of smooth-jointed shafts.

7.99.15 But that mighty bowman pierced him in turn with five whetted arrows, gold-feathered, fledged with vulture-plumes, and flying straight.

7.99.16 And Duḥśāsana, as if laughing, O great king, O Bhārata, having struck Sātyaki with three arrows, pierced him again with five.

7.99.17 But Śaineya, having struck your son with five swift arrows and severed his bow in the fight, went on toward Arjuna, leaving him astonished.

7.99.18 Then Duḥśāsana, enraged, hurled at the departing hero of the Vṛṣṇis an all-steel javelin, eager to slay him.

7.99.19 But that dreadful javelin of your son Sātyaki cut into a hundred pieces, O king, with whetted heron-feathered shafts.

7.99.20 Then your son, O lord of men, taking up another bow and piercing Sātyaki with ten arrows, roared aloud like a lion.

7.99.21 But Sātyaki, enraged in battle, having bewildered your son, smote him upon the breast with arrows shaped like tongues of fire, and pierced him again with eight all-iron, keen-pointed shafts.

7.99.22 Duḥśāsana then pierced Sātyaki in turn with twenty arrows; and the Sātvata too, O great king, struck him upon the breast with three smooth-jointed shafts of mighty speed.

7.99.23 Then that great chariot-warrior, sorely enraged, slew his steeds with sharp arrows, and his charioteer too with smooth-jointed shafts.

7.99.24 With one broad-headed shaft that master of the highest weapons cut his bow, with five his hand-guard, with two more his banner and his chariot-lance, and with keen arrows both his flanking charioteers as well.

7.99.25 His bow cut, his chariot wrecked, his horses and charioteer slain, he was borne away upon his own chariot by the commander of the Trigarta host.

7.99.26 Though Śaineya rushed upon him, for a moment, O Bhārata, that mighty-armed one did not slay him, remembering the words of Bhīmasena.

7.99.27 For Bhīmasena had vowed, O Bhārata, in the midst of the assembly, the slaying of all your sons in battle.

7.99.28 And so, having conquered Duḥśāsana in the fight, O lord, Sātyaki went swiftly, O king, in the direction whither Dhanaṃjaya had gone.

7.100.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Were there in that army of mine no great chariot-warriors at all, who neither slew nor even checked Sātyaki as he went on his way?

7.100.2 For alone he wrought his deeds in the battle, that hero of true valor, equal in might to Śakra, as great Indra among the Dānavas.

7.100.3 Or was that path empty by which Sātyaki passed—he, a bull among men, crushing alone the teeming armies?

7.100.4 And how did Śaineya, one against many, pass out from the midst of those great-souled warriors as they fought? Tell me this, Saṃjaya.

7.100.5 Saṃjaya said: O king, the muster of your armies—with chariots, elephants, horse, and foot—grew tumultuous, like the ending of an age.

7.100.6 Among the daily-gathered hosts of your army, O giver of honor, there was, I think, no muster in the world to equal it.

7.100.7 There the gods, and the cāraṇas assembled together, were saying: 'Surely the hosts upon this earth shall have their ending here.'

7.100.8 And never was there such an array, O lord of peoples, as the one Droṇa had ordered at the slaying-quest of Jayadratha.

7.100.9 Like the roar of oceans lashed by a furious gale was the din in the battle of those floods of troops as they rushed upon one another.

7.100.10 Of the assembled kings, O best of men, there were many—in your host and in the Pāṇḍavas'—thousands and hundreds.

7.100.11 Of those furious champions, steadfast in their deeds in battle, there arose a vast and turbulent uproar that made the hair stand on end.

7.100.12 Then Bhīmasena cried aloud, and Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O sire, and Nakula and Sahadeva and the Pāṇḍava, the king of righteousness.

7.100.13 'Come on! Strike! Range about with all your might! For the two heroes, the Mādhava and the Pāṇḍava, have entered the host of the foe.'

7.100.14 'So contrive it swiftly that those two may pass with ease toward the slaying of Jayadratha'—thus he urged on the armies; 'were they to fail, the Kurus would gain their end, and we be conquered.'

7.100.15 'Therefore do you, joined together and swift, churn up at once that ocean of troops, even as the high-rushing winds churn the sea.'

7.100.16 Urged on by Bhīmasena, O king, and by the prince of Pāñcāla, they smote the Kauravas in the fray, casting away their own dear lives.

7.100.17 Desiring death in battle, those men of surpassing splendor, for the sake of heaven and for their friends' cause, did not guard their lives with their weapons.

7.100.18 Even so your men, O king, longing for great renown and fixing their minds upon the noble resolve in battle, drew up only for the fight.

7.100.19 And while that turbulent and dreadful battle was raging, Sātyaki, having cut down all the troops, went on toward Arjuna.

7.100.20 There the gleams of the armor, made dazzling by the rays of the sun, smote the eyes of the soldiers in the battle on every side.

7.100.21 While the Pāṇḍavas were thus striving, Duryodhana, fearless, O great king, plunged into that vast host.

7.100.22 That tumultuous clash between them and him, O Bhārata, became a great undoing of all the armies.

7.100.23 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: With the armies in such a plight, and himself fallen into hardship, did not Duryodhana, O sūta, wage the battle from the front rather than turn his back?

7.100.24 This clash of one against the many in that great battle, and a king at that, seems to me a grievously unequal thing.

7.100.25 He who was reared in the height of comfort, lord of fortune and of the world—encountering many alone, did he not turn his face away?

7.100.26 Saṃjaya said: O king, O Bhārata, hear of the wondrous combat of your son, one against the many—a marvel, as I relate it.

7.100.27 By Duryodhana, of a sudden, the Pāṇḍava host in battle was thrown into confusion on every side, as a lotus-pool is churned up by an elephant.

7.100.28 Seeing the army thus made by your son, O Kaurava, the Pāñcālas, with Bhīmasena at their head, rushed upon him.

7.100.29 He pierced Bhīmasena with ten arrows, the two sons of Mādrī with three apiece, Virāṭa and Drupada with six, and Śikhaṇḍin with a hundred.

7.100.30 And piercing Dhṛṣṭadyumna with twenty arrows, the son of Dharma with seven, the Kekayas with ten, and the sons of Draupadī with three apiece,

7.100.31 with fierce arrows in the battle he hewed down hundreds of other warriors and their chariots with their elephants, enraged like Death amid living beings.

7.100.32 Whether nocking or loosing, he could not be seen, his bow bent into a circle, as he smote the foe by his training and the power of his weapons.

7.100.33 As he smote the foe, the eldest Pāṇḍava with two broad-headed shafts cut his great gold-backed bow into three pieces, O sire.

7.100.34 And he pierced him with many keen arrows well aimed; but striking his mail at once they broke and sank into the earth.

7.100.35 Then the rejoicing Pārthas gathered round Yudhiṣṭhira, as at the slaying of Vṛtra the gods, with the great seers, in their joy gathered round Śakra.

7.100.36 Then King Duryodhana, taking up a stout bow and crying 'Stand! Stand!' to the king, advanced upon the Pāṇḍava.

7.100.37 As your son, that great chariot-warrior, spoke thus, O king, the Pāñcālas, rejoicing and greedy for victory, went forth to meet him.

7.100.38 These Droṇa held in check, seeking to win the Pāṇḍava in the fight, as a mountain holds the water-laden clouds driven up by a raging wind.

7.100.39 There, O king, was a great combat that swelled vastly, like the playground of Rudra, a destruction of all embodied beings.

7.101.1 Saṃjaya said: In the afternoon, O great king, the combat broke out anew, loud as a thundercloud, between Droṇa and the Somakas.

7.101.2 Mounting his chariot drawn by red steeds, that hero among men, composed, rushed in the battle upon the Pāṇḍavas at a moderate speed.

7.101.3 Devoted to your welfare and weal, that mighty bowman of great strength, born from the noblest of pitchers, with whetted arrows of variegated feathers—

7.101.4 singling out, as it were, the choicest among the warriors, O Bhārata—the majestic son of Bharadvāja, O king, sported in the battle.

7.101.5 Against him came Bṛhatkṣatra, the great chariot-warrior of the Kekayas, eldest of five heroic brothers, hardened in battle.

7.101.6 Loosing keen arrows and thickly covering the preceptor, as a great cloud loosing rain upon Gandhamādana.

7.101.7 At him Droṇa, O great king, in fury sent seventeen gold-feathered shafts whetted upon stone.

7.101.8 But those dread shafts loosed from Droṇa's bow, like venomous serpents, he cut each one with ten arrows in the fight, as though delighting in it.

7.101.9 Seeing that deftness of his, the best of the twice-born, smiling, sent eight smooth-jointed arrows.

7.101.10 Seeing those arrows sped from Droṇa's bow swiftly descending, he warded them off with just as many sharp and stout arrows.

7.101.11 Then, O great king, there came wonder upon your army, beholding that most arduous feat performed by Bṛhatkṣatra.

7.101.12 Then, O great king, Droṇa of mighty austerities, singling out the Kekaya prince, brought forth in battle the divine Brāhma weapon.

7.101.13 That weapon, O king, the unshaken Kaikeya of mighty arms warded off in the fray, countering it with the very Brahmā weapon as it was launched.

7.101.14 Having beaten back that weapon of the son of Bharadvāja in the encounter, he pierced the brāhmaṇa with sixty stone-whetted shafts feathered with gold.

7.101.15 Droṇa, foremost among men, answered him with an iron arrow, which, cleaving his armour, sank into the surface of the earth.

7.101.16 As a black serpent set loose enters an anthill, O best of kings, so did that arrow, having pierced the Kaikeya in the fight, enter the earth.

7.101.17 Sorely pierced, O great king, by Droṇa the master of weapons, and seized with a mighty wrath, he rolled his fair eyes.

7.101.18 He pierced Droṇa with seventy stone-whetted shafts feathered with gold, and struck his charioteer with a broad-headed arrow upon the arms and breast.

7.101.19 But Droṇa, pierced in many places by Bṛhatkṣatra, O noble one, let fly sharp arrows toward the Kekaya's chariot.

7.101.20 Having thrown Bṛhatkṣatra, that great car-warrior, into confusion, Droṇa loosed a keen arrow toward the Kekaya, O descendant of Bharata.

7.101.21 Deeply pierced by it at once between the breasts, O great king, that tiger among men, his heart cleft asunder, fell from his chariot.

7.101.22 When Bṛhatkṣatra, the great car-warrior of the Kekayas, was slain, O king, the son of Śiśupāla, greatly enraged, spoke thus to his driver:

7.101.23 "Charioteer, drive to where this mailed Droṇa stands, slaughtering all the Kekayas and the host of the Pāñcālas."

7.101.24 Hearing those words of his, the charioteer bore that foremost of car-warriors toward Droṇa with swift Kāmboja steeds.

7.101.25 And Dhṛṣṭaketu, the bull among the Cedis, of surpassing might, fell suddenly upon Droṇa as a moth falls upon the flame.

7.101.26 He pierced Droṇa, with his horses, car, and standard, with sixty arrows, and again with other keen shafts, as one prodding a sleeping tiger.

7.101.27 Droṇa, with a sharp razor-headed arrow, cut asunder in the middle the bow of that mighty king as he strove in the encounter.

7.101.28 Then the son of Śiśupāla, that great car-warrior, taking up another bow, pierced Droṇa again with sharp and sturdy arrows.

7.101.29 Droṇa of mighty strength, having slain his horses and his charioteer, then assailed him with twenty-five arrows.

7.101.30 Deprived of his car and bereft of his bow, the king of the Cedis too, enraged in the fray, hurled his mace toward the chariot of the son of Bharadvāja.

7.101.31 That mace, rushing down in sudden onset—of terrible form and fearsome, heavy, made of iron and adorned with gold—the son of Bharadvāja brought to the ground with many thousands of arrows.

7.101.32 That mace, struck down by the son of Bharadvāja, fell to the earth, decked with red garlands and cloth, like a star falling from the floor of heaven.

7.101.33 Seeing his mace struck down, the wrathful Dhṛṣṭaketu swiftly let fly a lance and a gold-gleaming spear.

7.101.34 But Droṇa, deft of hand and of mighty strength, cleaving the lance with three arrows in that great battle, sundered the spear at once.

7.101.35 Then the glorious son of Bharadvāja, bent on his death, sent against him in battle a sharp arrow to slay him.

7.101.36 That arrow, cleaving the armour and the heart of him of measureless might, entered the earth as a wild goose enters a lotus-pool.

7.101.37 As a hungry blue jay, O king, devours a moth, so did the heroic Droṇa devour Dhṛṣṭaketu in that great battle.

7.101.38 When the king of the Cedis was slain, his son, a master of the highest weapons, overcome by wrath, took his stand in his father's portion of the field.

7.101.39 Him too Droṇa, smiling, sent with his arrows to the abode of Yama, as a mighty tiger in the great forest carries off a fawn.

7.101.40 As the warriors of the Pāṇḍava side were being thus destroyed, O descendant of Bharata, the heroic son of Jarāsaṃdha himself rushed against Droṇa.

7.101.41 And he, O great king, veiling Droṇa with sharp arrows, swiftly made him unseen, as a rain-cloud veils the sun.

7.101.42 Beholding that lightness of hand, Droṇa, the crusher of warriors, swiftly loosed his arrows by the hundred and the thousand.

7.101.43 Having covered him over in battle, Droṇa then slew the son of Jarāsaṃdha, that foremost of car-warriors standing in his car, before the eyes of all the bowmen.

7.101.44 Whoever closed with Droṇa, him Droṇa, like the Ender himself, took away, as the Ender at the appointed hour takes away all living beings.

7.101.45 Then Droṇa, the mighty archer, proclaiming his name aloud in the battle, bewildered the warriors of the Pāṇḍava side with many thousands of arrows.

7.101.46 Then the arrows that bore Droṇa's mark, gold-feathered and stone-whetted, struck down men, elephants, and horses on every side in the battle.

7.101.47 Slaughtered by Droṇa as the great asuras by Śakra, the Pāñcālas trembled like cattle tormented by the cold.

7.101.48 Then a terrible wailing arose among the Pāṇḍavas as their troops were being slain by Droṇa, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.101.49 Bewildered by the arrow-shower of the son of Bharadvāja in the fight, the great car-warriors of the Pāñcālas were as if seized by a cramp in the thighs.

7.101.50 And the Cedis, O great king, and the Sṛñjayas and the Somakas, eager and exultant, rushed upon the son of Bharadvāja with longing for battle.

7.101.51 "Slay Droṇa, slay Droṇa!" crying thus, those tigers among men advanced upon Droṇa, striving with all their might, seeking in battle to send that one of great splendour to the abode of Yama.

7.101.52 But those striving heroes the son of Bharadvāja sent on to Yama with his shafts, the chiefs of the Cedis above all.

7.101.53 As those chiefs of the Cedis were being destroyed, O descendant of Bharata, the Pāñcālas, sorely pressed by Droṇa's arrows, trembled.

7.101.54 Seeing such deeds of Droṇa, O noble one, they cried out to Bhīmasena and toward the chariot of Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.101.55 "Surely this brāhmaṇa has performed some mighty penance, hard to perform, that he so prevails in battle and consumes the bulls among the warriors."

7.101.56 "War is the duty of the warrior, but austerity the highest calling of the brāhmaṇa; an ascetic accomplished in learning could burn up a foe with a mere glance."

7.101.57 Into Droṇa's weapon, whose touch is like fire, many bulls among the warriors have entered, O descendant of Bharata, and there, beyond crossing and terrible, have been consumed.

7.101.58 "Each according to his strength, his zeal, his courage—Droṇa of great splendour, confounding all beings, slays our forces."

7.101.59 Hearing those words of theirs, Kṣatradharman, taking his stand, cut off with a crescent-headed arrow Droṇa's bow together with the shaft set upon it.

7.101.60 Grown the more furious thereat, Droṇa, the crusher of warriors, took up another bow, shining and of swifter force.

7.101.61 Fitting to it a keen arrow, burden-destroying, bright and firm, the mighty preceptor drew it to the ear and let it fly.

7.101.62 That arrow, having slain Kṣatradharman, passed on into the surface of the earth; and he, his heart cleft, fell from his car upon the ground.

7.101.63 Then, when the son of Dhṛṣṭadyumna was slain, the armies trembled; and the great car-warrior Cekitāna closed upon Droṇa.

7.101.64 He pierced Droṇa with ten arrows between the breasts, his charioteer with four, and his four horses with four.

7.101.65 The preceptor pierced his right arm with sixteen arrows, his standard with sixteen, and his driver with seven.

7.101.66 When his charioteer was slain, those horses, enwrapped in the arrows of the son of Bharadvāja, bolted in the battle, dragging the car away, O noble one.

7.101.67 Seeing Cekitāna's car bolting with its charioteer slain, a great fear came over the Pāñcālas and the Pāṇḍavas alike.

7.101.68 Routing on every side those gathered heroes in the battle—the Cedis, the Pāñcālas, and the Sṛñjayas—Droṇa shone forth in great splendour, O noble one.

7.101.69 Grey to the ears and dark of hue, past eighty years of age, the aged Droṇa ranged through the battle like a youth of sixteen.

7.101.70 And his foes, O great king, deemed Droṇa, the slayer of foes, ranging fearlessly, to be Indra himself with the thunderbolt in his hand.

7.101.71 Then, O great king, the wise Drupada spoke, O monarch: "This greedy man slays the warriors as a tiger slays small game."

7.101.72 "The wicked, evil-minded Duryodhana shall come to grievous realms—he through whose greed the bulls among the warriors are slain in battle."

7.101.73 "By the hundred they lie upon the earth, cut down like bulls, their limbs bathed in blood, made food for dogs and jackals."

7.101.74 Having spoken thus, O great king, Drupada, lord of an army, placing the sons of Pṛthā at the front, swiftly rushed upon Droṇa in battle.

7.102.1 Saṃjaya said: As the battle-arrays of the Pāṇḍavas were thrown into turmoil here and there, the sons of Pṛthā, the Pāñcālas, and the Somakas pursued the foe far afield.

7.102.2 While that fierce battle, hair-raising, raged on in the dire destruction of the world, as at the ending of an age, O descendant of Bharata—

7.102.3 —while Droṇa pressed valiantly in the fight, roaring again and again, and the Pāñcālas dwindled and the Pāṇḍavas were being slain—

7.102.4 Yudhiṣṭhira, the king of righteousness, saw no refuge anywhere, and pondered, O lord of kings: "How shall this end?"

7.102.5 Looking then in every direction with a longing to behold Savyasācin, Yudhiṣṭhira saw neither the son of Pṛthā nor the descendant of Madhu.

7.102.6 Not seeing that tiger among men marked by the standard of the bull among monkeys, and not hearing the twang of the Gāṇḍīva, his senses were stricken with distress.

7.102.7 Nor seeing Sātyaki either, that foremost car-warrior of the Vṛṣṇis, the king of righteousness Yudhiṣṭhira, his whole frame overcome with anxiety, found then no peace, beholding not those two bulls among men.

7.102.8 From fear of the world's reproach, the greatly renowned king of righteousness, of mighty arms, fell to musing concerning the chariot of the grandson of Śini.

7.102.9 "By me has the grandson of Śini, the true Sātyaki, giver of fearlessness to his friends, been sent upon the track of Phalguna in the battle."

7.102.10 "What was once a single care has now become twofold for me this day: for I must look both to Sātyaki and to the Pāṇḍava Dhanaṃjaya."

7.102.11 "Having sent Sātyaki to follow upon the track of the Pāṇḍava, whom now shall I send in the battle to follow upon the track of the Sātvata as well?"

7.102.12 "If with all effort I make search for my brother, yet seek not after Yuyudhāna, the world will censure me."

7.102.13 "'In searching for his brother, Yudhiṣṭhira the king of righteousness has forsaken the Vṛṣṇi Sātyaki of true valour'—so will they say."

7.102.14 "From fear of the world's blame, I shall therefore send the son of Pṛthā, Vṛkodara, upon the track of the high-souled descendant of Madhu."

7.102.15 "For even as is my love for Arjuna, the slayer of foes, so too is it for that Vṛṣṇi hero, the Sātvata, fierce and unrelenting in battle."

7.102.16 "To an overwhelming burden have I appointed the joy of Śini's line; and he, mighty in strength, out of regard for his friends and out of reverence, has entered the Bhārata host as a sea-monster plunges into the ocean."

7.102.17 "For yonder is heard the clamour of warriors who turn not back, locked in mutual combat with the wise hero of the Vṛṣṇis."

7.102.18 Having weighed the matter many times over and judged it most fitting to the hour, it seems best to me that Bhīmasena the bowman, the son of Pāṇḍu, should go to that very place where the two great car-warriors have gone.

7.102.19 There is nothing on earth that Bhīma cannot endure; relying on the strength of his own arms, he is able with ease to hold at bay in battle all the bowmen of the earth, however resolute they stand.

7.102.20 Leaning upon the might of that great-souled one's arms, we all returned from our dwelling in the forest, and in our battles we were never overcome.

7.102.21 If Bhīmasena the Pāṇḍava goes from here toward the Sātvata, then in the fight the Sātvata and Phalguna will both have a protector at hand.

7.102.22 To be sure, the Sātvata and Phalguna need not be grieved over in battle, for they are guarded by Vāsudeva himself, and are themselves masters of every weapon.

7.102.23 Yet I must surely do something to dispel my own grief; therefore I shall appoint Bhīma to follow upon the Sātvata's track. By this I think the measure on behalf of Sātyaki will be fulfilled.

7.102.24 Having resolved thus in his mind, O king, Yudhiṣṭhira the son of Dharma said to his charioteer, "Drive me toward Bhīma."

7.102.25 Hearing the word of the Dharma-king, the charioteer skilled with horses brought the gold-adorned car near to Bhīma.

7.102.26 Having reached Bhīmasena, and calling to mind what the hour demanded, the king sank into despondency even as he gave him many commands.

7.102.27 "He who, alone upon his car, conquered the gods together with the Gandharvas and the Daityas — of him, your younger brother Bhīmasena, I see no sign."

7.102.28 Then Bhīmasena said to the Dharma-king, who had come to him in such a state, "Never have I seen nor heard such despondency in you."

7.102.29 "In days past, when we were torn by sorrows, it was you who were our refuge. Rise up, rise up, lord of kings; command me — what shall I do for you?"

7.102.30 "There is nothing impossible for me, nor anything I will not do, O giver of honor. Give the order, best of the Kurus, and do not set your mind upon grief."

7.102.31 To him the king, his eyes brimming with tears, hissing like a black serpent, his face withered, spoke these words to Bhīmasena:

7.102.32 "As the blast of the conch Pāñcajanya is heard, blown by the glorious Vāsudeva in his fury, surely your brother Dhanaṃjaya lies slain this day."

7.102.33 "He being struck down, Janārdana himself surely fights on now — he, by whose valor, mighty in spirit, the Pāṇḍavas live."

7.102.34 "To whom in times of peril we resort as the immortals resort to the thousand-eyed one — that hero, seeking the ruler of the Sindhus, followed after the Bhārata host."

7.102.35 "Of his going, Bhīma, we know; of his return we have no word — that dark, youthful one, Guḍākeśa, fair to look upon, mighty-armed,"

7.102.36 "broad-chested, great-shouldered, with the stride of a rutting elephant, eyes like the cakora bird, copper-hued of eye, swelling the woes of his foes."

7.102.37 "This, then — blessings upon you, crusher of foes — is the ground of my grief: for Arjuna's sake, O mighty-armed one, and on the Sātvata's account."

7.102.38 "It grows as fire kindled with oblation grows, blazing up again and again. Of him I see no sign, and so I am overcome with despondency."

7.102.39 "Know too that tiger among men, the Sātvata, the great car-warrior: he followed afterward upon the track of that great car-warrior, your younger brother. Not seeing that mighty-armed one, I am sunk in despondency."

7.102.40 "Therefore Kṛṣṇa, skilled in war, surely now fights on in battle — he by whose valor, mighty in might, the Pāṇḍavas live."

7.102.41 "Go you there, son of Kuntī, where Dhanaṃjaya has gone, and Sātyaki of great valor — if you hold my word fit to be obeyed, O knower of dharma, for I am your eldest brother."

7.102.42 "You need not be so concerned for Arjuna as you must be for Sātyaki, O Pārtha, who, wishing to do me a kindness, set out along Savyasācin's path — hard to traverse, terrible, impassable to the unschooled in soul."

7.102.43 Bhīmasena said: "The car that of old bore Brahmā, Īśāna, Indra, and Varuṇa — mounted upon that, the two Kṛṣṇas have gone; for them there is no fear."

7.102.44 "Yet bearing your command upon my head, here I go — grieve not. Having met those tigers among men, I shall send you tidings."

7.102.45 Saṃjaya said: Having spoken thus much, the mighty one set forth, entrusting Yudhiṣṭhira again and again to Dhṛṣṭadyumna and to his friends; and Bhīmasena of great strength said this to Dhṛṣṭadyumna:

7.102.46 "You know, mighty-armed one, how Droṇa the great car-warrior bends every means toward the capture of the Dharma-king."

7.102.47 "No duty in my going, O son of Pṛṣata, weighs upon me as does the guarding of the king; for that is our most pressing task."

7.102.48 "Thus has Pārtha bidden me, and I cannot gainsay it; I shall go there where the Saindhava, doomed to die, has taken his stand. By the word of the Dharma-king one must stand without misgiving."

7.102.49 "So this day, intent in battle, guard Pārtha Yudhiṣṭhira; for this is, of all our charges, the highest task in the fray."

7.102.50 To him, O great king, Dhṛṣṭadyumna said to Vṛkodara, "Go, mighty-armed one, as you desire, untroubled in heart, O Pārtha."

7.102.51 "Not until in battle he has slain Dhṛṣṭadyumna will Droṇa ever in the encounter lay hold of the Dharma-king."

7.102.52 Then the Pāṇḍava, committing the king to Dhṛṣṭadyumna and saluting his elder, his guide, set forth to where Phalguna was.

7.102.53 The son of Kuntī, O Bhārata, was embraced by the Dharma-king, kissed upon the head, and given fair blessings to hear.

7.102.54 Bhīmasena, the mighty-armed, mailed, with bright earrings, with armlets, with cuirass, with arrows — the foremost of car-warriors —

7.102.55 his armor of black iron, figured with gold and richly wrought, shone like a lightning-laced rain-cloud clinging to a mountain.

7.102.56 Well-wrapped in cloths of yellow, red, black, and white, and with his throat-guard, he gleamed like a cloud spanned by Indra's bow.

7.102.57 When Bhīmasena had set forth eager for battle against your army, again, O lord of peoples, there rose the terrible blast of the Pāñcajanya.

7.102.58 Hearing that terrible roar, vast and terrifying to the three worlds, the mighty-armed son of Dharma again spoke to Bhīma:

7.102.59 "This king of conches, the water-born, blown hard by the Vṛṣṇi hero, makes earth and the mid-air resound."

7.102.60 "Surely, some great calamity having befallen Savyasācin, the bearer of discus and mace fights now against all the Kurus."

7.102.61 "Surely the noble Kuntī, and Draupadī, and Subhadrā behold this day, together with their kinsfolk, the showing of a great evil."

7.102.62 "So, Bhīma, set with haste, go where Dhanaṃjaya is; for all the quarters and their sub-quarters seem to swim before me, O Pārtha, out of longing to see Dhanaṃjaya, and on the Sātvata's account."

7.102.63 "Go, go," he said again to Bhīmasena. Urged on hard by his brother, that brother who did his brother's pleasure, Bhīma struck the war-drum and blew the conch again and again,

7.102.64 and roaring his lion's roar, drawing the bowstring again and again, showing forth his terrible self, he rushed suddenly upon the foe.

7.102.65 Him the swift, well-broken, prancing best of horses bore on, harnessed by Viśoka, fleet as mind and wind.

7.102.66 Shattering and crushing, drawing the bowstring with his hand, Pārtha, dragging it down and drawing it back, churned up the vanguard of the host.

7.102.67 As he went on, that mighty-armed one, the Pāñcālas together with the Somakas, heroes, followed behind him as the immortals follow Maghavan.

7.102.68 Him, O great king, your sons born of one womb hemmed in with their troops — Duḥśalā and Citrasena and Kuṇḍabhedī and Viviṃśati,

7.102.69 Durmukha and Duḥsaha, and Vikarṇa, and Śala too, Vinda and Anuvinda, Sumukha, Dīrghabāhu, Sudarśana,

7.102.70 Vṛndāraka and Suhasta, Suṣeṇa, Dīrghalocana, Abhaya and Raudrakarman, Suvarman and Durvimocana —

7.102.71 these foremost of car-warriors, with their varied troops and their followers, girt for battle, the heroes, rushed upon Bhīmasena.

7.102.72 Beholding them, the son of Kuntī, valiant Bhīmasena, turned upon them with speed, as a lion upon lesser beasts.

7.102.73 There those heroes displayed great celestial weapons, holding off Bhīma with their arrows as clouds hold off the risen sun.

7.102.74 Passing them by with speed, he rushed upon Droṇa's division, and the elephant-host before him he overwhelmed with showers of arrows.

7.102.75 In but a little while the son of the Wind, sweeping his swift shafts in every direction, scattered that elephant-host.

7.102.76 As beasts in the forest are frightened by the roar of the śarabha, all those elephants fled, bellowing dreadful cries.

7.102.77 And again, passing on with speed, he rushed upon Droṇa's division; the preceptor held him back as the shore holds back the swollen sea.

7.102.78 He struck him on the forehead with an iron shaft, smiling as it were; and the Pāṇḍava shone there like the sun with rays upraised.

7.102.79 And the preceptor, supposing that Bhīma would do him honor as Phalguna would, said to Vṛkodara:

7.102.80 "Bhīmasena, you cannot pierce into the enemy's host without first conquering me in battle, O mighty one, here amid the foes."

7.102.81 "If that younger brother of yours, and Kṛṣṇa, entered with my leave, yet this array, sir, cannot be entered here by you."

7.102.82 Then Bhīma, fearless, hearing that word of the teacher, wrathful, his eyes red as copper, hissing with breath, spoke to Droṇa:

7.102.83 "Not by your leave, O wretch of a brahmin, did Arjuna enter the field of war; for he, unassailable, could pierce even the host of Śakra."

7.102.84 "By him, doing you the highest honor, you have indeed been honored; but I am no Arjuna full of compassion, Droṇa — I am Bhīmasena, your enemy."

7.102.85 "You are our father, our teacher, our kinsman, and we are your sons — so we all hold you, and stand before you bowed."

7.102.86 "But this day the contrary of that is seen in you as you speak to us. If you hold yourself our enemy, then so be it here; behold, I, Bhīma, do unto you the deed befitting a foe."

7.102.87 Then whirling his mace like Death wielding the rod of Time, Bhīma hurled it at Droṇa, O king; and he leaped down from his car.

7.102.88 Then it crushed Droṇa's vehicle together with horses, driver, and banner, and ground down many warriors, as the wind grinds trees by its force.

7.102.89 Then again your sons surrounded that best of cars; and Droṇa, foremost of strikers, mounting another car —

7.102.90 Then, O great king, the wrathful and valiant Bhīmasena overwhelmed the chariot-host before him with showers of arrows.

7.102.91 Being struck down in the battle, your sons, the great car-warriors, fought against Bhīma of terrible strength in the fight, seeking victory.

7.102.92 Then Duḥśāsana, enraged, hurled a chariot-lance, all of steel and keen, eager to slay the son of Pāṇḍu.

7.102.93 That great lance flying upon him, sped by your son, Bhīma cleft in two; and that seemed a wondrous thing.

7.102.94 Then, enraged, with other whetted arrows the mighty one slew with three shafts the three — Kuṇḍabhedī, Suṣeṇa, and Dīrghanetra.

7.102.95 Then he slew again Vṛndāraka, the hero, the increaser of the Kurus' fame, one of your valiant sons as they fought.

7.102.96 Abhaya and Raudrakarman, and Durvimocana too — these three sons of yours Bhīma slew again with three shafts.

7.102.97 Being slain, O great king, by that stronger one, your sons hemmed in on every side Bhīma, the foremost of strikers.

7.102.98 Vinda and Anuvinda together, and your son Suvarman as well — the son of Kuntī, as though smiling, dispatched them all with his arrows to the abode of Yama.

7.102.99 Then, O bull of the Bhāratas, he swiftly pierced your heroic son Sudarśana in the battle, and that one fell and died.

7.102.100 In but a little while the son of Pāṇḍu, scattering them with his swift shafts in every direction, shattered that division of chariots.

7.102.101 Then, O lord of peoples, like deer at the thunder of his chariot's roar, your sons, slaughtered in the battle and afflicted with dread of Bhīmasena, all fled away together with their chariots.

7.102.102 But the son of Kuntī, pursuing the great host of your sons, O king, pierced the Kauravas on every side in the battle.

7.102.103 Being slaughtered by Bhīmasena, O great king, your men abandoned Bhīma in the fight and fled, urging on their finest horses.

7.102.104 Having vanquished them in the battle, the mighty Bhīmasena, son of Pāṇḍu, let loose a lion's roar and clapped his arms in challenge.

7.102.105 And making a great resounding clap of his palms, the mighty Bhīma, leaving the chariot-warriors behind, charged upon Droṇa's division.

7.103.1 Saṃjaya said: As he emerged from that division of chariots like the sun from darkness, the preceptor, seeking to hold him back, overwhelmed him with showers of arrows.

7.103.2 As though drinking up those floods of shafts loosed from the foremost bow of Droṇa, he advanced against his brothers, bewildering the host with his cunning.

7.103.3 Putting forth their utmost speed in the fray, those mighty archers, urged on by your sons, surrounded him on every side.

7.103.4 Thus hemmed in, Bhīma, as though laughing, O Bhārata, raised against them that terrible mace and, roaring like a lion, hurled it among them with force, and the mighty one crushed them.

7.103.5 Like the thunderbolt hurled by Indra with a steadfast aim, O king, filling the earth as it were with its mighty din, blazing with splendor and terrible, it struck terror into your sons.

7.103.6 Seeing that mace of tremendous speed descending, wreathed in splendor, your men all fled, uttering frightful cries.

7.103.7 And marking that unbearable sound of it, O sir, the men there, the chariot-warriors, fell down then from their chariots.

7.103.8 Having put his foes to flight in the battle, the unassailable son of Kuntī, swift as Suparṇa the king of birds, passed beyond the host.

7.103.9 As Bhīmasena, that leader among the leaders of chariot-troops, was thus working havoc, the son of Bharadvāja, O great king, advanced against him.

7.103.10 But Droṇa, having checked Bhīma in the battle with waves of arrows, suddenly raised a shout, striking dread into the Pāṇḍavas.

7.103.11 That fight between Droṇa and the great-souled Bhīma, O great king, was vast and terrible, like the war of gods and demons.

7.103.12 When the warriors were being slain in the battle by hundreds and by thousands by the keen shafts loosed from Droṇa's bow,

7.103.13 then the son of Pāṇḍu, leaping down from his chariot and gathering his speed, closing his eyes, O king, advanced on foot against Droṇa.

7.103.14 Just as a bull receives the rain at his ease, so Bhīma, that tiger among men, took upon himself the shower of arrows.

7.103.15 Though thus assailed in the battle, the mighty one, O sir, seized Droṇa's chariot by the shaft-pole with his hand and flung it away.

7.103.16 But Droṇa, hurled aside by Bhīma in the fight, O king, swiftly mounted another chariot and made his way to the gateway of the battle-array.

7.103.17 In that instant Bhīmasena's charioteer swiftly urged on his horses, O Kaurava, and that was a wondrous thing to behold.

7.103.18 Then, having mounted his own chariot, the mighty Bhīmasena charged with speed against the host of your son.

7.103.19 Crushing the warriors in the fray like a raging wind that crushes trees, he went on, cleaving the army like a river's current rending its banks.

7.103.20 Reaching the Bhoja division, guarded by the son of Hṛdika, Bhīmasena, having broken it utterly, O king, pressed onward.

7.103.21 Terrifying the troops with the clap of his palms, O sir, he overcame all the armies as a tiger overcomes bulls.

7.103.22 Passing beyond the Bhoja division and the host of the Kāmbojas, and likewise many other bands of barbarians skilled in warfare,

7.103.23 and beholding Sātyaki too, that bull among men, fighting, the son of Kuntī, intent in his chariot, then sped onward swiftly.

7.103.24 Bhīmasena, O great king, the son of Pāṇḍu, longing to behold Dhanaṃjaya, passed beyond your warriors in the battle.

7.103.25 That valiant one beheld Arjuna there, that bull among men, fighting and striving valiantly for the slaying of the lord of the Sindhus.

7.103.26 Seeing Arjuna there, he then sent forth mighty roars, and the son of Pṛthā heard that great shout of his as he roared.

7.103.27 Then the son of Pṛthā, uttering a great shout, and Mādhava as well, advanced, O great king, both roaring like bulls.

7.103.28 Vāsudeva and Arjuna, hearing the roar of that impetuous one, cried out again and again, longing to behold Vṛkodara.

7.103.29 Hearing the roar of Bhīmasena and of Phalguna the archer, the son of Dharma, Yudhiṣṭhira, rejoiced, O great king.

7.103.30 The king became free of sorrow on hearing that mighty roar, and the lord hoped for Dhanaṃjaya's victory in the battle.

7.103.31 As Bhīmasena thus roared, fierce in the fray, the mighty-armed son of Dharma, Yudhiṣṭhira, smiled,

7.103.32 and that best of the upholders of righteousness, reflecting, spoke within his heart: 'You have given the signal, Bhīma, and so have fulfilled your elder's word.'

7.103.33 'There is no victory in war for those whose enemy you are, O son of Pāṇḍu. By good fortune, Dhanaṃjaya the ambidextrous archer yet lives in the battle.'

7.103.34 'By good fortune the hero Sātyaki, of true valor, is safe; by good fortune I hear Vāsudeva and Dhanaṃjaya roaring.'

7.103.35 'He by whom, after vanquishing Śakra in battle, the bearer of oblations was gratified — that slayer of foes in the fight, Phalguna, by good fortune lives.'

7.103.36 'He upon the strength of whose arms we all depend for our lives — that destroyer of enemy hosts, Phalguna, by good fortune lives.'

7.103.37 'He by whom, a single chariot-warrior, the Nivātakavacas, hard for even the gods to conquer, were overcome — by good fortune that son of Pṛthā lives.'

7.103.38 'He who vanquished all the Kauravas gathered together for the seizing of the cattle at the city of the Matsyas — by good fortune that son of Pṛthā lives.'

7.103.39 'He who slew fourteen thousand Kālakeyas in the great battle by the might of his arms — by good fortune that son of Pṛthā lives.'

7.103.40 'He who, on account of Duryodhana's plight, vanquished by the power of his weapons the mighty king of the Gandharvas — by good fortune that son of Pṛthā lives.'

7.103.41 'The mighty one crowned with the diadem, with white steeds and Kṛṣṇa for charioteer, ever dear to me — by good fortune Phalguna lives.'

7.103.42 'He who, burning with grief for his son and resolved to accomplish a hard deed, seeking the slaying of Jayadratha, took an oath — will that Dhanaṃjaya, I wonder, slay the lord of the Sindhus in battle?'

7.103.43 'Shall I, I wonder, meet Arjuna before the sun has set — Arjuna with his vow fulfilled, guarded by Vāsudeva?'

7.103.44 'Shall the king of the Sindhus, who delights in Duryodhana's welfare, struck down by Phalguna, gladden our foes — or not?'

7.103.45 'Will King Duryodhana, on seeing the lord of the Sindhus laid low in battle by Phalguna, make peace with us?'

7.103.46 'On seeing his brothers slain by Bhīmasena in the fight, will the foolish Duryodhana make peace with us?'

7.103.47 'And on seeing many other warriors cast down upon the earth, will the foolish Duryodhana feel remorse?'

7.103.48 'Shall our enmity be appeased through Bhīṣma alone, and will Suyodhana make a treaty for the protection of those who remain?'

7.103.49 As he pondered thus in many ways, O king, overcome with compassion, the terrible battle raged on.

7.104.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: As the mighty Bhīmasena thus roared with a din like the thunder of clouds, what heroes surrounded him?

7.104.2 For I do not see anyone, Saṃjaya, in the three worlds who could stand before the enraged Bhīmasena in battle.

7.104.3 As he lifts his mace in the great fray like Death himself, I do not see, my child, who could stand his ground on the field of battle.

7.104.4 He who would smash a chariot with a chariot and an elephant with an elephant — who could withstand him in battle, even Śatakratu in person?

7.104.5 When the enraged Bhīmasena sought to slay my sons, who, devoted to Duryodhana's good, stood up before him?

7.104.6 When the wildfire that is Bhīmasena was about to burn up my sons like grass and reeds at the front of the battle, what heroes stood in his way?

7.104.7 Seeing my sons driven off by Bhīma in the fight, as all creatures are by Time, who surrounded Bhīma?

7.104.8 When the blazing fire of Bhīma sought to consume my sons, what brave men turned to face him? Tell me that, Saṃjaya.

7.104.9 Saṃjaya said: As that great chariot-warrior Bhīmasena thus roared, the mighty Karṇa too rushed upon him with a tumultuous shout.

7.104.10 Drawing his powerful bow to its utmost, the impatient and mighty Karṇa, eager for the fight, made ready to display his strength.

7.104.11 At the meeting of Karṇa and Bhīma, the limbs of the chariot-warriors and the horsemen alike trembled, as they heard the clap of the two heroes' palms.

7.104.12 Hearing the terrible roar of Bhīmasena on the field of battle, the foremost of warriors fancied that sky and earth had become one.

7.104.13 At another terrible roar of the great-souled son of Pāṇḍu, the bows of all the warriors in the battle fell to the ground.

7.104.14 All the beasts of burden, terrified, let flow their dung and urine, O great king, and lost their senses.

7.104.15 Many dreadful portents appeared, O king, at that tumultuous encounter of Bhīma and Karṇa.

7.104.16 Then Karṇa wounded Bhīma with a score of arrows, and swiftly pierced his charioteer with five swift shafts.

7.104.17 But Bhīmasena, laughing, the mighty one quick of hand, repaid Karṇa in the fight with sixty-four arrows.

7.104.18 Karṇa, the great archer, hurled four arrows at him; but Bhīma, before they reached him, cut them to many pieces with his smooth-jointed shafts, O king, displaying the deftness of his hand.

7.104.19 Karṇa covered him over with multitudes of arrows again and again, and the son of Pāṇḍu was thus enveloped by Karṇa on every side.

7.104.20 The great chariot-warrior cut Karṇa's bow at the grip, and pierced him with many smooth-jointed shafts.

7.104.21 Then the son of the charioteer, taking up another bow and stringing it, that great chariot-warrior of terrible deeds, pierced Bhīma in the battle.

7.104.22 At this Bhīma, exceedingly enraged and impelled with force, then drove three smooth-jointed shafts deep into the breast of the charioteer's son.

7.104.23 With those arrows lodged in the midst of his chest, Karṇa then shone forth, O bull of the Bhāratas, like a lofty three-peaked mountain.

7.104.24 And the blood streamed from him, pierced as he was by those mightiest of shafts, as streaks of red ochre run down from a mountain that oozes its mineral ores.

7.104.25 Shaken a little, Karṇa, sorely afflicted by that well-aimed blow, set arrow to bow and pierced Bhīma, O sire, and loosed his shafts again by the hundreds and the thousands.

7.104.26 Overwhelmed all at once by Karṇa, that firm-bowed archer, the son of Pāṇḍu, smiling, swiftly cut through his bowstring.

7.104.27 With a broad-headed shaft he dispatched his charioteer to the abode of Yama, and in the battle that great car-warrior made his four horses lifeless.

7.104.28 Then from that chariot whose horses were slain Karṇa leapt down, O lord of peoples, and the great car-warrior mounted the chariot of Vṛṣasena.

7.104.29 Having vanquished Karṇa in battle, the valiant Bhīmasena roared a mighty roar like the thunder of a storm-cloud.

7.104.30 Hearing that roar of his, Yudhiṣṭhira was filled with joy, deeming Karṇa vanquished by Bhīmasena, O Bhārata.

7.104.31 On every side the host of Pāṇḍu then raised the blare of conches; and hearing the clamour of the enemy's army your men too sent up their cries. Pārtha twanged the Gāṇḍīva, and Kṛṣṇa sounded his conch Pāñcajanya.

7.104.32 Drowning out that din, the roar of Bhīma as he bellowed was heard, O great king, throughout all the armies, O Bhārata.

7.104.33 Then those two tamers of foes contended each apart with their weapons: Rādheya gently at first, and the son of Pāṇḍu with full force.

7.105.1 Saṃjaya said: When that host was thrown into confusion, with Arjuna gone toward the Saindhava, and the Sātvata and Bhīmasena as well, your son hastened up to Droṇa upon his single chariot, pondering the many things that must be done.

7.105.2 That chariot of your son, urged with the utmost speed, swift as thought and as the wind, rushed straight upon Droṇa.

7.105.3 And your son, his eyes red with agitation, said to him: "Arjuna and Bhīmasena and the unvanquished Sātyaki—

7.105.4 these great car-warriors, having overcome our vast armies, those grinders of foes, have reached the neighbourhood of the king of the Sindhus; and there too they all contend, every one of them unvanquished.

7.105.5 If indeed Pārtha, that great car-warrior, has passed you by in battle, how is it that you have been passed by Sātyaki and Bhīma as well, O bestower of honour?

7.105.6 It is held a marvel in this world, like the drying up of the ocean, that you, O foremost of brāhmaṇas, should be overcome by the Sātvata and by Arjuna.

7.105.7 And by Bhīmasena likewise—so all the world keeps saying in wonder: how was Droṇa, that master of the whole science of archery, conquered in battle?

7.105.8 Surely it is my own ruin in this war—luckless that I am—when three car-warriors have passed beyond you, O tiger among men.

7.105.9 Things having come to this pass, tell me what you would say. What is gone is gone; consider now what remains, O bestower of honour.

7.105.10 Whatever must be done at once for the king of the Sindhus, now that the moment has come—let your honour speak it quickly, and let it be well arranged."

7.105.11 Droṇa said: Much, O great king, is the work to be pondered there; hear my mind upon it. Three great car-warriors of the Pāṇḍavas have broken through; as great is the danger behind them as before them.

7.105.12 That side I deem the weightier where Kṛṣṇa and Dhanaṃjaya are; for the Bhārata host is now hemmed in both before and behind.

7.105.13 In this case I judge the task to be the guarding of the Saindhava; he, my son, is most to be protected by us, terrified as he is of the wrathful Dhanaṃjaya.

7.105.14 For the heroes Yuyudhāna and Vṛkodara have gone against the Saindhava; now is come upon us that very gambling-match which sprang from Śakuni's cunning.

7.105.15 In the assembly-hall there was neither true victory nor defeat; but here, my son, as we throw our stakes today, victory and defeat are at hand.

7.105.16 Those dread dice that Śakuni cast in the Kuru assembly—reckoning them mere dice—they were in truth unconquerable arrows.

7.105.17 Where your many Kurus stand arrayed, my son, know the army for the gaming-board and the arrows for the dice, O lord of peoples.

7.105.18 And the Saindhava is the stake, O king; herein lies the issue of this game; for upon the Saindhava the great gambling with the foe is now joined.

7.105.19 Here, O great king, all of us, laying down our very lives, must duly make the protection of the Saindhava in the fight; for there, my son, as we cast our stakes, victory and defeat are certain to fall.

7.105.20 Where your mighty archers stand intent, guarding the Saindhava—go there yourself with all speed, and protect those very protectors.

7.105.21 But I myself shall remain right here, and I will send others, and will hold off the Pāñcālas together with the Pāṇḍus and the Sṛñjayas.

7.105.22 Then Duryodhana set forth at once at the teacher's command, rousing himself for the fierce deed, with his train of followers behind him.

7.105.23 But the two Pāñcālas, Yudhāmanyu and Uttamaujas, guards of Arjuna's wheels, having come round the army by an outer path, made their way to Savyasācin.

7.105.24 For those two, O great king, had earlier been held off by Kṛtavarman when Arjuna, O king, had entered your host in his eagerness to fight.

7.105.25 With those two the mighty Bhārata Duryodhana joined a surpassing combat—swift against the swift, the brothers and he.

7.105.26 Both of them, bows uplifted, rushed upon him—those two renowned as great car-warriors, foremost of kṣatriyas in battle.

7.105.27 Yudhāmanyu, blazing with wrath, in haste loosed thirty steel shafts into your son's breast.

7.105.28 Duryodhana too, O lord of kings, slew the four horses of Uttamaujas the Pāñcāla and both his flanking charioteers.

7.105.29 Uttamaujas, his horses slain and his driver slain in the fight, made haste and mounted the chariot of his brother Yudhāmanyu.

7.105.30 Having gained his brother's chariot, he struck Duryodhana's horses with many shafts; slain, they fell to the ground.

7.105.31 His horses fallen, Yudhāmanyu with a choice shaft swiftly cut Duryodhana's bow and his quiver in the battle.

7.105.32 Leaping down from that chariot whose horses and driver were slain, your son, the great car-warrior, took up his mace and rushed at the two Pāñcālas.

7.105.33 Beholding him bearing down upon them in fury—that conqueror of hostile cities—Yudhāmanyu and Uttamaujas sprang down from their chariot's seat.

7.105.34 Then, mace in hand, he shattered with his mace that splendid car bright with gold, horses, driver, banner and all, in the fray.

7.105.35 Having destroyed it, your son—his own horses slain and his driver slain—that scorcher of foes swiftly mounted the chariot of the king of the Madras.

7.105.36 And the two princes, foremost of the Pāñcālas and mighty in strength, mounting another chariot, went on toward Dhanaṃjaya.

7.106.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Those two mighty ones, Karṇa and Bhīma, locked in combat near Arjuna's chariot—what manner of battle did it become?

7.106.2 For Karṇa had earlier been vanquished by Bhīmasena in the fight; how did Rādheya, that great car-warrior, come once more against Bhīma?

7.106.3 Or how did Bhīma go forth in battle to meet the son of the sūta, that man renowned as a great car-warrior, the foremost chariot-fighter on earth?

7.106.4 Passing over Bhīṣma and Droṇa, the son of Dharma, Yudhiṣṭhira, took no fear from any other save Karṇa the bowman.

7.106.5 Out of fear he never sleeps, ever brooding on that great car-warrior; how then did Bhīma fight that son of the sūta in battle?

7.106.6 How did Bhīma do battle with Karṇa—reverent of brāhmaṇas, endowed with valour, never turning back in fights, the best of warriors?

7.106.7 Those two heroes who came together near Arjuna's chariot—how indeed did they fight, the son of the sūta and Vṛkodara?

7.106.8 Brotherhood had been shown to him before, and that son of the sūta is compassionate too; how did he fight with Bhīma, remembering Kuntī's words?

7.106.9 Or how did the hero Bhīma, recalling the enmity wrought of old, do battle with the son of the sūta, with Karṇa, in the fight?

7.106.10 And ever, O sūta, does my son Duryodhana cherish the hope, "Karṇa will conquer the assembled Pāṇḍavas in the war."

7.106.11 He on whom rests the hope of victory of my dull-witted son in the war—how did he do battle with Bhīmasena of terrible deeds?

7.106.12 He, leaning upon whom my sons, the great car-warriors, made this feud—how, my son, did Bhīma fight that son of the sūta?

7.106.13 Recalling the many insults that had sprung from the son of the sūta, how did Bhīma do battle with the sūta's offspring?

7.106.14 He who, valiant, conquered the whole earth with a single chariot—how did Bhīma fight that son of the sūta in battle?

7.106.15 He who was born together with his earrings and his armour—how did Bhīma fight that son of the sūta in the encounter?

7.106.16 How the battle between those two went, and which of the two was victorious—tell me that truly, for you are skilled in such telling, Saṃjaya.

7.106.17 Saṃjaya said: But Bhīmasena, leaving aside Rādheya, that best of car-warriors, sought to go to where the heroes Kṛṣṇa and Dhanaṃjaya stood.

7.106.18 As he set off, Rādheya rushed after him and rained upon him heron-feathered shafts, O great king, as a cloud rains upon a mountain.

7.106.19 His face, with its smile, like a blooming lotus, the mighty son of Adhiratha then hailed Bhīma in challenge as he went on through the battle.

7.106.20 Bhīmasena could not brook that challenge from Karṇa in the fight; wheeling round in a half-circle, he engaged the son of the sūta in battle.

7.106.21 With straight-flying arrows of mighty iron he rained upon him in that single combat—upon that mailed and resolute one, the best of all who bear arms.

7.106.22 Wishing to make an end of the quarrel, eager to slay Karṇa, the mighty one wore him down, longing, once he had killed him, to slay all the rest.

7.106.23 Against him that scorcher of foes, the wrathful, impatient son of Pāṇḍu, loosed fierce showers of arrows of every kind, O sire.

7.106.24 Those arrow-showers of his, who moved with the gait of a rutting elephant, the son of the sūta of mighty fame swallowed up by his magic art of weapons.

7.106.25 Thus, O great king, that great archer Karṇa, well honoured by his learning as is fitting, moved through the battle like a master.

7.106.26 As Bhīmasena fought with vehemence, Rādheya, as if smiling, the impatient one, bore down upon that Vṛkodara.

7.106.27 That smile of Karṇa in the encounter the son of Kuntī could not endure, while the heroes fought and looked on from every side.

7.106.28 As Karṇa drew near, the mighty Bhīmasena, in wrath, pierced him in the breast with calf-tooth shafts, as one goads a great elephant with the hook.

7.106.29 And the bright-armoured charioteer of the son of the sūta he pierced with thrice seven keen, fair-feathered, well-loosed shafts.

7.106.30 The hero Karṇa pierced Bhīma's horses, swift as the wind and covered with nets of gold, with five arrows and five more apiece.

7.106.31 Then a net wrought of arrows, fashioned by Karṇa against Bhīmasena's chariot, appeared, O king, in half the wink of an eye.

7.106.32 There the son of Pāṇḍu, with his chariot, his banner and his driver, was wholly covered over, O great king, by the shafts sped from Karṇa's bow.

7.106.33 Karṇa with sixty-four shafts shattered Bhīma's stout armour, and in his wrath smote him in the side with iron arrows that pierced the vitals.

7.106.34 Then, heedless of those swift shafts sped from Karṇa's bow, Vṛkodara, unshaken, closed in upon the son of the sūta.

7.106.35 Bearing the arrows loosed from Karṇa's bow, O great king—shafts like venomous serpents—Bhīma felt no flinch of distress in the battle.

7.106.36 Then with thirty-two whetted, keen-pointed broad-headed arrows the valorous Bhīmasena pierced Karṇa in the fight.

7.106.37 With no effort at all Karṇa overwhelmed with his shafts the mighty-armed Bhīmasena, who sought the death of the Saindhava.

7.106.38 Rādheya fought Bhīma in the battle gently at first, while Bhīma, recalling their old enmity, fought him in wrath.

7.106.39 Bhīmasena, intolerant of insult, would not endure the slight; that conqueror of foes swiftly let loose a rain of arrows upon him.

7.106.40 Those arrows sped by Bhīmasena in the fray, O king, fearsome and falling on every side, screamed like birds in flight.

7.106.41 Gold-feathered, O great king, sped from Bhīmasena's bow, they rushed upon Rādheya as wolves upon a lesser beast.

7.106.42 But Karṇa, foremost of chariot-warriors, covered on every side, O king, loosed in turn his own fierce showers of arrows in the fight.

7.106.43 Those shafts of his, like thunderbolts, splendid in battle, Vṛkodara cut down with many broad-headed arrows before they reached him.

7.106.44 And again, O Bhārata, Karṇa Vaikartana covered the great chariot-warrior Bhīmasena with a rain of arrows in the fight.

7.106.45 There, O Bhārata, we beheld Bhīma in the battle, his body bristling with arrows like a porcupine with its quills.

7.106.46 Gold-feathered, stone-whetted shafts sped from Karṇa's bow the hero bore in battle, as the sun bears its own rays.

7.106.47 His every limb drenched with blood, Bhīmasena shone like a palāśa tree in the forest with its blossoms bright as gold.

7.106.48 But Bhīma, O great king, that mighty archer, did not endure this deed of Karṇa's in the battle, and in his wrath he rolled his eyes.

7.106.49 He struck Karṇa with twenty-five iron shafts—as one strikes a white mountain—shafts whose barbs lay hidden and whose touch was venomous.

7.106.50 Then Bhīma, valiant as a god, pierced the son of the charioteer once more, with six and then with eight shafts in his vital points in that great battle.

7.106.51 Then the valorous Bhīmasena, full of fury, swiftly cut to pieces Karṇa's bow and all its fittings.

7.106.52 In haste he slew his four horses and his charioteer with arrows, and with iron shafts bright as the sun's rays he pierced Karṇa in the breast.

7.106.53 All those shafts, having pierced Karṇa through, sank into the earth, O sir, as the rays of the sun pass through and beyond a cloud, O king.

7.106.54 Reduced to great helplessness, his bow severed and tormented by arrows, that proud man, full of manhood as he was, withdrew to another chariot.

7.107.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: He in whom my sons forever placed their hope of victory, Saṃjaya—seeing him turned away from the battle, what then did Duryodhana say, and what, my son, did Karṇa do next in the fight?

7.107.2 Saṃjaya said: Beholding Bhīmasena in the battle blazing like fire, Karṇa mounted another chariot duly equipped and rushed again upon the Pāṇḍava, like the ocean lashed by the wind.

7.107.3 Seeing the son of Adhiratha enraged, O lord of peoples, your sons reckoned Bhīmasena as already offered into the mouth of the son of Vivasvat.

7.107.4 Making a great twang of his bow and a terrible slap of his palm, Rādheya bore down upon Bhīmasena's chariot.

7.107.5 Then once more, O king, there arose a great and most dreadful clash between the son of the charioteer and Bhīma, O lord of peoples.

7.107.6 For those two mighty-armed warriors, enraged and each seeking the other's death, gazed upon one another as though they would burn each other with their eyes.

7.107.7 Their eyes red with wrath, both enraged and breathing hard, those great chariot-warriors, those tamers of foes, closing on each other in the fight, hewed at one another.

7.107.8 Furious as two tigers, swift as two hawks, raging as two śarabhas, they fought with one another.

7.107.9 Then Bhīma, that tamer of foes, recalled the torments suffered at the dice-game and in the forest too, and the misery endured in the city of Virāṭa.

7.107.10 And the seizing of their kingdoms, rich in jewels, by your sons, and the unending torments inflicted by you together with your son—

7.107.11 How you sought to burn Kuntī, guiltless, together with her sons, and the abuse of Kṛṣṇā in the midst of the assembly by those wicked men—

7.107.12 "Seek another husband; your husbands are no more; the Pārthas are all fallen into hell, like seeds of sesame without kernel."

7.107.13 What the Kurus said then before your eyes, O Kaurava, when your sons desired to use Kṛṣṇā as a bondwoman to be enjoyed—

7.107.14 And the harsh words Karṇa spoke against them as they set forth into exile, clothed in black antelope-skins, there in the assembly, in your presence—

7.107.15 And how, counting the Pārthas as so much straw, your son had exulted—he, secure himself, over them in their distress, his wits gone in his fury—

7.107.16 Brooding on these sorrows from his childhood on, that slayer of foes, the righteous Vṛkodara, grew weary of his very life.

7.107.17 Then, drawing his great gold-backed and unassailable bow, that tiger of the Bhāratas, careless of his own life, rushed upon Karṇa.

7.107.18 With nets of arrows, gleaming and stone-whetted, Bhīma cloaked Karṇa's chariot and veiled the very radiance of the sun.

7.107.19 Then the son of Adhiratha, laughing, swiftly hurling his keen shafts, scattered Bhīmasena's nets of arrows with his own feathered ones.

7.107.20 The great chariot-warrior, mighty-armed and mighty in strength, the son of Adhiratha, pierced Bhīma with nine swift and whetted arrows.

7.107.21 Like an elephant goaded with hooks, held back by those winged shafts, Vṛkodara, undismayed, charged at the son of the charioteer.

7.107.22 As that bull of the Pāṇḍavas rushed on swift and impetuous, Karṇa advanced to meet him in combat, as one rutting elephant meets another.

7.107.23 Then, his conch blown and a hundred kettledrums resounding, the host was stirred with joy, like the ocean upheaved.

7.107.24 Seeing that host upheaved, with its chariots, elephants, horses, and foot, Bhīma closed with Karṇa and covered him with arrows.

7.107.25 Karṇa, his horses the color of the antelope, mingled them in battle with the swan-white steeds of the Pāṇḍava as he covered him with shafts.

7.107.26 Seeing the antelope-hued horses mingled with the white ones, swift as the wind, the host of your sons broke into cries of dismay.

7.107.27 Those horses, swift as the wind, mingled together, shone in their multitude, white and dark, O great king, like clouds in the sky.

7.107.28 Beholding Karṇa and Vṛkodara enraged, their eyes copper-red with wrath, the great chariot-warriors of your side trembled in terror.

7.107.29 The battlefield of those two was terrible as the realm of Yama, hard to look upon, O best of the Bhāratas, like the city of the king of the dead.

7.107.30 Watching that wondrous spectacle as if it were a festival, the great chariot-warriors could not clearly discern victory for either in the warding off of the other.

7.107.31 They watched the clash of those two, their great weapons drawn close, a clash born of your ill counsel, O king, yours and your son's, O lord of peoples.

7.107.32 Those two slayers of foes, covering one another with keen arrows, made the sky veiled with nets of shafts by their showers of arrows.

7.107.33 Those two great chariot-warriors, each striving to slay the other with sharp arrows, were a most beautiful sight, like two rain-laden clouds pouring down.

7.107.34 Loosing arrows wrought with gold, those two tamers of foes made the sky blaze as if with falling meteors of fire, O lord.

7.107.35 Loosed by the two, the shafts fledged with heron and peacock feathers shone in their rows, like flights of exultant cranes in the autumn sky.

7.107.36 Seeing Bhīma, that tamer of foes, locked in combat with the son of the charioteer, Kṛṣṇa and Dhanaṃjaya thought the burden upon Bhīma too great.

7.107.37 There, struck hard by the arrows loosed by the son of Adhiratha and by Bhīma, horses, men, and elephants fell beyond even the range of the shafts.

7.107.38 By the many falling and fallen, lifeless beyond number, a great slaughter was wrought, O great king, among the people of your sons.

7.107.39 In an instant the earth was covered over with the lifeless bodies of men, horses, and elephants, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.108.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Most wondrous I deem the prowess of Bhīmasena, in that he made Karṇa, deft and swift in battle, give fight to him.

7.108.2 That Karṇa, who in battle could hold off even the thirty gods arrayed for war and bearing every weapon, together with yakṣas, asuras, and men—

7.108.3 How could he not overcome the Pāṇḍava in the fight, who shone as if with glory in the battle? Tell me that, my son Saṃjaya.

7.108.4 And how did the battle between those two unfold once more, that desperate gamble for life? On this, I think, hangs victory or defeat.

7.108.5 Having Karṇa in the battle, O charioteer, my son Suyodhana dares to hope he can conquer the Pārthas, together with Govinda and the Sātvatas.

7.108.6 But hearing that Karṇa was vanquished, and not once only, by Bhīmasena of dreadful deeds in the battle, a daze well-nigh overcomes me.

7.108.7 Undone I deem the Kauravas through the misrule of my son; for Karṇa will not vanquish the Pārthas, those mighty archers, O Saṃjaya.

7.108.8 In all the battles Karṇa has waged with the sons of Pāṇḍu, everywhere the Pāṇḍavas have defeated Karṇa on the field of war.

7.108.9 Unconquerable are the Pāṇḍavas, my son, even by the gods with Vāsava among them; yet my dull-witted son Duryodhana does not perceive it.

7.108.10 Having seized the wealth of Pārtha as one might seize the wealth of the lord of riches, my foolish son, like a man greedy for honey, does not see the fall before him.

7.108.11 Skilled in fraud, having stolen by fraud the kingdom of those great-souled ones, and reckoning them already conquered, he holds the Pāṇḍavas in contempt.

7.108.12 And by me too, overborne by love for my son and undisciplined in soul, were the great-souled sons of Pāṇḍu, steadfast in dharma, wronged.

7.108.13 Pārtha Yudhiṣṭhira, ever desiring peace and far-sighted, was spurned by my sons, who reckoned him powerless.

7.108.14 Taking all those manifold sorrows and outrages to heart, the mighty-armed Bhīma fought the son of the charioteer.

7.108.15 Therefore tell me, Saṃjaya, how Karṇa and Bhīma, those two foremost in war, fought in the battle, each seeking the other's death.

7.108.16 Saṃjaya said: Hear, O king, how the combat unfolded between Karṇa and Bhīma, each seeking the other's death, like two elephants in the forest.

7.108.17 O king, Vaikartana, enraged, advancing in valor upon Bhīma the tamer of foes—enraged and valiant in turn—pierced him with thirty arrows.

7.108.18 With swift, bright-pointed arrows adorned with gold, Vaikartana struck Bhīma, O best of the Bhāratas.

7.108.19 As he loosed his shafts, Bhīma cut his bow with three whetted arrows, and with a broad-headed shaft struck his driver down from the chariot-seat to the ground.

7.108.20 Then Vaikartana, that bull among men, longing for Bhīmasena's death, laid hold of a spear with a shaft bright with gold and lapis.

7.108.21 Grasping that great spear, like a second spear of Death, the mighty Rādheya raised it, took his aim, and hurled it at Bhīmasena, as though to make an end of his life.

7.108.22 Having hurled the spear as Puraṃdara hurls the thunderbolt, the mighty son of the sūta, Rādheya, roared a tremendous roar; and hearing that roar your sons were filled with joy.

7.108.23 That spear loosed from Karṇa's arm, blazing like the sun and like fire, Bhīma cut to pieces in mid-air with seven swift arrows.

7.108.24 Having shattered that spear, which resembled a serpent freed from its slough, Bhīma then, O venerable one, as though seeking out the very life-breath of the son of the sūta,

7.108.25 in his fury sent forth in battle nine arrows fledged with peacock plumes, gold-shafted, whetted upon stone, like to the rod of Yama.

7.108.26 Karṇa too, taking up another bow, gold-backed and hard to withstand, and drawing it, that mighty-splendored one let fly nine shafts.

7.108.27 Those the son of Pāṇḍu cut apart with nine smooth-jointed shafts; and having severed the nine great arrows loosed by Vasuṣeṇa, O great king, Bhīma roared as a lion roars.

7.108.28 The two mighty ones, bellowing like bulls over a cow in heat, roared exceedingly at one another like two tigers.

7.108.29 Each longing to strike the other, each watching for the other's opening, they glared at one another like two great bulls in the cattle-pens.

7.108.30 Closing like two great elephants goring each other with the tips of their tusks, they smote one another with arrows loosed from bows drawn to the full.

7.108.31 Scorching each other, O great king, with showers of arrows, they glared at one another, their eyes wide open in wrath.

7.108.32 Laughing at one another and taunting each other again and again, sounding their conches the while, they fought together.

7.108.33 Once more Bhīma cut his bow asunder at the grip, O venerable one, and with his arrows sent his conch-white horses to the abode of Yama.

7.108.34 Seeing Karṇa thus brought to straits, King Duryodhana, trembling as it were with rage, then gave command to Durjaya:

7.108.35 "Go, Durjaya, before the Pāṇḍava devours Rādheya; swiftly slay this hornless one and lend your strength to Karṇa."

7.108.36 Thus addressed, your son answered "So be it," and rushed upon Bhīmasena, who was engaged elsewhere, scattering arrows as he came.

7.108.37 He afflicted Bhīma with nine arrows, his horses with eight, his driver with six, his standard with three, and Bhīma again with seven.

7.108.38 Bhīmasena too, greatly enraged, with his swift shafts pierced Durjaya in his vitals and, horses and charioteer with him, sent him to the dwelling of Yama.

7.108.39 As your richly adorned son lay crushed upon the earth, writhing like a serpent, Karṇa, weeping and stricken with grief, made a reverent circuit about him.

7.108.40 But Bhīma, having stripped his bitter foe of his chariot, smiling, covered him over with masses of arrows as a śataghnī is studded with spikes.

7.108.41 Yet even so the mighty car-warrior Karṇa, that scorcher of foes, though pierced through by the shafts, did not abandon the wrathful-visaged Bhīma in the fight.

7.109.1 Saṃjaya said: Karṇa, thus deprived of his chariot and again vanquished by Bhīma, mounting another car, straightway pierced the Pāṇḍava.

7.109.2 Closing like two great elephants goring each other with the tips of their tusks, they smote one another with arrows loosed from bows drawn to the full.

7.109.3 Then Karṇa afflicted Bhīma sorely with multitudes of arrows, roared a mighty roar, and again pierced him in the chest.

7.109.4 Bhīma pierced him back with ten straight-flying arrows, and pierced him again with twenty smooth-jointed shafts.

7.109.5 But Karṇa, O king, having pierced Bhīma with nine arrows between the breasts, pierced his standard with a single keen shaft.

7.109.6 Then the son of Pṛthā pierced him in return with sixty-three shafts, as a great elephant is goaded with hooks, or a horse with whips.

7.109.7 Sorely pierced, O great king, by the illustrious Pāṇḍava, that hero, licking the corners of his mouth, his eyes red with wrath,

7.109.8 then, O great king, loosed at Bhīmasena an arrow that could rend any body, as Indra hurls the thunderbolt against the Daityas.

7.109.9 That gaily-feathered shaft, loosed from the sūta's son's bow, having pierced the son of Pṛthā in battle, passed on and split the ground.

7.109.10 Without hesitation Bhīma hurled at the sūta's son a heavy mace, wholly of iron, four cubits long, banded with gold and six-edged.

7.109.11 With that mace the wrathful Bhārata slew the goodly, well-trained steeds of the son of Adhiratha, as Indra slew the Asuras with the thunderbolt.

7.109.12 Then the mighty-armed Bhīma, O bull of the Bhāratas, with two razor-edged arrows cut down the standard of Adhiratha's son and struck down his charioteer.

7.109.13 Forsaking the car whose horses and driver were slain and whose standard had fallen, Karṇa, twanging his bow, stood there, O Bhārata, downcast in heart.

7.109.14 There we beheld a wondrous feat of Rādheya's prowess: bereft of his chariot, that best of car-warriors yet held his enemy at bay.

7.109.15 Seeing the son of Adhiratha, that foremost of car-warriors, deprived of his car in the battle, Duryodhana then, O king, spoke to Durmukha:

7.109.16 "This Rādheya, O Durmukha, has been stripped of his chariot by Bhīma; furnish that best of men, that mighty car-warrior, with a car."

7.109.17 Hearing Duryodhana's word, O Bhārata, Durmukha hastened to Karṇa and held Bhīma off with arrows.

7.109.18 Beholding Durmukha in the fray hastening to the side of the sūta's son, the son of Vāyu rejoiced, licking the corners of his mouth.

7.109.19 Then, O great king, having warded off Karṇa with his arrows, the Pāṇḍava swiftly drove his car toward Durmukha.

7.109.20 In that instant, O great king, with nine well-feathered, smooth-jointed shafts Bhīma sent Durmukha to the abode of Yama.

7.109.21 Then, Durmukha being slain, the son of Adhiratha mounted that very car and shone, O king, like the radiant sun.

7.109.22 Seeing Durmukha lying with his vitals pierced and bathed in blood, Karṇa, his eyes filled with tears, for a moment did not advance.

7.109.23 Passing by the lifeless one and making a reverent circuit about him, the hero Karṇa, sighing long and hot, could do nothing at all.

7.109.24 In that opening, O king, Bhīmasena loosed at the sūta's son fourteen iron arrows fledged with vulture-feathers.

7.109.25 Those gold-shafted, exceedingly powerful arrows, splendidly wrought with gold, O great king, having pierced his armor, lit up the ten directions,

7.109.26 and, feeding upon blood, drank the blood of the sūta's son, O lord of men, like enraged serpents urged on by Death.

7.109.27 Gliding upon the earth, those shafts shone forth as, half-entered into their holes, great serpents furiously dart.

7.109.28 Rādheya pierced him in return, without hesitation, with fourteen exceedingly fierce iron arrows adorned with gold.

7.109.29 Those terrible winged shafts, having pierced through Bhīmasena's left arm, entered the earth as birds plunge into the Krauñca mountain.

7.109.30 Those iron arrows, entering the earth, shone like the blazing rays of the day-maker as he goes to his setting.

7.109.31 Bhīma, pierced in battle by those vital-rending iron arrows, streamed forth blood in abundance as a mountain pours down water.

7.109.32 That Bhīma, stretched to his utmost, pierced the sūta's son with three winged shafts swift as Suparṇa, and his charioteer with seven.

7.109.33 Reeling, O great king, and sore afflicted by Bhīma's might, the illustrious Karṇa abandoned the battle and fled away with his swift horses.

7.109.34 But Bhīmasena, twanging his gold-decked bow, that mighty car-warrior stood in the battle blazing like the fire that devours offerings.

7.110.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Fate, I deem, is supreme; fie upon human effort, that comes to naught, since the son of Adhiratha, straining his utmost, could not overcome the Pāṇḍava in battle.

7.110.2 "Karṇa is able to conquer the sons of Pṛthā together with Govinda in battle, and I see no warrior in the world equal to Karṇa" — thus did I hear Duryodhana prate again and again.

7.110.3 "For Karṇa is mighty, a hero, firm of bow, conqueror of fatigue" — thus the foolish Duryodhana spoke to me of old, O sūta.

7.110.4 "With Vasuṣeṇa for my ally, not even the gods are a match for me in war, O king — how much less the sons of Pāṇḍu, drained of strength and bereft of sense."

7.110.5 Now, seeing Karṇa there vanquished, like a serpent drained of its venom, withdrawn from the fight — what, pray, did Duryodhana say?

7.110.6 Alas, in his bewilderment he sent Durmukha alone, unskilled in warfare, into the battle, as a moth is sent into the fire.

7.110.7 Aśvatthāman, the king of the Madras, Kṛpa, and Karṇa, even joined together, are surely unable to stand before Bhīma, O Saṃjaya.

7.110.8 They too, knowing his most terrible strength, like that of ten thousand elephants, and the cruel resolve of that one whose splendor is the Wind's,

7.110.9 why, knowing his might, his fury, and his valor, would they provoke in battle that one of cruel deeds, who is like Yama, Time, and the Ender?

7.110.10 Yet Karṇa alone, the mighty-armed son of the sūta, relying on the strength of his own arms, made light of Bhīmasena and fought him in battle.

7.110.11 He who vanquished Karṇa in battle as Puraṃdara vanquished the Asura — that son of Pāṇḍu can be conquered by none in the fight.

7.110.12 Bhīma, who, crushing Droṇa, alone penetrated my host in search of Dhanaṃjaya — who that wished to live would withstand him?

7.110.13 For who, O Saṃjaya, would dare to stand before Bhīma, as a Dānava before great Indra with his thunderbolt upraised?

7.110.14 A man might come even to the city of the king of the dead and return, but having come upon Bhīmasena he would never return.

7.110.15 Like moths into the fire those dull-witted ones plunged, who in their bewilderment rushed against the wrathful Bhīmasena.

7.110.16 That oath which Bhīma swore in the assembly, touching the slaughter of my sons, the fierce and furious one, in the hearing of the Kurus then —

7.110.17 surely remembering that, and seeing Karṇa vanquished, Duḥśāsana with his brother drew back from Bhīma out of fear.

7.110.18 And he of evil mind, O Saṃjaya, who said again and again in the council, "Karṇa, Duḥśāsana, and I shall conquer the Pāṇḍavas in battle" —

7.110.19 he, surely, seeing Karṇa stripped of his car and vanquished by Bhīma, and recalling his rejection of Kṛṣṇa, grieves bitterly, O Saṃjaya.

7.110.20 Seeing his mailed brothers slain in battle by Bhīmasena, my little son, surely, grieves exceedingly for his own transgression.

7.110.21 For who that wished to live would advance against the Pāṇḍava Bhīma, of terrible weapons, enraged, standing there like Death made manifest?

7.110.22 A man set in the midst of the mare-mouthed fire beneath the sea might yet escape, but one who has come within Bhīma's reach cannot escape — such is my conviction.

7.110.23 Neither the Pāṇḍavas, nor the Pāñcālas, nor Keśava and Sātyaki, when roused in battle, know how to guard their lives.

7.110.24 Saṃjaya said: That you grieve, O Kaurava, now that the slaughter of folk is upon us — you yourself are the root of this world's destruction, there is no doubt.

7.110.25 Having yourself stirred up this great enmity, and abiding by the word of your sons, though counseled you would not take the counsel, as a dying man refuses wholesome medicine.

7.110.26 Having yourself drunk down, O great king, the Kālakūṭa poison so hard to digest, now reap its fruit in full, O best of men.

7.110.27 As for your reviling of the warriors who fought with all their strength, I shall now describe to you how the battle truly unfolded.

7.110.28 When they saw Karṇa worsted by Bhīmasena, your five sons, born of the same mother and mighty archers, could not endure it, O honored one.

7.110.29 Durmarṣaṇa, Duḥsaha, Durmada, Durdhara, and Jaya, splendid in their armor, rushed against that son of Pāṇḍu to oppose him.

7.110.30 Surrounding the mighty-armed Vṛkodara on every side, they veiled the quarters with arrows, as though with swarms of locusts.

7.110.31 As those princes, fair as the gods, came swiftly on, Bhīmasena received them in battle as though with a laugh.

7.110.32 But seeing your sons drawn close to Bhīmasena, Rādheya advanced against the mighty Bhīmasena.

7.110.33 Loosing shafts with golden nocks, whetted on stone, O king, he came on; and Bhīma rushed at him at once, though held back by your sons.

7.110.34 Then the Kurus, encircling Karṇa on all sides, covered Bhīmasena with arrows of smooth-jointed shafts.

7.110.35 With twenty-five arrows, O king, Bhīma of the fearsome bow sent those bull-like men, together with their horses and charioteers, to the abode of Yama.

7.110.36 Lifeless, they fell from their chariots together with their charioteers, like great flowering trees laden with bright blossoms, broken by the wind.

7.110.37 There we beheld the wondrous valor of Bhīmasena, who, while warding off the son of Adhiratha with his arrows, yet slew your sons.

7.110.38 Though held off on every side by Bhīma's sharp arrows, the son of the sūta, O great king, kept his gaze fixed upon Bhīmasena.

7.110.39 And Bhīmasena, in his fury, his eyes red with wrath, drawing his vast bow taut, gazed again and again upon Karṇa.

7.111.1 Saṃjaya said: When valiant Karṇa saw your sons fallen, he was seized with a great wrath and grew weary of his own life.

7.111.2 The son of Adhiratha then deemed himself an offender, as it were; and in his anger he rushed upon Bhīmasena in haste.

7.111.3 Rādheya, having pierced Bhīma with five shafts as though with a smile, struck him again with seventy arrows golden-nocked and whetted on stone.

7.111.4 But Vṛkodara, son of Pṛthā, would not brook that mockery, and pierced Rādheya in turn with a hundred smooth-jointed shafts.

7.111.5 And again, having pierced him with five swift, keen arrows, he cut asunder the bow of the sūta's son with a broad-headed shaft, O honored one.

7.111.6 Then Karṇa, taking up another bow, O Bhārata, sore at heart, covered Bhīmasena on every side with his arrows.

7.111.7 But Bhīma, having slain his horses and struck down his charioteer, laughed a great laugh, the deed repaid once more.

7.111.8 And that bull among men cut his bow apart with arrows; it fell, O great king, gold-backed and loud-resounding.

7.111.9 Then Karṇa, that mighty car-warrior, descended from his chariot, and seizing a mace, hurled it at Bhīmasena in the fray.

7.111.10 Seeing that mace come hurtling suddenly upon him, Vṛkodara warded it off with his arrows, O king, in the sight of the whole army.

7.111.11 Then the valiant son of Pāṇḍu, eager to slay the sūta's son, sent forth in haste thousands of arrows.

7.111.12 Warding off those shafts with his own arrows in that great battle, Karṇa with his darts struck down the armor of Bhīmasena.

7.111.13 Then he pierced him with twenty-five small arrows; and to all beings who beheld it, that seemed a wondrous thing.

7.111.14 Then Bhīma, O great king, in his wrath sent against the sūta's son in battle nine smooth-jointed shafts, O honored one.

7.111.15 Piercing his armor and his right arm, those keen shafts entered the earth like serpents entering an anthill.

7.111.16 But seeing Rādheya standing on foot in the battle, sore beset by Bhīmasena, King Duryodhana said: 'Make haste, all of you, intent and ready, to bring a chariot to Rādheya.'

7.111.17 Then your sons, O king, hearing their brother's word, swiftly advanced against the son of Pāṇḍu in battle, loosing keen arrows.

7.111.18 Citra, Upacitra, Citrākṣa, Cārucitra, Śarāsana, Citrāyudha, and Citravarman—warriors of wondrous skill in battle.

7.111.19 As they came on swiftly, Bhīma, that mighty car-warrior, O king, struck them down in the fray together with their horses, charioteers, and standards; slain, they fell to the earth like trees felled by the wind.

7.111.20 Seeing your sons, those mighty car-warriors, slain, O king, Karṇa, his face full of tears, fell into a swoon of grief.

7.111.21 Mounting another chariot duly equipped, the valiant one again advanced in haste against the son of Pāṇḍu in battle.

7.111.22 Piercing each other with arrows golden-nocked and whetted on stone, the two shone, O great king, like a pair of kiṃśuka trees in flower.

7.111.23 Then the son of Pāṇḍu, in his wrath, with thirty-six sharp broad-headed shafts of fierce point, shattered the armor of the sūta's son.

7.111.24 Their limbs as if smeared with red sandal, deeply wounded by arrows and bathed in blood, the two shone like twin suns of the world's end newly risen.

7.111.25 With their bodies drenched in blood, their armor riven by arrows, the two, stripped of mail, shone like serpents that had cast their slough.

7.111.26 Like two tigers tearing each other with their fangs, those tamers of foes, those tigers among men, brandishing arrows for fangs, rent one another.

7.111.27 Locked together like two elephants, they shone in the midst of the field, striking each other with keen shafts, in prowess like rutting elephants.

7.111.28 Covering each other in battle with nets of arrows, and making all the quarters resound with their chariots, the two ranged about.

7.111.29 With their chariots, O great king, in wheeling rounds and like maneuvers, those two high-souled ones shone like Vṛtra and the wielder of the thunderbolt.

7.111.30 Drawing his bow with arms adorned with bracelets, Bhīma shone in the battle like a thunderhead lit with lightning.

7.111.31 Thundering with the roar of his bow, that great rain-cloud of arrow-showers, the dread cloud that was Bhīma, O great king, advanced upon the mountain that was Karṇa.

7.111.32 Then with a thousand arrows loosed from his bow, O Bhārata, the son of Pāṇḍu covered Karṇa as a cloud covers a mountain with its rains.

7.111.33 There your sons beheld the valor of Bhīmasena, who covered Karṇa with shafts fair-nocked and fledged with heron's feathers.

7.111.34 Gladdening the son of Pṛthā in battle, and the glorious Keśava, and Sātyaki and the two guardians of the wheels, Bhīma fought against Karṇa.

7.111.35 The prowess of his arms, the valor and the steadfastness of that self-possessed hero—your sons, O great king, beheld it all in the son of Pāṇḍu.

7.112.1 Saṃjaya said: When Rādheya heard the twang of Bhīmasena's bowstring and the slap of his palm, he brooked it no more, as a rutting elephant brooks not the trumpeting of a rival.

7.112.2 Withdrawing for a moment from the range of Bhīma's arrows, the son of Adhiratha beheld your sons fallen from their chariots.

7.112.3 Slain by Bhīmasena, they lay there; downcast and grieved, sighing long and hot, he again advanced upon the son of Pāṇḍu.

7.112.4 His eyes red as copper with wrath, hissing like a great serpent, Karṇa, loosing his arrows, blazed like the radiant sun shedding its beams.

7.112.5 As if by the spreading webs of the sun's rays, O bull of the Bhāratas, Vṛkodara was overspread by the arrows loosed from Karṇa's bow.

7.112.6 The bright arrows fledged with peacock-feathers, loosed from Karṇa's bow, entered the son of Pṛthā from every side, as birds settle upon a tree to roost.

7.112.7 The golden-nocked arrows loosed from Karṇa's bow, flying hither and thither, shone like wild geese ranged in rows.

7.112.8 Springing forth, as it seemed, from his bow, his banner, and the gear of his car, from his parasol, from the shaft-end of the pole, and from the yoke, the arrows of Adhiratha's son were seen, O king.

7.112.9 Filling the sky, the son of Adhiratha let fly his arrows of great speed, sky-coursing and feather-fledged, bright and wrought with gold.

7.112.10 As he bore down like Death himself strained for the kill, Vṛkodara, with his own life held cheap and burning with wrath, pierced him with nine arrows.

7.112.11 Seeing the unbearable onslaught of Karṇa and those great floods of arrows, the valiant son of Pāṇḍu was not in the least dismayed.

7.112.12 Then, scattering the nets of arrows of Adhiratha's son, the son of Pāṇḍu pierced Karṇa with twenty more keen shafts.

7.112.13 Even as the son of Pṛthā had been covered with arrows by the sūta's son, so too did the son of Pāṇḍu cover Karṇa in the battle.

7.112.14 Beholding the valor of Bhīmasena in battle, O Bhārata, your own people and the celestial bards rejoiced and applauded with delight.

7.112.15 Bhūriśravas, Kṛpa, the son of Droṇa, the king of the Madras, Jayadratha, Uttamaujas, Yudhāmanyu, Sātyaki, Keśava, and Arjuna—

7.112.16 these ten foremost mighty car-warriors among the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas, O king, crying 'Well done! Well done!' raised forthwith a mighty lion's roar.

7.112.17 While that tumultuous, hair-raising clamor arose, O king, Duryodhana hastily addressed your sons.

7.112.18 To the kings and the princes, and his own brothers especially: 'Go to Karṇa—good fortune to you—seeking to deliver him from Vṛkodara.'

7.112.19 'Before the arrows loosed from Bhīma's bow strike down Rādheya, exert yourselves, O great archers, to guard the sūta's son.'

7.112.20 At Duryodhana's command, seven of his brothers, O honored one, rushed furiously upon Bhīmasena and surrounded him.

7.112.21 Closing in upon the son of Kuntī, they enveloped him with showers of arrows, as rain-clouds in the wet season enwrap a mountain with their torrents.

7.112.22 Those seven mighty car-warriors in their wrath beset Bhīmasena, O king, as the seven planets beset the moon at the time of the dissolution of beings.

7.112.23 Then the son of Kuntī, the son of Pāṇḍu, gripping his bow tightly in his firm left fist, O king—that well-wrought bow—

7.112.24 and judging them but men like himself, fitted seven arrows like the sun's own beams, and the mighty one, drawing them taut, loosed them upon those foes.

7.112.25 As if casting forth the very life-breaths from the bodies of your sons, Bhīmasena, O great king, remembered the old enmity.

7.112.26 Those arrows hurled by Bhīmasena, O Bhārata, golden-nocked and whetted on stone, having pierced the Bhāratas, sprang up into the sky.

7.112.27 Having rent open their hearts, those gold-adorned arrows shone, O great king, like sky-coursing eagles.

7.112.28 Their feathered tips smeared with blood, those seven gold-wrought shafts, O lord of kings, sprang up again, having drunk the blood of your sons.

7.112.29 Their vital parts pierced by the arrows, they fell from their chariots to the earth, like great trees grown on mountain ridges, broken by an elephant.

7.112.30 Śatruṃjaya, Śatrusaha, Citra, Citrāyudha, Dṛḍha, Citrasena, and Vikarṇa—these seven were laid low.

7.112.31 Having slain them, the mighty-armed son of Pāṇḍu, before the very eyes of Rādheya, sent forth a terrible roar like a lion's.

7.112.32 That roar of the hero, O Bhārata, seemed to proclaim to the King of Righteousness that battle and his own great victory.

7.112.33 Hearing that mighty roar of Bhīmasena the bowman, the Dharmarāja was filled with the highest joy in the battle.

7.112.34 Then, O great king, the delighted Pārtha answered Bhīmasena's roar on every side with the loud blare of musical instruments.

7.112.35 And when Vṛkodara had given the signal, filled with great gladness he advanced in the battle against Droṇa, the foremost of weapon-bearers.

7.112.36 Seeing thirty-one of your sons, great car-warriors all, slain, O great king, Duryodhana remembered those words of Vidura the steward.

7.112.37 "Now has come to pass that beneficial word of the steward,"—so reflecting, that king found no answer to make.

7.112.38 What your evil-minded son had spoken at the time of the dice-game, and the harsh words that Karṇa had spoken to Kṛṣṇā in the assembly—

7.112.39 in the presence of the sons of Pāṇḍu, and of yourself, O lord of peoples, and of all the Kauravas, and in the very presence of the preceptor—

7.112.40 "The Pāṇḍavas are utterly ruined, O Kṛṣṇā; they have gone to everlasting hell. Choose yourself another husband"—the fruit of that has now arrived.

7.112.41 When, having brought Draupadī into the assembly, they spoke harsh words to her, your sons enraged the Pāṇḍavas of terrible bows.

7.112.42 Loosing that fire of wrath which had abided in him thirteen years, Bhīmasena, O Kaurava, is bringing your sons to their end.

7.112.43 Lamenting much, the steward could find no peace with you, O best of the Bhāratas, you together with your sons; now reap the ripening of that fruit. Vikarṇa is slain, O lord of kings, and valiant Citrasena too.

7.112.44 The foremost among your sons, and other of your sons, great car-warriors—whomever Bhīma saw come within range of his eye, those sons of yours, O mighty-armed one, he slew in haste.

7.112.45 On your account I have beheld the host consumed as if by fire, by the arrows loosed in their thousands by the Pāṇḍava and by the Bull Karṇa.

7.113.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Great was the misgovernance, O charioteer, mine above all herein; that has now come home, I think, O Saṃjaya, to me who grieve.

7.113.2 "What is gone is gone"—this was fixed in my mind; now what is to be done here, what shall I do, O Saṃjaya?

7.113.3 But how this destruction of heroes, born of my own misrule, came to pass—tell me that; I have grown steady, O Saṃjaya.

7.113.4 Saṃjaya said: Karṇa and Bhīma, O great king, putting forth their valour in the great battle, rained down showers of arrows like two rain-laden clouds.

7.113.5 Arrows marked with Bhīma's name, golden-feathered and whetted on stone, reaching Karṇa entered him as though cleaving his very life.

7.113.6 Even so was Bhīma covered in the fight, by hundreds and by thousands, with the shafts loosed from Karṇa, like venomous serpents.

7.113.7 From the arrows of those two falling on every side, O great king, there arose among your armies a tumult like that of the ocean.

7.113.8 By the arrows loosed from Bhīma's bow, O subduer of foes, your army was slaughtered in the midst of the host—dreadful shafts, the likeness of snakes of deadly poison.

7.113.9 Strewn with fallen elephants, O king, and with horses and men together, the earth appeared as if littered with trees uprooted by the wind.

7.113.10 Being slain in the battle by the arrows loosed from Bhīma's bow, your warriors fled, crying out, "What is this?"

7.113.11 Then that army of the Sindhus, the Sauvīras, and the Kauravas was scattered and driven off by the swift arrows of Karṇa and the Pāṇḍava.

7.113.12 Sore wounded with arrows for the most part, their horses, men, and mounts slain, they abandoned Karṇa and Bhīma and fled in every direction.

7.113.13 "Surely for Pārtha's sake the dwellers of heaven bewilder us, in that our host is being slain by the arrows that spring from Karṇa and Bhīma."

7.113.14 Speaking thus, your warriors, oppressed by fear, withdrew beyond arrow-range and stood there, eager only to watch the fight.

7.113.15 Then there flowed, in that great battle, a river of dreadful aspect, which especially heightened the terror of the timorous.

7.113.16 It rose from the streaming blood of elephants, horses, and men, and was thronged with lifeless men, elephants, and steeds.

7.113.17 With the trappings of elephants, horses, and cars, with their axle-poles and banners, and with chariots cast aside, their wheels, axles, and shafts broken—

7.113.18 with bows adorned with gold and of exceeding worth, with golden-feathered shafts, and with iron arrows by the thousand—

7.113.19 loosed by Karṇa and the Pāṇḍava like serpents set free, with masses of darts and lances, with swords and battle-axes—

7.113.20 and with maces, clubs, and spiked spears wrought with gold, with thunderbolt-darts of many shapes, with spears and bludgeons, and with gleaming hundred-slayers, the earth shone bright, O Bhārata.

7.113.21 With golden armlets and bracelets, with earrings and shining gems, with coats of mail and with hand-guards, with necklaces and ornaments of gold, O Bhārata—

7.113.22 with garments and parasols torn asunder, with yak-tail whisks and fans, with the cleft bodies of elephants, horses, and men, with weapons and the trappings of chariots—

7.113.23 with these manifold objects of every kind, fallen and flung about here and there, the earth shone like the firmament with its planets.

7.113.24 Beholding the unimaginable, wondrous, and more-than-human deeds of those two, amazement seized the Cāraṇas and the Siddhas.

7.113.25 As fire aided by the wind sweeps through dry brushwood, so was the course in battle of the son of Adhiratha, having Bhīma for his match; terrible was that course, casting down banners and cars and slaying horses, men, and elephants.

7.113.26 As a thicket of reeds is crushed by two elephants joined in combat, so was that great army brought low in the battle, O Bhārata; and supreme was the havoc wrought by Karṇa and Bhīma in the fight.

7.114.1 Saṃjaya said: Then Karṇa, O great king, having pierced Bhīma with three shafts, loosed showers of arrows, brilliant and manifold.

7.114.2 Though smitten by the son of the charioteer, O great king, the Pāṇḍava Bhīmasena did not waver, like a mountain being riven.

7.114.3 Then Bhīmasena, O lord of kings, pierced Karṇa in the ear with a barbed, whetted, yellow-hued, feathered shaft in the fight.

7.114.4 He struck the great earring of refined gold from Karṇa's ear to the ground, O great king, like a blazing light falling from the sky.

7.114.5 Then with another broad-headed arrow the mighty Bhīma, as if smiling, struck the charioteer's son hard between the breasts.

7.114.6 Then again, in haste, Bhīma sped at him in the battle ten iron arrows of great swiftness, O Bhārata, like the rod of Yama.

7.114.7 Reaching the forehead of the charioteer's son, O sire, those arrows, driven by him, entered it as serpents enter an ant-hill.

7.114.8 With those arrows fixed in his forehead the charioteer's son shone forth, as he had of old when wearing a garland wrought of blue lotuses.

7.114.9 Then Karṇa, enraged in the fight, sore pressed by the strong bowman, mighty in speed, put forth his swiftness to slay Bhīmasena.

7.114.10 At him Karṇa, O king, impatient, strong, and wrathful, sped a hundred arrows feathered with vulture-plumes, O Bhārata.

7.114.11 Then the Pāṇḍava loosed fierce showers of arrows; heeding him not in the battle, he gave no thought to his prowess.

7.114.12 Then Karṇa, O great king, that scorcher of foes, in his wrath struck the wrathful-looking Pāṇḍava upon the breast with whetted shafts.

7.114.13 Like two storm-clouds they rained upon each other in the battle, terrifying one another with the cracking sounds of their bow-strings.

7.114.14 With manifold nets of arrows they covered each other in the fray, both wrathful in the battle, each seeking to repay deed with deed.

7.114.15 Then the mighty-armed Bhīma, having cut the bow of the high-souled Rādheya with a razor-tipped arrow, pierced Karṇa with a feathered shaft.

7.114.16 Casting aside that severed bow, the high-minded son of the charioteer took up another, swift-striking and able to bear a heavy strain.

7.114.17 And seeing the destruction of the host of the Kurus, the Sauvīras, and the Saindhavas, and the earth covered with fallen armour, banners, and weapons—

7.114.18 and beholding on every side the lifeless bodies of elephants, horses, and men, the form of the charioteer's son grew blazing with fury.

7.114.19 Twanging his great bow adorned with gold, Rādheya gazed upon Bhīma, O king, with a terrible eye.

7.114.20 Then the wrathful son of the charioteer, hurling his shafts, shone forth radiant like the autumn sun risen to the meridian.

7.114.21 Like the form of the sun blossoming with its rays, O king, was the dreadful form of the son of Adhiratha, ablaze with hundreds of arrows.

7.114.22 As he took up his swift shafts with both hands, set them to the string, drew them back, and loosed them, none in the battle could mark the interval.

7.114.23 As he discharged his shafts to the left and to the right, the weapon of Karṇa, O great king, dreadful as a wheel of fire, seemed drawn into a circle.

7.114.24 Golden-feathered and well-whetted, the arrows loosed from Karṇa's bow veiled, O great king, the quarters and the splendour of the sun.

7.114.25 Then in the sky was seen, in manifold array, a flight of gold-feathered arrows with smooth-bending joints, loosed from his bow.

7.114.26 Issuing from the bow of the son of Adhiratha, the shafts, ranged in lines, shone forth, O king, like cranes in the heavens.

7.114.27 Vulture-feathered, stone-whetted, adorned with gold, of great swiftness and blazing points—such arrows did the son of Adhiratha loose.

7.114.28 Hurled by the force of the bow and decked with gold, those arrows poured ceaselessly upon the chariot of Pārtha's son Bhīma.

7.114.29 Gem-wrought, they shone in the sky by the thousand—the arrows sped by Karṇa, like swarms of locusts.

7.114.30 Loosed from the bow of the son of Adhiratha, the falling shafts seemed, as they sped forth, to be a single long and towering arrow.

7.114.31 As a rain-cloud veils a mountain with its torrents, so did the wrathful Karṇa cover Bhīma with showers of arrows.

7.114.32 There, O Bhārata, your sons together with the Kurus beheld the strength, the valour, the prowess, and the resolve of Bhīma.

7.114.33 Heedless of that risen shower of arrows, swollen like the surging sea, the wrathful Bhīma rushed upon Karṇa.

7.114.34 The great gold-backed bow of Bhīma, O lord of peoples, drawn into a circle by his pull, seemed a second rainbow of Indra; from it the arrows came forth as if filling the firmament.

7.114.35 By the gold-feathered, smooth-jointed shafts of Bhīma there was wrought in the sky a garland that shone as if of gold.

7.114.36 Then the nets of arrows clinging in the sky, struck piece by piece by the feathered shafts of Bhīmasena, were scattered asunder.

7.114.37 By the floods of arrow-nets of both Karṇa and Bhīmasena, touching like sparks of fire and flying straight in the battle, the sky was wholly covered with flights of gold-feathered shafts.

7.114.38 Covering Bhīma with arrows of many kinds, the charioteer's son pressed upon him, making light of the prowess of that high-souled one.

7.114.39 As those two there loosed their nets of arrows, O sire, they seemed to become like winds, clashing one against the other.

7.114.40 At him Karṇa, in his wrath, sped sharp arrows burnished by the smith and wrought with gold, longing to slay him.

7.114.41 Those Bhīma cut down in mid-air with his shafts, each into three, and outdoing the charioteer's son he cried, "Stand and fight!"

7.114.42 Once more the mighty Pāṇḍava, brooking no insult and ablaze with wrath, let loose his fierce torrents of arrows, like a fire bent on consuming all.

7.114.43 But Karṇa, the charioteer's son, fearlessly received all those weapons of the warring son of Pāṇḍu, neutralizing them by the wizardry of his own missiles.

7.114.44 With his smooth-jointed shafts Karṇa Vaikartana cut apart Bhīma's quivers, his bowstring, and the reins and traces of his horses.

7.114.45 Then, having slain his horses, with three arrows he pierced his charioteer, who leapt down and fled swiftly to the chariot of Yuyudhāna.

7.114.46 As though smiling, the wrathful Rādheya, radiant as the fire of doom, severed Bhīma's banner and brought down his pennons.

7.114.47 Bereft of his bow, O great king, Bhīma seized the lance kept in his car, and whirling it in his fury, hurled it at Karṇa's chariot.

7.114.48 But the son of Adhiratha, straining hard, with ten arrows cut to pieces that gold-adorned lance as it came on, blazing like a great meteor.

7.114.49 Cleft into ten pieces by the shafts of Karṇa, it fell, O king — shafts loosed by that charioteer's son, fighter of wondrous skill, in the cause of his friend.

7.114.50 Then the son of Kuntī took up his shield and his gold-mounted sword, seeking now one of two ends — death or victory; but Karṇa, as if laughing, shattered them both in an instant.

7.114.51 Stripped of his shield, O great king, his chariot gone, swooning with rage, Bhīma whirled his sword and flung it in haste at Karṇa's car.

7.114.52 That keen-edged blade, having cut through the charioteer's son's bow and its string, fell to the earth like a serpent dropping from the sky.

7.114.53 Then, laughing, the son of Adhiratha, enraged, took up in the battle another bow — slayer of foes, firm-stringed, and swifter still.

7.114.54 Then mighty Bhīmasena, true in valor and roused to wrath, sprang up into the sky, troubling the heart of Karṇa.

7.114.55 Seeing this feat of him who sought victory in the fray, Rādheya, biding his moment, foiled Bhīmasena.

7.114.56 Not finding him — for Bhīma, his senses shaken, had crouched hidden upon a chariot floor — Karṇa came up to his banner and stood there upon the ground.

7.114.57 For this all the Kurus and the celestial bards honored Bhīma — that from his car he had sought to slay Karṇa, as Tārkṣya seizes a serpent.

7.114.58 His bow shorn away and his chariot lost, yet keeping to the duty of his order, Bhīma set his own car at his back and stood firm, still ready to fight.

7.114.59 Having broken his resolve, Rādheya then bore down upon the Pāṇḍava, furious, as he stood there in the battle, ready for combat.

7.114.60 The two mighty warriors met in that great arena, contending, roaring like two thunderclouds in the heavens at the close of the hot season.

7.114.61 Fierce was the encounter of those two wrathful lions among men, neither brooking the other in the fray, like that of a god and a demon.

7.114.62 His weapons spent and hard pressed by Karṇa, the son of Kuntī, seeing elephants slain by Arjuna lying fallen like mountains, and being weaponless, entered in among them to bar the path of Karṇa's chariot.

7.114.63 Reaching the herd of elephants and entering that rampart against chariots, the Pāṇḍava, desiring to keep his life, did not press his attack upon Rādheya.

7.114.64 Then, seeking a foothold, the son of Pṛthā, conqueror of hostile cities, heaved up an elephant slain by Dhanaṃjaya's shafts and stood his ground.

7.114.65 Karṇa with his arrows blasted that elephant of his to pieces; then the Pāṇḍava, roaring, flung the elephant's limbs at Karṇa.

7.114.66 Chariot-wheels, horses, draught-beasts — whatever he saw upon the ground, that the enraged Pāṇḍava caught up and hurled at Karṇa.

7.114.67 All this, as fast as it was flung, Karṇa cut apart with his sharp shafts; yet, weaponless though Bhīma was, Karṇa did not slay him, remembering the word he had given to Kuntī.

7.114.68 Rushing upon him, Karṇa touched him with the tip of his bow, and Rādheya, as if smiling, spoke thus to Bhīmasena:

7.114.69 "Again and again, you beardless dolt, you slave of your belly, you who have learned no weapon-craft — do not fight, you child, you coward in battle!"

7.114.70 "Where there is food of many kinds, things to chew and things to drink, O Pāṇḍava — there, foolish one, you belong; never anywhere in battle."

7.114.71 "Become an ascetic, Bhīma, and live on fruits, O most witless one; go to the forest, son of Kuntī — you are no master of warfare."

7.114.72 "You are fit for feeding on fruits and roots and for entertaining guests; I do not think you fit for the wielding of weapons, Vṛkodara."

7.114.73 "With flowers, roots, and fruits for your fare, amid vows and observances, you suit the forest, Bhīma — you are no master of warfare."

7.114.74 "What has war to do with the life of a sage? Go to the forest, Vṛkodara; you are not made for battle, my friend — take your delight in dwelling in the woods."

7.114.75 "Chivvying cooks and servants and slaves in the house, you are fit to thrash them in your rage for the sake of a meal, Vṛkodara."

7.114.76 And whatever galling things had passed in their boyhood, O lord of peoples, those old harsh deeds too he made him hear over and over.

7.114.77 Then again, as Bhīma cowered there, the Bull of men touched him with his bow, and laughing, addressed him once more:

7.114.78 "If you must fight, fall upon someone else; you should not fight with such as me. Those who battle men of my kind meet with this and worse."

7.114.79 "Or go to where the two Kṛṣṇas are — they will guard you in the fight; or go home, son of Kuntī. What have you, child, to do with war?"

7.114.80 Having thus stripped him of his chariot, Karṇa, O king, vaunted over him in the very presence of the Lion of the Vṛṣṇis and of the great-souled son of Pṛthā.

7.114.81 Then, O king, the hero whose banner bore the monkey, urged on by Keśava, sent stone-whetted arrows against the charioteer's son.

7.114.82 Then the gold-decked shafts loosed from the arm of Pṛthā's son, sprung from Gāṇḍīva, fell upon Karṇa as swans descend on the Krauñca mountain.

7.114.83 With arrows shot from Gāṇḍīva, taut like outstretched serpents, Dhanaṃjaya drove the charioteer's son back from Bhīmasena.

7.114.84 His bow shorn by Bhīma and himself struck by Dhanaṃjaya's shafts, Karṇa swiftly withdrew from Bhīma upon his great chariot.

7.114.85 And Bhīma too, that bull among men, mounting a horse of Sātyaki's, followed in the battle his brother, the Pāṇḍava Savyasācin.

7.114.86 Then, taking aim at Karṇa, Dhanaṃjaya in haste, his eyes red with wrath, sent forth an iron shaft as Death sends out the destroyer.

7.114.87 Like Garutmān in the sky stooping upon the foremost of serpents, that iron shaft, sped from Gāṇḍīva, flew swiftly down upon Karṇa.

7.114.88 That iron shaft Droṇa's son cut in mid-air with a feathered arrow, the great chariot-warrior seeking to deliver Karṇa from the peril of Dhanaṃjaya.

7.114.89 Then the wrathful Arjuna pierced Droṇa's son with sixty-four stone-honed arrows, O great king, crying, "Do not flee — stand fast!"

7.114.90 But Droṇa's son, sore beset by Dhanaṃjaya's shafts, swiftly plunged into the host thronged with rutting elephants and crowded with chariots.

7.114.91 Then with the roar of Gāṇḍīva the mighty son of Kuntī overwhelmed the twanging din of the gold-backed bows that sang upon the field.

7.114.92 Dhanaṃjaya, as Droṇa's son thus fled, pursued him from behind for no great distance, terrifying the host with his arrows.

7.114.93 Rending with his iron shafts the bodies of men, elephants, and horses, Arjuna scattered the host with arrows fledged in the plumes of heron and peacock.

7.114.94 That host, O best of the Bhāratas, with its horses, elephants, and men, the son of Pṛthā — offspring of the Chastiser of Pāka — straining hard, smote down utterly.

7.115.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Day after day my blazing glory falls away, Saṃjaya; many of my warriors are slain. I deem this the turning of Time.

7.115.2 Dhanaṃjaya in his fury has entered my host — a host guarded by Droṇa and Karṇa, one that not even the gods could penetrate —

7.115.3 his prowess swelled by those two of mighty valor, joined with Kṛṣṇa and Bhīma and with the Bull of the Śinis.

7.115.4 From that hour grief burns me like a fire within my heart, for I see the lords of earth, the Saindhava among them, already in its grip.

7.115.5 Having done so grievous a wrong to the Diademed one, how can the king of the Sindhus, once come within his sight, escape with his life?

7.115.6 By reasoning I see, Saṃjaya, that the Saindhava is no more. Tell me, then, as I ask, how that battle came to pass.

7.115.7 And tell of him who, having shaken and churned that great army again and again, entered it alone in his wrath, as an elephant breaks into a lotus-pool.

7.115.8 Tell me truly of the battle of that Vṛṣṇi hero, of what he did for Dhanaṃjaya's sake — for in this you are skilled, Saṃjaya.

7.115.9 Saṃjaya said: Seeing Bhīma, that foremost of men, thus harried by Vaikartana and now moving away amid the heroes, O king, the hero of the Śinis followed after him in his chariot.

7.115.10 Roaring like the Wielder of the thunderbolt at the end of the heats, blazing like the sun at the close of the rains, he smote his foes with his firm bow, making your son's army tremble.

7.115.11 As that hero among men ranged the field, borne by horses bright as silver, all your chariot-warriors, O Bhārata, could not turn back that foremost of the Mādhavas.

7.115.12 But Alambusa, that best of kings, filled with indignation, fighting without retreat, bow in hand and clad in golden mail, rushed upon Sātyaki, the foremost of the Mādhavas, and stayed him.

7.115.13 Such an encounter arose between them, Bhārata, as had never been before; the warriors, both yours and the foes', all stood merely gazing at the two, splendid in battle.

7.115.14 Alambusa, that best of kings, with main force pierced him with ten shafts; but the Bull of the Śinis cut down those shafts with his own arrows even before they reached him.

7.115.15 Again, with three keen, well-feathered arrows like fire, drawn to the ear, he pierced him; rending his armor, they sank into Sātyaki's body.

7.115.16 Tearing his body with those blazing arrows, swift as fire and wind, with yet others Sātyaki forcibly struck down his four horses, bright as silver, with four shafts.

7.115.17 Thus struck by him, the swift grandson of Śini, in might like the Wielder of the discus, slew Alambusa's horses with four arrows of surpassing speed.

7.115.18 Then, with a broad-headed shaft like the fire of doom, he struck off the head of his charioteer, and severed from the trunk that radiant face, earringed and bright as the full moon.

7.115.19 Having slain in battle that son and grandson of a king, the crushing Bull of the Madhus then, O king, the hero turned back your troops and followed after Arjuna alone.

7.115.20 Seeing that best of the Vṛṣṇis come on, wheeling thus amid the foe and smiting the Kuru forces with his arrows, again and again, as the wind scatters masses of cloud —

7.115.21 his Sindhu-bred steeds, well broken, bright as cow's milk, jasmine, the moon, and snow, decked with nets of gold, those noble horses bore him wherever the lion among men desired.

7.115.22 Then your sons together, and other warriors of yours, rushed upon him in haste, O scion of Ajamīḍha, putting at their head, O Bhārata, your son Duḥśāsana, foremost of fighters.

7.115.23 Hemming in the son of Śini on every side in the battle, those who could withstand whole armies smote him; but that hero, the foremost of the Sātvatas, held them off with a net of arrows.

7.115.24 Swiftly driving them off with feathered shafts like fire, the slayer of foes, the grandson of Śini, raising his bow, struck down even the horses of Duḥśāsana, O scion of Ajamīḍha.

7.116.1 Saṃjaya said: As the mighty-armed one rose up against the chariot of Duḥśāsana, swift in the hour that called for swiftness and seeking Dhanaṃjaya's welfare —

7.116.2 the great archers of the Trigartas, with banners wrought of gold, surrounded the Ānarta hero who had plunged into the ocean of their host.

7.116.3 Then, hemming him in on all sides with their array of chariots, those wrathful, peerless bowmen overwhelmed him with showers of arrows.

7.116.4 Sātyaki, whose valour was unfailing, alone vanquished those princes who strove against him in the great battle—fifty foes laid low by his single hand.

7.116.5 He had reached the midst of the Bhārata host, loud with the clapping of palms, thronged with swords and spears and maces, like waters that offer no raft for crossing.

7.116.6 There in the fray we beheld the wondrous course of Śaineya: glimpsing him in the western quarter, by his swiftness we saw him next in the east.

7.116.7 North, south, east, and west he ranged, the hero moving as though he danced, as if he were a hundred chariots at once.

7.116.8 Beholding the feats of him who moved with the stride of a lion's prowess, the Trigartas turned back, anguished for their own kinsmen.

7.116.9 Then other warriors among the Śūrasenas checked him in the battle, restraining him with showers of arrows as goads restrain a maddened elephant.

7.116.10 Sātyaki, of inconceivable strength and valour, held those straining warriors off but a moment, and then did battle with the Kaliṅgas.

7.116.11 Having passed beyond that host of the Kaliṅgas, hard to traverse, the mighty-armed one drew near to Pārtha Dhanaṃjaya.

7.116.12 As a swimmer wearied in the water gains the shore at last, so Yuyudhāna, seeing that tiger among men, took heart again.

7.116.13 Beholding him approach, Keśava said to Arjuna: "Yonder comes Śaineya, O Pārtha, your follower in the field."

7.116.14 "This is your disciple and your friend, whose prowess never fails; counting all those warriors as so much straw, that bull among men has conquered them."

7.116.15 "Having wrought dread havoc among the Kaurava warriors, Sātyaki—dearer to you than your own breath, O Kirīṭin—now draws near."

7.116.16 "Having brought low Droṇa, the Bhoja, and Kṛtavarman with his arrows, Sātyaki comes toward Phalguna."

7.116.17 "Seeking the welfare of the Dharma-king, having slain warrior after chosen warrior—a hero and a master of arms—Sātyaki comes toward Phalguna."

7.116.18 "Having done a deed most hard to do in the midst of the host, the mighty one, longing to see you, comes toward the Pāṇḍava—Sātyaki draws near."

7.116.19 "Having fought with a single chariot against many great car-warriors, foremost the Preceptor among them, this Sātyaki, O Pārtha, comes onward."

7.116.20 "Relying on the strength of his own arms, having torn through the army, sent forth by the son of Dharma, this Sātyaki comes toward you, O Pārtha."

7.116.21 "He to whom no warrior among the Kauravas is in any wise an equal—he, O Kaunteya, comes onward: Sātyaki of unfailing valour."

7.116.22 "Loosed from the Kuru host like a lion from the midst of a herd of cattle, having slain whole armies, this Sātyaki comes toward you, O Pārtha."

7.116.23 "Having strewn the earth with the lotus-like faces of thousands of kings, O Pārtha, Sātyaki comes swiftly on."

7.116.24 "Having conquered Duryodhana together with his brothers in the battle, and slain Jalasaṃdha, Sātyaki comes swiftly on."

7.116.25 "Having made a river that runs in floods of blood, miry with gore, and cast down the Kauravas like so much grass, Sātyaki comes onward."

7.116.26 Then the son of Kuntī, far from glad, spoke these words to Keśava: "It pleases me not, O mighty-armed one, that Sātyaki comes toward me."

7.116.27 "For I do not know the tidings of the Dharma-king, O Keśava—whether, bereft of the Sātvata, he yet lives or no."

7.116.28 "By him, O mighty-armed one, that king ought to have been guarded; how then, O Kṛṣṇa, has this my follower forsaken him?"

7.116.29 "The king is left exposed to Droṇa, the Saindhava is not yet struck down, and this Bhūriśravas advances against Śaineya in the field."

7.116.30 "Now this is a burden heavier than the Saindhava laid upon me: I must learn how the king fares, and I must protect Sātyaki."

7.116.31 "And Jayadratha must be slain, and the sun is sinking low; and this mighty-armed one is now wearied and short of breath."

7.116.32 "Spent are his horses, O Mādhava, and his driver too; but Bhūriśravas is not weary, and he has comrades at his side, O Keśava."

7.116.33 "Might it now go well with him in this encounter? May Sātyaki of unfailing valour, that bull of Śini's line of mighty energy, not founder in a cow's hoofprint after crossing the very ocean!"

7.116.34 "May Sātyaki come through unharmed in his meeting with Bhūriśravas, that foremost of the Kauravas, a master of arms and a great soul."

7.116.35 "I count this a transgression on the part of the Dharma-king, O Keśava, who, casting aside his fear of the Preceptor, sends Sātyaki forth."

7.116.36 "Droṇa forever yearns to seize the Dharma-king, as a hawk on the wing yearns for its prey. Is the king, I wonder, yet safe?"

7.117.1 Saṃjaya said: Beholding that Sātvata, frenzied for battle, rushing on, Bhūriśravas, O king, in his wrath charged against him at once.

7.117.2 The mighty-armed Kaurava spoke to that bull of Śini's line: "By good fortune you have come this day within the range of my sight!"

7.117.3 "The desire long cherished I shall fulfil this day in combat; you shall not escape me alive unless you abandon the fight."

7.117.4 "Slaying you this day in battle—you who ever account yourself a hero, O Dāśārha—I shall gladden Suyodhana, king of the Kurus."

7.117.5 "This day, scorched by my shafts and fallen to the earth, you shall the two heroes Keśava and Arjuna behold together in the field."

7.117.6 "This day the king, the son of Dharma, by whom you were sent into this fray, hearing that you have been slain by me, shall at once be filled with shame."

7.117.7 "This day shall Pārtha Dhanaṃjaya know my prowess, when you lie struck down upon the earth, drenched in blood."

7.117.8 "This meeting with you, long desired, is come to me this day, as of old in the war of gods and demons the encounter of Śakra with Bali."

7.117.9 "This day I shall give you most dreadful battle, O Sātvata; then shall you know in truth my valour, my strength, and my manhood."

7.117.10 "This day, slain by me in battle, you shall fare to the city of Yama, as in the fray Rāvaṇa's son was slain by Lakṣmaṇa, the younger brother of Rāma."

7.117.11 "This day, O Mādhava, when you are slain, Kṛṣṇa and Pārtha and the Dharma-king, robbed of all heart, shall doubtless abandon the battle."

7.117.12 "This day, O Mādhava, having taken vengeance upon you with whetted shafts, I shall gladden the women of those whom you slew in the field."

7.117.13 "Come within the range of my sight, O Mādhava, you shall not escape, even as a little deer that has come within a lion's reach."

7.117.14 But Yuyudhāna, O king, answered him as though laughing: "O scion of Kuru, no terror dwells in me amid combat."

7.117.15 "He alone could slay me in battle who first could leave me weaponless; and he who would slay me in combat must strive through unending years to do it."

7.117.16 "What use this much idle talk? Set to the deed itself! Your thunder is as barren as that of an autumn cloud."

7.117.17 "Hearing this thundering of yours, O hero, laughter rises in me. Let the battle long desired in this world be ours this day, O Kaurava!"

7.117.18 "My mind hastens eagerly, sir, now that you long for battle. I shall not turn back this day, O basest of men, until I have slain you."

7.117.19 Then those two bulls among men, gashing one another with words, athirst to kill and wrought to utmost fury, fell upon each other in the fray.

7.117.20 Those two tigers among men, fierce and rivalrous, met in the battle like two enraged elephants frenzied with rut, contending for a she-elephant.

7.117.21 Bhūriśravas and Sātyaki, those tamers of foes, rained dreadful showers of arrows upon each other like two storm-clouds.

7.117.22 The son of Somadatta, O best of the Bhāratas, veiling Śaineya with swift-flying shafts and athirst to slay him, pierced him with whetted arrows.

7.117.23 Having pierced Sātyaki with ten shafts, the son of Somadatta then let fly yet more keen arrows, eager to slay that bull of Śini's line.

7.117.24 Those sharp arrows of his, O lord of peoples, Sātyaki devoured in mid-air by the magic of his weapons, O mighty one, before ever they reached him.

7.117.25 Each of those two heroes of noblest birth, who brought glory upon the Kuru and the Vṛṣṇi lines, rained showers of arrows upon the other.

7.117.26 As two tigers with their claws, as two great elephants with their tusks, so did they rend each other with chariot-spears and with arrows.

7.117.27 Piercing each other's limbs and pouring forth their blood, they held one another at bay, gamblers staking life itself in the play.

7.117.28 Thus those two of supreme deeds, who brought glory upon the Kuru and the Vṛṣṇi lines, fought one against the other like two leaders of elephant herds.

7.117.29 In no long time, with the world of Brahmā set before them, each striving to win the supreme abode, they smote upon one another.

7.117.30 Sātyaki and the son of Somadatta rained shafts upon each other as though in joy, while the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra looked on.

7.117.31 The hosts gazed there upon those two lords of warriors as they fought, like two herd-bull elephants battling for the sake of a she-elephant.

7.117.32 Having slain each other's horses and cut apart each other's bows, the two, bereft of their chariots, closed for sword-combat in that great battle.

7.117.33 Taking up their broad and gleaming shields of bull's hide, bright with figures, and drawing their swords from the scabbard, the two ranged about the field.

7.117.34 Moving along varied tracks and through their circling figures one by one, those crushers of foes in their wrath struck again and again at each other.

7.117.35 Swords in hand, in figured mail, adorned with golden necklets and armlets, those two who exulted in war, O king, dragged each other to and fro in the battle.

7.117.36 For a while, O lord of kings, having hauled each other about before the gaze of all the hosts, the two heroes drew breath again.

7.117.37 Having hewn apart with their swords the bright broad shields that warded off the shafts, those two tigers among men set themselves to wrestling with bare arms.

7.117.38 Broad-chested and long-armed, both skilled in the wrestler's art, they grappled with their arms as though with bars of iron.

7.117.39 Their blows of arm, their grips and counter-grips, sprung from skill and strength, were a delight to all the warriors there.

7.117.40 As those two best of men contended in the field, O king, there arose a fearful, mighty din, as of mountains of adamant.

7.117.41 Like two elephants with the points of their tusks, like two great bulls with their horns, those high-souled bulls of the Kuru and Sātvata lines did battle.

7.117.42 As the Sātvata fought on, his weapons now spent, Vāsudeva spoke then to Arjuna: "Behold him fighting without his chariot in the fray—the banner of all who bear the bow!"

7.117.43 "He entered the Bhārata host at your back, O Pāṇḍava, and was set upon by all the Bhāratas of mighty valour, O scion of Bharata."

7.117.44 "Worn out, that best of warriors has come upon Bhūriśravas, who advances athirst for battle. This is no even match, O Arjuna."

7.117.45 Then Bhūriśravas in his wrath, O king, lifting up Sātyaki, who was frenzied for the fight, dashed him down as a maddened elephant dashes down another in rut.

7.117.46 Even as those two foremost of warriors, Keśava and Arjuna, stationed wrathful upon their chariot, looked on at the battle, O king—

7.117.47 —then mighty-armed Kṛṣṇa spoke again to Arjuna: "See, that tiger of the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas has fallen into the power of Somadatta's son!"

7.117.48 "Worn out and brought to the ground, after performing a deed most hard to do, is your own pupil, the brave Sātyaki. Protect him, Arjuna!"

7.117.49 "Let him not fall into the power of this lover of sacrifices, O best slayer of foes. For your own sake, O tiger among men, let it be done at once, O mighty one!"

7.117.50 Then Dhanaṃjaya, his mind exultant, said to Vāsudeva: "Look at that bull of the Kurus sporting with the foremost hero of the Vṛṣṇis—as a furious great elephant in the forest sports with the leader of a lion-pride."

7.117.51 A great cry of dismay went up from the armies, O bull of the Bhāratas, when the mighty-armed one, lifting Sātyaki up, struck him down to the ground.

7.117.52 Dragging the foremost of the Sātvatas like a lion hauling an elephant, the best of the Kurus, lavish in his sacrificial gifts, shone resplendent in the battle.

7.117.53 Then, drawing his sword from its sheath in the fray, Bhūriśravas seized Sātyaki by the hair and struck him on the chest with his foot.

7.117.54 Seeing the Sātvata thus being dragged about in the battle, O king, Vāsudeva spoke once more to Arjuna:

7.117.55 "Behold this tiger of the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas fallen into the power of Somadatta's son—your own pupil, O mighty-armed one, second to none but you in archery!"

7.117.56 "Untrue is the show of valor, O Pārtha, when in this battle Bhūriśravas gets the better of Sātyaki of the Vṛṣṇis, whose own prowess is true."

7.117.57 Thus addressed by Vāsudeva, the mighty-armed son of Pāṇḍu honored Bhūriśravas in his heart for his conduct in the battle:

7.117.58 "Dragging the foremost of the Sātvatas about, as if in sport in the battle, this enhancer of the Kurus' glory delights me all the more."

7.117.59 "For he does not slay Sātyaki, the foremost of the Vṛṣṇi heroes; like a lion dragging a great elephant in the forest, so does he haul him about."

7.117.60 Thus having honored the Kaurava in his heart, O king, the mighty-armed Pārtha, Arjuna, replied to Vāsudeva:

7.117.61 "Since my gaze is fixed upon the lord of the Sindhus, I do not see him clearly, O Mādhava. Yet this hard deed I will do, for the Yādava's sake."

7.117.62 So saying, and carrying out the word of Vāsudeva, the son of Pāṇḍu with a feathered shaft severed the sword-wielding arm of that lover of sacrifices.

7.118.1 Saṃjaya said: That noble arm, still gripping the sword and bright with its fair armlet, fell to the ground, bringing the keenest grief to the world of the living.

7.118.2 That arm, raised to strike but cut off by the unseen Kirīṭin, fell swiftly to the earth like a five-headed serpent.

7.118.3 Seeing himself thus thwarted by Pārtha, the Kaurava released Sātyaki and in his wrath rebuked the son of Pāṇḍu:

7.118.4 "A cruel deed, alas, O son of Kuntī, you have done, in that you cut off my arm while I was looking elsewhere, my mind engaged with another."

7.118.5 "What will you say to King Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Dharma? 'Bhūriśravas was slain by me in battle while doing what?'"

7.118.6 "Was this the weapon taught you in person by great-souled Indra, O Pārtha, or by Rudra, or by Droṇa, or by Kṛpa?"

7.118.7 "Are you not indeed known throughout the world as one who knows his own duty, surpassing others? How then have you struck in battle a man not fighting against you?"

7.118.8 "Men of wisdom do not strike one who is heedless, one who is afraid, one whose chariot is gone, one who begs for mercy, or one caught in distress."

7.118.9 "This base conduct, practiced only by ignoble men—how have you, O Pārtha, performed so unworthy a deed?"

7.118.10 "For they say a noble deed is easy for a noble man, O Dhanaṃjaya; but an ignoble deed done by a noble man is the hardest thing on earth."

7.118.11 "In whatever company a man moves, O Pārtha, and in whatever circumstances he lives, he soon takes on its character—and this is seen now in you."

7.118.12 "How is it that you, born of a royal line, and a Kaurava above all, of fair conduct and faithful to your vows, have strayed from the duty of a warrior?"

7.118.13 "This utterly mean act, done by you for the Vṛṣṇi's sake, was surely the counsel of Vāsudeva—it does not befit you."

7.118.14 "For who that was not the friend of Kṛṣṇa would inflict such a calamity upon a man engaged in fighting with another?"

7.118.15 "The Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas are outcastes given to vile dealings, despised by their very nature—how, O Pārtha, have you made them your standard?"

7.118.16 Having said this, the mighty-armed and far-famed hero of the sacrificial-post banner abandoned Yuyudhāna and sat down upon the battlefield to fast unto death.

7.118.17 Spreading out arrows with his left hand, that man of holy marks, desiring to go to the world of Brahmā, then offered his life-breaths as an oblation into the breaths themselves.

7.118.18 Fixing his eyes upon the sun and his serene mind upon the waters, meditating on the great mystic doctrine and joined in yoga, he became a sage.

7.118.19 Then throughout all the host the men reproached Kṛṣṇa and Dhanaṃjaya, and they praised that bull among men.

7.118.20 Though thus reviled, the two Kṛṣṇas said nothing unkind in reply; and though thus praised, the bearer of the sacrificial-post banner felt no elation.

7.118.21 O king, Dhanaṃjaya, unable in his heart to bear those words of your sons and of Bhūriśravas as they spoke,

7.118.22 yet with a mind free of anger, as if reminding them, O Bhārata, the son of Pāṇḍu, Phalguna, spoke, almost with a tone of reproach:

7.118.23 "All the kings know this great vow of mine: that none of my own people may be slain by another, if he comes within the range of my arrows."

7.118.24 "O bearer of the sacrificial-post banner, reflect, and you ought not to censure me; for it is not right to blame another without first understanding the law."

7.118.25 "That in battle I cut off the arm of you who, weapon in hand, were bent on slaying the Vṛṣṇi hero—that is no conduct to be condemned."

7.118.26 "As for the slaying of Abhimanyu—a mere boy, his weapons laid down, his chariot lost, his armor gone—what righteous man, dear sir, would commend it?"

7.118.27 Thus addressed by Pārtha, Bhūriśravas touched the ground with his head, and with his left hand he flung aside his own severed right arm.

7.118.28 Having heard these words of Pārtha, the splendid bearer of the sacrificial-post banner, O great king, fell silent, his face bowed down.

7.118.29 Arjuna said: "The love I bear to the King of Righteousness, and to Bhīma, best of speakers, and to Nakula and Sahadeva—that same love I bear to you, O elder brother of Śala."

7.118.30 "With my leave, and that of great-souled Kṛṣṇa, go now to the worlds of those who have done holy deeds, even as Śibi, the son of Uśīnara, once did."

7.118.31 Saṃjaya said: Then the grandson of Śini, released by Somadatta's son, rose up and, taking up his sword, sought to cut off the head of that great-souled one.

7.118.32 Sātyaki sought to slay that sinless elder brother of Śala—the lavish giver of sacrificial gifts—who, while heedless, had already been struck down by the son of Pāṇḍu.

7.118.33 As all the troops cried out, Sātyaki, reviled by them and sick at heart, advanced upon him as he sat with his arm hewn off, like an elephant whose trunk has been severed.

7.118.34 Though restrained by Kṛṣṇa, by great-souled Pārtha, by Bhīma, by the two wheel-guards, by Aśvatthāman and by Kṛpa,

7.118.35 and by Karṇa, by Vṛṣasena and by the lord of the Sindhus as well, and amid the outcry of all the troops, he slew that man of disciplined vows.

7.118.36 As that Kaurava lord, his arm cut off by Pārtha, sat fasting unto death on the battlefield, Sātyaki struck off his head with his sword.

7.118.37 The troops did not applaud Sātyaki for that deed—that he had slain this glory of the Kurus who had already been struck down before by Arjuna.

7.118.38 There the Siddhas, the Cāraṇas, and men alike, beholding Bhūriśravas—the equal of the thousand-eyed Indra—slain in battle as he sat fasting,

7.118.39 the gods honored him, amazed at his deeds; and his own soldiers spoke many words taking his part.

7.118.40 "It is no fault of the Vṛṣṇi, for what was destined had to be so. Therefore you should bear him no grudge—wrath only brings grief to men."

7.118.41 "This hero was fated to be slain, and on that there should be no debate; for the Ordainer himself had appointed Sātyaki to be his death in battle."

7.118.42 Sātyaki said: "You who tell me, 'He must not be slain, he must not be slain,' with your talk of righteousness—most unrighteous men, you have wrapped yourselves in a mere cloak of righteousness!"

7.118.43 "When the boy, Subhadrā's son, stripped of his weapons, was slain by you in battle—where then had your righteousness gone?"

7.118.44 "This vow I once made, upon some taunt or other: that whoever should crush me in battle and, while I yet lived, strike me with his foot in fury—that enemy should be slain by me, even were he bound by the vows of a sage."

7.118.45 "You, who have eyes, deem me dead though I was struggling to strike back and still had my arm—such is the shallowness of your judgment! The retaliation I have wrought upon him was fitting, O bulls of the Kurus."

7.118.46 "That Pārtha, out of love for me and to keep his own vow, cut off this man's sword-bearing arm—by that very act I have been cheated of my due."

7.118.47 "What is to be must be, and fate, as it were, drives men to act. He has been slain in this fray—what unrighteous deed is there in that?"

7.118.48 "And moreover this verse was sung of old by Vālmīki upon the earth: 'Whatever brings harm to one's enemies, that very thing must be done.'"

7.118.49 Saṃjaya said: When this had been spoken, O great king, all the Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas said nothing, but honored Bhūriśravas in their hearts.

7.118.50 For of him—purified by sacred chants at his great rites, glorious, the giver of countless thousands, now like a sage gone to the forest—of his slaying not one there approved.

7.118.51 The head of that bounteous, brave one, dark-blue-haired and dove-red of eye, lay severed like the head of a sacrificial horse set down to the north of the oblation-cart.

7.118.52 Purified by that splendor smitten down by the sword, he cast off his noble body in the great battle, and that bounteous one, worthy of the highest boons, rose upward, filling heaven and earth with his surpassing righteousness.

7.119.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Unconquered by Droṇa, by Rādheya, by Vikarṇa and Kṛtavarman, that hero, having pledged himself to Yudhiṣṭhira, had crossed the ocean of the army.

7.119.2 How was it that he, unchecked in battle, came to be seized by the Kaurava Bhūriśravas and hurled by force to the ground?

7.119.3 Saṃjaya said: Hear, O king, the origin of the grandson of Śini in days of old, and that of Bhūriśravas as well, wherein lies your doubt, O lord of men.

7.119.4 From Atri was born Soma; of Soma, Budha is recorded; and Budha had one son, Purūravas, splendid as the great Indra.

7.119.5 Of Purūravas came Āyus; of Āyus, Nahuṣa is recorded; and of Nahuṣa, Yayāti, a royal sage held equal to the gods.

7.119.6 Of Yayāti by Devayānī, Yadu was born, the eldest son; and in the lineage of Yadu there arose one famed as Devamīḍha.

7.119.7 His son was the Yādava Śūra, honored throughout the three worlds; and of Śūra came his son, the foremost of men, the far-famed Vāsudeva.

7.119.8 Unsurpassed in archery, a brave man equal to Kārtavīrya in battle—and of like prowess, in that very line, was born King Śini.

7.119.9 Now at that very time, O king, at the self-choice ceremony of the daughter of great-souled Devaka, where all the warrior caste had assembled,

7.119.10 there indeed Śini, vanquishing all the kings, won the lady Devakī for Vāsudeva's sake and set her upon his chariot.

7.119.11 Seeing that Devakī standing on Śini's chariot, O king, the bull among men, the mighty Somadatta, could not endure it.

7.119.12 A combat arose between the two, O king, wondrous and astonishing, lasting half a day—a wrestling match of two mighty men, like that of Śakra and Prahrāda.

7.119.13 By Śini, Somadatta was overpowered and flung to the ground; and seizing him by the hair and raising his sword, Śini struck him with his foot.

7.119.14 In the midst of thousands of kings looking on from every side, out of pity he was released by him with the words, "Live!"

7.119.15 Reduced to that condition by him, Somadatta then, O honored one, gave himself up to indignation and set about propitiating Mahādeva.

7.119.16 Pleased with him, Mahādeva, the Lord, granter of boons among boons, offered him a choice; and that king chose his boon.

7.119.17 "I desire a son, O Blessed One, who shall slay the son of Śini, and in the midst of thousands of kings shall strike him down with his foot in battle."

7.119.18 Hearing those words of Somadatta, O king, the god said, "So be it," and there vanished.

7.119.19 By that granting of the boon he obtained Bhūriśravas of abundant sacrificial gifts; and in battle the son of Somadatta did indeed lay low the son of Śini.

7.119.20 This have I told you, O king, concerning that whereof you ask me; the Sātvatas cannot be conquered in battle, O bull among men.

7.119.21 Many among them are sure of their aim in combat and fight with wondrous skill; unbewildered, they are conquerors of gods, dānavas, and gandharvas; bent upon victory won by their own valor, they are not subject to any other's possession.

7.119.22 Nothing equal to the Vṛṣṇis is seen here, O lord—nothing that has been, that is, or that shall be, in strength, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.119.23 They never slight a kinsman, and delight in the rule of their elders; neither gods, asuras, nor gandharvas, neither yakṣas, serpents, nor rākṣasas can vanquish the Vṛṣṇi heroes in war—still less men.

7.119.24 Toward the wealth of brahmins, of teachers, and of kinsmen they do no harm; and they are protectors of these, should any one of them fall into distress.

7.119.25 Wealthy yet not arrogant, devoted to brahmins, speakers of truth, they do not slight the powerful, and they raise up the wretched.

7.119.26 Ever devoted to the gods, self-controlled, generous, and free from boasting—therefore the wheel of the Vṛṣṇi heroes' dominion is never broken.

7.119.27 One might bear Mount Meru, or swim across the abode of sea-monsters, but he could not, having met the Vṛṣṇi heroes, come to their end, O king.

7.119.28 All this have I declared to you, wherein your doubt lay, O mighty one; O king of the Kurus, best of men, great indeed is your misconduct.

7.120.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When that Kaurava Bhūriśravas had been slain in such a plight, tell me, Saṃjaya, how the battle raged on once more.

7.120.2 Saṃjaya said: When Bhūriśravas had passed on to the other world, O Bhārata, the mighty-armed Arjuna urged Vāsudeva onward.

7.120.3 "Drive the horses hard, Kṛṣṇa, to where King Jayadratha is; the maker of day hastens, O mighty-armed one, to its setting."

7.120.4 "For this great deed I have undertaken, O tiger among men; and this man is being guarded by the great chariot-warriors of the Kuru host."

7.120.5 "So drive the horses, Kṛṣṇa, that the sun shall not set, that my word may prove true, that I may slay Jayadratha."

7.120.6 Then the mighty-armed Kṛṣṇa, knower of horses, urged the silver-hued steeds onward toward the chariot of Jayadratha.

7.120.7 As he sped on, his shafts never failing, with arrows that flew as if leaping upward, the chief warriors of the host hastened to close round him, O great king.

7.120.8 Duryodhana and Karṇa and Vṛṣasena, the king of the Madras, Aśvatthāman and Kṛpa, and the lord of the Sindhus himself.

7.120.9 Drawing near, Bībhatsu beheld the lord of the Sindhus stationed at the front, and gazed upon him with eyes blazing with wrath, as if to burn him up.

7.120.10 Then King Duryodhana, seeing Arjuna advancing toward Jayadratha's chariot, swiftly said to the son of Rādhā:

7.120.11 "This, O Vaikartana, is the hour of battle; show forth your own strength, great soul. So act, Karṇa, that Jayadratha be not slain by Arjuna in the fight."

7.120.12 "Little of the day remains, O hero among men; strike down the foe now with floods of arrows. Once the day's end is reached, O foremost of men, our victory, Karṇa, shall surely be assured."

7.120.13 "If the lord of the Sindhus be but guarded until the setting of the sun, the son of Kuntī, his vow proved false, shall enter the fire."

7.120.14 "And on an earth bereft of Arjuna, O giver of honor, his brothers with their followers would not bear to live even for a moment."

7.120.15 "And with the sons of Pāṇḍu destroyed, we shall enjoy this earth, Karṇa, with its mountains, woods, and forests, its thorns plucked out."

7.120.16 "Smitten by fate and turned awry, O giver of honor, Pārtha, not knowing the doable from the undoable, made his vow in battle."

7.120.17 "Surely it was for his own destruction that the diademed son of Pāṇḍu made this vow, Karṇa, touching the slaying of Jayadratha."

7.120.18 "How, while you live, O unassailable son of Rādhā, shall Phalguna slay the Saindhava king before the sun has set?"

7.120.19 "Jayadratha, guarded at the battle's front by the king of the Madras and by the great-souled Kṛpa—how shall Dhanaṃjaya slay him?"

7.120.20 "And how, urged on by fate, shall Bībhatsu reach the lord of the Sindhus, who is guarded by Droṇa's son, by me, and by Duḥśāsana?"

7.120.21 "Many heroes are fighting, and the sun hangs low; I think, O giver of honor, that Pārtha shall not reach Jayadratha at all."

7.120.22 "Therefore, Karṇa, do you, together with me and with the other heroic great car-warriors, putting forth supreme effort, fight against Pārtha in the combat."

7.120.23 Thus addressed by your son, O honored one, the son of Rādhā spoke these words in answer to Duryodhana, the foremost of the Kurus:

7.120.24 "Sorely harassed in the fray, time and again, by the bowman Bhīmasena—that hero of unerring aim—with his nets of arrows,

7.120.25 "yet, resolved that I must stand, I stand even now in the battle, O giver of honor; though scorched by the shafts of war, no limb of mine so much as stirs."

7.120.26 "I shall fight, O king, in battle with all my utmost might, so that that chief of the Pāṇḍavas shall not slay the lord of the Sindhus."

7.120.27 "For while I fight and loose my whetted shafts, the hero Savyasācin Dhanaṃjaya shall not reach the lord of the Sindhus."

7.120.28 "Whatever ought to be done by one of power, who ever works for your good, that I shall do, O Kaurava; but victory rests with fate."

7.120.29 "Today I shall fight Arjuna, relying on my own manhood, for your sake, O tiger among men; but victory rests with fate."

7.120.30 "Today, O best of the Kurus, let all beings behold the dreadful, hair-raising battle of us two, of mine and Pārtha's."

7.120.31 While Karṇa and the Kaurava thus conversed in the field, Arjuna with his whetted shafts smote your host.

7.120.32 With keen-pointed arrows he severed in battle the arms of the unflinching heroes—arms like iron bars, like the trunks of elephants.

7.120.33 And the mighty-armed one clove with whetted shafts their heads, the trunks of elephants, the necks of horses, and the axles of chariots on every side.

7.120.34 With razor-edged shafts Bībhatsu cleft, each into two and into three, the blood-drenched horsemen who gripped their lances and pikes.

7.120.35 And the foremost of horses and elephants fell by thousands, with banners, parasols, bows, yak-tail fans, and heads.

7.120.36 Burning your host like a fire blazing up through dry brushwood, in but a little while Pārtha made the earth flooded over with blood.

7.120.37 Having made the greater part of your army's warriors slain, the mighty, unassailable hero of true valor bore down upon the lord of the Sindhus.

7.120.38 Bībhatsu, guarded by Bhīmasena and by the Sātvata, shone forth, O best of the Bhāratas, like a blazing fire.

7.120.39 Beholding Phalguna so stationed, your great bowmen, esteemed for their valor, bulls among men, could not endure it.

7.120.40 Duryodhana and Karṇa and Vṛṣasena, the king of the Madras, Aśvatthāman and Kṛpa, and the lord of the Sindhus himself—

7.120.41 these, enraged, for the Saindhava's sake hemmed in the diademed one, who danced along the chariot-paths to the twang of his bowstring and the slap of his palm-guard.

7.120.42 All skilled in war, fearless, they closed round Pārtha, the master of combat, as round Death with gaping jaws.

7.120.43 Keeping the lord of the Sindhus behind them, seeking to slay Arjuna and Acyuta, they longed for the sun's setting as the day-maker turned red.

7.120.44 With arms like the coils of serpents they drew their bows and loosed by hundreds at Phalguna shafts that gleamed like the rays of the sun.

7.120.45 But the diademed one, frenzied in battle, cleaving each of those loosed and flying shafts into two, three, and eight, pierced his foes in turn in the fray.

7.120.46 Then the son of Śāradvatī, whose banner bore the lion's tail, showing forth his own might, O king, withstood Arjuna.

7.120.47 Having pierced Pārtha with ten shafts and Vāsudeva with seven, he held his ground upon the chariot-paths, guarding the lord of the Sindhus.

7.120.48 Then all the foremost of the Kuru great car-warriors hemmed him in on every side with a vast array of chariots.

7.120.49 Twanging their bows and loosing their shafts, they guarded the lord of the Sindhus round about, by the command of your son.

7.120.50 There was seen the strength of the heroic Pārtha's arms, the inexhaustibility of his arrows, and the might of his bow Gāṇḍīva.

7.120.51 Warding off with his weapons the weapons of Droṇa's son and of the son of Śaradvat, he assailed every one of them, each with nine shafts.

7.120.52 Him Droṇa's son struck with twenty-five shafts, and Vṛṣasena with seven, Duryodhana with twenty, and Karṇa and Śalya each with three.

7.120.53 Roaring at him and piercing him again and again, and shaking their bows, they hemmed him in on every side.

7.120.54 Those great car-warriors, longing for the sun's setting, swiftly drew their ring of chariots close-locked on every side.

7.120.55 Bellowing at him and shaking their bows, they drenched him with dreadful shafts as the clouds drench a mountain with their waters.

7.120.56 There, O king, those heroes with arms like iron bars displayed their mighty celestial weapons upon the limbs of Dhanaṃjaya.

7.120.57 Having made the greater part of your army's warriors slain, the mighty, unassailable hero of true valor bore down upon the lord of the Sindhus.

7.120.58 Him Karṇa withstood in the combat, O king, with his swift arrows, before the very eyes of Bhīmasena and of the Sātvata, O Bhārata.

7.120.59 Him in turn the mighty-armed Pārtha pierced with ten shafts on the field of battle—the son of the charioteer—while all the host looked on.

7.120.60 And the Sātvata pierced Karṇa with three shafts, O honored one, and Bhīmasena with three, and Pārtha again with seven.

7.120.61 Karṇa, the great car-warrior, pierced them each in return with sixty shafts; and so, O king, there arose that battle of Karṇa against many.

7.120.62 There we beheld a marvel in the son of the charioteer, O honored one—that, wrathful and alone in the fray, he held three chariot-warriors at bay.

7.120.63 But the mighty-armed Phalguna struck Karṇa Vaikartana in the battle, with a full hundred shafts, upon all his vital parts.

7.120.64 His every limb bathed in blood, the valorous son of the charioteer, that hero, pierced Phalguna in return with fifty shafts; and seeing his deftness, Arjuna could not endure it in the fight.

7.120.65 Then Pārtha, severing his bow, pierced him between the breasts; the hero Dhanaṃjaya did so in haste, with nine shafts.

7.120.66 And to slay him in battle Dhanaṃjaya, swift in the hour that called for swiftness, hurled an arrow blazing like the sun.

7.120.67 But Droṇa's son, with a sharp crescent-headed shaft, cleft that arrow as it rushed upon him with speed, and so severed it fell to the earth.

7.120.68 Then the mighty son of the charioteer, Karṇa, the slayer of foes, took up another bow and, eager to repay blow with blow, covered Phalguna with arrows by the many thousands.

7.120.69 Those two great car-warriors, lions among men, bellowing like bulls, with their straight-flying shafts made the sky one mass of arrow-streams; veiled from sight by the floods of arrows, each struck at the other.

7.120.70 "I am Pārtha—stand and face me!" "I am Karṇa—stand, Phalguna!" Thus challenging each other, they pierced one another with the barbs of their words.

7.120.71 The two heroes fought in battle with skill, with swiftness, and with grace, and amid the gathering of all the warriors they were a sight worth beholding.

7.120.72 Praised in the fray by the throngs of Siddhas and Cāraṇas, O great king, they fought on, each seeking the other's death.

7.120.73 Then, O king, Duryodhana addressed your men: "Guard Rādheya with all your effort! The bull-like Karṇa has told me, 'I shall not turn back from the battle until I have slain Arjuna.'"

7.120.74 Meanwhile, O king, seeing Karṇa's prowess, Arjuna with arrows drawn to the ear sent Karṇa's four steeds to the realm of death with four excellent shafts.

7.120.75 With a broad-headed arrow he swept Karṇa's charioteer from the seat of the car, and covered him with shafts before the eyes of your son.

7.120.76 Overwhelmed in the fight, his horses slain and his driver slain, bewildered by the net of arrows, Karṇa could not tell what should be done.

7.120.77 Seeing him thus deprived of his car, O great king, Aśvatthāman took him up onto his own chariot, and once more did battle with Arjuna.

7.120.78 The king of the Madras pierced the son of Kuntī with thirty arrows, while Śāradvata struck Vāsudeva with twenty and smote Dhanaṃjaya with twelve bee-like shafts.

7.120.79 And the king of the Sindhus with four, and Vṛṣasena with seven, each in turn, O great king, pierced Kṛṣṇa and Pārtha.

7.120.80 In like manner Dhanaṃjaya, the son of Kuntī, pierced them in return—the son of Droṇa with sixty-four shafts and the king of the Madras with a hundred.

7.120.81 Having pierced the lord of the Sindhus with ten broad-headed arrows, Vṛṣasena with three shafts, and Śāradvata with twenty, Pārtha gave a great roar.

7.120.82 Wishing to thwart the vow of Savyasācin, your warriors together rushed swiftly upon Dhanaṃjaya.

7.120.83 Then Arjuna brought forth the weapon that cuts on every side, terrifying the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra; yet the Kurus advanced against the son of Pāṇḍu and, upon their costly chariots, poured down showers of arrows.

7.120.84 Then, O Bhārata, when that terrible, bewildering tumult arose, the diademed prince, far from being dazed, loosed his arrows undismayed.

7.120.85 Seeking to win back the kingdom, Savyasācin, remembering the sufferings he had borne for twelve years at the hands of the Kurus, that great soul, with countless arrows loosed from the Gāṇḍīva, covered every quarter of the sky.

7.120.86 The firmament seemed ablaze with falling meteors, and birds in multitudes alighted upon the corpses, as the diademed hero in his wrath slew his foes with his tawny-stringed bow, the Ājagava.

7.120.87 The diademed one, of great renown, conqueror of armies, with his mighty bow struck down with his shafts the foremost Kuru heroes—those mounted on the choicest horses and at the head of the great elephants.

7.120.88 And the kings, dreadful to behold, seizing heavy maces, iron bludgeons, swords and spears and great weapons, all at once rushed upon Pārtha in the fray.

7.120.89 But that hero, the mighty bowman, made those onrushing foes—with their chariots, horses, and elephants, and their bands of footmen—bereft of all their weapons and of their lives, swelling the realm of Yama.

7.121.1 Saṃjaya said: Pārtha, the splendid Dhanaṃjaya, ranged across the battlefield, displaying in all directions at once his wondrous weapons, a sight worth beholding.

7.121.2 As none can gaze upon the sun blazing in the sky at noon, so could no creature look full upon the Pāṇḍava.

7.121.3 The flights of arrows streaming from the Gāṇḍīva of that great soul we beheld in the battle like rows of wild geese across the sky.

7.121.4 Having warded off on every side the weapons of those heroes with his own weapons, he revealed his terrible self, fixed firmly upon his fierce work.

7.121.5 Bewildering those foremost car-warriors, as it were, with his iron shafts, Arjuna pressed past them all, O king, in his longing to slay Jayadratha.

7.121.6 Loosing his arrows in every direction, his dark-hued charioteer beside him, the splendid Dhanaṃjaya ranged swiftly across the field, a sight worth beholding.

7.121.7 The flights of arrows of that great-souled hero, as though wheeling through the air, were seen poised aloft by the hundreds and the thousands.

7.121.8 The mighty bowman drawing forth his shafts, the Pāṇḍava fitting them to the string, and the son of Kuntī loosing them—of these we could discern nothing then.

7.121.9 Having thrown into confusion all the quarters and all the car-warriors in the fray, O king, the son of Kuntī bore down upon Jayadratha and pierced him with sixty-four smooth-jointed arrows.

7.121.10 But the lord of the Sindhus, thus pierced by the arrows of the wielder of the Gāṇḍīva, did not endure it, raging like an elephant goaded by the hook.

7.121.11 He of the boar-banner swiftly loosed in battle at Savyasācin keen shafts—vulture-feathered, straight-flying, like venomous serpents, burnished by the smith.

7.121.12 With three iron shafts he pierced the Gāṇḍīva, Arjuna with six, the horses with eight, and the banner with a single feathered arrow.

7.121.13 Arjuna, scattering the sharp shafts sent by the Saindhava, at one stroke with two arrows severed from the body the head of the Saindhava's charioteer and his ornamented banner.

7.121.14 Its staff cut through, that great boar of the Sindhu king's banner, shattered and struck by the arrow, fell like a tongue of flame.

7.121.15 At that very moment, as the sun was swiftly setting, Janārdana in haste spoke to the Pāṇḍava:

7.121.16 "Dhanaṃjaya, cut off the head of the wicked Saindhava! The day-maker is about to descend behind the foremost of mountains. Hear, too, my word concerning the slaying of Jayadratha."

7.121.17 "Vṛddhakṣatra, the father of the Saindhava, is renowned throughout the world. After a long age he obtained the Saindhava as his son."

7.121.18 "And to that king, the foe-slaying Jayadratha, a disembodied voice, deep as the thunder of clouds, then spoke:"

7.121.19 "'This son of yours, O lord, shall be among mortals worthy of both your lineages in his virtues—in family, in conduct, in self-restraint, and the rest—foremost of Kṣatriyas in the world, ever honored by the brave.'"

7.121.20 "'Yet as this bowman fights his enemies in battle, an angered foe, unmarked upon the earth, shall cut off his head.'"

7.121.21 "Hearing this, O tamer of foes, the Sindhu king pondered long, and, tormented by love for his son, said this to all his kinsmen:"

7.121.22 "'Whoever, while my son fights in battle bearing his mighty burden, shall cast his head upon the earth—that man's head too shall burst into a hundred pieces; of this there is no doubt.'"

7.121.23 "Having spoken thus and set Jayadratha upon the throne, Vṛddhakṣatra went to the forest and gave himself to the practice of austerity."

7.121.24 "That radiant one, O you of the monkey-banner, is even now practicing terrible, hard-won austerity, just outside this field of Samantapañcaka."

7.121.25 "Therefore, O slayer of foes, when in this great battle you have cut off Jayadratha's head with a divine weapon of terrible and wondrous power—"

7.121.26 "—cast it, O younger brother of the Wind-god's son, still wearing its earrings, swiftly into the lap of Vṛddhakṣatra, O Bhārata, the head of the lord of the Sindhus."

7.121.27 "But if you let his head fall upon the ground, then your own head too shall burst into a hundred pieces; of this there is no doubt."

7.121.28 "And contrive it, O best of the Kurus, that this king, the lord of the earth, may not know of it—having recourse to the divine weapon."

7.121.29 "For there is nothing impossible or undoable for you in any of the three worlds entire, O delight of Vāsava."

7.121.30 Hearing these words, Arjuna, licking the corners of his mouth, took up an arrow whose touch was like Indra's thunderbolt, hallowed with divine spells—

7.121.31 —a shaft able to bear every burden, ever honored with perfumes and garlands; this Arjuna swiftly let fly, bent upon the slaying of the Saindhava.

7.121.32 That arrow, loosed from the Gāṇḍīva, swift as a hawk, bore off the head of the Saindhava as a hawk carries off a bird from the treetop.

7.121.33 And Dhanaṃjaya bore that head still higher with his arrows, to the dismay of his enemies and the joy of his friends.

7.121.34 Bearing it aloft on a cluster of arrows at that hour, the Pāṇḍava then carried that head beyond Samantapañcaka.

7.121.35 At that very moment, O revered one, the radiant king Vṛddhakṣatra, your kinsman by marriage, was performing his twilight worship.

7.121.36 As he sat at worship, Arjuna let fall into his lap the head of the Sindhu king, black-haired and still wearing its earrings.

7.121.37 That head with its fair earrings fell into the lap of King Vṛddhakṣatra unnoticed, O tamer of foes.

7.121.38 Then, as the wise Vṛddhakṣatra, his muttered prayers completed, rose up, that head suddenly slipped to the surface of the earth.

7.121.39 And then, when his son's head had fallen to the ground from that king's lap, his own head too, O tamer of foes, burst into a hundred pieces.

7.121.40 Then all beings were struck with the utmost wonder, and Vāsudeva praised Bībhatsu, that mighty car-warrior.

7.121.41 Then, beholding Jayadratha, the king of the Sindhus, slain, much water fell in grief from the eyes of your sons.

7.121.42 Bhīmasena too, as though signaling to the Pāṇḍava in the fray, filled heaven and earth with a great lion's roar.

7.121.43 Hearing that mighty roar, Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Dharma, judged that the Saindhava had been slain by the great-souled Phalguna.

7.121.44 Then, gladdening his own warriors with the clamor of instruments, he advanced into the battle against the son of Bharadvāja, eager to fight.

7.121.45 Then, O king, as the sun was setting, a hair-raising battle broke out between Droṇa and the Somakas.

7.121.46 Those great car-warriors, O king, seeking with all their might to slay the son of Bharadvāja now that the Saindhava was slain, fought on.

7.121.47 And the Pāṇḍavas, having won the victory and slain the Saindhava, then, frenzied with triumph, did battle with Droṇa on every side.

7.121.48 Arjuna too, O great king, having slain the king of the Sindhus, did battle in the fray with your warriors, those foremost of car-warriors.

7.121.49 Having fulfilled his earlier vow, the diademed hero scattered them on every side, as the king of the gods scatters the foes of the gods, and as the risen dispeller of darkness dispels the shadows.

7.122.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When that hero, the Saindhava, had been slain by Savyasācin, tell me, Saṃjaya, what my men then did.

7.122.2 Saṃjaya said: Seeing the Saindhava slain in battle by Pārtha, O revered one, Kṛpa, the son of Śaradvat, was then overcome with wrath.

7.122.3 With a great shower of arrows he covered the Pāṇḍava, and Droṇa's son too, mounting his chariot, charged upon Pārtha, upon Phalguna.

7.122.4 Those two foremost of car-warriors, from their two chariots, both on either side, rained sharp arrows upon him, the best of car-warriors.

7.122.5 Thus assailed by those two mighty showers of arrows, that strong-armed one, the best of car-warriors, fell into the deepest distress.

7.122.6 Unwilling to slay in battle his teacher's kinsman and the son of his teacher, Dhanaṃjaya, the son of Kuntī, there displayed his mastery of the craft.

7.122.7 Warding off with his weapons the weapons of both Droṇa's son and the son of Śaradvat, he loosed at the two of them slow-flying arrows, having no wish to kill them.

7.122.8 Though the shafts, urged on toward victory, did not strike them too grievously, by their sheer multitude the two warriors were brought to the utmost anguish.

7.122.9 Then, O king, the son of Śaradvat, tormented by the arrows of Kuntī's son, sank down upon the floor of his chariot and fell into a swoon.

7.122.10 Perceiving his master reeling and stricken by arrows, and thinking him slain, the charioteer bore him away from the field.

7.122.11 When Kṛpa, son of Śaradvat, had collapsed in the battle, O great king, Aśvatthāman too withdrew from the Pāṇḍava to another part of the field.

7.122.12 Beholding the son of Śaradvat swooning, racked by arrows, the great archer Pārtha, there upon his chariot, lamented piteously.

7.122.13 Beholding this, the deeply wise Vidura had spoken to the king when wicked Suyodhana, destroyer of the lineage, was but newly born:

7.122.14 'Let this defiler of the line be sent rightly to the other world; for from him will arise a great terror for the chiefs of the Kurus.'

7.122.15 That word of the truth-speaker has now come to pass, for on his account I see Kṛpa today laid out upon a bed of arrows.

7.122.16 Fie upon the warrior's code, fie upon strength and manly valor! For who like me would do violence to a brāhmaṇa, his own teacher?

7.122.17 My teacher, son of a seer, the beloved friend of Droṇa — here he lies upon his chariot, oppressed by my arrows.

7.122.18 Though I wished it not, sorely afflicted by my shafts he sank upon his chariot; it is as though he wrings the very life from me.

7.122.19 For I, myself worn by arrows yet observant of the tenfold duty, have driven back with many shafts this man of splendor, lovely to behold.

7.122.20 His falling grieves me more even than the slaying of a son. See, Kṛṣṇa, how piteously he has sunk, undone, upon his own chariot.

7.122.21 Those bulls among men who, having received learning from their teachers, render to them here the objects of their desire — they attain to godhood.

7.122.22 But those basest of men who, having taken learning from their elders, then slay those very ones — such evil-doers go to hell.

7.122.23 Surely, then, this deed I have done today leads to hell — bringing low my teacher Kṛpa upon his chariot with a rain of arrows.

7.122.24 For when of old he was imparting the weapon to me, Kṛpa told me: 'In no wise, O Kaurava, is a blow ever to be struck against one's teacher.'

7.122.25 That word of my good and great-souled teacher I have not heeded — raining shafts upon that very man in battle.

7.122.26 Homage to that most worthy Gautama, who never flees the fight! Fie upon me, O Vārṣṇeya, who strike a blow against him!

7.122.27 While Savyasācin was thus lamenting over him, the son of Rādhā, beholding the lord of the Sindhus slain, rushed forward.

7.122.28 Seeing the son of Rādhā advancing, the great chariot-warrior Pārtha, smiling, spoke this word to the son of Devakī:

7.122.29 'There goes the son of Adhiratha toward Sātyaki's chariot; surely he cannot bear that Bhūriśravas was slain in the fray.'

7.122.30 'Wherever he goes, drive the horses thither, Janārdana, lest that bull Karṇa send Sātyaki down the road that Somadatta's son has trodden.'

7.122.31 Thus addressed by Savyasācin, the mighty-armed Keśava of great splendor replied with this word, fitting to the hour:

7.122.32 'Alone, O Pāṇḍava, this mighty-armed bull of the Sātvatas is a match enough for Karṇa — how much more so when joined by the two sons of Draupadī!'

7.122.33 'And the time is not yet fit, Pārtha, for your clash with Karṇa; for Indra's weapon stands by him, blazing like a great meteor, kept and honored, O slayer of foes, that he may loose it upon you.'

7.122.34 'Therefore let Karṇa go yonder against the Sātvata, come what may; I shall know, O Kaurava, the appointed hour of that evil-souled one.'

7.122.35 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: That encounter of the Vārṣṇeya with the hero Karṇa, after Bhūriśravas was slain and the lord of the Sindhus brought down —

7.122.36 And Sātyaki, his car undone, what chariot did he mount? And who were the two Pāñcāla guards of his wheels? Tell me that, Saṃjaya.

7.122.37 Saṃjaya said: Come then, I shall describe to you all that befell in the great battle; listen calmly, and hear of your own misconduct.

7.122.38 For long before, O lord, this was in Kṛṣṇa's mind: that the hero Sātyaki was to be vanquished by Karṇa, whose banner bears the sacrificial post.

7.122.39 For Janārdana, O king, knows past and future; therefore, summoning his charioteer Dāruka, that mighty one gave command: 'Let my chariot be yoked betimes.'

7.122.40 For neither gods nor gandharvas, nor yakṣas, serpents, or rākṣasas, nor any men whatsoever, are there to vanquish the two Kṛṣṇas.

7.122.41 The gods, with the Grandsire at their head, and the siddhas, know this. Hear now of the matchless might of those two, and how that battle went.

7.122.42 Seeing Sātyaki bereft of his car and Karṇa with weapon upraised, Mādhava blew a mighty blast upon his ox-strong conch.

7.122.43 Dāruka, knowing the command and hearing the conch's note, brought up for him the chariot whose ensign of Garuḍa was raised on high.

7.122.44 With Keśava's leave, the grandson of Śini mounted that chariot driven by Dāruka, radiant as fire and the sun.

7.122.45 It was drawn by the steeds Sainya, Sugrīva, Meghapuṣpa, and Balāhaka — coursers that go where they will, towering, of great speed, adorned with trappings of gold.

7.122.46 Mounting that well-yoked chariot, like a celestial car, he rushed upon the son of Rādhā, sowing many arrows as he came.

7.122.47 Then too the two wheel-guards, Yudhāmanyu and Uttamaujas, leaving Dhanaṃjaya's chariot, advanced against the son of Rādhā.

7.122.48 The son of Rādhā too, O great king, loosing a downpour of arrows, in high fury charged the steadfast grandson of Śini in the fight.

7.122.49 No such battle, of gods or gandharvas, of asuras, serpents, or rākṣasas, was ever heard of, whether on earth or in heaven.

7.122.50 That host, with its chariots, horses, men, and elephants, stood still, O great king, its senses bewildered at beholding the feats of those two.

7.122.51 And all gazed upon that superhuman combat of those two foremost of men, O king, and upon the charioteering of Dāruka.

7.122.52 They marveled at the son of Kaśyapa as he stood at his post, with his goings forth and returnings, his wheelings and his turnings about.

7.122.53 And the gods, gandharvas, and dānavas in the vault of heaven were most intent to behold the battle of Karṇa and the grandson of Śini.

7.122.54 For their friends' sake the two strove on, rivals fierce and mettlesome in the fray — Karṇa, like an immortal, and Yuyudhāna, the son of Sātyaka.

7.122.55 Each upon the other, O great king, they rained their showers of arrows; and Karṇa battered the grandson of Śini with floods of shafts.

7.122.56 Unable to brook the slaying of the Kaurava and of Jalasaṃdha, Karṇa, filled with grief, hissed like a great serpent.

7.122.57 That tamer of foes, enraged, as if consuming the grandson of Śini with his very gaze, charged him again and again with vehemence in the fray.

7.122.58 But beholding him in his wrath, Sātyaki pierced him back with a mighty downpour of arrows, as one elephant withstands another.

7.122.59 Those two tigers among men, closing like swift and tireless tigers, hewed at each other in the battle, peerless in prowess.

7.122.60 Then the grandson of Śini, that tamer of foes, pierced Karṇa in every limb, again and again, with shafts all wrought of iron.

7.122.61 With a broad-headed arrow he swept his charioteer from the chariot-box, and with whetted shafts he slew his four white steeds.

7.122.62 Cleaving his banner a hundredfold with a hundred arrows, that bull among men left Karṇa without a car, before the very eyes of your son.

7.122.63 Then your bulls among men were dismayed, O king — Vṛṣasena, the son of Karṇa, and Śalya, the lord of the Madras,

7.122.64 and the son of Droṇa — they surrounded the grandson of Śini on every side; thereupon all became a tumult, and nothing could be discerned.

7.122.65 When the heroic son of the sūta had thus been left carless by Sātyaki, a cry of dismay arose, O king, throughout all the armies.

7.122.66 And Karṇa too, reeling, O king, tormented by the Sātvata's arrows, mounted Duryodhana's chariot, breathing hard.

7.122.67 Honoring the friendship he had borne your son from boyhood, and keeping the vow he had made when granted the kingdom,

7.122.68 even with Karṇa thus carless, the self-controlled Sātyaki did not slay your heroic sons, O king, with Duḥśāsana at their head.

7.122.69 Guarding too the vow Bhīmasena had once made of old, he made them carless and reeling, yet did not part them from their lives.

7.122.70 For the slaying of your sons had been pledged by Bhīmasena, and at the second dicing the slaying of Karṇa had been vowed by Pārtha.

7.122.71 Though they made every effort then to slay him, those foremost chariot-warriors with Karṇa at their head were unable to slay that Sātyaki.

7.122.72 The son of Droṇa, and Kṛtavarman, and likewise other great chariot-warriors — bulls among the kṣatriyas by the hundred — were vanquished with a single bow by one who sought the other world and the favor of the King of Righteousness.

7.122.73 Sātyaki, scourge of his foes, was equal in valor to the two Kṛṣṇas; in the world there is Kṛṣṇa, or Pārtha the bowman, or the grandson of Śini, that tiger among men — a fourth such is not to be found.

7.122.74 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Mounting the unconquerable chariot of Vāsudeva, the youthful Sātyaki, the peer of Vāsudeva, left Karṇa without a car —

7.122.75 the car driven by Dāruka — proud of the strength of his own arms. Did Sātyaki then mount yet another chariot of his own?

7.122.76 This I wish to hear, for you are skilled in the telling; I deem him irresistible — tell me of it, Saṃjaya.

7.122.77 Saṃjaya said: Hear, O king, how the wise younger brother of Dāruka swiftly made ready for him another chariot, fashioned with every proper appointment —

7.122.78 bound with bands of iron and of gold, fitted with its pole, studded with a thousand stars, bearing a banner and pennon marked with a lion.

7.122.79 It was yoked with horses swift as the wind, caparisoned with golden trappings, white and bright as the moon, hardy, and heedless of every clamor.

7.122.80 With foremost steeds in armor of variegated gold, O lord of peoples — a chariot loud with the ringing of clustered bells, flashing with lances and javelins —

7.122.81 furnished with all the gear of war, abounding in many weapons — such a chariot, deep-voiced as a thundercloud, he made ready.

7.122.82 Mounting it, the grandson of Śini fell upon your host; and Dāruka, as he pleased, went off to the side of Keśava.

7.122.83 For Karṇa too, O great king, they brought up a chariot — drawn by goodly steeds, swifter still, white as the conch and as cow's milk, clad in armor of variegated gold,

7.122.84 furnished with girths of gold and with a banner, decked with well-wrought gear and pennon, a peerless car with a good driver, abounding in many weapons.

7.122.85 This they brought up, and mounting it Karṇa too charged upon his foes. All this have I told you, even as you asked of me.

7.122.86 Now learn further of the ruin born of your own misrule: one-and-thirty of your sons have been struck down by Bhīmasena,

7.122.87 with Durmukha, that ever-skillful and wondrous fighter, at their head; and heroes by the hundred have been slain by the Sātvata and by Arjuna.

7.122.88 Setting Bhīṣma and Bhagadatta at the forefront, good sir — thus, O king, has this destruction come to pass, all through your evil counsel.

7.123.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When the heroes on their side and on mine had thus fared, Saṃjaya, what then did Bhīma do? Tell me that, Saṃjaya.

7.123.2 Saṃjaya said: Bhīmasena, his chariot broken and stung by the barbed words of Karṇa, fell into the grip of fury and spoke this word to Phalguna.

7.123.3 Again and again he taunted me — 'Beardless oaf, fool, glutton, untrained in arms, do not fight, you child, you coward of the battlefield!' —

7.123.4 thus did Karṇa speak to me before your very eyes, Dhanaṃjaya. He who speaks so to me deserves death at my hands, and by him have I been so addressed, O Bhārata.

7.123.5 This vow, O mighty-armed one, I have taken together with you; as this is my charge, son of Kuntī, so is it yours — of this there is no doubt.

7.123.6 For his slaying, O best of men, remember this word of mine; so act, Dhanaṃjaya, that it be made true.

7.123.7 Hearing that word of Bhīma's, Arjuna of measureless valour drew a little closer in the battle and spoke to Karṇa.

7.123.8 Karṇa, O Karṇa, vain in your seeing, charioteer's son who praises only himself, mind set on unrighteousness — hear from me now what I shall tell you.

7.123.9 Twofold is the fortune of heroes in war: victory and defeat. And both are uncertain, Rādheya — even for Vāsava when he fights.

7.123.10 When you were near death at Yuyudhāna's hands, your chariot wrecked, you were spared and let go; and only by chance did you make Bhīmasena chariotless.

7.123.11 But this was unrighteous, Rādheya, that you spoke so to Bhīma — one who knows the law of war, who fights and does not flee, who fulfils to the utmost of his power a hero's work in the fray.

7.123.12 Before the eyes of all the armies, of Keśava and of me, you were made chariotless by Bhīmasena many a time in battle, yet the son of Pāṇḍu never spoke one harsh word to you.

7.123.13 But because you made Vṛkodara hear much that was cruel, and because Subhadrā's son was slain by you all in unfair fashion —

7.123.14 for that arrogance reap now its instant fruit. You cut his bowstring to your own undoing, O evil-minded one.

7.123.15 Therefore you, fool, are to be slain by me, together with your servants, your forces, and your steeds. Do all that you must do — a great terror has come upon you.

7.123.16 I shall slay your Vṛṣasena before your watching eyes in the fight; and whatever other kings shall come at me through delusion of mind, them too shall I slay, all of them — by truth I lay hand upon my weapon.

7.123.17 And when dull Duryodhana sees you — fool of unripe wit, overweening — struck down in battle, he shall grieve bitterly.

7.123.18 When Arjuna had vowed the slaying of Karṇa's son, a great and tumultuous clamour rose then among the chariot-warriors.

7.123.19 While that confused and dreadful battle was raging, the thousand-rayed sun, its beams grown faint, drew near the mountain of setting.

7.123.20 Then, O king, Hṛṣīkeśa embraced Bībhatsu, who stood at the battle's head, his vow fulfilled, and spoke thus to him.

7.123.21 By good fortune, Jiṣṇu, your great vow has been accomplished by you; and by good fortune the wicked Vṛddhakṣatra is slain together with his son.

7.123.22 Even an army of gods, Bhārata, on meeting Dhṛtarāṣṭra's host would sink in the battle, Jiṣṇu — of this there can be no doubt.

7.123.23 Though I ponder it, I see nowhere in the worlds, O tiger among men, any man but you who could do battle with this force.

7.123.24 Many guardians of the earth of great might, equal to you or greater, gathered for Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son's sake; yet, meeting you wrathful in battle, mailed though they were, they could not stand their ground.

7.123.25 Your prowess and your strength are like those of Rudra, Śakra, and Yama. No one could perform in battle such a feat as you alone have done this day, O scorcher of foes.

7.123.26 Even so, when the evil-souled Karṇa is slain with all his kin, I shall exalt you the more — conqueror of your enemies, slayer of your foes.

7.123.27 To him Arjuna replied: By your grace, Mādhava, this vow has been carried through by me — a vow hard to cross even for the gods.

7.123.28 No wonder is victory for those whose lord you are, Mādhava. By your grace Yudhiṣṭhira shall gain the whole earth.

7.123.29 Yours alone is the burden, Vārṣṇeya, yours alone the victory, O lord. We are yours to raise up and yours to command, slayer of Madhu.

7.123.30 Addressed thus, Kṛṣṇa, smiling, gently driving the horses on, showed to Pārtha that vast and cruel field of battle.

7.123.31 The blessed Kṛṣṇa said: Craving victory in war and far-famed glory, the heroes and the kings lie upon the earth, slain by your shafts.

7.123.32 Their weapons and ornaments scattered, their horses, chariots, and elephants undone, their armour cleft and shattered, they have come to utter ruin.

7.123.33 The living and the lifeless alike, endowed with surpassing radiance — these lords of men, though life has fled, seem still as though alive.

7.123.34 Behold the earth filled with their gold-feathered arrows, their many sharp weapons, their mounts and their armaments.

7.123.35 With cuirasses, with shields, with necklaces, with heads still bearing their earrings, with turbans, diadems, garlands, crest-jewels, and garments —

7.123.36 with necklets and armlets and bright gold ornaments, and with other gleaming jewels of every kind, the earth shines, O Bhārata.

7.123.37 With yak-tail whisks, with gay fans, with banners, with horses, chariots, and elephants, with coverlets of many sorts, and with the fly-whisks of the horses —

7.123.38 with richly patterned elephant-housings and with costly chariot-guards — behold the earth strewn over, as though robed in figured cloth.

7.123.39 Behold others fallen from their elephants — those caparisoned beasts — together with the elephants themselves, like lions tumbled from mountain peaks struck down by the thunderbolt.

7.123.40 Behold yet others sewn to the ground along with their horses, and the throngs of footmen and riders awash in floods of blood.

7.123.41 Saṃjaya said: Thus showing the field of battle to the Diademed One, Kṛṣṇa, joined by his own and filled with joy, sounded the conch Pāñcajanya.

7.124.1 Saṃjaya said: Then King Yudhiṣṭhira, leaping down from his chariot, O Bhārata, embraced the two Kṛṣṇas, overflowing with tears of joy.

7.124.2 Wiping his bright face, radiant as a white lotus, he spoke to Vāsudeva and to the Pāṇḍava Dhanaṃjaya.

7.124.3 By good fortune I behold you both, great chariot-warriors, your burden in battle crossed; and by good fortune the wicked lord of Sindhu, basest of men, is slain.

7.124.4 By good fortune, Kṛṣṇa, my great gladness has been brought to pass; and by good fortune the hosts of foes are plunged into an ocean of grief.

7.124.5 For those whose lord you are, the teacher of all the worlds, nothing in the three worlds is hard to achieve, O slayer of Madhu.

7.124.6 By your grace, Govinda, we shall vanquish our foes, even as of old, by your grace, the Chastiser of Pāka overcame the Dānavas.

7.124.7 Conquest of the earth, or even conquest of the three worlds, is assured, Vārṣṇeya, for those with whom you are pleased, Mādhava.

7.124.8 For them there is no sin, nor defeat in battle, whose lord is you, the lord of the lord of the thirty gods, with whom you are pleased, Mādhava.

7.124.9 By your grace, Hṛṣīkeśa, glorious Śakra, lord of the hosts of gods, won the conquest of the three worlds at the head of battle.

7.124.10 And by your grace, O lord of the thirty gods, the thirty themselves attained immortality, Kṛṣṇa, and enjoy imperishable worlds.

7.124.11 By a prowess sprung from your grace, O slayer of foes, Śakra attained lordship over the gods, having slain the Daityas by the thousands.

7.124.12 By your grace, Hṛṣīkeśa, the world of moving and unmoving things abides each in its own course, O hero, and engages in muttered prayer and oblation.

7.124.13 In the beginning all this was one ocean, wholly wrapped in darkness; by your grace the world attained to light, O best of men.

7.124.14 They who have taken refuge in Hṛṣīkeśa — creator of all the worlds, the supreme Self, the unfallen — are never at any time deluded.

7.124.15 They who are devoted to you, Hṛṣīkeśa — the god without beginning or end, the maker of the worlds, the imperishable — cross over all hardships.

7.124.16 To him who takes refuge in the supreme Person, the ancient One, that which is highest among all things primeval, the highest prosperity is ordained.

7.124.17 He who chanted forth the four Vedas, and he who is hymned within the Vedas — taking refuge in that great-souled one, a man attains a prosperity beyond all others.

7.124.18 He who is Dhanaṃjaya's friend and Dhanaṃjaya's good — taking refuge in that guardian of Dhanaṃjaya, a man thrives in happiness.

7.124.19 Thus addressed, those two great-souled ones, Keśava and the Pāṇḍava both, then spoke gladly to the king, the lord of the earth.

7.124.20 By the fire of your wrath the wicked King Jayadratha has been consumed; and the surging, vast host of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son in battle —

7.124.21 is being slain, is slain already, and shall perish utterly, O Bhārata; for these Kauravas are struck down by your anger, slayer of foes.

7.124.22 For having angered you, a hero who slays with a mere glance, ill-minded Suyodhana, together with his friends and kinsmen, shall yield up his life in the fray.

7.124.23 Struck down before by your wrath, Bhīṣma the grandsire of the Kurus, hard to conquer even by the gods, lies upon his bed of arrows.

7.124.24 Hard to win is victory in battle for those, O slayer of foes; truly they pass into the power of death with whom you are wrathful, Pāṇḍava.

7.124.25 Kingdom, life, beloved sons, and pleasures of every kind — soon do these perish for those with whom you are wrathful, O giver of honour.

7.124.26 I deem the Kauravas already destroyed, with their sons, their cattle, and their kin, now that you, ever devoted to the duty of kings, are wrathful, Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.124.27 Then mighty-armed Bhīma and the great chariot-warrior Sātyaki, having saluted their elder and superior, those two great bowmen stood gashed and torn by arrows, encircled by the Pāñcālas.

7.124.28 Beholding those two heroes glad before him, standing with hands folded in reverence, the son of Kuntī rejoiced over them both, Bhīma and Sātyaki.

7.124.29 By good fortune I behold you, heroes, delivered from the ocean of armies — from the unassailable Droṇa-crocodile, from the lair of the sea-monster Hārdikya; and by good fortune all the kings of the earth are vanquished in the fight.

7.124.30 By good fortune I behold you both victorious in the battle; and by good fortune Droṇa is overcome in the fray, and the mighty Hārdikya as well.

7.124.31 By good fortune I behold you, blameless ones, crossed safely over the ocean of armies — heroes glorious in battle, never fleeing the fight; and by good fortune I behold you both, who are dear to me as my own breath.

7.124.32 Having spoken thus, the Pāṇḍava king embraced Yuyudhāna and Vṛkodara, those tigers among men, and for very joy let fall his tears.

7.124.33 Then, O lord of peoples, the whole army of the Pāṇḍavas was filled with delight, and beholding their victory set its mind upon the battle still to come.

7.125.1 Saṃjaya said: When the lord of Sindhu was slain, O king, your son Suyodhana, his face wet with tears, wretched and bereft of hope of conquering his foes, thought that there was no warrior on earth equal to Arjuna.

7.125.2 Neither Droṇa, nor Rādheya, nor Aśvatthāman, nor Kṛpa was able to stand before him in his wrath — so he thought, good sir.

7.125.3 For Pārtha, having vanquished in battle all my great chariot-warriors, slew the lord of Sindhu in the fight, and none could turn him back.

7.125.4 In every way this great host of the Kauravas is already as good as slain; for it has no protector — not even Purandara himself in person.

7.125.5 He upon whom we leaned to raise our arms for battle — that Karṇa has been vanquished in the fight, and Jayadratha too is slain.

7.125.6 That Karṇa who hurled harsh words at the Pāṇḍavas in the midst of the assembly hall has been worsted in battle, and the lord of the Sindhus laid low as well.

7.125.7 That Karṇa, leaning on whose prowess I held the unfallen one who came seeking peace to be no more than a blade of grass — that very Karṇa has been beaten in the fight.

7.125.8 Thus crushed in spirit, O king, your son — he who has wronged the whole world — drew near to look upon Droṇa, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.125.9 Then he recounted the whole of it: the great slaughter of the Kurus, the foes carrying off the victory, and the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra going under.

7.125.10 Duryodhana said: Behold, O teacher, the havoc wrought among the consecrated kings — though we set in the forefront the hero Bhīṣma, my grandsire.

7.125.11 Having struck him down, this Śikhaṇḍin, greedy and swollen with pride, together with all the Pāñcālas presses upon the van of our army.

7.125.12 And another, unassailable — your own pupil, the ambidextrous archer — after destroying seven full armies, has slain King Jayadratha.

7.125.13 How shall I ever discharge my debt to friends who longed for my victory and served my cause, now that they have gone to the abode of Yama?

7.125.14 Those lords of the earth who sought to win the earth for my sake — they have forsaken dominion over the earth and now lie sleeping upon it.

7.125.15 I, a coward, having brought about such ruin of my friends — not by a thousand horse-sacrifices could I dare to redeem myself.

7.125.16 For me — the greedy, the sinful, the transgressor of righteousness — they strove and sought to conquer, and so have come to the dwelling of Vaivasvata.

7.125.17 How is it that the earth could not open a cleft to swallow me — fallen in conduct, betrayer of my own friends — there in the assembly of kings?

7.125.18 I could not save my grandsire, his limbs drenched in blood, lying in the midst of the kings — Bhīṣma struck down upon the field of battle.

7.125.19 When that unassailable conqueror of the world beyond meets me — ignoble man, betrayer of friends, doer of unrighteousness — what will he say to me?

7.125.20 Behold the mighty archer Jalasaṃdha, slain by Sātyaki — a hero who rose up for my sake and gave his life, a great chariot-warrior.

7.125.21 Seeing the Kāmboja struck down, and Alambusa too, and many other friends besides — what use to me now is the wish to live?

7.125.22 The heroes who, never turning their backs, exerted themselves and fell for my sake, striving with all their might to conquer my enemies —

7.125.23 to them, O scorcher of foes, I shall this day discharge my debt as best I can: I shall offer them the water of libation along the Yamunā.

7.125.24 Truly I vow it to you, O foremost of all who bear arms — I swear it by my sacrifices and pious works, by my valor, and by my sons —

7.125.25 having slain in battle all those Pāñcālas together with the Pāṇḍavas, I shall win peace — or else I shall go to share their world in the fight.

7.125.26 For now my allies, ill requited, no longer desire to aid me; they reckon the sons of Pāṇḍu worthier than us, O mighty-armed one.

7.125.27 Death itself has been ordained in battle by him whose vows are truth; yet you show indifference toward Dhanaṃjaya, because he is so apt a pupil.

7.125.28 And so all who wished to make me victorious have been struck down; in Karṇa alone do I now see one who still seeks my triumph.

7.125.29 The dull-witted man who, not truly knowing his friend, yet employs him in a friend's behalf — his purpose comes to nothing.

7.125.30 Such has been this enterprise of mine, contrived out of folly by those who only call themselves friends — by their crooked dealings, here and there, against a greedy and sinful man.

7.125.31 Slain is Jayadratha, and the valiant son of Somadatta, and the Abhīṣāhas, the Śūrasenas, the Śibis, and the Vasātis.

7.125.32 This very day I too shall go where those bulls among men have gone — slain for my sake in battle as they fought against the diademed one.

7.125.33 For I have no use for life bereft of those bulls among men. Let the teacher of the sons of Pāṇḍu grant me his leave to go.

7.126.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When the king of the Sindhus had been slain in battle by the ambidextrous archer, dear son, and Bhūriśravas likewise, what then was the temper of your minds?

7.126.2 And Droṇa, thus addressed by Duryodhana in the assembly of the Kurus — what did he say in reply to that? Tell me this, Saṃjaya.

7.126.3 Saṃjaya said: A great clamor of dismay arose among your troops, O Bhārata, when they beheld the lord of the Sindhus slain and Bhūriśravas as well.

7.126.4 They all scorned the whole of your son's counsel — that counsel by which warriors among the kṣatriyas had been slain by the hundred.

7.126.5 But Droṇa, hearing those words of your son, grew downcast in spirit; and after pondering a moment, sorely afflicted, he spoke.

7.126.6 O Duryodhana, why do you thus pierce me with the shafts of your words, when I have ever told you the ambidextrous archer is unconquerable in battle?

7.126.7 By this alone, O Kaurava, you might have understood Arjuna in war — that Śikhaṇḍin slew Bhīṣma while guarded by the diademed one.

7.126.8 When I saw one whom neither gods nor men could slay struck down in battle, even then I knew: this host of ours shall be no more.

7.126.9 When that hero is slain whom we held the bravest of men in all three worlds, what remnant do we still cling to?

7.126.10 Those dice which father Śakuni cast in the assembly of the Kurus — they were no dice but whetted arrows, tormentors of the foe.

7.126.11 Those very shafts, dear son, now slay us, driven on toward our undoing — the shafts of which Vidura warned you then, though you would not understand.

7.126.12 You would not heed those words of the great-souled, steadfast Vidura, though he cried them out for your welfare — auspicious counsel spoken for your good.

7.126.13 And now this dreadful thing is come to pass, this great slaughter — through your scorning of that counsel, Duryodhana, for your sake.

7.126.14 And in that you had Kṛṣṇā dragged before the assembly while we looked on — she undeserving of it, nobly born, a follower of every sacred duty —

7.126.15 of that unrighteousness, O son of Gāndhārī, you have now received the fruit; and were it not so, you would meet a sin still greater in the world beyond.

7.126.16 And in that you conquered the Pāṇḍavas at dice by foul play and drove them then into the forest, clad in the skins of black antelopes —

7.126.17 toward these men, who walk ever in righteousness as though they were my own sons — what man in the world, save me who am called a brāhmaṇa, would deal so treacherously?

7.126.18 This wrath of the Pāṇḍavas was brought down by you together with Śakuni, with Dhṛtarāṣṭra's assent, in the assembly of the Kurus.

7.126.19 Joined to it was Duḥśāsana, and Karṇa nourished it the more; and you, disregarding the steward's words, fed it again and again.

7.126.20 When all of you, overpowering Abhimanyu, hemmed him round while rallying about the king of the Sindhus — how then was that king slain in your very midst?

7.126.21 How, while you and Karṇa and Kṛpa and Śalya yet lived, and Aśvatthāman too, O Kaurava, did the lord of the Sindhus go to his death?

7.126.22 When all those kings of yours waited upon his fierce splendor to save the lord of the Sindhus — how was he slain in your very midst?

7.126.23 On me above all, O Duryodhana, and on you, that lord of earth set his hope of deliverance from Arjuna.

7.126.24 And now, since he found no rescue from Phalguna, I see no way at all to save my own life.

7.126.25 I see myself, as it were, sinking into the guilt that is Dhṛṣṭadyumna, so long as I have not slain the Pāñcālas together with that Śikhaṇḍin.

7.126.26 Why then do you pierce me with the shafts of your words while I burn with grief, O Bhārata, when you yourself were powerless to save the king of the Sindhus?

7.126.27 You did not see, in battle, the golden banner of Bhīṣma, the tireless-handed one whose word was truth — how then do you still hope for victory?

7.126.28 Where, in the midst of mighty chariot-warriors, the lord of the Sindhus was slain, and Bhūriśravas too — what remnant do you suppose is left there?

7.126.29 If the unassailable Kṛpa yet lives, O king — he who has not gone the road of the lord of the Sindhus — him I honor.

7.126.30 And in that I saw Bhīṣma slain before the very eyes of your younger brother Duḥśāsana, O Kaurava — Bhīṣma, who wrought deeds so hard to do, well-nigh unslayable in battle even by the gods with Vāsava at their head —

7.126.31 this I now think, O king: that the earth is no longer yours. For here, O Bhārata, the hosts of the Pāṇḍavas and the Sṛñjayas, joined together, are charging upon me this day, honored sir.

7.126.32 Not until I have slain all the Pāñcālas will I loose my armor; in battle, O son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, I shall do the deed that serves your good.

7.126.33 O king, say to my son Aśvatthāman in the fray: the Somakas must not be spared by one who would guard his own life.

7.126.34 And keep faith with the counsel your father gave you: stand firm in mercy, in self-restraint, in truth, and in uprightness.

7.126.35 Skilled in duty, gain, and pleasure, never letting duty or gain suffer harm, holding duty foremost — so should you perform your tasks, again and again.

7.126.36 The brāhmaṇas are to be gratified with eye and mind, and served according to one's power; nothing should be done to displease them, for they are like tongues of fire.

7.126.37 But now I plunge into the hostile ranks, O slayer of foes, for a great battle, O king — wounded as I am by the barb of your words.

7.126.38 And you, Duryodhana, hold the army together if you can; for even by night the Kurus and Sṛñjayas, roused to fury, will fight on.

7.126.39 So saying, Droṇa went forth against the Pāṇḍavas and Sṛñjayas, stealing away the splendor of the warriors as the sun steals the light of the stars.

7.127.1 Saṃjaya said: Then King Duryodhana, so goaded by Droṇa, fell into the grip of indignation and set his mind on battle alone.

7.127.2 And then your son Duryodhana said to Karṇa: Behold — the battle-array drawn up by the teacher, hard for the very gods to break, has been broken by the diademed son of Pāṇḍu with Kṛṣṇa for his ally.

7.127.3 While you exerted yourself, and the great-souled Droṇa too, and the foremost of warriors looked on, the lord of the Sindhus was struck down.

7.127.4 Behold, O son of Rādhā, the kings, the foremost upon earth in war, slain by Pārtha alone, as lesser beasts are slain by a lion.

7.127.5 Though I strove in the battle, O slayer of foes, my army has been brought to a scant remnant by the son of Śakra.

7.127.6 For how, if Droṇa had not willed it, could Phalguna in battle have broken that array so hard to break, however he might have striven in the fray?

7.127.7 For Phalguna is ever dear to the great-souled teacher; and so, O crusher of foes, he granted him passage without a fight.

7.127.8 Droṇa, scorcher of foes, having granted safety to the lord of the Sindhus in the fight, yet opened the gate for the diademed one — behold how poorly I am served.

7.127.9 Had I but given leave at the outset for the king of the Sindhus to go home, there would have been no slaughter of men in the battle.

7.127.10 Jayadratha, longing for life, was setting out toward home, having won safety from Droṇa in the fight — and I, ignoble, held him back.

7.127.11 This day my brothers, Citrasena and the rest, are spent in battle, having come up against Bhīmasena before our wicked-hearted eyes.

7.127.12 Karṇa said: Do not reproach the teacher; that brāhmaṇa fights with all his might. I deem the Pāṇḍavas unconquerable in the fray, even by Droṇa who knows every weapon.

7.127.13 For even so, passing him by, the white-horsed one broke through. The course of things is ordained by fate; I think there is nowhere any altering it.

7.127.14 Then, O Suyodhana, while we fought with the utmost of our power, the lord of the Sindhus was slain, O king; in this, destiny is reckoned the highest cause.

7.127.15 Though we strove our utmost together with you on the field of battle, destiny undid our manly valor and set us behind, for all our ceaseless striving with both cunning and prowess.

7.127.16 Whatever deed a man assailed by destiny may anywhere perform, that deed, once done, is undone again for him by destiny.

7.127.17 What is to be done by a man who is resolute and true, that he must do without misgiving; but success rests upon destiny.

7.127.18 By trickery the sons of Pṛthā were cheated, O Bhārata, and by poisoned draughts, and they were nearly burned in the house of lac, and they were vanquished at dice.

7.127.19 By recourse to statecraft they were sent away to the forest; yet whatever was thus contrived by effort was cast down by destiny.

7.127.20 Fight on, taking up your effort, and make death your only turning-back; as you strive and as they strive, destiny will go its own appointed way.

7.127.21 No deliberate good deed of theirs is anywhere to be seen, nor any wicked deed of yours, O hero, devoid of judgment, O upholder of the Kurus.

7.127.22 Destiny is the measure of every deed, good or otherwise; for destiny, whose work cannot be turned aside, keeps watch even over those who sleep.

7.127.23 Many were your armies and many likewise your warriors—not so those of the sons of Pāṇḍu; and yet the battle went thus.

7.127.24 By those few you many strikers have been brought to ruin; I think this is the work of destiny, by which manly valor has been brought to naught.

7.127.25 Saṃjaya said: While they were conversing thus at length on this and that, O lord of men, the battalions of the Pāṇḍavas appeared before them in the fray.

7.127.26 Then began the battle, chariots and elephants locked together, between your men and their foes, O king, through your own ill counsel.

7.128.1 Saṃjaya said: That host of yours, O lord of men, with its surging flood of elephants and horses, rushed upon the army of the Pāṇḍavas and gave it battle on every side.

7.128.2 The Pāñcālas and the Kurus, fighting one another, were as men consecrated for the great realm of Yama, for the world beyond.

7.128.3 Heroes closing with heroes pierced one another swiftly in the fight with arrows, lances, and spears, and led each other to the abode of Yama.

7.128.4 Between car-warriors and car-warriors a great and terrible battle, streaming with blood, broke out as they struck one another down.

7.128.5 And the elephants, O great king, closing upon one another, enraged and frenzied with rut, gored each other with their tusks.

7.128.6 Horsemen pierced horsemen with darts, spears, and battle-axes in the tumultuous fight, each seeking great renown.

7.128.7 And the foot-soldiers, O mighty-armed one, by the hundreds, weapons in hand, harried one another, O king, ever intent upon valor.

7.128.8 By the names of their lineages and their families, O venerable one, heard upon the field, we knew the Pāñcālas apart from the Kurus.

7.128.9 In the fray the warriors, ranging about without fear, sent one another to the world beyond with arrows, spears, and battle-axes.

7.128.10 By the arrows loosed in their thousands, O king, the ten quarters of the sky, even after the sun had set, no longer shone as before.

7.128.11 While the Pāṇḍava warriors were thus fighting on, Duryodhana, undaunted, O great king, plunged into that host.

7.128.12 Sorely stricken with grief at the slaying of the lord of the Sindhus, and resolving that he too must die, he entered the army of the foe.

7.128.13 Making the air resound with the rumble of his chariot and seeming to shake the earth, your son advanced against the host of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.128.14 That tumultuous clash between him and them, O Bhārata, became a great wreaking of destruction upon all the troops.

7.128.15 As the noonday sun blazing with its rays, so blazed your son in their midst with his waves of arrows.

7.128.16 The Pāṇḍavas could not even look upon that descendant of Bharata in the fight; their spirit roused only to flight, they had lost all heart for victory over the foe.

7.128.17 The Pāñcālas, slaughtered by the great-souled one, ran about in flight; and harried swiftly by the gold-feathered, keen-pointed arrows of your son the bowman, the Pāṇḍava soldiers fell.

7.128.18 Not such a feat in battle did your men perform as the king, your son, performed, O lord of peoples.

7.128.19 By your son that Pāṇḍava army was churned in the battle, like a lotus-pool with its blooming lilies trampled on every side by an elephant.

7.128.20 Like a lotus-pond robbed of its splendor when its waters fail and the wind and sun assail it, so became the Pāṇḍava army through the fiery might of your son.

7.128.21 Seeing the Pāṇḍava army stricken by your son, O Bhārata, the Pāñcālas, with Bhīmasena at their head, rushed upon him.

7.128.22 He pierced Bhīmasena with ten arrows, the two sons of Mādrī with three each, Virāṭa and Drupada with six, and Śikhaṇḍin with a hundred.

7.128.23 And Dhṛṣṭadyumna with seventy, the son of Dharma with seven, and the Kekayas and the Cedis with many whetted arrows.

7.128.24 Having pierced the Sātvata with five, the sons of Draupadī with three each, and Ghaṭotkaca in the battle, he roared like a lion.

7.128.25 And other warriors by the hundreds, with their elephants, horses, and chariots, he cut down in the fight with cruel arrows, like wrathful Death cutting down living beings.

7.128.26 As he was striking down those foes, the eldest of the Pāṇḍavas cut his great gold-backed bow into three with two broad-headed shafts, O venerable one.

7.128.27 And he pierced him with ten well-aimed, sharpened arrows; but all of these, after piercing his vital parts, broke and fell to the ground.

7.128.28 Then the gladdened warriors gathered round Yudhiṣṭhira, as the gods gathered round Puraṃdara for the slaying of Vṛtra.

7.128.29 Then King Yudhiṣṭhira loosed at your son in the fray an arrow most hard to ward off, O venerable one; and grievously pierced by it, your son sank down upon his splendid chariot.

7.128.30 Then from the Pāñcāla troops there rose a great loud clamor on every side, O lord of kings, as they rejoiced, crying, 'The king is slain!'

7.128.31 And a fierce din of the twang of arrows was heard there, O venerable one; then Droṇa swiftly appeared upon that field.

7.128.32 And Duryodhana, heartened, taking up his stout bow, advanced upon King Yudhiṣṭhira the Pāṇḍava, crying, 'Stand, stand!'

7.128.33 The Pāñcālas, eager for the king, swiftly went out against him; but Droṇa received them, seeking to save the best of the Kurus, as the ray-shedding sun beats back clouds driven up by a fierce gale.

7.128.34 Then, O king, there was a great battle, swelling ever larger, between your men and their foes, all met together in their lust for combat.

7.129.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When the self-controlled preceptor, in his wrath, entered among the Pāṇḍavas, having justly rebuked my son Duryodhana for transgressing his counsel—

7.129.2 how did the Pāṇḍavas surround Droṇa, that mighty archer, the hero, as he ranged and stood firm in the battle he had entered?

7.129.3 Who guarded the right wheel of the great-souled preceptor, and who guarded the left, as he slew his foes in the fight?

7.129.4 Dancing along the chariot-paths, that foremost of all who bear arms, wrathful like a comet, how did he come to meet his death?

7.129.5 Saṃjaya said: In the late afternoon, having slain the lord of the Sindhus, the son of Pṛthā, joining the king, and Sātyaki, that great archer—the two rushed upon Droṇa himself.

7.129.6 Likewise Yudhiṣṭhira swiftly, and Bhīmasena the Pāṇḍava, each engaged with his own division, rushed upon Droṇa himself.

7.129.7 So too the wise Nakula and the unconquerable Sahadeva, Dhṛṣṭadyumna, Śatānīka, and Virāṭa with the Kekayas, the Matsyas and the Śālveya troops—all went against Droṇa in the fight.

7.129.8 And King Drupada too, guarded all about by the Pāñcālas, the father of Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O king, advanced upon Droṇa himself.

7.129.9 The sons of Draupadī, those mighty archers, and the Rākṣasa Ghaṭotkaca, together with their troops, advanced upon Droṇa of great splendor.

7.129.10 And the Prabhadraka Pāñcālas, six thousand strikers strong, advanced upon Droṇa, with Śikhaṇḍin set at their head.

7.129.11 So too the other tigers among men, the great car-warriors of the Pāṇḍavas, banded together and turned upon Droṇa, that bull among the twice-born.

7.129.12 When those heroes had gone forth to battle, O bull of the Bhāratas, there came on a dreadful night, deepening the terror of the timid.

7.129.13 For the warriors it was a baleful, terrible night, O king, bound for the abode of Death, making an end of the lives of elephants, horses, and men.

7.129.14 In that dreadful night the jackals, howling on every side with flaming gobbets in their mouths, gave warning of a terrible peril.

7.129.15 And owls too appeared, foretelling vast terror, most dire of all in the host of the Kauravas.

7.129.16 Then among the armies, O lord of kings, there arose a great din, with the mighty sound of kettledrums and the boom of tabors,

7.129.17 and with the trumpeting of elephants and the neighing of horses and the clatter of falling hooves, a tumult arose on every side.

7.129.18 Then in the twilight there broke out a most dreadful battle, O great king, between Droṇa and the Sṛñjayas on every hand.

7.129.19 When the world was wrapped in darkness, nothing whatever could be discerned, with the dust raised up on every side by the host.

7.129.20 The blood of man and horse and elephant ran mingled together; we could no longer see the dust of the earth, shrouded as it was by the gore.

7.129.21 As of a thicket of bamboo burning by night upon a mountain, so arose a fearful crackling sound from the weapons that fell.

7.129.22 Neither one's own men nor the foe could be told apart, O king, in that enveloping darkness; at the onset of night the whole field became as if maddened.

7.129.23 The dust of the earth, O lord of kings, was laid by the blood; but with the golden mail and ornaments the darkness was lit up.

7.129.24 Then that Bhārata host, adorned with gems and gold, was like the star-strewn sky by night, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.129.25 It rang with the cries of jackals and ravens, it was thronged with spears and banners, terrible with dreadful howls, resounding with roars and shouts.

7.129.26 Then there arose a great tumultuous uproar that made the hair stand on end, filling all the quarters, like the crash of mighty Indra's thunderbolt.

7.129.27 At midnight, O great king, that Bhārata army was seen lit up with armlets, earrings, golden necklaces, and weapons.

7.129.28 There the elephants and the chariots, decked with gold, appeared in the night like clouds shot through with lightning.

7.129.29 Swords, spears, maces, arrows, clubs, darts, and lances, as they fell in showers, were seen flashing like flames of fire.

7.129.30 With Duryodhana for its forewind, with chariots and elephants for its thunderheads, thundering with the blare of instruments, hung about with bows for lightning and with banners,

7.129.31 with Droṇa and the Pāṇḍavas for its rain-clouds, with swords, spears, and maces for its thunderbolts, with showers of arrows and missiles for its wind, fraught utterly with cold and heat—

7.129.32 that army—dreadful, astounding, fierce, life-severing, with no raft to cross it, most terrible—those who longed to fight entered in.

7.129.33 At that dreadful onset of night, resounding with a great uproar, that bred terror in the timid and swelled the joy of the brave—

7.129.34 As the dreadful night-battle raged on, terrible beyond measure, the Pāṇḍavas and the Sṛñjayas, united and enraged, rushed upon Droṇa.

7.129.35 Whoever, O king, came to oppose that great-souled one face to face, all of these he turned away routed, and some of them he dispatched to the realm of Yama.

7.130.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When that unassailable one of boundless might had plunged among the Sṛñjayas, impatient and roused to fury, what then was your resolve?

7.130.2 When that one of immeasurable spirit, having rebuked my son Duryodhana for transgressing the rules, had broken into the foe, how did Pārtha respond?

7.130.3 After the heroic ruler of the Saindhavas had been slain, and Bhūriśravas too, how did that one of great splendor, unconquered, advance against the Pāñcālas?

7.130.4 When that scorcher of foes, hard to assail, had broken in, what did Duryodhana think the fitting deed for the hour to be?

7.130.5 Which heroes followed that boon-granting warrior, best of the twice-born? Which heroes went behind that valiant one as he fought? Which fought before him as he struck down his enemies in battle?

7.130.6 I think, my lord, that all the Pāṇḍavas, tormented by the shafts of Bhāradvāja, were trembling like gaunt cattle in the winter cold.

7.130.7 Having broken into the Pāñcālas, that mighty archer, crusher of foes, that tiger among men—how then did he meet his dissolution?

7.130.8 When all the armies had clashed together, and in the night the great chariot-warriors had met and the varied hosts were thrown into turmoil, who among you then kept their wits about them?

7.130.9 You tell of my men—slain, beset, and overthrown, the chariot-warriors made chariotless in the fighting.

7.130.10 How then, Saṃjaya, did light come to these unflinching sons of Pṛthā there in the night, and how among the Kurus?

7.130.11 Saṃjaya said: As the night-battle raged on, O king, exceedingly terrible, the Pāṇḍavas with their soldiers rushed upon Droṇa in the dark.

7.130.12 Then Droṇa, with his swift-flying arrows, sent the Kekayas and the sons of Dhṛṣṭadyumna, every one of them, off to the realm of death.

7.130.13 Whatever great chariot-warriors stood before him, O king, all of these, descendant of Bharata, he sent to the world beyond.

7.130.14 Against that hero Bhāradvāja, the great chariot-warrior who was crushing all before him, the valorous Śibi, O king, advanced in wrath.

7.130.15 Beholding that great chariot-warrior of the Pāṇḍavas bearing down upon him, Droṇa pierced him with ten shafts all made of steel.

7.130.16 Śibi pierced him in return with thirty sharpened shafts, and smiling, with a broad-headed arrow, struck down his charioteer.

7.130.17 Then Droṇa, having slain the horses and the charioteer of that great-souled one, struck off his head, helmet and all, from his body.

7.130.18 Then the son of the Kaliṅga king, enraged at the earlier slaying of his father, charged upon Bhīmasena in battle with the army of the Kaliṅgas.

7.130.19 Having pierced Bhīma with five shafts, he wounded him again with seven, struck Viśoka with three, and his banner with a single feathered arrow.

7.130.20 But Vṛkodara, enraged, leaping from chariot to chariot, smote that enraged hero of the Kaliṅgas with his fist.

7.130.21 Struck in battle by the fist of the mighty Pāṇḍava, all his bones at once fell apart, each from the other.

7.130.22 Karṇa and that one's brothers, the great chariot-warriors, could not bear this; they struck Bhīmasena with iron shafts like venomous serpents.

7.130.23 Then Bhīma, abandoning the enemy's chariot, sprang to Dhruva's car, and crushed with his fist Dhruva, who was loosing shafts without pause; thus struck down by the mighty son of Pāṇḍu, he fell.

7.130.24 Having slain him, O great king, the mighty Bhīmasena reached the chariot of Jayarāta and roared again and again like a lion.

7.130.25 Seizing Jayarāta then, roaring, with the flat of his left hand he destroyed him as he stood there before the very eyes of Karṇa.

7.130.26 Karṇa then hurled a golden javelin at the Pāṇḍava, but the son of Pāṇḍu, laughing, caught that very weapon.

7.130.27 And the unassailable Vṛkodara flung it back at Karṇa in the fray, but Śakuni cut it down in mid-air with an oil-honed shaft.

7.130.28 Then your sons, O king, advanced upon Bhīma's chariot, covering Vṛkodara with a mighty rain of arrows.

7.130.29 Then Bhīma, as if laughing in the combat, dispatched Durmada's charioteer and horses to the realm of Yama with his shafts; whereupon Durmada leapt onto the car of Duṣkarṇa.

7.130.30 Those two brothers, scorchers of foes, mounted upon a single chariot, both charged at Bhīma in the midst of the battle's van, as two friends of the lord of waters might charge Tāraka, foremost of the Daityas.

7.130.31 Then Durmada and Duṣkarṇa, your two sons, mounting upon a single chariot, pierced Bhīma with their arrows.

7.130.32 Then, before the watching eyes of Karṇa, of Drauṇi, of Duryodhana, of Kṛpa, of Somadatta, and of Bāhlika, the Pāṇḍava—

7.130.33 —that tamer of foes drove the chariot of the heroes Durmada and Duṣkarṇa into the earth with a single stamp of his foot.

7.130.34 Then, enraged, he struck your two mighty, valiant sons Duṣkarṇa and Durmada with his fist and ground them down beneath his foot.

7.130.35 Then, as a cry of horror rose from the army, the kings, beholding Bhīma, said: "This is Rudra in the guise of Bhīma, hungering after the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra."

7.130.36 Having said this, O descendant of Bharata, all the kings fled; senseless with fear, they drove their mounts, and no two of them ran together.

7.130.37 Then, when the host had been grievously shattered at the onset of night, the mighty Vṛkodara, honored by the bulls among kings, his eyes wide as opened lotuses, in his strength paid homage to King Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.130.38 Then the twins, Drupada, Virāṭa, the Kekayas, and Yudhiṣṭhira as well attained supreme delight, and they did high honor to Vṛkodara, as the gods honored Hara when Andhaka was slain.

7.130.39 Then your sons, peers of the son of Varuṇa, filled with fury, together with their great-souled preceptor, eager to fight, with chariots, foot-soldiers, and elephants, closely beset Vṛkodara on every side.

7.130.40 Then, as if enveloped in dense darkness, amid great terror, fear-inspiring and exceedingly grim at the onset of night, came the gladdening feast of jackals, wolves, and vultures—the wondrous battle of the great-souled foremost of kings.

7.131.1 Saṃjaya said: When his son, who had sat down to die by fasting, had been slain by Sātyaki, Somadatta, greatly enraged, spoke these words to Sātyaki:

7.131.2 "The duty of the warrior, ordained of old by the great-souled gods—abandoning that, O Sātvata, how is it you delight in the way of brigands?

7.131.3 How could a wise man, devoted to the warrior's law, strike in battle one who has turned away, who is helpless, who has laid down his arms and begs for mercy?

7.131.4 Two only among the Vṛṣṇis, they say, are renowned as great chariot-warriors—the mighty-armed Pradyumna and you, O Sātvata, in battle.

7.131.5 How could you commit so cruel and degrading a deed against one whose arm Pārtha had severed and who had sat down to die by fasting?

7.131.6 I swear, O Sātvata, by my two sons, by my sacrifices and good deeds, that before this night is over—if I fail to slay you who fancy yourself a hero—

7.131.7 —unguarded by the victorious Pārtha, together with your sons and younger brothers, O disgrace of the Vṛṣṇis, then may I fall into a dreadful hell."

7.131.8 Having spoken thus, the mighty Somadatta, in great wrath, blew his conch with a piercing blast and roared a lion's roar.

7.131.9 Then the lotus-petal-eyed, lion-toothed, mighty Sātvata, greatly enraged, said this to Somadatta:

7.131.10 "Slain is the hero Bhūriśravas, your son, the great chariot-warrior, and Śala too, O king, worn down by grief for his brother's ruin.

7.131.11 You too I shall slay this day, together with your sons, your cattle, and your kin. Stand fast now in battle, on your guard—you are a Kaurava above all others.

7.131.12 In King Yudhiṣṭhira, charity, self-restraint, purity, non-violence, modesty, firmness, and forbearance—all these dwell forever and never depart.

7.131.13 By the splendor of him whose banner bears the drum, you have already been slain of old; with Karṇa and the son of Subala, you shall meet your destruction in battle."

7.131.14 "I swear by the feet of Kṛṣṇa and by all my sacred works—if, roused to fury in battle, I do not slay you, you wretch, together with your son. But if you flee and quit the field, then you shall go free."

7.131.15 Having thus addressed each other, their eyes red with wrath, those two best of men set to work to hurl their shafts together.

7.131.16 Then Duryodhana, with a thousand elephants and ten thousand chariots, took his stand, surrounding Somadatta.

7.131.17 And Śakuni, greatly enraged, foremost of all bearers of weapons, your mighty-armed young brother-in-law, hard as the thunderbolt, surrounded by sons and grandsons and brothers of Indra's prowess—

7.131.18 —with fully a hundred thousand horse, that wise one guarded the mighty archer Somadatta on every side.

7.131.19 Guarded by the mighty, he covered Sātyaki with his shafts; and seeing him overwhelmed by the smooth-jointed arrows, Dhṛṣṭadyumna in wrath advanced, taking with him a great host.

7.131.20 Like the roar of oceans lashed by a furious gale, O king, was the din of those floods of warriors striking down one another.

7.131.21 Somadatta pierced the Sātvata with nine shafts, and Sātyaki struck that bull of the Kurus with ten.

7.131.22 Deeply wounded in battle by that strong, firm-bowed warrior, he sank down upon the floor of his chariot and swooned, his senses gone.

7.131.23 Seeing him fallen senseless, his charioteer, moving with all speed, bore the hero Somadatta, that great chariot-warrior, away from the field.

7.131.24 Beholding the Sātvata senseless and tormented by Yuyudhāna's shafts, Drauṇi in wrath charged upon him at the battle's head.

7.131.25 Seeing him bearing down upon Śaineya's chariot, the son of Bhīmasena, greatly enraged, held off the foe.

7.131.26 Terrible, wrought of black iron, vast, draped with bear-skin, yoked to mounts that resembled elephants but were neither horses nor elephants—

7.131.27 —set upon eight creaking wheels with gaping axles, gleaming with a banner that bore a vulture-king with uplifted beak—

7.131.28 —mounting that great chariot with its blood-wet banner, adorned with garlands of entrails and fitted with eight wheels—

7.131.29 —surrounded by a whole army of Rākṣasas of dreadful form, bearing spears and maces, wielding crags and trees in their hands—

7.131.30 —beholding him with his great bow uplifted, the kings were dismayed, as though at the close of an age they saw Death himself, staff in hand.

7.131.31 Tormented by fear, your son's army was thrown into turmoil, like the Gaṅgā with her waves running high, her eddies churned up by the wind.

7.131.32 Terrified by the lion's roar that Ghaṭotkaca raised, the elephants let flow their urine, and the men were sorely shaken.

7.131.33 Then a great rain of stones fell there on every side over the earth, hurled by the Rākṣasas whose strength swells at the hour of twilight.

7.131.34 And iron discs, bhuśuṇḍis, javelins and lances, spears, śataghnīs, and battle-axes too fell thick and unbroken.

7.131.35 Seeing that fierce and exceedingly savage battle, the lords of men, your sons, and Karṇa, shaken, fled in all directions.

7.131.36 There alone the proud Drauṇi, glorying in the might of his weapons, was not shaken, and with his shafts he scattered the illusion wrought by Ghaṭotkaca.

7.131.37 When his illusion was destroyed, the wrathful Ghaṭotkaca let fly dreadful shafts, and they fell upon Aśvatthāman.

7.131.38 Like serpents frenzied with rage rushing into an anthill, those swift, gold-feathered, stone-whetted shafts, smeared with blood, pierced the son of Śāradvatī and plunged into the earth.

7.131.39 But Aśvatthāman, enraged, nimble of hand and full of majesty, pierced the furious Ghaṭotkaca with ten arrows.

7.131.40 Ghaṭotkaca, struck deep in his vital parts by Droṇa's son and sorely pained, seized a discus fitted with a hundred thousand spokes.

7.131.41 Its rim keen as a razor, gleaming like the rising sun and adorned with gems and diamonds, the son of Bhīmasena hurled it at Aśvatthāman, eager to slay him.

7.131.42 Speeding on with mighty force, it was deflected by Droṇa's son with his arrows; like the resolve of a luckless man, it fell to the ground in vain.

7.131.43 Then Ghaṭotkaca, seeing the discus struck down, swiftly covered Droṇa's son with arrows, as Svarbhānu covers the sun.

7.131.44 The glorious son of Ghaṭotkaca, like a heap of broken collyrium, blocked the advancing son of Droṇa as a king of mountains withstands the storm-wind.

7.131.45 Assailed by the arrows of Bhīmasena's grandson, Añjanaparvan, he shone like Mount Meru tormented by the torrents of a cloud.

7.131.46 But Aśvatthāman, unshaken, with the valor of Rudra, Upendra, and Indra, severed the banner of Añjanaparvan with a single arrow.

7.131.47 With two he felled the charioteer, with three the triple shaft of the car; with one he cut his bow, and with four he slew his four horses.

7.131.48 As the carless warrior raised in his hand a sword studded with golden drops, with a keen-pointed shaft he clove it in two.

7.131.49 A mace banded with gold, O king, was swiftly whirled aloft and flung by Haiḍimba's son; but it too, struck by the arrows of Droṇa's son, fell.

7.131.50 Then, springing into the sky and roaring like a cloud of doom, Añjanaparvan rained down a shower of trees from the vault of heaven.

7.131.51 Then Droṇa's son pierced the illusion-wielding son of Ghaṭotkaca in the sky with his shafts, as the sun pierces a cloud with its rays.

7.131.52 Descending, he again took his stand upon his gold-wrought car, the glorious Añjanaparvan, lofty as a mountain.

7.131.53 Droṇa's son slew that Añjanaparvan, the grandson of Bhīma, clad in iron mail, as Maheśvara slew Andhaka.

7.131.54 Then, seeing his mighty son slain by Aśvatthāman, he came near to Droṇa's son, his armlets trembling with rage.

7.131.55 Unflinching, he spoke these words to the hero, the son of Śāradvatī's daughter, who was consuming the Pāṇḍava host like a raging fire a forest:

7.131.56 "Stay, stay! You shall not depart alive from me, O son of Droṇa. This day I shall slay you as the fire-god's son slew Krauñca."

7.131.57 Aśvatthāman said: "Go, child, and fight with the others, you whose valor is that of the immortals; for it is not fitting, O son of Haiḍimbā, that a father be assailed by a son."

7.131.58 "Truly I bear no wrath toward you, O son of Haiḍimbā; yet a creature filled with rage may slay even his own self."

7.131.59 Saṃjaya said: Hearing this, his eyes coppery with anger and stricken with grief for his son, the son of Bhīmasena, sorely vexed, addressed Aśvatthāman:

7.131.60 "Am I a coward, O son of Droṇa, like a common man in battle? Indeed I am sprung from Bhīma, in the vast lineage of the Kurus."

7.131.61 "I am a son of the Pāṇḍavas, who never turn back in battle; I am overlord of the rākṣasas, equal in strength to the ten-necked one."

7.131.62 "Stay, stay! You shall not depart alive from me, O son of Droṇa. This day I shall drive out your lust for battle on the field of war."

7.131.63 Having spoken thus, his eyes coppery with rage, the rākṣasa of mighty strength rushed in fury upon Droṇa's son, as a lion upon a lordly elephant.

7.131.64 Ghaṭotkaca rained upon Droṇa's son, the bull among chariot-warriors, arrows as large as chariot-axles, as a raincloud pours down its torrents.

7.131.65 Droṇa's son shattered that shower of arrows with his own arrows before it reached him; then in mid-air there arose, as it were, another battle of shafts.

7.131.66 Then with the sparks struck out by the clashing of weapons, the sky at the threshold of night gleamed as though painted bright with fireflies.

7.131.67 Seeing his illusion destroyed by the battle-proud son of Droṇa, Ghaṭotkaca then, vanishing once more, conjured up another illusion.

7.131.68 He became a towering mountain, its peaks dense with trees, vast, streaming with cascades of spears, javelins, swords, and clubs.

7.131.69 Seeing that mountain, dark as a heap of collyrium, and the many masses of weapons falling from it, Droṇa's son was not shaken.

7.131.70 Then Droṇa's son, smiling as it were, sent forth the thunderbolt weapon; struck by that weapon, the king of mountains swiftly vanished.

7.131.71 Then, becoming a dark raincloud arched with the rainbow in the sky, most fierce, he covered Droṇa's son in battle with showers of stones.

7.131.72 Then the son of Droṇa, foremost of those who know weapons, fitting the wind-weapon to his bow, scattered the dark cloud that had risen up.

7.131.73 Droṇa's son, that best of men, covering all the quarters on every side with his hosts of arrows, slew a hundred thousand chariots.

7.131.74 He saw Ghaṭotkaca coming again on his car, his bow drawn wide, undaunted, surrounded by many rākṣasas —

7.131.75 like lions and tigers, with the prowess of rutting elephants, mounted on elephants, on chariots, and on the backs of horses,

7.131.76 their mouths, heads, and necks gaping wide — together with the followers of Haiḍimbā, with Paulastya demons and dark-natured fiends of fierce valor.

7.131.77 with heroes bearing weapons of every kind, decked in armor of every kind, mighty in strength, terrible of cry, their eyes rolling in fury.

7.131.78 Then, beholding your son disheartened at the rākṣasas, frenzied for battle, drawn up for the fight, Droṇa's son said:

7.131.79 "Stand firm, Duryodhana, this day, and let no agitation be felt by you, together with these heroic brothers and these kings of Indra's valor."

7.131.80 "I shall slay your foes; there is no defeat for you. Truly I promise you this — reassure your army."

7.131.81 Duryodhana said: "I think it no wonder that this mind of yours is so great, and that your devotion to us is supreme, O joy of Gautama's line."

7.131.82 Saṃjaya said: Having thus addressed Aśvatthāman, he then spoke to Subala's son, encircled by a hundred thousand chariots that graced the battlefield:

7.131.83 "With sixty thousand elephants go forth against Dhanaṃjaya — Karṇa and Vṛṣasena and Kṛpa and Nīla as well,"

7.131.84 "the Northerners and Kṛtavarman, Purumitra, Śrutārpaṇa, Duḥśāsana and Nikumbha, Kuṇḍabhedin, Urukrama,"

7.131.85 "Puraṃjaya, Dṛḍharatha, Patākin, Hemapaṅkaja, Śalya, Aruṇi, and Indrasena, Saṃjaya, Vijaya, Jaya,"

7.131.86 "Kamalākṣa, Pūru, Krāthin, Jayavarman, Sudarśana — these shall follow you, with sixty thousand foot-soldiers."

7.131.87 "Slay Bhīma and both the twins and the King of Righteousness, O uncle, as the lord of the gods slew the asuras; my hope of victory rests in you."

7.131.88 "Slay the sons of Kuntī, O uncle, torn by the arrows of Droṇa's son and grievously wounded in body, as the fire-god's son slew the asuras."

7.131.89 Thus addressed by your son, Subala's son went forth swiftly, eager to please your sons, O king, and longing to burn up the Pāṇḍavas.

7.131.90 Then in the night the battle between Droṇa's son and the rākṣasa grew most tumultuous on the field, like that between Śakra and Prahrāda.

7.131.91 Then Ghaṭotkaca, enraged, struck the son of Gautamī in the chest with ten firm arrows, like venom and fire.

7.131.92 Struck hard by those arrows loosed by Bhīma's son, he reeled as he stood in the midst of his car, like a tree shaken by the wind.

7.131.93 And again, with an añjalika shaft, Ghaṭotkaca swiftly cut the bright bow that rested in the hand of Droṇa's son.

7.131.94 Then Droṇa's son, taking up another great bow that could bear the strain, rained down sharp shafts as a raincloud pours its torrents.

7.131.95 Then the son of Śāradvatī's daughter, O Bhārata, sent forth foe-destroying, gold-feathered, sky-ranging shafts against the sky-rangers.

7.131.96 That troop of broad-chested rākṣasas, tormented by his arrows, appeared like a frenzied herd of elephants thrown into disarray by lions.

7.131.97 Scattering the rākṣasas with their horses, drivers, and cars, the mighty one consumed them as the blessed Fire consumes all beings at the world's end.

7.131.98 Having burned with his arrows a whole akṣauhiṇī of the night-roving demons, he shone resplendent, as of old the god Maheśvara shone in heaven when he burned Tripura.

7.131.99 Like the fierce Fire that has burned up all beings at the end of an age, Droṇa's son, best of the victorious, shone forth, having burned your foes.

7.131.100 Among those thousands of kings on the Pāṇḍava side, O Bhārata, none could so much as look upon Droṇa's son in battle, save the hero Ghaṭotkaca, the mighty lord of the rākṣasas.

7.131.101 He once more, O best of the Bhāratas, his eyes red-cornered with wrath, clapping palm against palm and biting his lip, said in fury to his charioteer, "Bear me toward the son of Droṇa."

7.131.102 On that car of dreadful form, bannered with victory-pennons, the slayer of foes went forth once more to single combat with the son of Droṇa.

7.131.103 Then the rākṣasa in his fury hurled at the son of Droṇa a thunderbolt of dreadful might, eight-wheeled and fashioned by Rudra.

7.131.104 Droṇa's son, leaping down and laying his bow upon the car, caught it, and flung it back; whereupon the rākṣasa sprang from his own chariot.

7.131.105 Reducing the car with its horses, driver, and banner to ashes, that thunderbolt of great splendor and dreadful fierceness clove the earth and entered it.

7.131.106 Beholding that deed of Droṇa's son — how, leaping down, he had caught the dreadful weapon fashioned by Śaṃkara — all beings did him honor.

7.131.107 Then, O king, the son of Bhīmasena, going to the car of Dhṛṣṭadyumna, loosed sharp arrows once again into the broad chest of Droṇa's son.

7.131.108 Dhṛṣṭadyumna too, undaunted, loosed gold-feathered shafts like serpents' venom into the breast of Droṇa's son.

7.131.109 Then Droṇa's son loosed iron shafts by the thousand against those two; and they in turn struck down his arrows with shafts bright as tongues of flame.

7.131.110 Most fierce grew the battle between those two lions among men and Droṇa's son, O bull of the Bhāratas, gladdening the hearts of the warriors.

7.131.111 Then with a thousand chariots, three hundred elephants, and six thousand horses, Bhīma came to that place.

7.131.112 Then the righteous son of Droṇa, untiring in his deeds, gave battle to Bhīma's son the rākṣasa and to Dhṛṣṭadyumna with his followers.

7.131.113 There Droṇa's son displayed a most wondrous valor, such as could not be matched by any other among all beings, O Bhārata.

7.131.114 In the mere span between two blinks of an eye, with his sharp arrows he laid low a whole akṣauhiṇī of rākṣasas, with their horses, drivers, cars, and elephants.

7.131.115 Before the very eyes of Bhīmasena, of Haiḍimbā's son, of Pārṣata, of the twins, of the son of Dharma, of Vijaya, and of Acyuta.

7.131.116 Smitten deep by straight-flying iron shafts, the elephants fell to the earth like twin-peaked mountains.

7.131.117 With elephants' trunks cut off and writhing here and there, the earth, strewn with them, gleamed as though with crawling serpents.

7.131.118 With royal parasols on golden staves flung down, the earth shone like the sky strewn with planets, the moon and sun risen together at the dissolution of an age.

7.131.119 Its frogs were the upreared standards, its broad turtles the kettledrums; it was thronged with rows of swans that were the parasols, and garlanded with foam that was the yak-tail whisks.

7.131.120 Its great crocodiles were herons and vultures, and it teemed with fish that were the manifold weapons; chariots flung up were its high banks, and its lovely trees were the bright pennons.

7.131.121 Most terrible it was, with arrows for its small fish and lances and spears for its fierce water-snakes; marrow and flesh were its deep mire, and headless trunks the boats adrift upon it.

7.131.122 Dappled with hair for its waterweed, it brought faintness upon the timid; it had its rise in the wasting of the bodies of great elephants, of horses, and of warriors.

7.131.123 Droṇa's son set flowing this river, whose mighty current was a flood of blood, whose roar was the anguished cry of warriors, and which surged with waves of gore.

7.131.124 It coursed onward into the most fearful great ocean that is Yama's abode; and having slain the rākṣasas with his arrows, Droṇa's son fell to tormenting the son of Hiḍimbā.

7.131.125 Then once more, in towering wrath, the mighty son of Droṇa pierced the sons of Pṛthā together with Vṛkodara and the grandson of Pṛṣata, smiting them with showers of iron shafts.

7.131.126 The lordly warrior slew Drupada's son named Suratha, and then in battle Śrutaṃjaya, the younger brother of Suratha.

7.131.127 Balānīka, Jayānīka, and Jayāśva he struck down; and Śrutāhvaya too, O king of kings, the son of Droṇa dispatched to Yama's realm.

7.131.128 And with three other keen, well-feathered shafts he led the mighty Śatruṃjaya, garlanded in gold, into the world of Indra.

7.131.129 He slew Pṛṣadhra and the proud Candradeva, and the sons of Kuntibhoja in that battle he killed, ten of them with ten shafts.

7.131.130 Then Aśvatthāman, in mighty wrath, fitting a dreadful straight-flying shaft, drew the bow to his ear and loosed that surpassing arrow, terrible as the rod of Yama, swiftly aimed at Ghaṭotkaca.

7.131.131 That great arrow, cleaving the heart of the rākṣasa, swiftly entered the earth, feathers and all, O lord of the world.

7.131.132 Knowing him slain and fallen, the great chariot-warrior Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O king of kings, bore him away upon another chariot from the presence of Droṇa's son.

7.131.133 And so, O king, having routed in battle the army of Yudhiṣṭhira until its chariots turned their backs, the heroic son of Droṇa roared aloud, honored by all beings and by your sons, O Bhārata.

7.131.134 Then with the night-rangers slain and fallen on every side, their bodies riven and hacked by hundreds of arrows, the earth was made impassable and most terrible, as though heaped with mountain peaks of the dead.

7.131.135 The hosts of siddhas, gandharvas, and piśācas, the nāgas, the suparṇas, the ancestors, and the birds, the throngs of rākṣasas and the multitudes of spirits, the apsarases and the gods—all honored that son of Droṇa.

7.132.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing the sons of Drupada and the sons of Kuntibhoja, and rākṣasas by the thousand, slain by the son of Droṇa—

7.132.2 Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīmasena, Dhṛṣṭadyumna the grandson of Pṛṣata, and Yuyudhāna, girding themselves, set their minds firmly upon battle.

7.132.3 Somadatta, enraged once more at the sight of Sātyaki in the fray, covered him on every side with a mighty rain of arrows.

7.132.4 Then there arose a battle exceedingly dreadful and terror-breeding, between your men and the foe, all of them hungering for victory.

7.132.5 For the sake of the Sātvata, Bhīma pierced the Kaurava with ten shafts; and Somadatta in turn struck that hero with a hundred.

7.132.6 But the Sātvata, mightily enraged, pierced him—aged, yet rich in every virtue like Yayāti the son of Nahuṣa, and overwhelmed with grief for his sons—

7.132.7 —he pierced him with ten keen shafts that fell like thunderbolts, and striking him with a spear besides, pierced him again with seven.

7.132.8 Then, for the sake of Sātyaki, Bhīmasena hurled at the head of Somadatta a fresh and sturdy iron-bound mace, terrible to behold.

7.132.9 And Sātyaki in his wrath loosed at Somadatta's breast a surpassing shaft, fair-feathered and whetted, blazing like fire in the fight.

7.132.10 At one and the same moment the dread mace and the arrow fell upon the body of Somadatta, and that great chariot-warrior dropped down.

7.132.11 When his son was struck senseless, Bāhlika rushed forward, pouring down floods of arrows like a cloud raining at the appointed season.

7.132.12 Then Bhīma, for the sake of the Sātvata, sorely pressing the great-souled Bāhlika with nine shafts, pierced him at the forefront of the battle.

7.132.13 But the son of Pratīpa, enraged, that mighty-armed one, drove a spear into Bhīma's breast as Purandara hurls the thunderbolt.

7.132.14 Struck by it, Bhīma trembled and swooned; but regaining his senses, the strong one hurled his mace at him.

7.132.15 Sped by the Pāṇḍava, it carried off Bāhlika's head; and slain, he fell to the earth like a great mountain shattered by the thunderbolt.

7.132.16 When that hero Bāhlika, that bull among men, was slain, ten of your sons, the equals of the son of Daśaratha, assailed Bhīma.

7.132.17 Slaying those sons of yours with ten iron shafts, Bhīma then overwhelmed Vṛṣasena, the beloved son of Karṇa.

7.132.18 Then Vṛṣaratha, a renowned brother of Karṇa, struck Bhīma with iron shafts; and him too the mighty one slew.

7.132.19 Then the hero Bhīma, having slain with his iron shafts seven chariot-warriors among your brothers-in-law, O Bhārata, crushed Śatacandra.

7.132.20 Unable to brook the slaying of the great chariot-warrior Śatacandra, the heroic brothers of Śakuni—Gajākṣa, Śarabha, and Vibhu—rushed upon Bhīmasena and smote him with keen shafts.

7.132.21 Galled by their iron shafts, like a bull beneath the rushing rain, the exceedingly strong Bhīma slew those five chariot-warriors with five arrows; and seeing those heroes slain, the foremost of kings wavered.

7.132.22 Then Yudhiṣṭhira in his wrath shattered your host, before the very eyes of the pitcher-born Droṇa and of your sons, O sinless one.

7.132.23 The Ambaṣṭhas, the Mālavas, the valiant Trigartas, and the Śibis as well—these troops Yudhiṣṭhira sent off in battle to the world of Death.

7.132.24 Cutting down the Abhīṣāhas, the Śūrasenas, the Bāhlīkas, and the Vasātis, the king made the earth a mire of blood.

7.132.25 The valiant troops of the Yaudheyas, the Āraṭṭas, the Rājanyas, and the Madrakas—these Yudhiṣṭhira sent off in battle with his arrows to the world of Death.

7.132.26 "Strike! Seize him! Take him! Pierce him! Cut him down!"—such was the tumultuous clamor that rose about the chariot of Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.132.27 Seeing Yudhiṣṭhira routing the troops, Droṇa, urged on by your son, overwhelmed him with arrows.

7.132.28 Droṇa, in supreme wrath, pierced the king with the missile of Vāyu; but the other foiled that celestial weapon with a weapon of his own.

7.132.29 That weapon foiled, the son of Bharadvāja, in supreme wrath and bent on slaying the son of Pāṇḍu, hurled at Yudhiṣṭhira the missiles of Varuṇa, of Yama, of Agni, of Tvaṣṭṛ, and of Savitṛ.

7.132.30 Those weapons, hurled and being hurled, the mighty-armed son of Dharma, unshaken before the pitcher-born one, struck down with weapons of his own.

7.132.31 But wishing to make good his vow, the pitcher-born one, intent upon your sons' welfare and bent on slaying the son of Dharma, brought forth the Aindra weapon and that of Prajāpati, O Bhārata.

7.132.32 The lord of the Kurus, moving with the gait of elephant and lion, broad of chest, large and red of eye, undiminished in splendor, brought forth another weapon, the missile of great Indra, and therewith destroyed those two weapons of his.

7.132.33 His weapons being thwarted, Droṇa, filled with wrath and longing to slay Yudhiṣṭhira, raised up the Brāhma weapon.

7.132.34 Then I could perceive nothing at all, for a dreadful darkness shrouded everything, and all beings were seized with utmost terror, O lord of the earth.

7.132.35 Seeing the weapon of Brahmā raised aloft, Yudhiṣṭhira the son of Kuntī warded off that weapon with the weapon of Brahmā itself, O king of kings.

7.132.36 Then the chief warriors praised those two bulls among men, Droṇa and the son of Pṛthā, great archers both, skilled in every mode of warfare.

7.132.37 Then, leaving aside the son of Kuntī, Droṇa, his eyes red with rage, scattered Drupada's host with the missile of Vāyu, O Bhārata.

7.132.38 Smitten by Droṇa, the Pāñcālas fled in terror, before the very eyes of Bhīmasena and the great-souled son of Pṛthā.

7.132.39 Then the Diademed one and Bhīma swiftly turned back, hemming in your army with two great lines of chariots.

7.132.40 Bībhatsu on the right flank, and Vṛkodara on the left, rained down upon the son of Bharadvāja with two mighty floods of arrows.

7.132.41 Then the Sṛñjayas and the mighty Pāñcālas followed those two, O great king, and the Matsyas together with the Sātvatas.

7.132.42 Then that Bhārata army, being slaughtered by the Diademed one, could not be held back—though Droṇa himself and your son strove to restrain them, the warriors could not then be checked, O great king.

7.133.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing that mighty host of the Pāṇḍavas surging up, and deeming it irresistible, Duryodhana spoke to Karṇa.

7.133.2 "The hour has come, O lover of your friends, the hour of friends; save in battle all our warriors, O mighty Karṇa,

7.133.3 —beset on every side by the Pāñcālas, the Matsyas, the Kaikeyas, and the great chariot-warriors among the Pāṇḍavas, all enraged and hissing like serpents.

7.133.4 These Pāṇḍavas roar in their exultation, flushed with the look of victory, and many a host of Pāñcāla chariots besides, each rival to Indra."

7.133.5 Karṇa said: "Even if Purandara himself should come hither to rescue the son of Pṛthā, swiftly vanquishing him too, I shall thereafter slay the Pāṇḍava.

7.133.6 Truly I promise you—take heart, O Bhārata—I shall slay the sons of Pāṇḍu and the Pāñcālas gathered against us.

7.133.7 I promise you victory, as the son of Agni promised it to Vāsava; for I live, O king, only that your good may be wrought by me.

7.133.8 Of all the sons of Pṛthā, Phalguna is the strongest; against him I shall loose the unfailing spear fashioned by Śakra.

7.133.9 When that great archer is slain, his brothers, O giver of honor, will fall under your sway, or else go once more to the forest."

7.133.10 "While I live, O Kaurava, nowhere give way to despair; I shall conquer in battle all the Pāṇḍavas together,

7.133.11 —and the Pāñcālas, the Kekayas, and the Vṛṣṇis assembled too; shattering them to fragments with floods of arrows, I shall give you the earth."

7.133.12 Saṃjaya said: To Karṇa, speaking thus, the mighty-armed Kṛpa, son of Śaradvat, replied, smiling as it were, in these words to the charioteer's son:

7.133.13 "Fine, fine, Karṇa! With you for protector, the bull of the Kurus has indeed found a protector—O Rādheya, if only it could be accomplished by words!

7.133.14 Many a time, Karṇa, you boast in the presence of the Kaurava; yet no prowess of yours is anywhere to be seen, nor any strength.

7.133.15 Your encounters with the sons of Pāṇḍu have been seen many times in battle, and everywhere you have been vanquished by the Pāṇḍavas, O son of a charioteer.

7.133.16 When the son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra was being carried off by the gandharvas, Karṇa, the armies fought on, but you alone took to flight.

7.133.17 And in the city of Virāṭa too, all the Kauravas gathered together were vanquished in battle by the son of Pṛthā—you as well, Karṇa, together with your brothers.

7.133.18 Unequal as you are even to Phalguna alone on the field of battle, how do you presume to conquer all the Pāṇḍavas together with Kṛṣṇa?

7.133.19 Fight without speaking, Karṇa; you boast overmuch, son of a charioteer. To show valor rather than proclaim it—that is the vow of the good.

7.133.20 Having thundered like an autumn cloud that holds no water, you are seen, Karṇa, to come to nothing, O son of a charioteer—and this the king does not perceive.

7.133.21 You thunder, Rādheya, only so long as you do not behold the son of Pṛthā; once you have seen him before you, that thundering of yours will be hard to come by."

7.133.22 You roar because you have not yet met the arrows of Phalguna; once you are pierced by Pārtha's shafts, your roaring will be hard to come by.

7.133.23 Kṣatriyas are valiant with their arms, the twice-born are valiant with their words; Phalguna is valiant with his bow, but Karṇa is valiant only in his daydreams.

7.133.24 Thus harshly upbraided by Śāradvata, Karṇa, the foremost of those who strike, then spoke these words to Kṛpa.

7.133.25 Heroes ever roar, like the storm clouds in the rains; and swiftly they yield their fruit, as seed sown in its season.

7.133.26 I see no fault in this — that heroes, at the head of battle, should boast in one way or another while they bear up the burden of the fight.

7.133.27 Whatever burden a man resolves in his mind to carry, fate surely comes to his aid in that undertaking.

7.133.28 If I, having resolve for my companion, bear up the burden in my mind and roar, O brahmin, what of yours is lost thereby?

7.133.29 Heroes do not roar in vain, like rain clouds laden with water; the wise roar only after knowing their own strength.

7.133.30 And so today, braced for battle, I am eager to conquer by my swiftness both Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍava united; that is why I roar, O Gautama.

7.133.31 Behold, O brahmin, with your followers, the fruit of this roaring of mine: having slain the sons of Pāṇḍu in battle, together with Kṛṣṇa and the Sātvatas, I shall give to Duryodhana an earth cleansed of its thorns.

7.133.32 Kṛpa said: I cannot accept this babbling of your daydreams, O son of a sūta, when you would hurl yourself against the two Kṛṣṇas and the Pāṇḍava, the King of Righteousness.

7.133.33 There victory is certain, Karṇa, where stand those two masters of war; even when arrayed for battle, the two Kṛṣṇas and the Pāṇḍava are unconquerable by gods, gandharvas, yakṣas, men, serpents, and rākṣasas.

7.133.34 Devoted to the brahmins, truthful in speech, self-controlled, a worshipper of teachers and gods, ever delighting in dharma, and above all skilled in arms, steadfast and grateful — such is Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Dharma.

7.133.35 And his brothers are mighty, practised in every weapon, devoted to the service of their elders, wise, ever true to dharma, and renowned.

7.133.36 Their kinsmen too are valiant as Indra, loyal, and skilled in striking — Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Śikhaṇḍin, the son of Durmukha, and Janamejaya;

7.133.37 Candrasena, Bhadrasena, Kīrtidharman, Dhruva, Dhara, Vasucandra, Dāmacandra, Siṃhacandra, and Suvedhana;

7.133.38 and likewise the sons of Drupada, and Drupada himself, knower of the great weapons, for whose cause the king of the Matsyas with his followers stands ready;

7.133.39 Śatānīka, Sudarśana, Śrutānīka, Śrutadhvaja, Balānīka, Jayānīka, Jayāśva, and Rathavāhana;

7.133.40 Candrodaya and Kāmaratha, the noble brothers of Virāṭa, the twins, the sons of Draupadī, and the rākṣasa Ghaṭotkaca — for those in whose cause these fight, there is no destruction.

7.133.41 Truly, if they wished, Bhīma and Phalguna could by the power of their weapons make an utter end of the whole world — with its gods, asuras, and men, its hosts of yakṣas and rākṣasas, its spirits, serpents, and elephants.

7.133.42 And Yudhiṣṭhira could burn up the earth with his terrible glance; while Śauri of immeasurable strength stands armed for their cause — how then, Karṇa, do you presume to conquer those foes in battle?

7.133.43 This is ever a great folly of yours, O son of a sūta — that you should presume to fight in battle against Śauri.

7.133.44 Saṃjaya said: Thus addressed, O bull of the Bhāratas, the son of Rādhā laughed aloud, and then Karṇa spoke to the teacher, Kṛpa the son of Śaradvat.

7.133.45 True are the words you have spoken, O brahmin, concerning the Pāṇḍavas; these and many other virtues do indeed dwell in the sons of Pāṇḍu.

7.133.46 The Pārthas are unconquerable in battle even by the gods led by Vāsava, with the daityas, yakṣas, gandharvas, piśācas, serpents, and rākṣasas; yet still I shall conquer the Pārthas with the dart given me by Vāsava.

7.133.47 This unfailing dart was given to me by Śakra, O brahmin; with it I shall strike down Savyasācin in the fray.

7.133.48 And once that Pāṇḍava is slain, Kṛṣṇa and his own brothers, bereft of Arjuna, will in no wise be able to enjoy the earth.

7.133.49 And when all of them have perished, this earth with her oceans will, without effort, fall under the sway of the son of Kuru, O Gautama.

7.133.50 By sound policy all aims are accomplished here — of that there is no doubt; knowing this purpose, I roar accordingly, O Gautama.

7.133.51 But you are old, and a brahmin, and unable in battle, and besides you bear affection for the Pārthas; out of folly you despise me.

7.133.52 If you speak to me again in this unwelcome way, O brahmin, then, raising my sword, I will cut out your tongue, you fool.

7.133.53 And as for your wishing to extol the Pāṇḍavas in this battle, O brahmin, frightening all the Kaurava armies, you fool — hear too my words on this, as I rightly speak them, O twice-born.

7.133.54 Duryodhana and Droṇa, Śakuni, Durmukha, Jaya, Duḥśāsana, Vṛṣasena, the king of the Madras, and you yourself, Somadatta and Bhūri, and likewise Aśvatthāman and Viviṃśati —

7.133.55 where all these masters of war stand arrayed for battle, what foe, even one equal in might to Śakra, could conquer them in the fray?

7.133.56 For these heroes, skilled in arms, mighty, longing for heaven, knowers of dharma and adept in war, could slay even the gods in battle.

7.133.57 These will stand in the battle, seeking the slaughter of the Pāṇḍavas, arrayed and longing for the victory of the son of Kuru.

7.133.58 I hold that victory rests with fate, even for the most mighty — for there lies Bhīṣma of the great arms, covered with a hundred arrows.

7.133.59 Vikarṇa and Citrasena, Bāhlika and Jayadratha, Bhūriśravas and Jaya, Jalasaṃdha and Sudakṣiṇa,

7.133.60 and Śala, foremost among chariot-warriors, and the valiant Bhagadatta — these and other kings, hard to conquer even by the gods,

7.133.61 these heroes, mightier still, have been slain in battle by the Pāṇḍavas. What else but the working of fate do you suppose it, O basest of men?

7.133.62 And those foes of Duryodhana whom you ceaselessly praise, O brahmin — of them too the heroes have been slain by hundreds and by thousands.

7.133.63 The whole armies of the Kurus are wasting away together with the Pāṇḍavas; in this I see no special might of the Pāṇḍavas at all.

7.133.64 Those whom you ever deem so mighty, O basest of brahmins — I will strive with all my strength to fight against them in battle. For the welfare of Duryodhana I shall fight; but victory rests with fate.

7.134.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing his maternal uncle thus harshly reviled by the son of the sūta, Aśvatthāman, raising his sword, rushed swiftly upon him in a fury.

7.134.2 Aśvatthāman said: Look here, Karṇa, you of wretched mind! Stand fast now, basest of men — this day I shall lift your head from your body, you utter fool.

7.134.3 Saṃjaya said: As he sprang up in his fury, O great king, King Duryodhana himself restrained him, and so did Kṛpa, foremost of men.

7.134.4 Karṇa said: This brahmin is a hero, a boaster in battle, and dull of wit, the basest of his kind — let him come up against my prowess; release him, O best of the Kurus.

7.134.5 Aśvatthāman said: This of yours we forgive, O son of a sūta, you utter fool; but this overweening arrogance of yours Phalguna will destroy.

7.134.6 Duryodhana said: Aśvatthāman, be appeased; you ought to forgive, O bestower of honour. No anger at all should be shown toward the son of the sūta.

7.134.7 Upon you, upon Karṇa, Kṛpa, Droṇa, the king of the Madras, and the son of Subala rests our great task; be appeased, O best of brahmins.

7.134.8 For lo, all these Pāṇḍavas, eager to fight against the son of Rādhā, are advancing toward us, O brahmin, challenging us on every side.

7.134.9 Saṃjaya said: And Karṇa too, foremost of chariot-warriors, the valiant one, raising his bow and surrounded by the chief Kauravas as Śakra by the hosts of gods, took his stand, blazing with splendour and relying on the strength of his own arms.

7.134.10 Then began the battle of the enraged Karṇa with the Pāṇḍavas, O great king, resounding with the roars of lions.

7.134.11 Then those Pāṇḍavas, O king, and the renowned Pāñcālas, seeing Karṇa of the mighty arms, raised a loud cry.

7.134.12 "Here is Karṇa! Where now is Karṇa? Stand, Karṇa, in this great battle! Fight against us, you wicked-souled, basest of men!"

7.134.13 And others, seeing the son of Rādhā, their eyes red with rage, said: "Let this arrogant, dull-witted son of the sūta be slain!"

7.134.14 "There is no use for all you tigers among kings in his living; this wicked man is the unending, ceaseless foe of the Pārthas."

7.134.15 "For he is the very root of our calamities, planted firm in Duryodhana's counsel — slay him!" So crying, the kṣatriyas rushed upon him together.

7.134.16 With a great shower of arrows the mighty chariot-warriors, urged on by the Pāṇḍava, covered him over, seeking the death of the son of the sūta.

7.134.17 But seeing all those great chariot-warriors thus rushing on, the son of the sūta neither faltered nor gave way to fear.

7.134.18 Beholding that surging ocean of an army, vast as a city, he who was unvanquished in battles sought to bring cheer to your sons.

7.134.19 The strong one, swift in action and of great might, held back that army on every side with a flood of arrows, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.134.20 Then the kings checked him with a rain of arrows, shaking their bows by hundreds and by thousands; they did battle with the son of Rādhā as the hosts of daityas with Śakra.

7.134.21 But that rain of arrows loosed by the kings Karṇa scattered on every side with a mighty rain of arrows of his own, O lord.

7.134.22 That battle of theirs, each seeking to repay blow with counter-blow, became like the battle of Śakra with the dānavas in the war of gods and asuras.

7.134.23 There we beheld the marvellous swiftness of the son of the sūta — that even striving in battle, his foes could not reach him in the fight.

7.134.24 Warding off those floods of arrows from the kings, the great chariot-warrior, son of Rādhā, sent forth keen shafts marked with his own name into their yokes and chariot-poles, their parasols and banners and horses.

7.134.25 Then those kings, thrown into confusion and sorely pressed by Karṇa, wandered hither and thither, like cattle tormented by the cold.

7.134.26 Here and there we looked upon throngs of horses, elephants, and chariot-warriors being slaughtered, struck down by Karṇa.

7.134.27 With heads fallen, O king, and with arms strewn on every side, the whole earth was carpeted with those of heroes who never turned back.

7.134.28 With the slain and the dying and those groaning on every side, the battlefield grew terrible, like the city of Vaivasvata.

7.134.29 Then King Duryodhana, beholding the prowess of Karṇa, approached Aśvatthāman and spoke these words.

7.134.30 "Yonder Karṇa, arrayed for battle, fights against all the kings; behold this army fleeing, sore pressed by the arrows of Karṇa, like the demonic host shattered by Kārttikeya."

7.134.31 "Seeing this army vanquished in battle by the wise Karṇa, here comes Bībhatsu, longing to slay the son of the sūta."

7.134.32 "So let such measures be devised that, before our very eyes, the Pāṇḍava may not slay the great chariot-warrior, the son of the sūta, in this battle."

7.134.33 Then Aśvatthāman, Kṛpa, Śalya, and the great chariot-warrior the son of Hṛdika went forth against Pārtha, seeking to protect the son of the sūta.

7.134.34 Seeing the son of Kuntī advancing like Vṛtra against the army of the gods, Karṇa then went forth to meet him, glorious as Śakra.

7.134.35 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Seeing the enraged Phalguna, like Yama the all-ending at the world's close, what response, O sūta, did Karṇa Vaikartana make?

7.134.36 For that great chariot-warrior ever vied with Pārtha, and hoped to conquer Bībhatsu in dreadful battle.

7.134.37 What response, then, O sūta, did Karṇa Vaikartana make to that unending enemy, now suddenly come upon him?

7.134.38 Saṃjaya said: Seeing the Pāṇḍava advancing, Karṇa, wholly unshaken, went forth to meet Dhanaṃjaya as one elephant goes forth against another.

7.134.39 As Vaikartana rushed upon him with speed, the radiant Pāṇḍava, scorcher of foes, held him off with straight-flying shafts.

7.134.40 Karṇa, O sire, covered him with a net of arrows, and in his fury pierced him with three straight-flying shafts.

7.134.41 The mighty Pārtha would not endure that nimbleness of his; against him he loosed arrows whetted on stone, bright-tipped and straight-flying.

7.134.42 Thirty of them the scorcher of foes sent against the Sūta's son, and the valiant one, enraged, pierced him with a single shaft.

7.134.43 With an iron shaft, as if smiling, the strong one struck him on the tip of his left arm, and by the force of that wound the bow fell from Karṇa's hand.

7.134.44 Taking up that bow again in half the blink of an eye, the mighty one, deft of hand, covered Phalguna with floods of arrows.

7.134.45 But that rain of arrows loosed by the Sūta's son, O Bhārata, Dhanaṃjaya, as if smiling, scattered with a downpour of shafts of his own.

7.134.46 Closing upon each other, O king, those two great archers, each striving to repay the other's stroke, veiled each other with showers of arrows.

7.134.47 Wondrous was that battle of Karṇa and the Pāṇḍava upon the field, like the fight of two wild elephants enraged over a she-elephant in heat.

7.134.48 Then Pārtha, the great archer, beholding Karṇa's prowess, with all speed cut through his bow at the grip.

7.134.49 With broad-headed shafts he sent the four horses to the abode of Yama, and the scorcher of foes struck the charioteer's head from his body.

7.134.50 Then him, his bow severed, his horses slain, his charioteer slain, Pārtha, the joy of Pāṇḍu's line, pierced with four arrows.

7.134.51 Swiftly leaping down from the car whose horses were slain, that bull among men, sore pressed by arrows, swiftly mounted Kṛpa's chariot.

7.134.52 Seeing Rādheya defeated, O bull of the Bhāratas, your men, driven by Dhanaṃjaya's arrows, fled in all ten directions.

7.134.53 Beholding them in flight, King Duryodhana, O sovereign, turned them back and spoke these words.

7.134.54 Enough of flight, you heroes! Stand fast, you bulls among Kṣatriyas! Lo, I myself go into the battle to slay Pārtha; I shall slay the Pārthas together with the Pāñcālas and the Somakas.

7.134.55 This day, as I fight against the wielder of the Gāṇḍīva, the Pārthas shall behold my valor, like that of Time at the dissolution of an age.

7.134.56 This day the warriors shall behold in the battle the nets of my arrows loosed by the thousand, like advancing swarms of locusts.

7.134.57 This day the soldiers shall behold in the fight the arrowy rain poured forth by me, the bowman, like a thundercloud's at the close of the hot season.

7.134.58 This day in battle I shall conquer Pārtha with smooth-jointed shafts. Stand fast in the fight, you heroes; cast away your fear of Phalguna.

7.134.59 For having met my might, Phalguna shall not prevail over it, even as the sea, abode of sea-monsters, prevails not against the shore it meets.

7.134.60 Having spoken thus, the king, hard to assail, his eyes red with wrath, advanced toward Phalguna, encircled by a great host.

7.134.61 Seeing that mighty-armed one set forth, Śāradvata then approached Aśvatthāman and spoke these words.

7.134.62 This mighty-armed king, full of indignation, swooning with wrath, has taken up the way of the moth toward the flame and seeks to fight Phalguna.

7.134.63 Before this tiger among men, having closed with Pārtha, yields up his life beneath our very eyes, restrain the Kaurava.

7.134.64 Before the heroic Kaurava king comes within range of Phalguna's arrows, restrain him at once.

7.134.65 Before the king is reduced to ashes by Pārtha's dreadful arrows, like serpents loosed from their slough, let him be turned back from the battle.

7.134.66 It seems unfitting to me, O giver of honor, that while we stand here the king should go alone, unaided, to fight Pārtha.

7.134.67 Hard to keep, I deem, is the life of the Kaurava, fighting against the diademed Pārtha, as is an elephant's against a tiger.

7.134.68 Thus addressed by his uncle, Drauṇi, foremost of weapon-bearers, spoke in haste these words to Duryodhana.

7.134.69 While I live, O son of Gāndhārī, you ought not to go into battle, slighting me, O Kaurava, who am ever a seeker of your good.

7.134.70 You need feel no alarm for Pārtha's victory; I shall hold Pārtha off. Stay back, Suyodhana.

7.134.71 Duryodhana said: The teacher guards the sons of Pāṇḍu as though they were his own children, and you too, O best of the twice-born, ever show indifference toward them.

7.134.72 Whether your prowess in battle is feeble through my own ill fortune, or for the sake of pleasing the Dharma-king, or of Draupadī—that I do not know.

7.134.73 Fie upon me, the greedy one, for whose sake all these kinsmen, deserving of joy and unconquered, are come to the utmost grief!

7.134.74 For what foremost of weapon-bearers, equal in battle to Maheśvara, being able, would not destroy his foes—unless he were the son of Gautamī?

7.134.75 Aśvatthāman, be gracious; destroy these enemies of mine. Within range of your weapons not even the gods are able to stand, O sinless one.

7.134.76 Slay the Pāñcālas and the Somakas with their followers, O Drauṇi; the rest we shall slay, guarded by you alone.

7.134.77 For these Somakas, O Brahman, and the glorious Pāñcālas, in their fury range through my armies like a forest fire.

7.134.78 Hold them back, O mighty-armed, and the Kekayas too, O best of men, before, guarded by the diademed one, they leave nothing of us remaining.

7.134.79 Whether at the first or at the last, this deed is yours, O sire; you were born, O mighty-armed, for the slaughter of the Pāñcālas.

7.134.80 You shall make the whole world free of Pāñcālas, O imperishable one; thus have the perfected ones spoken, and so shall it surely come to pass.

7.134.81 Within range of your weapons the gods themselves with Vāsava are unable to stand—how much less the Pārthas with the Pāñcālas? This word of mine is the truth.

7.135.1 Saṃjaya said: Thus addressed by Duryodhana, Drauṇi, fierce in battle, replied: "It is as you say, O mighty-armed Kaurava."

7.135.2 Dear indeed are the Pāṇḍavas ever to me and to my father, and dear likewise are we two to them; yet not in war, O chief of the Kurus. With all our strength, my friend, we fight, casting away our lives without fear.

7.135.3 I, and Karṇa, and Śalya, and Kṛpa, and Hārdikya too—in the twinkling of an eye we could destroy the Pāṇḍava host, O best of kings.

7.135.4 And they too could destroy the Kaurava host in half the twinkling of an eye, O chief of the Kurus, mighty-armed one, were we not present in the battle.

7.135.5 We fight the Pāṇḍavas with all our power, and they would fight us; yet when energy meets energy, O Bhārata, it comes to a standstill.

7.135.6 The army of the Pāṇḍavas cannot be conquered by mere onset while the sons of Pāṇḍu live—this truth I tell you.

7.135.7 Fighting for their own cause, the able sons of Pāṇḍu—why should they not slay your armies, O Bhārata?

7.135.8 For you, O king, are most greedy, and skilled in deceit, O Kaurava, suspicious of everyone and proud; therefore you mistrust us also.

7.135.9 But I, putting forth my utmost effort for your sake, having cast away my life, here go into the battle for you, O joy of the Kurus.

7.135.10 I shall fight with the foes and conquer the very best of them; I shall fight with the Pāñcālas, with the Somakas and the Kekayas, and with the sons of Pāṇḍu in battle, to please you, O subduer of foes.

7.135.11 This day, scorched by my arrows, the Pāñcālas and the Somakas shall scatter in every direction, like cattle harried by a lion.

7.135.12 This day, beholding my prowess, King Yudhiṣṭhira, son of Dharma, together with the Somakas, shall deem the whole world to be made of Aśvatthāman.

7.135.13 Yudhiṣṭhira, son of Dharma, shall come to despair, beholding the Pāñcālas slain in battle together with the Somakas.

7.135.14 Whoever shall fight against me in battle, them I shall slay, O Bhārata; for those heroes, once come within the reach of my arms, would not escape.

7.135.15 Having thus spoken to your son Duryodhana, the mighty-armed one turned to the fight, putting all the bowmen to flight—that best of living beings, eager to do your sons a kindness.

7.135.16 Then the son of Gautamī addressed the Pāñcālas with the Kekayas: "Strike all of you here upon my body, you great chariot-warriors; stand firm and fight, displaying your deftness with weapons."

7.135.17 Thus addressed, they all let fall a rain of weapons upon Drauṇi, O great king, as rain-clouds pour down water.

7.135.18 Striking down those arrows, Drauṇi crushed ten warriors before the very faces of the sons of Pāṇḍu and of Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O lord.

7.135.19 Being slain in the battle, the Pāñcālas and the Sṛñjayas forsook Drauṇi on the field and fled in all ten directions.

7.135.20 Seeing those heroic Pāñcālas with the Somakas in flight, Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O great king, rushed upon Drauṇi in the fight.

7.135.21 Then, surrounded by a hundred chariots of heroes who never turned back, gleaming with gold and roaring like rain-laden clouds—

7.135.22 the son of the Pāñcāla king, Dhṛṣṭadyumna, the great chariot-warrior, beholding his warriors struck down, spoke these words to Drauṇi.

7.135.23 "O evil-minded son of the teacher, what is it to you that others are slain? Close with me, if you are a hero in battle. I shall slay you—stand now before me!"

7.135.24 Then the valorous Dhṛṣṭadyumna struck that son of the teacher with sharp shafts that pierce the vital parts, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.135.25 Those swift arrows, ranged in rows, gold-feathered and bright-tipped, rending the whole body, entered into Drauṇi, like unbridled bees seeking honey upon a flowering tree.

7.135.26 Sorely pierced and greatly enraged, like a serpent trodden underfoot, the proud Drauṇi, unshaken, arrow in hand, spoke.

7.135.27 "Dhṛṣṭadyumna, stand firm and wait a moment, while with whetted arrows I send you to the abode of Yama."

7.135.28 Having spoken thus to the son of Pṛṣata, Drauṇi, slayer of hostile heroes, deft of hand, covered him on every side with floods of arrows.

7.135.29 Being thus veiled in battle by Drauṇi, the son of the Pāñcāla king, fierce in war, then assailed Drauṇi with taunting words.

7.135.30 "You know not my vow, nor yet my birth from a Brahman: when I have slain Droṇa, then you too are to be slain by me, O most evil-minded one. Therefore I slay you not today, while Droṇa yet lives, in the battle."

7.135.31 "But upon this night now come, before it dawns, O most evil-minded one, having slain your father this day, then you too in battle I shall lead to the realm of the dead—thus is it fixed in my mind."

7.135.32 "What hatred you bear toward the Pārthas, what devotion toward the Kauravas—show it, standing firm; you shall not escape me with your life."

7.135.33 "For that twice-born man who, forsaking his Brahmanhood, takes delight in the duties of a Kṣatriya, deserves to be slain by all the world—as do you, O basest of men."

7.135.34 Thus addressed with harsh speech by the son of Pṛṣata, that best of the twice-born gathered fierce wrath and cried, "Stand, stand!"

7.135.35 As if consuming him with his eyes, he gazed upon the son of Pṛṣata, and, hissing like a serpent, covered him with arrows.

7.135.36 Being thus veiled in battle by Drauṇi, O best of kings, that best of chariot-warriors stood encompassed by all the Pāñcāla armies.

7.135.37 The mighty-armed one did not waver, resting upon his own steadfastness, and he loosed manifold arrows upon Aśvatthāman.

7.135.38 Once more the two turned back to the battle in which life itself was the wager, those two unforgiving great archers warding off each other with floods of arrows, pouring forth showers of shafts on every side.

7.135.39 Beholding the dreadful and terrifying combat of the son of Droṇa and the son of Pṛṣata, the bands of Siddhas and Cāraṇas honored it with praise.

7.135.40 Filling the sky and the quarters with their floods of arrows, the two fought unseen, having wrought a great darkness with their shafts.

7.135.41 As though dancing in the fray, their bows drawn into perfect circles, each strove to slay the other, each longing to vanquish the other.

7.135.42 The two mighty-armed warriors fought with skill, with swiftness, and with mastery, honored in the battle by thousands of the foremost fighters.

7.135.43 Seeing the two locked in combat in the fray like two wild elephants in the forest, a tumultuous joy arose in both armies.

7.135.44 There were roars like the lion's roar, and they blew their conches, O honored one, and instruments were sounded by the hundreds and the thousands.

7.135.45 In that tumultuous battle, which swelled the terror of the timid, the combat for a moment then stood evenly matched.

7.135.46 Then, O great king, the son of Droṇa, having struck down the banner, the bow, the parasol, both the flank-guarding charioteers, the driver, and the four horses of the high-souled son of Pṛṣata, charged upon him in the fray.

7.135.47 And all those Pāñcālas the immeasurable-souled one routed by the hundreds and the thousands with his straight-jointed arrows.

7.135.48 Then the army of the Pāṇḍavas trembled, O bull of the Bhāratas, beholding the mighty feat of Droṇa's son, like that of Vāsava in battle.

7.135.49 Slaying a hundred of the Pāñcālas with a hundred shafts, the great chariot-warrior, and with three sharp arrows slaying three great chariot-warriors,

7.135.50 the son of Droṇa, before the very eyes of Drupada's son and of Phalguna, destroyed the greater part of the Pāñcālas who stood their ground.

7.135.51 Those Pāñcālas, being slaughtered in the battle together with the Sṛñjayas, fled, abandoning the son of Droṇa, their chariots and banners scattered.

7.135.52 Having conquered his foes in the battle, the son of Droṇa, that great chariot-warrior, roared a mighty roar, like a thundercloud at the close of the hot season.

7.135.53 Having slain many heroes, Aśvatthāman shone forth like the fire that reduces all beings to ashes at the end of an age.

7.135.54 Honored in the battle by the Kauravas, having vanquished hosts of foes by the thousands, the valiant son of Droṇa shone forth like the lord of the gods after slaying the hosts of his enemies.

7.136.1 Saṃjaya said: Then Yudhiṣṭhira and Bhīmasena the Pāṇḍava, O great king, surrounded the son of Droṇa on every side.

7.136.2 Then King Duryodhana, guarded by the son of Bharadvāja, advanced upon the Pāṇḍavas in battle, and thereupon a combat ensued, dreadful in aspect, O great king, swelling the terror of the timid.

7.136.3 The Ambaṣṭhas, the Mālavas, the Vaṅgas, the Śibis, and the Traigartas as well — those bands the wrathful Yudhiṣṭhira dispatched to the realm of Death.

7.136.4 Cutting down the Abhīṣāhas, the Śūrasenas, and the Kṣatriyas frenzied for war, Bhīma made the earth a mire of blood.

7.136.5 The Yaudheyas, the Āraṭṭas, the princes, and the bands of Madrakas in the battle the Diademed One dispatched to the realm of Death with his sharp arrows.

7.136.6 Sorely afflicted by straight-flying iron shafts driven deep, the elephants fell to the earth like two-peaked mountains.

7.136.7 With the severed trunks of elephants writhing here and there, the earth, strewn with them, glowed as though covered with gliding serpents.

7.136.8 With the cast-down royal parasols, bright with gold, the earth shone like the sky strewn with the sun, the moon, and the other heavenly bodies at the dissolution of an age.

7.136.9 "Slay! Strike without fear! Pierce! Cut them down!" — such was the tumultuous cry around the chariot of him whose horses were red.

7.136.10 But Droṇa, exceedingly enraged, with the Wind-weapon in the battle scattered them, as the irresistible wind scatters the clouds.

7.136.11 Those Pāñcālas, being slain by Droṇa, fled in terror, even before the eyes of Bhīmasena and of the high-souled Pārtha.

7.136.12 Then the Diademed One and Bhīma suddenly turned back, encircling thy host with a great array of chariots.

7.136.13 Bībhatsu on the right flank and Vṛkodara on the north, the two rained upon the son of Bharadvāja with their two great floods of arrows.

7.136.14 Then the Sṛñjayas and the Pāñcāla great chariot-warriors followed those two, O great king, and the Matsyas together with the Somakas.

7.136.15 Likewise the noble car-warriors and strikers of thy son advanced with a great host toward the chariot of Droṇa.

7.136.16 Then that Bhārata army, being slaughtered by the Diademed One, and overcome by darkness and by sleep, was again torn asunder.

7.136.17 Though held back by Droṇa and by thy son himself, the warriors could not then be restrained, O great king.

7.136.18 That great army, rent by the arrows of the son of Pāṇḍu, fled in all directions as the world was wrapped in darkness.

7.136.19 Abandoning their mounts by the hundreds, some of the kings there fled, O great king, seized with terror on every side.

7.137.1 Saṃjaya said: Beholding Somadatta brandishing his mighty bow, Sātyaki said to his charioteer, "Bear me toward Somadatta.

7.137.2 For without slaying in the fray my foe, the Bāhlika, basest of the Kauravas, I will not turn back from the battle, O charioteer — this word of mine is true."

7.137.3 Then the driver urged on those swift Saindhava steeds, conch-colored, outstripping every sound in the battle.

7.137.4 With the speed of thought and of the wind, they bore Yuyudhāna, O king, as of old the tawny steeds bore Indra when he set out to slay the Daityas.

7.137.5 Seeing the impetuous Sātvata rushing upon him in the fray, the mighty-armed Somadatta, undismayed, advanced to meet him.

7.137.6 Loosing showers of arrows like a rain-laden storm-cloud, he covered the grandson of Śini, as a cloud covers the sun.

7.137.7 And undismayed in the battle, Sātyaki covered that bull of the Kurus on every side with floods of arrows, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.137.8 Somadatta pierced that Mādhava in the breast with sixty shafts, and Sātyaki too, O king, struck him with sharp arrows.

7.137.9 Those two bulls among men, gashed by each other's arrows, shone like two kiṃśuka trees in fair flower at the flowering season.

7.137.10 Their every limb drenched with blood, those bringers of glory to the Kurus and the Vṛṣṇis gazed upon each other as though scorching one another with their eyes.

7.137.11 Ranging along the circling paths of their chariots, those two crushers of foes were of dreadful aspect, like two rain-laden clouds.

7.137.12 Their bodies pierced through by arrows, bristling on all sides, wounded by shafts, they appeared, O lord of kings, like two porcupines.

7.137.13 Studded with gold-feathered arrows, the two shone forth, O king, like two forest trees covered with fireflies in the rains.

7.137.14 Their every limb set ablaze, as it were, by arrows, those two great chariot-warriors appeared in the fray, wrathful, like two elephants amid firebrands.

7.137.15 Then in the battle, O great king, Somadatta the great chariot-warrior, with a crescent-headed arrow, cut asunder the mighty bow of the Mādhava.

7.137.16 Then he assailed him with twenty-five arrows, and, making haste at the hour for haste, with ten more shafts.

7.137.17 Then, taking up another, swifter bow, Sātyaki quickly pierced Somadatta with five arrows.

7.137.18 Then with another broad-headed shaft Sātyaki cut down the golden banner of the Bāhlika in the fray, O king, as though smiling.

7.137.19 But Somadatta, undismayed, seeing his standard struck down, covered the grandson of Śini with twenty-five arrows.

7.137.20 The Sātvata too, enraged in the battle, with a sharp razor-edged arrow cut asunder the bow of the bowman Somadatta in the fray.

7.137.21 Then he covered him in many places with a hundred straight-jointed, gold-feathered arrows, O king, like an elephant with a broken tusk.

7.137.22 Then, taking up another bow, the mighty Somadatta, that great chariot-warrior, covered Sātyaki with a shower of arrows.

7.137.23 But the wrathful Sātyaki pierced Somadatta in the fray, and Somadatta in turn afflicted Sātyaki with a net of arrows.

7.137.24 For the Sātvata's sake Bhīma struck the son of Bāhlika with ten arrows, and Somadatta too, undismayed, smote the grandson of Śini with shafts.

7.137.25 Then for the Sātvata's sake the son of Bhīmasena hurled a new, stout, and dreadful iron club at the breast of Somadatta.

7.137.26 That iron club of terrible aspect, rushing on with speed, the Kaurava cut in two in the fray, as though smiling.

7.137.27 That great iron club, cleft in two, fell down like the great peak of a mountain riven by the thunderbolt.

7.137.28 Then Sātyaki, O king, in the combat cut asunder Somadatta's bow with a broad-headed shaft, and his leather glove with five arrows.

7.137.29 And with four arrows he swiftly dispatched the four excellent steeds to the presence of the king of the dead, O Bhārata.

7.137.30 And with a straight-jointed broad-headed shaft that tiger among chariot-warriors, the bull of Śini's line, smiling, severed the charioteer's head from his body.

7.137.31 Then the Sātvata loosed a most terrible arrow, blazing like fire, gold-feathered and whetted on stone, O king.

7.137.32 That excellent shaft, loosed by the mighty grandson of Śini, dreadful, fell swiftly upon his breast, O lord, O Bhārata.

7.137.33 Sorely pierced by the mighty Sātvata, that great chariot-warrior, the mighty-armed Somadatta, fell down and died.

7.137.34 Seeing Somadatta slain there, the great chariot-warriors rushed upon Yuyudhāna with a great shower of arrows.

7.137.35 Seeing Yuyudhāna being overwhelmed with arrows, Yudhiṣṭhira, with a great host, charged upon Droṇa's array.

7.137.36 Then the wrathful Yudhiṣṭhira routed with his arrows the mighty force of thy men, before the very eyes of the son of Bharadvāja.

7.137.37 But Droṇa, seeing Yudhiṣṭhira putting his troops to flight, rushed upon him with speed, his eyes reddened with wrath.

7.137.38 Then with seven well-sharpened arrows he pierced the Pārtha; and, sorely pierced himself, the mighty-armed one, licking the corners of his mouth, cut down Yudhiṣṭhira's banner and his bow as well.

7.137.39 His bow severed, that best of kings, making haste at the hour for haste, quickly took up another stout bow in the fray.

7.137.40 Then the king pierced Droṇa, together with his horses, driver, banner, and chariot, with a thousand arrows; and that seemed a marvel.

7.137.41 Then for a moment, shaken and afflicted by the stroke of those arrows, Droṇa sank down upon the floor of his chariot, O best of the Bhāratas.

7.137.42 Then, regaining his senses in a moment, that best of the twice-born, seized with great wrath, loosed the Wind-weapon.

7.137.43 Then the valiant Pārtha, undismayed, drawing his bow, checked that weapon with a weapon of his own in the fray, O Bhārata.

7.137.44 Then Vāsudeva spoke to Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Kuntī: "Mighty-armed Yudhiṣṭhira, hear what I am about to tell you."

7.137.45 "Withdraw from battle against Droṇa, O best of the Bhāratas, for Droṇa forever hungers to take you captive in the fray."

7.137.46 "I do not think this combat with him is fit for you; he who was born for his destruction shall slay him tomorrow."

7.137.47 "Avoid the preceptor and go to where King Suyodhana is, and where Bhīma, that tiger among chariot-warriors, fights against the Kauravas."

7.137.48 Hearing the words of Vāsudeva, Yudhiṣṭhira, the King of Righteousness, reflected for a moment upon that terrible battle.

7.137.49 Then that slayer of foes swiftly set out for where Bhīma stood his ground, striking down your warriors like Death with jaws agape.

7.137.50 With the mighty thunder of his chariot he made the face of the earth resound, filling the ten directions with his roar like a rain-cloud at the close of the hot season.

7.137.51 The son of Pāṇḍu guarded the rear of Bhīma as he slew his enemies, while Droṇa too scattered the Pāṇḍavas and Pāñcālas at the onset of night.

7.138.1 Saṃjaya said: As that battle, dreadful of form and fraught with terror, raged on, the world being veiled in darkness and in dust, O lord of the earth, the warriors stationed in the fray could not see one another.

7.138.2 By guesswork and by signals that great combat was waged, a churning of men, elephants, and horses, supremely making the hair stand on end.

7.138.3 The heroes Droṇa, Karṇa, and Kṛpa, and Bhīma, the son of Pṛṣata, and Sātyaki threw each other's armies into turmoil, O best of kings.

7.138.4 The armies, slaughtered on every side by those great chariot-warriors, fled in all directions, hemmed in by darkness and by dust.

7.138.5 Those warriors, scattering in every direction with terror-stricken hearts, were cut down, O great king, even as they ran in the fray.

7.138.6 Thousands of great chariot-warriors slew one another in the fight, bewildered in the blind darkness, by the counsel of your son.

7.138.7 Then all the armies and the leaders of the host, O Bhārata, fell into confusion there in the battle, the field being shrouded in darkness.

7.138.8 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: As they were churned about by the Pāṇḍavas, their vigor struck down, sunk in blind darkness, what then was the resolve of your people?

7.138.9 How, Saṃjaya, did light come again among them, or among my armies, when the world was so enveloped in darkness?

7.138.10 Saṃjaya said: Then all the armies that survived the slaughter, appointing their commanders, formed up their battle-array once more.

7.138.11 Droṇa stood in front, Śalya at the rear, while Droṇa's son and the son of Subala held the flanks; and the king himself, O king, moved forward in the night guarding all his forces.

7.138.12 And Duryodhana, O prince, spoke gently to all the bands of foot-soldiers: "Lay aside your finest weapons, all of you, and take blazing lamps in your hands."

7.138.13 Urged on by that best of princes, they gladly took up the lamps; and the banner-bearing host, marshalled anew, shone with the light of fire in the night.

7.138.14 With costly and celestial ornaments, and with weapons flashing as they clashed together, the lamps arrayed in an instant straightway lit up the whole banner-bearing host.

7.138.15 All the armies, attended on every hand by foot-soldiers bearing fire and oil, appeared, illumined in the night, like rain-clouds in the sky lit up by lightning.

7.138.16 When the host was thus illumined, Droṇa, blazing like fire and scorching all around, shone forth, O lord of kings, clad in golden mail, like the garlanded sun at its zenith.

7.138.17 Upon the ornaments of pure gold, the bright necklaces, the quivers, and the burnished weapons, the reflected radiance of the fire then played there.

7.138.18 The slung maces and gleaming iron clubs, and the spears whirling upon the chariots, O scion of Ajamīḍha, blazing, again and again kindled reflected gleams with their rays.

7.138.19 The parasols and the trains of yak-tail fans, and the great blazing torches likewise, O king, and the golden garlands swaying upon the struggling warriors shone resplendent there.

7.138.20 Radiant with the gleam of weapons, and with the glow of the lamps, and lit up by the brightness of the ornaments, that host, O king, became exceedingly resplendent.

7.138.21 The burnished weapons, drenched with blood, brandished by the heroes and tearing into bodies, gave forth a flashing radiance there, like lightning in the sky at the end of the hot season.

7.138.22 The faces of the men, shaken by the force of blows, striking and rushing in with speed, shone forth then like great lotuses stirred by the wind.

7.138.23 As in a great forest ablaze with wildfire even the splendor of the sun would be lost, so blazed your banner-bearing host, O Bhārata, fearsome of form amid that great terror.

7.138.24 Beholding our host thus brightly ablaze, the sons of Pṛthā in like haste urged on the bands of foot-soldiers throughout all their armies, and they too made lamps.

7.138.25 Seven lamps were set on each elephant, and ten lamps on each chariot, two upon every horse's back, and others at the flanks, others upon the standards, and others at the rear.

7.138.26 And in all the armies others stood at the flanks, behind, in front, and all around; and others in the midst, with blazing fire in their hands, ranged through both the hosts.

7.138.27 Throughout all the armies the bands of foot-soldiers, mingled with the throngs of elephants, chariots, and horses, and others in the midst with blazing fire in their hands, lit up the host of the son of Pāṇḍu.

7.138.28 By that blazing host the other mighty host blazed in turn, as fire is kindled to a glow by the radiant, light-giving orb of the day-making sun.

7.138.29 The radiance of the two hosts, overspreading earth and sky, swelled across all the quarters; and by that brilliance their army and yours became exceedingly bright.

7.138.30 By that brilliance mounting to heaven the hosts of the gods were roused, O king, and the throngs of Gandharvas, Yakṣas, Asuras, and Siddhas, and all the Apsarases gathered there.

7.138.31 Thronged with gods and Gandharvas, with hosts of Yakṣas, lords of Asuras, and Apsarases, and with slain heroes ascending to heaven, that battlefield became like unto the celestial realm.

7.138.32 Ablaze with lamps amid the press of chariots, horses, and elephants, its steeds driven in rout by furious warriors, that mighty host with its arrayed chariots, horses, and elephants became like the battle-array of gods and Asuras.

7.138.33 With its fierce winds of massed spears, its clouds of great chariots, its thunder of cars and steeds, its downpour of weapon-floods and its streams of blood for rain, that battle of men and kings raged on through the night.

7.138.34 In that field the great-souled chief of the twice-born, likened to a mighty fire, scorching the Pāṇḍavas, was as the sun risen to its zenith with its rays at the close of the rains, O lord of men.

7.139.1 Saṃjaya said: When the world was thus illumined, yet shrouded in dust and darkness, the heroes came together, each seeking the destruction of the other.

7.139.2 Meeting in battle, O king, bearing weapons, lances, and swords, they glared at one another, each having wronged the other.

7.139.3 With thousands of lamps blazing on every side, the earth then shone, O Bhārata, like the sky bright with its planets.

7.139.4 With hundreds of blazing torches the battlefield shone resplendent, as the earth would seem to burn at the dissolution of the worlds.

7.139.5 All the quarters were lit up by those lamps on every side; they shone like trees beset with fireflies in the early dusk of the rains.

7.139.6 Then the heroes engaged hero against hero, each apart; elephants closed with elephants, and steeds met with steeds.

7.139.7 Chariots met with the foremost of chariots, filled with eager joy, in that dread onset of night, by the command of your son.

7.139.8 Then Arjuna, O great king, scattered the host of the Kauravas, applying himself with speed and destroying all the princes.

7.139.9 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When that furious and unbearable one, the unassailable, had broken into my son's army, what then was the resolve of your people?

7.139.10 What did the armies think when that scorcher of foes broke in, and what fitting deed did Duryodhana judge the hour to require?

7.139.11 Who went forth against that hero, that tamer of foes, in the fight? Who guarded the right wheel of Droṇa's car, and who the left?

7.139.12 What heroes stood at the back of that hero as he fought, and who advanced before him as he slew his enemies in battle?

7.139.13 When that mighty bowman, unconquered, broke into the Pāñcālas, that tiger among men, valiant, seeming to dance along the chariot-paths—

7.139.14 and Droṇa burned with his shafts the ranks of Pāñcāla chariots, like wrathful fire whose banner is smoke—how then did he come to his death?

7.139.15 You tell of the foes as unflustered and unvanquished, yet you report mine as slain, despondent, and scattered, my chariot-warriors stripped of their cars in the battles.

7.139.16 Saṃjaya said: Perceiving the intent of Droṇa, who wished to fight on through that night, Duryodhana, O great king, addressed his obedient brothers.

7.139.17 Vikarṇa and Citrasena, and the mighty-armed Kaurava, the unassailable long-armed one, and those who followed at their heels—

7.139.18 "Strive valiantly, all of you, and guard Droṇa from behind; let the son of Hṛdika guard the right wheel and Śalya likewise the left."

7.139.19 And those valiant great chariot-warriors of the Trigartas who had survived the slaughter—all of them your son urged forward to the van.

7.139.20 "The preceptor is well girt for battle, and the Pāṇḍavas strive hard; guard him, then, well prepared, as he slays his enemies in the fray."

7.139.21 "For Droṇa is mighty in battle, quick of hand and full of valor; he could vanquish even the thirty gods in fight—how much more the sons of Pṛthā with the Somakas."

7.139.22 "Therefore do you all, united and striving hard, O great chariot-warriors, guard Droṇa from the Pāñcāla prince Dhṛṣṭadyumna, that great car-warrior."

7.139.23 "Among the armies of the Pāṇḍavas I see no warrior, O kings, who could conquer Droṇa in battle, save Dhṛṣṭadyumna alone."

7.139.24 "Therefore I deem it best to guard the son of Bharadvāja with all our might; protected, he will slay the Somakas and the Sṛñjayas together with their kings."

7.139.25 "And when all the Sṛñjayas are slain at the head of the host, Droṇa's son will destroy Dhṛṣṭadyumna in battle, beyond all doubt."

7.139.26 "So too will Karṇa, that great chariot-warrior, conquer Arjuna in battle; and I myself, clad in mail, shall vanquish Bhīmasena in the fight."

7.139.27 "Plainly, then, victory shall be mine for ages to come; therefore guard Droṇa in the battle, O great chariot-warriors."

7.139.28 Having spoken thus, O best of the Bhāratas, your son Duryodhana then drew up the army in that terrible darkness.

7.139.29 Then that dread battle was waged by night, O bull of the Bhāratas, between the two armies, each longing for victory.

7.139.30 Arjuna pressed hard upon the Kaurava host, and the Kauravas upon Arjuna; with showers of varied weapons they tormented one another.

7.139.31 Droṇa's son covered the king of the Pāñcālas, and the son of Bharadvāja the Sṛñjayas, in the fray, with their straight-jointed arrows.

7.139.32 Of the armies of the Pāṇḍavas and Pāñcālas, and of the Kauravas, O venerable one, there arose a dreadful din as they struck one another down.

7.139.33 Never by us, nor by those before us, was such a thing seen before as that battle which raged that night, fraught with the greatest terror.

7.140.1 Saṃjaya said: As that fierce night-battle, the destroyer of all beings, raged on, O lord of peoples, Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Dharma,

7.140.2 spoke to the Pāṇḍavas and to the Pāñcālas with the Somakas: "Charge forward, go against Droṇa himself with intent to slay."

7.140.3 At the word of your king, O king, the Pāñcālas and the Somakas alike bore down upon Droṇa, uttering fearful roars.

7.140.4 We, roaring back at them and burning with wrath, went forth against them in the fray to the utmost of our power, our zeal, and our strength.

7.140.5 And Kṛtavarman, the son of Hṛdika, rushed upon Yudhiṣṭhira, who sought to slay Droṇa, as one rutting elephant charges another.

7.140.6 As the grandson of Śini was scattering showers of arrows on every side, O king, the Kaurava Bhūri rushed upon him at the forefront of the battle.

7.140.7 And as Sahadeva, that great chariot-warrior, came on, eager to reach Droṇa, Karṇa the son of Vikartana, O king, held back that son of Pāṇḍu.

7.140.8 And as Bhīmasena advanced like Death with jaws gaping wide, Duryodhana himself went forth in the fight to meet him, as one goes to meet hostile Death.

7.140.9 And as Nakula, the foremost of warriors, skilled in every mode of combat, advanced, Śakuni the son of Subala, O king, swiftly held him in check.

7.140.10 And as Śikhaṇḍin, the best of chariot-warriors, came on in his car, Kṛpa the son of Śaradvat, O king, withstood him in the battle.

7.140.11 And as Prativindhya advanced with horses hued like peacocks, Duḥśāsana, O great king, straining himself, held back that straining foe.

7.140.12 And as the son of Bhīmasena advanced, expert in a hundred illusions, Aśvatthāman, upholding his father's honour, drove him back.

7.140.13 And Vṛṣasena held back in battle Drupada, that great chariot-warrior, together with his troops and his foot-soldiers, as he sought to reach Droṇa.

7.140.14 And as Virāṭa came on swiftly, bent upon Droṇa's death, the king of the Madras, greatly enraged, held him in check, O descendant of Bharata.

7.140.15 And as Śatānīka, the son of Nakula, advanced impetuously in the fray, desiring Droṇa's slaughter, Citrasena swiftly checked him with his shafts.

7.140.16 And as Arjuna, the foremost of warriors, that mighty chariot-fighter, came rushing on, Alambusa, O great king, the lord of the Rākṣasas, held him back.

7.140.17 And as Droṇa, that mighty bowman, was slaying his foes in the battle, Dhṛṣṭadyumna the Pāñcāla, with a joyful mien, withstood him.

7.140.18 And the other great chariot-warriors of the sons of Pāṇḍu who came on, your own car-warriors, O king, withstood with all their might.

7.140.19 Riders of elephants, swiftly closing with their elephants in that great battle, were seen to fight by the hundreds and the thousands.

7.140.20 At midnight, O king, the horses, charging at one another, were seen rushing on with speed like winged mountains.

7.140.21 Horsemen, with lances, javelins, and spears in hand, closed with horsemen, O great king, each roaring out his own war-cry.

7.140.22 And many men there met one another in throngs, with maces and clubs and weapons of every kind.

7.140.23 And Kṛtavarman the son of Hṛdika, full of wrath, held back Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Dharma, as the shore holds back the surging sea.

7.140.24 But Yudhiṣṭhira, having pierced the son of Hṛdika with five swift arrows, struck him again with twenty, and cried, 'Stand! Stand!'

7.140.25 But Kṛtavarman, greatly enraged, O sire, cut off with a broad-headed shaft the bow of the son of Dharma, and pierced him with seven.

7.140.26 Then taking up another bow, Yudhiṣṭhira the son of Dharma planted ten arrows in the arms and breast of the son of Hṛdika.

7.140.27 And the Mādhava, thus pierced in battle by the son of Dharma, O sire, trembled with rage and afflicted him with seven shafts.

7.140.28 The son of Pṛthā, cutting off his bow and severing his leather glove, sped at him five whetted arrows, sharpened on stone, O king.

7.140.29 Those fierce shafts, piercing his gold-wrought, costly armour, entered the earth like serpents entering an anthill.

7.140.30 In the mere twinkling of the eyes, taking up another bow, he pierced the son of Pāṇḍu with sixty arrows and his charioteer with nine.

7.140.31 Then the son of Pāṇḍu, of immeasurable soul, laying his great bow upon his car, hurled at him a dart like a serpent, O best of the Bhāratas.

7.140.32 That great dart, adorned with gold, flung by the son of Pāṇḍu, piercing his right arm, entered the surface of the earth.

7.140.33 At that very moment, the son of Pṛthā, taking up his bow again, covered the son of Hṛdika with arrows of smooth joints.

7.140.34 Then in the battle that hero, the foremost car-warrior of the Vṛṣṇis, in half the twinkling of an eye made Yudhiṣṭhira bereft of horses, charioteer, and car.

7.140.35 Then the eldest son of Pāṇḍu took up sword and shield; but the Mādhava shattered them with his whetted shafts in the fight.

7.140.36 Then taking up a gold-shafted, irresistible lance, Yudhiṣṭhira swiftly sped it in the battle at the son of Hṛdika.

7.140.37 As it came hurtling, loosed from the arm of the king of righteousness, the deft-handed son of Hṛdika cut it in two, as if with a smile.

7.140.38 Then in the fight he covered the son of Dharma with a hundred arrows, and in his wrath rent his armour with his sharp shafts.

7.140.39 That armour of the high-souled one, cut through by the shafts of the son of Hṛdika, fell apart in the battle, O king, like a net of stars falling from the sky.

7.140.40 With his bow cut off, deprived of his car, his armour shattered, tormented by arrows, Yudhiṣṭhira the son of Dharma swiftly withdrew from the battle.

7.140.41 And Kṛtavarman, of great strength, having vanquished Yudhiṣṭhira the son of Dharma, once more guarded the wheel of Droṇa's car.

7.141.1 Saṃjaya said: But Bhūri in the battle, O king, drove back the grandson of Śini, that best of car-warriors, as he rushed on, even as one turns an elephant from the watering-place.

7.141.2 Then Sātyaki, enraged, swiftly pierced him in the heart with five whetted shafts, and his blood gushed forth.

7.141.3 In the same way the Kaurava, in the fight, pierced the grandson of Śini, that warrior intoxicated with battle, with ten sharp arrows between the shoulders.

7.141.4 The two of them, O great king, gashed each other sorely with arrows, their eyes red with rage, twanging their bows in their fury.

7.141.5 There arose between those two, O great king, a most dreadful rain of weapons, as in their wrath they loosed their shafts, resembling Yama the destroyer.

7.141.6 Covering each other with arrows, O king, they stood firm in the battle, and for a while their combat seemed evenly matched.

7.141.7 Then the grandson of Śini, enraged, O great king, as if smiling, cut off in the battle the bow of the high-souled Kaurava.

7.141.8 Then, as he was bereft of his bow, he swiftly pierced him in the heart with nine whetted shafts, and cried, 'Stand! Stand!'

7.141.9 Deeply pierced by his powerful foe, that scorcher of foes took up another bow and pierced the Sātvata in return.

7.141.10 Having pierced the Sātvata with three arrows, O lord of peoples, he cut off his bow with a very sharp broad-headed shaft, as if laughing.

7.141.11 His bow severed, O great king, Sātyaki, swooning with rage, hurled at his broad breast a dart of great velocity.

7.141.12 His body cleft by that dart, he fell from his excellent car, like the ruddy-bodied planet Mars, with its blazing rays, falling by chance from the sky.

7.141.13 Seeing that hero slain, Aśvatthāman, the great car-warrior, rushed with speed against the grandson of Śini in the battle, and rained upon him a flood of arrows, as a cloud rains upon Meru.

7.141.14 As he furiously bore down upon the car of the grandson of Śini, Ghaṭotkaca, the great car-warrior, O king, loosing a roar, spoke.

7.141.15 'Stand, stand! Thou shalt not escape me alive, O son of Droṇa. This day I shall slay thee as the lord Skanda slew the buffalo; this day, on the field of battle, I shall drive out thy appetite for war.'

7.141.16 Having spoken thus, the Rākṣasa, that slayer of hostile heroes, his eyes coppery with rage, rushed in wrath upon the son of Droṇa, as a lion upon a lordly elephant.

7.141.17 Ghaṭotkaca rained upon the son of Droṇa, that bull among car-warriors, arrows as large as chariot-axles, as a cloud rains down its torrents.

7.141.18 But that downpour of arrows, as it came, the son of Droṇa, smiling, swiftly shattered in the battle with shafts like venomous serpents.

7.141.19 Then with hundreds of sharp, swift arrows that pierce the vitals, O subduer of foes, he covered Ghaṭotkaca, the lord of the Rākṣasas.

7.141.20 Studded all over with his arrows, that Rākṣasa, at the head of the battle, shone, O great king, like a porcupine bristling with its quills.

7.141.21 Then the valiant son of Bhīmasena, filled with rage, cut into the son of Droṇa with fierce arrows that sounded like the thunderbolt.

7.141.22 With razor-edged shafts and crescent-headed arrows, with iron shafts and bearded darts, with boar-eared and reed-like points, and with sharp barbed missiles.

7.141.23 That matchless rain of weapons, sounding like the thunderbolt, as it fell upon him, the son of Droṇa, undismayed of sense, in his wrath—

7.141.24 —that hard-to-bear downpour he, of mighty energy, dispelled with dreadful arrows charged with celestial weapons, as the wind scatters great clouds.

7.141.25 Then in the sky there arose, as it were, another battle of arrows, dreadful of aspect, O great king, that heightened the joy of the warriors.

7.141.26 Then with the sparks struck up by the clash of weapons on every side, the sky at the onset of night shone as if covered with fireflies.

7.141.27 The son of Droṇa, veiling all the quarters round about with his hosts of arrows, to please your sons, overwhelmed the Rākṣasa.

7.141.28 Then in the dead of deep night there raged the combat between the son of Droṇa and the Rākṣasa, like that between Śakra and Prahrāda.

7.141.29 Then Ghaṭotkaca, greatly enraged, struck the son of Droṇa on the breast in the fight with ten arrows resembling the fire of doom.

7.141.30 Pierced by those long shafts of the mighty Rākṣasa, the son of Droṇa reeled in the battle like a tree shaken by the wind, and, falling into a swoon, he clung to the staff of his banner.

7.141.31 Then all your army cried out in dismay, O ruler of men, and all your men deemed him slain, O lord of peoples.

7.141.32 Seeing Aśvatthāman reduced to such a plight in the battle, the Pāñcālas and the Sṛñjayas set up a leonine roar.

7.141.33 Then regaining his senses, Aśvatthāman of great strength, that grinder of foes, gripping his bow firmly with his left hand—

7.141.34 —with the bow drawn full to the ear, loosed a surpassing arrow, dreadful as the rod of Yama, aimed swiftly at Ghaṭotkaca.

7.141.35 That excellent shaft, cleaving the heart of that Rākṣasa, fierce and fair-feathered, entered the earth, O lord of the world.

7.141.36 Deeply pierced, O great king, that lord of the Rākṣasas, mighty though he was, sank down upon the floor of his car, struck by the son of Droṇa, proud of his battle.

7.141.37 Seeing the son of Hiḍimbā swooning, his charioteer, in alarm, swiftly bore him away from the field, out of the presence of the son of Droṇa.

7.141.38 Having thus pierced Ghaṭotkaca, the lord of the Rākṣasas, in the battle, the son of Droṇa, of great might, sent forth a tremendous roar.

7.141.39 Honoured by your sons and by all the warriors, O descendant of Bharata, he blazed forth in his body like the sun at noon.

7.141.40 And as Bhīmasena fought his way toward the car of the son of Bharadvāja, king Duryodhana himself pierced him in return with sharp arrows.

7.141.41 Bhīmasena pierced him with nine arrows, O sire, and Duryodhana too pierced him in return with twenty shafts.

7.141.42 The two of them, veiled with arrows, were seen on the field of battle like the moon and the sun in the sky shrouded by a mass of clouds.

7.141.43 Then king Duryodhana pierced Bhīma with five feathered shafts, O best of the Bhāratas, and cried, 'Stand! Stand!'

7.141.44 Bhīma, cutting off his bow and his banner with nine arrows, pierced that best of the Kauravas with ninety shafts of smooth joints.

7.141.45 Then Duryodhana, enraged, my lord, loosed his arrows at Bhīmasena, O king, in the sight of all the bowmen.

7.141.46 Striking down those shafts that had sped from Duryodhana's bow, Bhīma pierced the Kaurava with twenty-five small arrows.

7.141.47 But Duryodhana, in great wrath, my lord, cut Bhīmasena's bow with a razor-tipped arrow and struck him back with ten.

7.141.48 Then taking up another bow, the mighty Bhīmasena swiftly pierced the king with seven sharpened shafts.

7.141.49 That bow too he swiftly cut, light-handed as he was, and so the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth.

7.141.50 Each bow that Bhīma took up, O great king, your son cut asunder, flushed with the look of victory and swollen with arrogance, O great king.

7.141.51 Then, his bows being cut again and again, in the battle he hurled a fair lance wrought wholly of steel.

7.141.52 Before that lance could reach him, the Kaurava cut it into three pieces, while all the world looked on, and high-souled Bhīma as well.

7.141.53 Then Bhīma, O great king, whirled his heavy and brightly gleaming mace and flung it with force against Duryodhana's chariot.

7.141.54 Then that heavy mace, in an instant, crushed the horses of your son in the fight, and his charioteer too, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.141.55 But your son, O lord of kings, leaping at once from his gold-adorned chariot, sprang into the car of high-souled Nandaka.

7.141.56 Then Bhīma, deeming your son, that great car-warrior, slain, let forth a mighty lion's roar, as though to terrify the Kauravas.

7.141.57 Your soldiers too believed the king was slain, and on every side they all cried out, 'Alas! Alas!'

7.141.58 Hearing that outcry of all the terrified warriors, and hearing the roar of high-souled Bhīmasena, O king—

7.141.59 then King Yudhiṣṭhira, believing Suyodhana slain, advanced with speed to where Pārtha, the Wolf-bellied, stood.

7.141.60 The Pāñcālas, the Kekayas, the Matsyas, and the Sṛñjayas, O lord of peoples, with their whole strength rushed upon Droṇa, eager to fight.

7.141.61 There befell a great battle between Droṇa and his foes, of men sunk in dreadful darkness, slaying one another.

7.142.1 Saṃjaya said: As Sahadeva came on, seeking to reach Droṇa, O lord of peoples, Karṇa, son of Vikartana, held him back in the fight, O Bhārata.

7.142.2 But Sahadeva, having pierced Rādheya with nine swift arrows, struck him again with ten sharpened, smooth-jointed shafts.

7.142.3 Karṇa pierced him back with a hundred smooth-jointed arrows and swiftly cut his strung bow, light-handed as he was.

7.142.4 Then taking up another bow, the valiant son of Mādrī pierced Karṇa with twenty shafts, and that seemed a marvel.

7.142.5 Karṇa, slaying his horses with smooth-jointed arrows, swiftly dispatched his charioteer to the abode of Yama with a broad-headed shaft.

7.142.6 Sahadeva, his chariot lost, took up sword and shield; these too Karṇa shattered with his arrows, as though laughing.

7.142.7 Then he hurled in the battle a heavy, most dreadful great mace, bright with gold, against the chariot of the son of Vikartana.

7.142.8 As it came hurtling on, sped by Sahadeva, Karṇa checked it with his arrows and brought it down to the ground.

7.142.9 Seeing the mace struck down, Sahadeva in haste flung a lance at Karṇa; that too he cut to pieces with his shafts.

7.142.10 Then in agitation, swiftly leaping down from his fine chariot, Sahadeva, O great king, seeing Karṇa standing firm, seized a chariot-wheel and hurled it at the son of Adhiratha.

7.142.11 As it came rushing on, like the upraised wheel of Time, the son of the sūta cut it apart with many thousands of arrows.

7.142.12 That wheel being made vain by the great-souled one, and being held off by his shafts, Sahadeva withdrew from the fight.

7.142.13 Rushing after him for a moment, O bull of the Bhāratas, Rādheya, laughing, spoke these words to Sahadeva, O lord of peoples:

7.142.14 'Do not fight in battle, O hero, with car-warriors who surpass you; contend with your equals, O son of Mādrī—do not doubt my word.'

7.142.15 Then, prodding him with the tip of his bow, he spoke again: 'There Arjuna, intent in battle, fights against the Kurus; go thither, O son of Mādrī, or home, if you think it best.'

7.142.16 Having spoken thus, Karṇa, the foremost of car-warriors, drove on with his chariot toward the armies of the Pāñcālas and Pāṇḍavas, as though laughing.

7.142.17 Though the son of Mādrī was within reach of death, the slayer of foes did not slay him in the battle, remembering Kuntī's word, O king—that great car-warrior, true to his vow.

7.142.18 Then Sahadeva, O king, downcast and stricken with arrows, and scorched by the dart of Karṇa's words, grew weary of his life.

7.142.19 Yet that great car-warrior in haste mounted the chariot of the high-souled Pāñcāla prince Janamejaya in the battle.

7.142.20 As Virāṭa came swiftly on with his army, bent on Droṇa, the king of the Madras covered that bowman with a flood of arrows.

7.142.21 Between those two firm bowmen there arose in battle a combat such as was of old, O king, between Jambha and Vāsava.

7.142.22 The king of the Madras, O great king, swiftly struck Virāṭa, lord of armies, with a hundred sharp, smooth-jointed shafts.

7.142.23 The king pierced him back with nine sharpened arrows, then again with seventy-three, and yet again with a hundred.

7.142.24 The lord of the Madras, slaying his four chariot-horses, struck down from the chariot-box both his charioteer and his banner in the fight.

7.142.25 Swiftly leaping down from the chariot whose horses were slain, the great car-warrior stood twanging his bow and loosing sharp arrows.

7.142.26 Then Śatānīka, seeing his brother's horses slain, charged up swiftly with his chariot while all the world looked on.

7.142.27 As Śatānīka came on in that great battle, the king of the Madras, having pierced him with many shafts, sent him to the abode of Yama.

7.142.28 That hero being slain, Virāṭa, best of car-warriors, swiftly mounted that very same banner-garlanded chariot.

7.142.29 Then, his eyes wide with wrath, his valor doubled, he swiftly covered the chariot of the Madra king with his feathered shafts.

7.142.30 Then the lord of the Madras, enraged, struck Virāṭa, lord of armies, hard upon the breast with a hundred smooth-jointed arrows.

7.142.31 Sore wounded, O great king, Virāṭa sank down upon the chariot-box, and a fierce swoon came over him, O bull of the Bhāratas; his charioteer bore him away from the battle, mangled by the arrows.

7.142.32 Then that great host fled away in the night, O Bhārata, slaughtered by the hundreds of arrows of Śalya, the splendor of battle.

7.142.33 Seeing that army routed, Vāsudeva and Dhanaṃjaya went, O lord of kings, to where Śalya stood his ground.

7.142.34 But against those two advanced, O king, the lord of the Rākṣasas, Alambusa, mounted upon a peerless chariot fitted with eight wheels—

7.142.35 yoked with goblins of dreadful aspect, horse-faced, its banner wet with blood, decked with red garlands, dreadful, all of black iron, vast, and covered with bear-skin—

7.142.36 resplendent with a banner bearing a terrible, bright-winged, wide-eyed, screeching king of vultures with uplifted beak.

7.142.37 That Rākṣasa shone, O king, like a heap of broken collyrium, and barred the advancing Arjuna as a king of mountains bars the storm-wind, raining showers of arrows, O king, by the hundred upon Arjuna's head.

7.142.38 Most fierce was the battle in that field between the man and the Rākṣasa, gladdening the hearts of all who beheld it, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.142.39 Arjuna smote him with a full hundred feathered shafts and with nine sharp arrows cut down his uplifted banner.

7.142.40 With three arrows he struck the charioteer, with three the triple chariot-pole, with one he cut the bow, with four the four horses; and with a single shaft he cleft in two the sword that the carless one had raised.

7.142.41 Then, O bull of the Bhāratas, Pārtha tormented the lord of the Rākṣasas with four sharpened arrows; and he, thus pierced, fled away in fear.

7.142.42 Having vanquished him, Arjuna swiftly drew near to Droṇa, scattering showers of arrows, O king, among men, elephants, and horses.

7.142.43 Slaughtered, O great king, by the illustrious Pāṇḍava, the soldiers fell to the earth like trees felled by the wind.

7.142.44 As they were being cut down by the high-souled Phalguna, the whole army of your sons fled away, O lord of peoples.

7.143.1 Saṃjaya said: As Śatānīka swiftly consumed your host with arrows, your son Citrasena held him back, O Bhārata.

7.143.2 Nakula's son sorely afflicted Citrasena with an iron shaft, and he in turn pierced him back with ten sharpened arrows.

7.143.3 Citrasena, O great king, struck Śatānīka again in the battle, full upon the breast, with nine sharpened arrows.

7.143.4 Nakula's son with his smooth-jointed shafts struck the armor from his body, and that seemed a marvel.

7.143.5 Stripped of his armor, your son shone forth brilliantly, O king, like a serpent that has cast its slough in season, O lord of kings.

7.143.6 Then Nakula's son with his sharpened arrows cut down his banner and his bow as well, O great king, while he strove in the fight.

7.143.7 His bow severed and his armor gone in the battle, that great car-warrior, O great king, took up another bow that rends the foe.

7.143.8 Then swiftly Citrasena, the great car-warrior of the Bharatas, enraged, pierced Nakula's son with nine arrows in the battle.

7.143.9 Then Śatānīka, that best of men, in great wrath, my lord, slew the four horses and the charioteer of Citrasena.

7.143.10 Leaping down from that chariot, the mighty great car-warrior Citrasena tormented Nakula's son with twenty-five arrows.

7.143.11 As he wrought that deed, the son of Nakula in the battle cut, with a crescent-headed arrow, his jewel-adorned bow.

7.143.12 His bow severed, his chariot lost, his horses and charioteer slain, he swiftly mounted the chariot of the high-souled son of Hṛdika.

7.143.13 But as Drupada, that great car-warrior, came on with his army, seeking Droṇa, Vṛṣasena swiftly advanced against him, scattering hundreds of arrows.

7.143.14 But Yajñasena in the battle pierced Karṇa's son, that great car-warrior, with sixty arrows in the arms and the chest, O sinless one.

7.143.15 But Vṛṣasena, greatly enraged, struck Yajñasena, who stood upon his chariot, full upon the breast with many sharp shafts.

7.143.16 Both of them, their bodies driven through with arrows, bristling with shafts in the battle, shone forth, O great king, like two porcupines with their quills.

7.143.17 With gold-feathered, straight-tipped arrows their coats of mail cut through, drenched in streams of blood, they shone forth in that great battle.

7.143.18 Bright as refined gold, splendid, wondrous as two wishing-trees, and like two kiṃśuka trees in full bloom, they blazed upon the field of battle.

7.143.19 Then Vṛṣasena, O king, having pierced Drupada with nine arrows, struck him with seventy, and again with three other shafts.

7.143.20 Then, loosing thousands of arrows, the son of Karṇa shone forth, O great king, like a raincloud pouring down its torrents.

7.143.21 Then Drupada's host, its armor cleft asunder by his shafts, broke and fled in the battle, O king, in that dreadful hour of midnight.

7.143.22 With the burning lamps cast away and blazing on every side, the earth gleamed, O king, like a cloudless sky studded with planets.

7.143.23 And with the fallen armlets the earth gleamed, O great king, as a raincloud gleams with lightning in the season of the rains.

7.143.24 Then the Somakas, terrified by the son of Karṇa, fled in all directions, as the Dānavas, struck with fear of Indra, fled in the Tāraka war.

7.143.25 Tormented by him in battle and taking to flight, the Somakas shone forth, O great king, lit up by the lamps.

7.143.26 Having vanquished them in battle, the son of Karṇa blazed forth like the sun, the hot-rayed one, reaching its noonday height, O Bhārata.

7.143.27 Among those thousands of kings, both your own and the foe's, Vṛṣasena alone stood blazing in his might.

7.143.28 Having conquered in battle the brave great chariot-warriors of the Somakas, he hastened swiftly to where King Yudhiṣṭhira stood.

7.143.29 Then your son Duḥśāsana, that great chariot-warrior, advanced to meet the enraged Prativindhya, who was consuming the foe in battle.

7.143.30 The encounter of those two, O king, was a wondrous sight, like that of Mercury and Venus in a cloudless sky.

7.143.31 As Prativindhya was performing a deed hard to do in the battle, Duḥśāsana pierced him in the forehead with three arrows.

7.143.32 Sorely wounded by your mighty son, the archer, the great-armed one shone forth like a mountain with its peak.

7.143.33 But Prativindhya, that great chariot-warrior, having pierced Duḥśāsana in battle with nine shafts, struck him again with seven.

7.143.34 There, O Bhārata, your son performed a deed hard to do, for he struck down Prativindhya's horses with his fierce arrows.

7.143.35 With a broad-headed shaft he brought down his charioteer and his banner, and shattered the chariot of that archer into a hundred pieces, O king.

7.143.36 And the pennons, the quivers, the reins, and the traces, O lord, he cut to bits in his wrath with his smooth-jointed arrows.

7.143.37 But that righteous one, robbed of his chariot, stood firm, bow in hand, and fought your son, showering forth many hundreds of arrows.

7.143.38 With a razor-edged shaft he cut his bow, like one skilled of hand, and then, his bow severed, tormented him with ten broad-headed arrows.

7.143.39 Seeing him there bereft of his chariot, his brothers, those great chariot-warriors, came on with speed, together with a great army.

7.143.40 Then he leaped onto the shining car of Sutasoma and, taking up a bow, O great king, pierced your son.

7.143.41 Then all your warriors, surrounding your son, advanced into the fray, encompassed by a great army.

7.143.42 Then a battle broke out between your men and theirs, O Bhārata, in that dreadful hour of midnight, swelling the kingdom of Yama.

7.144.1 Saṃjaya said: As Nakula, furious in the fight, was slaying your host, the son of Subala rushed at him in wrath and cried, "Stand, stand!"

7.144.2 Those two heroes, fixed in enmity and each longing for the other's death, struck at one another with arrows loosed from bows drawn to their full length.

7.144.3 Even as the son of Subala swiftly let fly his showers of arrows, so too did Nakula, O king, displaying his training in the fight.

7.144.4 Both those heroes in the battle, bristling then with arrows, shone forth, O great king, like the silk-cotton tree with its thorns.

7.144.5 Eyeing each other askance, O king, with eyes wide open and reddened with rage, they seemed to consume one another.

7.144.6 But your brother-in-law, full of wrath, as if laughing, pierced the son of Mādrī in the heart with a single sharp barbed shaft.

7.144.7 Sorely wounded by your brother-in-law the archer, Nakula sank down upon the floor of his chariot, and a swoon came over him.

7.144.8 Seeing his bitter, arrogant foe brought to such a pass, Śakuni roared, O king, like a raincloud at the end of the hot season.

7.144.9 Then, regaining his senses, Nakula, the joy of Pāṇḍu, rushed once more at the son of Subala like Death with gaping jaws.

7.144.10 In his wrath he pierced Śakuni with sixty shafts, O bull of the Bhāratas, and again with a full hundred iron arrows between the breasts.

7.144.11 Then he cut his arrow-laden bow at the grip, and swiftly cutting down his banner, he cast it from the chariot to the ground.

7.144.12 Sorely wounded, O great king, he sank down upon the floor of his chariot; and seeing your brother-in-law fallen senseless, O blameless one, his charioteer swiftly bore him away by chariot from the front of the host.

7.144.13 Then the Pārthas and their followers raised a shout; and Nakula, the scorcher of foes, having vanquished his enemies in battle, said wrathfully to his charioteer, "Bear me toward Droṇa's host."

7.144.14 Hearing that word of the wise son of Mādrī, the charioteer drove on in the battle, O king, to where Droṇa was fighting.

7.144.15 But as Śikhaṇḍin sought to reach Droṇa in the battle, O lord of peoples, Kṛpa the son of Śaradvat, intent and very swift, advanced to meet him.

7.144.16 As the descendant of Gautama, that tamer of foes, came on swiftly toward Droṇa, Śikhaṇḍin, as if laughing, pierced him with nine broad-headed arrows.

7.144.17 The preceptor, O great king, having pierced him with five swift shafts, struck him again with twenty, that doer of good to your sons.

7.144.18 A great battle there was between those two, terrible in form, O lord of peoples, as in the war of gods and Asuras between Śambara and the king of the gods.

7.144.19 Those two great chariot-warriors made the sky veiled with a web of arrows; the night, by nature terrible in aspect, became more terrible still.

7.144.20 And the night, O best of the Bhāratas, was for the war-loving warriors like the Night of Doom, terrible in aspect and fraught with fear.

7.144.21 But Śikhaṇḍin, O great king, cut Gautama's great bow, strung and with arrow fitted, with a crescent-headed shaft.

7.144.22 At this Kṛpa, in wrath, O king, hurled a dreadful spear, gold-shafted, sharp of point, polished by the smith.

7.144.23 That oncoming spear Śikhaṇḍin cut with many arrows, and it fell blazing to the earth, lighting it up with its great splendor.

7.144.24 Then taking up another bow, the descendant of Gautama, that best of chariot-warriors, covered Śikhaṇḍin with sharp arrows, O great king.

7.144.25 Overwhelmed in battle by the illustrious descendant of Gautama, Śikhaṇḍin, that best of chariot-warriors, sank down upon the floor of his car.

7.144.26 And seeing him sinking down in the fight, Kṛpa the son of Śaradvat smote him with many arrows, as if eager to slay him, O Bhārata.

7.144.27 Seeing that son of Yajñasena, the great chariot-warrior, turned away in the battle, the Pāñcālas and the Somakas surrounded him on every side.

7.144.28 And likewise your sons, with a great army, surrounded that best of the twice-born; and so the battle was joined again.

7.144.29 And of the chariots rushing against one another in the battle, O king, there arose a tumultuous din like that of roaring clouds.

7.144.30 Of the rushing horsemen and the elephants too, O lord of peoples, set against one another, O king, the field of battle showed a cruel sight.

7.144.31 At the tramp of the running foot-soldiers the earth trembled, O great king, like a woman shuddering with fear.

7.144.32 Chariots, falling upon chariots and rushing on with greater speed, seized them in numbers, O king, as crows seize locusts.

7.144.33 And likewise the great elephants in full rut, holding their ground in that very spot, seized the rutting elephants, O Bhārata.

7.144.34 Horseman closing with horseman, and foot-soldier with foot-soldier, joining battle in their fury, did not pass one another by.

7.144.35 Of the running, the fleeing, and those who turned back again, there arose there among the hosts a most tumultuous din in the night.

7.144.36 And the blazing lamps upon the chariots, elephants, and horses appeared, O great king, like great meteors fallen from the sky.

7.144.37 That night, O best of the Bhāratas, lit up by the lamps, became like day, O king, at the head of the battle.

7.144.38 As the darkness pervaded by the sun perishes in the world, so the terrible darkness vanished, adorned by the blazing lamps.

7.144.39 The radiance of the weapons, the armor, and the jewels of those great-souled ones was all swallowed up, outshone by those lamps.

7.144.40 In that uproarious battle raging at the onset of night, a father slew his son in the fight, O most excellent of the Bhāratas.

7.144.41 And a son in his bewilderment slew his father, a friend his friend, a kinsman his kinsman, and an uncle his sister's son.

7.144.42 Friends slew friends and foes slew foes, each striking the other; the battle in the night was without restraint, terrible and fraught with fear.

7.145.1 Saṃjaya said: As that most tumultuous and fearful battle raged on, Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O great king, advanced straight against Droṇa.

7.145.2 Stroking his excellent bow and drawing its string again and again, he advanced upon Droṇa's chariot, adorned with gold.

7.145.3 As Dhṛṣṭadyumna then came on, eager to make an end of Droṇa, the Pāñcālas, together with the Pāṇḍavas, surrounded him, O great king.

7.145.4 Seeing Droṇa, that best of preceptors, thus encompassed, your sons, intent on every side, guarded Droṇa in the fray.

7.145.5 Then those two oceans of host met at the onset of night, like two dreadful seas lashed by the wind, their creatures churned into turmoil.

7.145.6 Then the prince of the Pāñcālas, O great king, swiftly pierced Droṇa in the heart with five arrows, and uttered a lion's roar.

7.145.7 Droṇa, having pierced him with twenty-five shafts in the battle, O Bhārata, cut with another broad-headed arrow his bright-shining bow.

7.145.8 But Dhṛṣṭadyumna, sorely pierced by Droṇa, O bull of the Bhāratas, swiftly cast aside that bow, biting his lip.

7.145.9 Then, in his wrath, O great king, the mighty Dhṛṣṭadyumna took up another excellent bow, eager to make an end of Droṇa.

7.145.10 And drawing his wondrous bow to his ear, that slayer of hostile heroes then loosed a terrible shaft to make an end of Droṇa.

7.145.11 That terrible arrow, loosed by the mighty one in the great battle, lit up that host like the risen sun.

7.145.12 Seeing that terrible arrow, the gods, Gandharvas, and men spoke these words, O king: "May it be well with Droṇa in the battle."

7.145.13 But that shaft, before it reached the preceptor's chariot, Karṇa cut into twelve pieces, O king, like one skilled of hand.

7.145.14 Cut into many pieces by the charioteer's son, O king, O venerable one, that arrow, severed by Karṇa's shafts, swiftly fell.

7.145.15 Having cut that arrow in the battle with his smooth-jointed shafts, Karṇa pierced Dhṛṣṭadyumna in the fight with ten arrows.

7.145.16 Droṇa's son struck him with five arrows, and Droṇa himself with seven; Śalya with nine shafts, and Duḥśāsana likewise with three.

7.145.17 Duryodhana with twenty, and Śakuni too with five — all those great chariot-warriors swiftly pierced the prince of the Pāñcālas.

7.145.18 Wounded by those seven heroes who fought in battle to shield Droṇa, he, O king, without dismay struck back at each one with three arrows apiece, and pierced Droṇa, Droṇa's son, Karṇa, and your own son.

7.145.19 Pierced by that bowman, those best of charioteers each in turn swiftly wounded Dhṛṣṭadyumna again in the fray, each with five shafts.

7.145.20 But Drumasena, enraged, O king, pierced him with a feathered shaft and swiftly with three other arrows, crying, 'Stand! Stand!'

7.145.21 But he pierced him in return with three keen, straight-flying arrows, gold-feathered and whetted on stone, deadly bringers of death in battle.

7.145.22 Then with another broad-headed shaft the valiant one struck from its body the head of Drumasena, bright with golden earrings.

7.145.23 That head fell to the earth in the battle, its lips bitten fast together, like a ripe palm-fruit shaken loose by a mighty wind.

7.145.24 And having pierced those heroes again with well-sharpened arrows, the hero with broad-headed shafts cut apart the bow of Rādheya, that artful fighter.

7.145.25 But Karṇa could not endure that severing of his bow — fierce beyond measure, like a lion whose tail has been cut off.

7.145.26 Taking up another bow, his eyes red with rage and breathing hard, he rained floods of arrows upon that mighty Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.145.27 Seeing Karṇa thus enraged, those six bull-like chariot-warriors swiftly surrounded the son of the Pāñcāla king, eager to slay him.

7.145.28 Beset before those six foremost warriors of your side, Dhṛṣṭadyumna seemed to us to have come into the very mouth of death.

7.145.29 At that very moment the Dāśārha Sātyaki, scattering his arrows, came to the aid of the valiant Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.145.30 As that great archer Sātyaki, fierce in battle, drew near, Rādheya pierced him in return with ten straight-flying arrows.

7.145.31 Sātyaki, O great king, pierced him in turn with ten arrows before the eyes of all the heroes, crying, 'You shall not escape! Stand!'

7.145.32 Then between the mighty Sātyaki and the great-souled Karṇa there came a dreadful encounter, like that between Bali and Vāsava.

7.145.33 That bull among kṣatriyas, terrifying the warriors with the slap of his palm against the bowstring, Sātyaki struck back at the lotus-eyed Karṇa.

7.145.34 The mighty son of the charioteer, as if making the earth tremble with the twang of his bow, fought back against Sātyaki, O great king.

7.145.35 With cleaving shafts, with eared and iron arrows, with calf-tooth heads and razor-edged points, with hundreds of arrows besides, Karṇa pierced the grandson of Śini.

7.145.36 And likewise Yuyudhāna too, foremost chariot-warrior of the Vṛṣṇis, rained arrows upon Karṇa; and that combat was evenly matched.

7.145.37 And your warriors, O great king, together with Karṇa's mailed son, swiftly pierced Sātyaki on every side with sharpened arrows.

7.145.38 Warding off the weapons of those men and of Karṇa with his own weapons, O lord, the enraged Sātyaki struck Vṛṣasena in the breast.

7.145.39 Pierced through by that arrow, O lord of peoples, the valiant Vṛṣasena, swooning, let fall his bow and sank down upon his chariot.

7.145.40 Then Karṇa, that great chariot-warrior, believing Vṛṣasena slain and burning with grief for his son, pressed hard upon Sātyaki in return.

7.145.41 Though hard pressed by Karṇa, the great chariot-warrior Yuyudhāna pierced Karṇa with many arrows, hastening again and again.

7.145.42 Having pierced Karṇa with ten arrows and Vṛṣasena with seven, the Sātvata cut apart the bows of them both together with the guards upon their hands.

7.145.43 Then those two, stringing other bows that struck terror into foes, pierced Yuyudhāna on every side with sharpened arrows.

7.145.44 While that battle raged on, with its slaughter of the noblest heroes, the great twang of the Gāṇḍīva was heard above all, O king.

7.145.45 Hearing the rumble of the chariot and the twang of the Gāṇḍīva, the son of the charioteer, O king, spoke these words to Duryodhana.

7.145.46 This mighty roar of the Gāṇḍīva comes from him who has slain all the Śibis, the foremost of men, and the great-bowed Pauravas.

7.145.47 The din of his chariot is heard like the roar of Vāsava himself; plainly the Pāṇḍava is performing a deed worthy of his name.

7.145.48 This Bhārata host, O king, is being torn asunder in many directions; the scattered ranks can hold their ground nowhere at all.

7.145.49 Like a mass of clouds scattered by the wind it is torn apart, having met Savyasācin, like a broken ship upon the sea.

7.145.50 From the foremost warriors fleeing, pierced by the hundreds with arrows loosed from the Gāṇḍīva, a great cry is heard, O king — at midnight, O tiger among kings, like thunder in the sky.

7.145.51 Hear the cries of dismay, the abundant lion-roars, and the sounds of many kinds rising up about the chariot of Arjuna.

7.145.52 Here in our midst stands Sātyaki, the basest of the Sātvatas; if he be brought within our reach as a target here, we shall conquer all our foes.

7.145.53 And here the son of the Pāñcāla king is locked with Droṇa, surrounded on every side, O king, by the noblest of warriors.

7.145.54 If we should slay Sātyaki and Dhṛṣṭadyumna the son of Pṛṣata, then beyond doubt, O great king, our victory would be assured.

7.145.55 As we did with the son of Subhadrā, let us surround these two heroes, these great chariot-warriors, and strive, O great king, to slay the Vṛṣṇi and the son of Pṛṣata.

7.145.56 Savyasācin advances against Droṇa's army in front, O Bhārata, knowing that Sātyaki is locked in combat with many bulls among the Kurus.

7.145.57 Let many of our foremost, best of chariot-warriors go there, before Pārtha learns that Sātyaki is beset by many.

7.145.58 Hasten, O heroes, eagerly in the loosing of your arrows, so that this Mādhava may swiftly pass to the world beyond.

7.145.59 Having learned Karṇa's counsel, your son spoke to the son of Subala, as Indra in battle, O king, once spoke to the glorious Viṣṇu.

7.145.60 'Surrounded by ten thousand elephants that never turn back, and ringed by ten thousand chariots, go against Dhanaṃjaya.'

7.145.61 'Duḥśāsana, Durviṣaha, Subāhu, and Duṣpradharṣaṇa — these shall follow you, encircled by many footmen.'

7.145.62 'Slay the two Kṛṣṇas, O mighty-armed uncle, and the Dharma-king too, and Nakula and Sahadeva and Bhīmasena, O Bhārata.'

7.145.63 'As the gods place their hope of victory in the lord of the gods, so does my hope rest upon you. Slay, O uncle, the sons of Kuntī, as the son of Agni slew the Asuras.'

7.145.64 Thus addressed by your son, the son of Subala marched against the Pārthas with a great army and with your sons as well, O lord.

7.145.65 To please your sons, longing to consume the joy-bringing sons of Pāṇḍu, then arose the battle between your men and the foe.

7.145.66 When the son of Subala had marched against the host of the Pāṇḍavas, O king, the son of the charioteer, joined with a great force, advanced against the Sātvata.

7.145.67 He charged swiftly into the fight, scattering many hundreds of arrows; and likewise all the Pāṇḍavas closed protectively around Sātyaki.

7.145.68 Then a great battle was fought by night, O Bhārata, between Droṇa on the one side and the heroic Dhṛṣṭadyumna with the great-souled Pāñcālas on the other.

7.146.1 Saṃjaya said: Then they all rushed forward in haste, frenzied in battle, unable to bear it and filled with fury, toward the chariot of Yuyudhāna.

7.146.2 With their well-equipped chariots adorned with gold and silver, O king, and with horsemen and elephants, they surrounded the Sātvata.

7.146.3 Then, hemming him in on every side as in a stockade, those great chariot-warriors raised their lion-roars, threatening Sātyaki.

7.146.4 Those mighty heroes, hastening and seeking the death of the Mādhava, rained sharp arrows upon Sātyaki of true valor.

7.146.5 Seeing them swiftly descending upon him, the grandson of Śini, slayer of hostile heroes, that mighty-armed one received them, loosing many arrows in return.

7.146.6 There the hero Sātyaki, great archer fierce in battle, cut off heads with terrible arrows whose joints were bent low.

7.146.7 The trunks of elephants, the necks of horses, and arms still grasping their weapons — these the Mādhava brought down with razor-headed shafts among your men.

7.146.8 With fallen yak-tail whisks and white parasols, O Bhārata, the earth became filled, like the sky with stars, O lord.

7.146.9 As they battled with Yuyudhāna in the fray, O Bhārata, there arose a tumultuous din, like the wailing of departed spirits.

7.146.10 By that mighty sound the earth was filled, and the night became fierce of aspect and terrifying.

7.146.11 Seeing the army torn apart and struck down by Yuyudhāna's arrows, and hearing the vast hair-raising clamor at midnight,

7.146.12 your son, that best of chariot-warriors, O king, said again and again to his charioteer, 'Drive the horses to where this sound arises.'

7.146.13 Thus urged on, the charioteer then drove those excellent horses toward the chariot of Yuyudhāna.

7.146.14 Then Duryodhana, enraged, firm of bow, untiring, swift of hand, and skilled in varied modes of warfare, rushed upon Yuyudhāna.

7.146.15 Then with arrows loosed from a fully drawn bow, feeders on flesh and blood, the Mādhava pierced Duryodhana in return with twelve shafts.

7.146.16 Duryodhana, thus already wounded before by those arrows, pierced the grandson of Śini in return with ten shafts, unable to bear it.

7.146.17 Then there arose a confused and terrible battle, O bull of the Bhāratas, between all the Pāñcālas and the Bhāratas.

7.146.18 The grandson of Śini, enraged in the fight, pierced your son, that great chariot-warrior, in the breast with eighty arrows, O Bhārata.

7.146.19 Then in the battle he sent his horses with arrows to the abode of Yama, and swiftly with a feathered shaft brought down his charioteer from the car.

7.146.20 Standing upon his car whose horses were slain, your son, O lord of peoples, loosed sharpened arrows toward the chariot of the grandson of Śini.

7.146.21 Those fifty arrows sent forth by your son, O king, the grandson of Śini, deft of hand, cut to pieces in the battle.

7.146.22 Then with another broad-headed shaft the impetuous one, in the fight, cut your son's great bow at the grip, O honored sir.

7.146.23 Bereft of his chariot and of his bow, that lord and master of all the world swiftly mounted the gleaming car of Kṛtavarman.

7.146.24 When Duryodhana had turned away, the grandson of Śini put your army to flight with his arrows in the dead of night, O lord of peoples.

7.146.25 And Śakuni, O king, surrounding Arjuna on every side with many thousands of chariots, with elephants by the thousand, and with thousands of horses, raised a tumult all around.

7.146.26 Scattering great celestial weapons against Arjuna, those kṣatriyas, driven on by fate, did battle with Arjuna.

7.146.27 Those thousands of chariots, elephants, and horses Arjuna held back, exerting himself and working a vast destruction.

7.146.28 Then in the battle the valiant Śakuni, son of Subala, pierced Arjuna with sharpened arrows, smiling as he did so.

7.146.29 And again with a hundred shafts he beset that mighty car-warrior; but Arjuna, O Bhārata, pierced him in turn with twenty in the fight.

7.146.30 Then he struck the other great archers, three shafts to each; and having checked them with showers of arrows in the fight, O king, Dhanaṃjaya slew your warriors as the wielder of the thunderbolt slays the Asuras.

7.146.31 Strewn with severed arms, O great king, and with bodies by the thousand, the earth there shone as though it were covered over with flowers.

7.146.32 Having pierced Śakuni once more with five smooth-jointed shafts, he smote Ulūka with three, and with three more of solid iron.

7.146.33 Ulūka, thus pierced, struck Vāsudeva in return, and roared a mighty roar that filled the surface of the earth.

7.146.34 But Arjuna, advancing swiftly, cut asunder the bow of Śakuni and sent his four steeds toward the abode of Yama.

7.146.35 Then leaping down from his car, O bull of the Bhāratas, the son of Subala swiftly mounted the chariot of Ulūka, O lord of peoples.

7.146.36 Mounted upon a single car, those two mighty car-warriors, father and son, drenched Pārtha with arrows as two upreared clouds drench a mountain.

7.146.37 But the Pāṇḍava, having pierced them both, O great king, with sharpened arrows, and routing your host, scattered them by the hundred with his shafts.

7.146.38 As clouds are scattered on every side by the wind, so were your forces scattered, O king, O lord of peoples.

7.146.39 That army, O best of the Bhāratas, thus being slaughtered in the night, fled in every direction, looking about in its terror, tormented by fear.

7.146.40 Some abandoned their steeds in the battle, while others, urging them on, ran bewildered hither and thither in that dreadful darkness.

7.146.41 Having vanquished your warriors in the battle, O bull of the Bhāratas, Vāsudeva and Dhanaṃjaya, full of joy, blew their conches.

7.146.42 Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O great king, having pierced Droṇa with three arrows, swiftly cut the bowstring of his bow with a sharpened shaft.

7.146.43 Laying that bow aside in its rest, Droṇa, the crusher of warriors, the valiant one, took up another bow, swift and of greater strength.

7.146.44 Then Droṇa, having pierced Dhṛṣṭadyumna with seven swift arrows, struck his charioteer with five shafts, O king, in the fray.

7.146.45 Checking him swiftly with arrows, the mighty car-warrior Dhṛṣṭadyumna scattered the Kaurava army by the hundred and by the thousand.

7.146.46 While that army of your son was being slaughtered, O honored one, a fearful river arose, rolling with waves of streaming blood.

7.146.47 Between the two armies it flowed, bearing along men, horses, and elephants, like the Vaitaraṇī, O king, that runs toward the city of Yama's realm.

7.146.48 Having routed that host, the glorious Dhṛṣṭadyumna shone forth in his splendor, as Śakra among the hosts of the gods.

7.146.49 Then Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Śikhaṇḍin, the twins, and Yuyudhāna, and the Pāṇḍava Vṛkodara blew their great conches.

7.146.50 Having vanquished thousands of your car-warriors, the mighty Pāṇḍava car-warriors, radiant with victory, raised lion-like roars.

7.146.51 Frenzied with their triumph, they did so before the very eyes of your son, of Karṇa, of the valiant Droṇa, and of Droṇa's son, O lord of peoples.

7.147.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing his own army routed and slaughtered by those great-souled ones, your son, O lord of peoples, was overcome with a mighty wrath.

7.147.2 Suddenly approaching Karṇa and Droṇa, the foremost of victors, and yielding to his indignation, that knower of speech spoke these words.

7.147.3 By you two, enraged, was this battle set afoot, when you had seen the lord of the Sindhus slain in combat by Savyasācin.

7.147.4 Yet now, though able to gain the victory there, you look on as though unable, while my host is being slaughtered by the strength of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.147.5 If I am to be forsaken by you, then you should not have said to me, O bestowers of honor: 'We two shall conquer the sons of Pāṇḍu in battle.'

7.147.6 It was upon hearing that word, assented to by you both, that I waged with the Pāṇḍavas this enmity that destroys warriors.

7.147.7 If I am not to be abandoned by you, O bulls among men, then fight, O mighty heroes, with prowess worthy of you.

7.147.8 Goaded by your son with the lash of words, those two heroes set about the fight like two serpents that have been struck.

7.147.9 Then those two foremost of car-warriors, the best bowmen in all the world, rushed in battle upon the Pārthas led by the grandson of Śini.

7.147.10 And likewise the Pārthas, gathered together and surrounded by their own host, advanced against those two heroes, roaring again and again.

7.147.11 Then Droṇa, the great archer, foremost of all bearers of arms, enraged, swiftly pierced the bull of the Śinis with ten shafts.

7.147.12 And Karṇa with ten arrows, and your son with seven, and Vṛṣasena with ten, and the son of Subala with seven — these, O Kaurava, beset the grandson of Śini in the tumult.

7.147.13 And seeing Droṇa in the battle smiting the Pāṇḍava host, the Somakas swiftly pierced him on every side with showers of arrows.

7.147.14 Then Droṇa bore away the lives of the warriors, O lord of peoples, as the sun with its rays bears away the darkness, O king, O Bhārata.

7.147.15 From the Pāñcālas being slaughtered by Droṇa, O lord of peoples, there was heard a tumultuous clamor as they cried out to one another.

7.147.16 Some abandoning their sons, some their fathers, some their brothers and maternal uncles, some their nephews and comrades, and likewise their kinsmen and friends, they fled in haste, longing to keep their lives.

7.147.17 Others, deluded by their bewilderment, went straight against him; and other warriors of the Pāṇḍavas went thus to the world beyond.

7.147.18 That Pāṇḍava army, thus being slaughtered, fled in the night, O king, casting aside their torches by the thousand.

7.147.19 This took place before the very eyes of Bhīmasena, of Vijaya, of Acyuta, of the twins, of the son of Dharma, and of the son of Pṛṣata as they looked on.

7.147.20 With the world wrapped in darkness, nothing could be discerned; but by the light of the Kauravas the routed foes were seen.

7.147.21 As that host fled, the two mighty car-warriors Droṇa and Karṇa smote them from behind, O king, pouring out many shafts.

7.147.22 When the Pāñcālas were broken and shattered on every side, Janārdana, with downcast heart, addressed Phalguna in reply.

7.147.23 These two great archers, Droṇa and Karṇa, joined together, are sorely smiting the son of Pṛṣata, Sātyaki, and the Pāñcālas with their shafts.

7.147.24 By the arrow-shower of these two our mighty car-warriors are broken; and though I strive to hold them, O son of Kuntī, the army does not stand firm.

7.147.25 Let us two, with all our forces well marshaled and with weapons upraised, make our utmost effort to beat back Droṇa and the son of the charioteer.

7.147.26 For these two are mighty, valiant, skilled in arms, and radiant with victory; if neglected, in their wrath they would destroy our army this very night. Yonder comes the terrible Bhīma, having rallied his host once more.

7.147.27 Seeing Vṛkodara thus coming on, Janārdana there, O king, spoke once more, as though gladdening the Pāṇḍava.

7.147.28 Yonder Bhīma, glorious in battle, encircled by the Somakas and the Pāṇḍavas, in his fury rushes with speed upon the mighty Droṇa and Karṇa.

7.147.29 Joined with him and with the mighty Pāñcāla car-warriors, do battle, O delight of Pāṇḍu, to bring heart to all the armies.

7.147.30 Then those two tigers among men, Mādhava and the Pāṇḍava together, having reached Droṇa and Karṇa, took their stand at the head of the battle.

7.147.31 Then that great army of Yudhiṣṭhira turned back once more; and thereupon Droṇa and Karṇa crushed the foe in the fight.

7.147.32 That tumultuous, mighty clash arose in the night, O king, like the meeting of two oceans swollen by the rising of the moon.

7.147.33 Then, casting the lamps from their hands, your army fought against the Pāṇḍavas like madmen at the dying of the day.

7.147.34 With all enveloped by dust and by darkness, exceedingly dreadful, those who sought victory fought only by name and lineage.

7.147.35 For the names proclaimed by the kings as they smote were heard, O great king, in that battle as at a self-choice ceremony.

7.147.36 All at once there was silence; then again a mighty din arose of those enraged and fighting, of the victors and the vanquished alike.

7.147.37 Wherever lamps were seen, O best of the Kurus, there those heroes fell upon them like moths.

7.147.38 As they thus fought, the deep night advanced, O lord of kings, upon the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas on every side.

7.148.1 Saṃjaya said: Then Karṇa, slayer of hostile heroes, beholding the son of Pṛṣata in the battle, struck him on the breast with ten arrows that pierce the vital parts.

7.148.2 Dhṛṣṭadyumna too, O honored one, pierced him swiftly in return with five shafts, and joyously cried, 'Stand, stand!'

7.148.3 Those two great car-warriors, having covered each other with arrows in the fray, again pierced one another with shafts loosed at full stretch.

7.148.4 Then in the fight Karṇa pierced with his shafts the charioteer and the four steeds of Dhṛṣṭadyumna, the chief of the Pāñcālas.

7.148.5 And he cut asunder his excellent bow with sharpened arrows, and with a broad-headed shaft felled his charioteer from the body of the car.

7.148.6 But Dhṛṣṭadyumna, his car destroyed, his steeds slain and his charioteer slain, seizing a fearful iron club, crushed the horses of Karṇa.

7.148.7 And pierced by him with many arrows like venomous serpents, he then made his way on foot to the host of Yudhiṣṭhira, and mounted the car of Sahadeva, O honored one.

7.148.8 To the car of Karṇa, too, the charioteer yoked other steeds, conch-colored, of great swiftness, born of the Sindhu country, and well-trained to draw.

7.148.9 And Rādheya, having found his mark, strove hard and pressed the mighty car-warriors of the Pāñcālas with his arrows as a cloud presses the mountains.

7.148.10 That great host of the Pāñcālas, sorely pressed by Karṇa, fled away in utter terror, like a doe tormented by a lion.

7.148.11 Men fallen swiftly from horses and from elephants to the ground, and from chariots, were seen here and there.

7.148.12 With razor-edged shafts in that great battle Karṇa cut off the arms of one warrior as he fled, and his head as well, with its earrings.

7.148.13 And he cut off the thighs of another seated upon an elephant, O lord of peoples, and of one mounted on the back of a horse, and of one standing on the ground, O honored one.

7.148.14 Many a mighty car-warrior fleeing did not even perceive that his own limbs and his mounts had been severed in the fight.

7.148.15 Those Pāñcālas, slaughtered in the battle together with the Sṛñjayas, fancied the son of the charioteer present even at the mere stirring of a blade of grass.

7.148.16 Bereft of their senses, they took even their own fleeing warrior in the battle to be Karṇa himself, and so in their terror they fled.

7.148.17 Those broken divisions as they fled, O Bhārata, Karṇa swiftly pursued from behind, scattering his arrows.

7.148.18 Gazing at one another, utterly bewildered and senseless, they were unable to hold their ground, harried as they were by that great-souled one.

7.148.19 Struck down by Karṇa's deadliest arrows, O king, and by Droṇa, the Pāñcālas fled in every direction, glancing all around them as they ran.

7.148.20 Then King Yudhiṣṭhira, seeing his own army routed, resolved upon retreat, and spoke these words to Phalguna.

7.148.21 Behold Karṇa, the mighty archer, standing firm with bow in hand in the terrible hour of midnight, blazing like the sun.

7.148.22 Ceaselessly is heard, O Pārtha, the cry of your kinsmen pierced by Karṇa's shafts, wailing like men who have no protector.

7.148.23 Seeing him nock and loose his swift arrows, victorious in his valor, I am certain he will surely destroy us.

7.148.24 Whatever next deed you judge fit for this hour, one that will bring about the slaying of Karṇa—do it, O Dhanaṃjaya.

7.148.25 Thus addressed, the mighty-armed Pārtha then spoke to Kṛṣṇa—for the king, the son of Kuntī, was filled with fear at the overwhelming valor of Rādheya.

7.148.26 Matters being thus, let you decide quickly, again and again, what befits the hour against Karṇa's host—for the army is fleeing.

7.148.27 Of those broken and driven by Droṇa's arrows, O slayer of Madhu, and terrified by Karṇa, there is no holding their ground.

7.148.28 And I see Karṇa ranging without fear, showering the noble car-warriors as they flee with his sharp-pointed shafts.

7.148.29 I cannot bear to endure his exploits at the battle's front before my eyes, O tiger of the Vṛṣṇis, as a serpent cannot endure the touch of a foot.

7.148.30 So let you drive swiftly to where Karṇa, the great car-warrior, stands: either I shall slay him, or he shall slay me, O slayer of Madhu.

7.148.31 Vāsudeva said: I see Karṇa, O son of Kuntī, ranging in battle like the king of the gods—that tiger among men, of more than human valor.

7.148.32 There is no other in this battle who can stand against him, O Dhanaṃjaya, save you, tiger among men, or the rākṣasa Ghaṭotkaca.

7.148.33 Yet I do not deem this the fitting hour, O sinless and mighty-armed one, for your encounter with the sūta's son in combat.

7.148.34 For the dart of Vāsava abides with him, blazing like a great meteor, and it bears a dreadful form meant, O mighty-armed one, for you.

7.148.35 Let mighty Ghaṭotkaca instead go forth against Rādheya, for he was begotten by the strong Bhīma, and his prowess is that of a god.

7.148.36 In him reside celestial weapons, and those of the rākṣasas and asuras; ever devoted to you and seeking your good is Ghaṭotkaca. He will conquer Karṇa in battle—of this I have no doubt.

7.148.37 Saṃjaya said: Having so spoken to Pārtha, the mighty-armed, lotus-eyed one summoned that rākṣasa, and at once it appeared before them.

7.148.38 Armored, arrow-bearing, sword in hand and bow withal, O lord of peoples, he saluted Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍava Dhanaṃjaya, and gladly said to him: Here I am—command me.

7.148.39 Then to that son of Hiḍimbā, cloud-hued, with blazing face and blazing earrings, the Dāśārha spoke, smiling the while.

7.148.40 Ghaṭotkaca, mark well what I shall tell you, my son: the hour of valor has come for you, and for no other man.

7.148.41 Be you, for your kinsmen who are sinking, like a raft; manifold are your weapons, and yours too is the magic of the rākṣasas.

7.148.42 Behold, son of Hiḍimbā, the host of the Pāṇḍavas driven by Karṇa at the battle's front like cattle driven by a herdsman.

7.148.43 This Karṇa, the mighty archer, wise and firm in valor, slays the bulls among kṣatriyas within the Pāṇḍava ranks.

7.148.44 Though they pour down great showers of arrows, the firm-bowed warriors cannot hold their ground, oppressed by the flame of his shafts.

7.148.45 Tormented at midnight by the sūta's son with his rain of arrows, these Pāñcālas flee like deer from the terror of a lion.

7.148.46 Of this sūta's son, swollen so with might in combat, there is no other check save you, O you of fearsome valor.

7.148.47 So do you, mighty-armed one, perform here a deed worthy of yourself, of your maternal uncles and your fathers, of your splendor and the strength of your weapons.

7.148.48 For this very end, son of Hiḍimbā, do men desire sons—that one might deliver them from sorrow. Deliver, then, your kinsmen.

7.148.49 For terrible is the strength of your weapons, and unmatchable your magic spells, ever as you fight in battle, O delight of Bhīma.

7.148.50 For the Pāṇḍavas, shattered by Karṇa's keen shafts and sinking amid the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, be the farther shore, O scorcher of foes.

7.148.51 For by night the rākṣasas grow yet more boundless in valor—strong, well-nigh invincible, heroic, and ranging in their might.

7.148.52 Slay Karṇa, the mighty archer, at midnight in battle by your magic; the Pārthas, with Dhṛṣṭadyumna at their head, will slay Droṇa.

7.148.53 Hearing the words of Keśava, Bībhatsu too, O scion of Kuru, addressed the rākṣasa Ghaṭotkaca, tamer of foes.

7.148.54 Ghaṭotkaca, you yourself, and long-armed Sātyaki, and Bhīmasena the Pāṇḍava—these in my judgment are foremost among all our hosts.

7.148.55 Let you, then, go forth to fight a single-chariot duel with Karṇa this night; Sātyaki, the great car-warrior, shall be the guardian of your rear.

7.148.56 Slay the hero Karṇa in battle, aided by the Sātvata, as Indra of old slew Tāraka with Skanda at his side.

7.148.57 Ghaṭotkaca said: I am a match for Karṇa, O best of men, and a match for Droṇa too, and for the other high-souled kṣatriyas skilled in arms.

7.148.58 This very night I shall give the sūta's son such a battle as men will tell of for as long as the earth endures.

7.148.59 And here I shall spare neither the brave, nor the frightened, nor those who join their palms in surrender; all alike I shall slay, holding to the rākṣasa's code.

7.148.60 Saṃjaya said: Having so spoken, the mighty-armed son of Hiḍimbā, slayer of hostile heroes, advanced upon Karṇa in the tumult, striking terror into your army.

7.148.61 As he rushed on in fury, like a serpent of blazing maw, the supreme archer, the sūta's son, met him with arrows and received his onset.

7.148.62 Then there arose between those two, Karṇa and the rākṣasa, a roaring battle in the night, O tiger among kings, like that between Śakra and Prahrāda.

7.149.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing Ghaṭotkaca, O king, advance with hot haste toward the chariot of the sūta's son, eager to slay Karṇa in the fray—

7.149.2 your son spoke these words to Duḥśāsana: This rākṣasa, beholding Karṇa's prowess, comes swiftly on in battle.

7.149.3 He rushes upon Karṇa—ward off that great car-warrior. Go, surrounded by a mighty force, to where the strong one stands.

7.149.4 Karṇa Vaikartana means to do battle with the rākṣasa; guard Karṇa in the fight, ever watchful and ringed about with troops, O giver of honor.

7.149.5 Meanwhile, O king, the mighty son of Jaṭāsura, foremost of those who strike, came to Duryodhana and spoke.

7.149.6 Duryodhana, your foes the Pāṇḍavas, renowned and maddened in war, I wish to slay with their followers, if you but command me.

7.149.7 Jaṭāsura, my father, foremost of rākṣasas, was of old struck down by the base Pārthas, who worked a rite to slay rākṣasas. I wish to avenge him; with your leave, lord, let me go.

7.149.8 Then the king, well pleased, said to him again and again: With Droṇa, Karṇa, and the rest at my side, I am equal to the slaying of foes; but go you, at my command, and conquer Ghaṭotkaca in battle.

7.149.9 Saying "So be it," the huge-bodied son of Jaṭāsura challenged Ghaṭotkaca and covered the son of Bhīmasena with weapons of every kind.

7.149.10 Alaṃbala and Karṇa and the unassailable host of the Kurus the son of Hiḍimbā churned single-handed, as a great gale churns the rain-clouds.

7.149.11 Then Alaṃbala, swiftly marking the chariot wrought of illusion, assailed Ghaṭotkaca with showers of arrows of every fashion.

7.149.12 And having pierced the son of Bhīmasena with many shafts, Alaṃbala scattered the host of the Pāṇḍavas with his floods of arrows.

7.149.13 Driven before him, O sir, the armies of the Pāṇḍavas were scattered abroad at midnight like clouds dispersed by the wind.

7.149.14 Likewise the host of the Kurus, driven by Ghaṭotkaca's arrows, fled at midnight, O king, casting away their torches by the thousand.

7.149.15 Then Alaṃbala in wrath struck the son of Bhīmasena in that great affray with keen arrows, as one goads a great elephant with hooks.

7.149.16 His car, his driver, and all his weapons Ghaṭotkaca cut to fragments fine as sesame, and roared most terribly.

7.149.17 Then he rained his floods of arrows upon Karṇa, upon the other Kurus by the thousand, and upon Alaṃbala, as a cloud pours upon the unmoving Meru.

7.149.18 Then the army of the Kurus, harried by the rākṣasa, was thrown into turmoil, and the fourfold host crushed one another, rank upon rank.

7.149.19 The son of Jaṭāsura, O great king, his chariot lost and his driver slain, in fury smote Ghaṭotkaca hard in the battle with his fist.

7.149.20 Struck by that fist, Ghaṭotkaca reeled, as a mountain with its woods and thickets and clustered trees trembles in an earthquake.

7.149.21 Then with his arm like an iron bludgeon, the bane of hosts of foes, the son of Bhīmasena smote the son of Jaṭāsura fiercely with his fist.

7.149.22 Having crushed him, the son of Hiḍimbā in wrath seized him swiftly and with arms like Indra's banner-staffs dashed him down upon the earth.

7.149.23 Alaṃbala in turn flung the rākṣasa off, then lifted Ghaṭotkaca high and in rage dashed him too down upon the earth.

7.149.24 Then there arose between those two roaring giants, Ghaṭotkaca and Alaṃbala, a tumultuous battle that made the hair stand on end.

7.149.25 Each surpassing the other, those two masters of illusion fought with their spells, mighty in valor, like Indra and the son of Virocana.

7.149.26 Becoming now fire and ocean, now Garuḍa and Takṣaka, now cloud and great wind, now thunderbolt and great mountain, now elephant and tiger, now Svarbhānu and the sun—

7.149.27 thus conjuring a hundred illusions, each longing to slay the other, Alaṃbala and Ghaṭotkaca fought on in marvelous fashion.

7.149.28 With iron bars and maces, with darts and mallets and lances, with clubs and mountain-peaks, they smote each other.

7.149.29 Now with horses, now with elephants, now on foot, now from chariots, those two foremost rākṣasas, great masters of magic, did battle in the fray.

7.149.30 Then Ghaṭotkaca, O king, longing to slay Alaṃbala and exceedingly wrathful, sprang up and swooped down upon him like a hawk.

7.149.31 And seizing that huge-bodied lord of rākṣasas, Alaṃbala, he raised him aloft and dashed him to the ground, as Viṣṇu in battle slew Maya.

7.149.32 Then Ghaṭotkaca, taking up a sword of wondrous aspect, severed from the trunk the dreadful, hideous-looking head.

7.149.33 Grasping that blood-smeared head by the hair, the rākṣasa Ghaṭotkaca went swiftly toward Duryodhana's chariot.

7.149.34 Drawing near, the mighty-armed rākṣasa, smiling, cast onto his chariot the head with its disfigured face and hair, and uttered a fearful cry like a thunder-cloud in the rains.

7.149.35 And then, O king, he spoke these words to Duryodhana: Here is your ally slain; his valor you have seen. Soon you shall see this same end fall upon Karṇa—and upon yourself as well.

7.149.36 Having so spoken, he then advanced toward Karṇa, O lord of men, pouring forth hundreds of sharp arrows and loosing them upon Karṇa's head.

7.149.37 Then there arose, O great king, a battle of dreadful form and terrifying aspect—astounding to behold—in the clash between the man and the rākṣasa.

7.150.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When Karṇa, the son of Vikartana, and the rākṣasa Ghaṭotkaca closed with each other at the dead of night—how did that battle unfold?

7.150.2 What manner of fight did that terrible rākṣasa wage? What was his chariot like, and his illusions, and all his weapons?

7.150.3 What size were his horses, his chariot-banner, and his bow? What was his armor like, and his throat-guard? Being asked, tell me all this, Saṃjaya, for you are skilled in such telling.

7.150.4 Saṃjaya said: Red-eyed he was, huge of body, copper-faced, with a sunken belly, his hair bristling upward, his beard tawny, his ears like spikes, his jaws enormous.

7.150.5 His mouth was split open to the ears, his fangs sharp, his look terrible, his tongue and lips long and coppery, his brows drooping, his nose thick.

7.150.6 Dark of limb, red of neck, mountainous in stature, fearsome—of vast body, mighty arms, a huge head, and great strength.

7.150.7 His hair was dishevelled, his touch rough, his calves swollen and knotted, his haunches thick, his navel sunk, his bulk loose-fleshed and immense.

7.150.8 He bore ornaments upon his hands, that master of great illusion, and armlets too, wearing upon his breast a golden gorget like a mountain girdled with a garland of fire.

7.150.9 Upon his head shone a diadem, wrought of gold and gleaming, adorned with figures of many forms, bright as an arched gateway.

7.150.10 He wore earrings bright as the rising sun, a fair golden garland, and a broad cuirass of bronze of great splendor.

7.150.11 His great chariot rang with the sound of a hundred bells, flew red banners and pennons, was sheathed in bearskin, and measured a full nalva across.

7.150.12 He stood mounted upon it, garlanded with banners, furnished with every choice weapon, fitted with eight wheels, deep-voiced as a thundercloud.

7.150.13 There the horses that drew it were like elephants, red-eyed and terrible, of color and speed at will, mighty and yoked to the car.

7.150.14 His charioteer was a rākṣasa, Virūpākṣa, with blazing face and earrings, who gathered up the horses in battle with reins bright as the sun's rays; and joined with him he stood, as the sun stands with Aruṇa.

7.150.15 Like a great mountain wreathed in a vast cloud, a towering banner reaching to the sky was raised upon his car—a flesh-eating vulture, crimson-headed, most fearful to behold.

7.150.16 Drawing back a stout-stringed bow that roared like Indra's thunderbolt—a clear span of a cubit thick and twelve cubits in length—

7.150.17 and covering all the quarters with arrows the size of chariot-axles, he bore down upon Karṇa in that night that carries off heroes.

7.150.18 As he drew his bow, planted firm and standing upon his car, the twang of his bowstring was heard like the crashing of the thunderbolt.

7.150.19 Terrified by him, O Bhārata, all your armies trembled like the great waves of the sea.

7.150.20 Beholding that misshapen, terrible one rushing upon him, the son of Rādhā, as though smiling, swiftly came forth to meet him.

7.150.21 Then Karṇa advanced against him, loosing shafts against him as he loosed his own from close at hand—like elephant against elephant, like bull-leader of the herd against bull.

7.150.22 Tumultuous, O lord of peoples, was that encounter of the two, of Karṇa and the rākṣasa, O king, like the clash of Indra and Śambara.

7.150.23 Seizing their bows of dreadful sound and mighty force, the two covered each other over, hewing at one another with great arrows.

7.150.24 Then with smooth-jointed shafts loosed from bows drawn to the full, each held off the other, piercing through the bronze armor on both.

7.150.25 Like tigers with their claws, like great elephants with their tusks, the two tore at each other with chariot-lances and with arrows.

7.150.26 Cleaving each other's limbs and fitting their shafts to the string, scorched by the volleys of arrows, neither could so much as look upon the other.

7.150.27 Their every limb wounded, bathed in floods of blood, the two shone like ochre mountains streaming with water.

7.150.28 Their bodies pierced by arrow-points, rending one another, those two of great splendor, though they strove, could not make each other waver.

7.150.29 That night-battle that was joined went on long and seemed evenly matched, O king, as Karṇa and the rākṣasa gambled with their very lives in the fray.

7.150.30 As Karṇa fitted his sharp arrows and shot them ceaselessly, both your own men and the foe were struck with dread by the roar of his bow; yet, O king, Karṇa could not gain the upper hand over Ghaṭotkaca.

7.150.31 Then that best of weapon-knowers brought forth a celestial weapon; and seeing the celestial weapon loosed by Karṇa, the rākṣasa Ghaṭotkaca, son of a Pāṇḍava, brought forth a mighty illusion.

7.150.32 He appeared encircled by a vast host of rākṣasas of dreadful form, bearing spears and mallets, and crags and trees in their hands.

7.150.33 Beholding him with his great bow upraised, those kings were shaken, as though Death the ender of beings were coming on, wielding the terrible rod of Time.

7.150.34 Affrighted by the lion-roar that Ghaṭotkaca sent forth, the elephants let flow their urine, and the men were sorely shaken.

7.150.35 Then a most fierce and mighty rain of stones fell on every side, loosed at midnight by the overwhelming forces of the rākṣasas.

7.150.36 Iron discs, fire-tubes, lances and javelins, spears, śataghnīs and pikes fell thick and unbroken.

7.150.37 Beholding that grim and most savage fight, the kings, and your sons, and the warriors, shaken with terror, fled in all directions.

7.150.38 There Karṇa alone, proud and exulting in the might of his weapons, did not waver, but scattered with his shafts the illusion that Ghaṭotkaca had wrought.

7.150.39 And when his illusion was undone, Ghaṭotkaca in his fury loosed dreadful arrows, and they entered the son of the sūta.

7.150.40 Then those arrows, drenched in blood, having pierced Karṇa in that great battle, entered the earth like serpents enraged.

7.150.41 But the son of the sūta, in great wrath, swift of hand and full of valor, overpassing Ghaṭotkaca's onset, pierced him with ten arrows.

7.150.42 Ghaṭotkaca, struck through in his vital parts by the sūta's son and sorely pained, took up a celestial discus of a thousand spokes.

7.150.43 Razor-edged, bright as the rising sun, adorned with gems and jewels—the son of Bhīma, in his wrath, hurled it at the son of Adhiratha, eager to slay him.

7.150.44 Cast with great speed but flung aside by Karṇa's shafts, it fell vainly to the ground like the resolve of an ill-fated man.

7.150.45 But Ghaṭotkaca, enraged at seeing his discus brought down, covered Karṇa over with arrows as Svarbhānu covers the sun.

7.150.46 But the son of the sūta, unflinching, of prowess like Rudra, Upendra, and Indra, swiftly covered Ghaṭotkaca's chariot with his feathered shafts.

7.150.47 Then a mace ringed with gold, whirled and hurled by the enraged Ghaṭotkaca—that too, struck down by Karṇa's arrows, fell to earth.

7.150.48 Then, leaping up into the sky, roaring like a cloud of doom, the huge-bodied one rained down a rain of trees from the vault of heaven.

7.150.49 Then Karṇa pierced the illusion-wielding son of Bhīmasena in the sky with his shafts, as the sun pierces a cloud with its rays.

7.150.50 Having slain all his horses and shattered his chariot into a hundred pieces, Karṇa rained down arrows upon him like Parjanya pouring rain.

7.150.51 There was not on his body a two-fingers' space left unpierced, and in a moment he seemed like a porcupine bristling with quills.

7.150.52 Neither his horses, nor his chariot, nor his banner, nor Ghaṭotkaca himself could they see in the battle, so covered over was he by floods of arrows.

7.150.53 But he, beating down Karṇa's celestial weapon with a weapon of his own, that master of illusion fought the son of the sūta with a battle of illusions.

7.150.54 He fought Karṇa then with illusion and with swiftness of hand, unseen, darting through the meshes of arrows in the sky.

7.150.55 The son of Bhīma, that master of mighty illusion, O best of Kurus, wrought a great illusion, bewildering the foe, O Bhārata.

7.150.56 That one of ill-omened face, fashioning hideous mouths, devoured by his illusion the celestial weapons of the sūta's son.

7.150.57 And again the huge-bodied one, cut into a hundred pieces in the fight, seemed to fall lifeless and spent from the sky; and deeming him slain, the bulls of the Kurus raised a shout.

7.150.58 But then, in all the quarters, he was seen again with fresh bodies, that huge-bodied one with a hundred heads and a hundred bellies.

7.150.59 The mighty-armed one appeared like the mountain Maināka; and again that rākṣasa, becoming no larger than a thumb, rose up sideways and upward like a swelling wave of the sea.

7.150.60 And cleaving the earth, he plunged again into the waters; and then he was seen there rising up once more from another place.

7.150.61 Then descending, he stood again upon a gold-wrought chariot, mailed for battle, having veiled earth and sky and the quarters with his illusion.

7.150.62 Drawing near to Karṇa's chariot, his face aquiver with its swinging earrings, unshaken he spoke this word to the son of the sūta, O lord of peoples:

7.150.63 "Stand now! You shall not depart alive from me, son of the sūta. This day on the field of battle I shall cure you of your appetite for war."

7.150.64 So saying, that rākṣasa of cruel prowess, his eyes coppery with rage, sprang up into the air and laughed aloud, and smote Karṇa as a lion smites a lordly elephant.

7.150.65 Ghaṭotkaca rained upon Karṇa, that bull among chariot-warriors, arrows the size of chariot-axles, as a cloud rains its torrents; but Karṇa beat down that rain of arrows while it was yet far off.

7.150.66 And seeing his illusion undone by Karṇa, O bull of the Bhāratas, Ghaṭotkaca, vanishing, sent forth yet another illusion.

7.150.67 He became a mountain, lofty, its peaks dense with trees, vast, streaming forth a flood of spears, lances, swords, and maces.

7.150.68 Beholding that mountain dark as a heap of collyrium, pouring down dread weapons in its cataracts, Karṇa was not shaken.

7.150.69 Then Karṇa, as though smiling, sent forth a celestial weapon; and by that weapon the lord of mountains was scattered and vanished away.

7.150.70 Then, becoming a dark cloud in the sky, hung with Indra's bow, most fierce, he poured a rain of stones upon the son of the sūta.

7.150.71 Then, fitting the weapon of Vāyu, that best of weapon-knowers, Karṇa the son of Vikartana, the bull among men, scattered that cloud of doom.

7.150.72 Then Karṇa, covering all the quarters utterly with his hosts of arrows, destroyed, O great king, the weapon that Ghaṭotkaca had loosed.

7.150.73 Then, laughing in the fight, the mighty son of Bhīma brought forth a great illusion against Karṇa, that great chariot-warrior.

7.150.74 Seeing Ghaṭotkaca, that foremost of chariot-warriors, coming on again undismayed upon his car, surrounded by many rākṣasas—

7.150.75 rākṣasas like lions and tigers, with the prowess of rutting elephants, some on elephant-back, some on chariots, and some upon the backs of horses—

7.150.76 surrounded by cruel and dreadful ones bearing manifold weapons and adorned with manifold armor—Ghaṭotkaca compassed about like Vāsava by the Maruts—beholding him, Karṇa the great archer gave battle to the rākṣasa.

7.150.77 Then Ghaṭotkaca, piercing Karṇa with five swift shafts, raised a fearful roar, striking terror into all the kings.

7.150.78 And again, with an añjalika arrow, Ghaṭotkaca swiftly severed the great bow, together with its store of shafts, that was held in Karṇa's hand.

7.150.79 Then taking up another bow, stout, able to bear the strain, and great, Karṇa drew it back by force, raised high like the bow of Indra.

7.150.80 Then, great king, Karṇa loosed his arrows—gold-feathered, foe-slaying—against the sky-roving rākṣasas.

7.150.81 That host of broad-chested demons, tormented by his shafts, was thrown into confusion like a wild herd of elephants harried by a lion.

7.150.82 Scattering the rākṣasas with his arrows, together with their horses, charioteers, and elephants, the mighty lord consumed them as the blessed fire devours all beings at the ending of an age.

7.150.83 Having slain the host of rākṣasas, the son of the charioteer shone forth like the god Maheśvara of old in heaven, when he had burned the three cities to ash.

7.150.84 Among those thousands of kings on the Pāṇḍava side, good sir, not one, O lord of the earth, was able even to look upon him.

7.150.85 None save Ghaṭotkaca, O king—that mighty lord of the rākṣasas, endowed with terrible valor and strength, and now enraged like the son of Vivasvat himself.

7.150.86 From the eyes of that enraged one fire was born, O king, as flaming drops of oil fall blazing from two great meteors.

7.150.87 Smiting palm against palm and biting his lip, he mounted once more a chariot newly fashioned by his magic.

7.150.88 It was yoked with mounts like elephants—asses with the faces of fiends—and in his wrath he said to his driver: "Bear me against the son of the charioteer."

7.150.89 And so, O lord of peoples, that foremost of chariot-warriors went forth again in his fearsome car to a duel with the son of the charioteer.

7.150.90 Once more in his fury the rākṣasa hurled at the son of the charioteer a most terrible eight-wheeled thunderbolt, fashioned by Rudra.

7.150.91 Leaping up, Karṇa caught it, laying his bow aside in the chariot, and flung it back at him; whereupon the rākṣasa sprang down from his car.

7.150.92 That weapon of great brilliance reduced the chariot, with its horses, driver, and banner, to ashes, then cleft the earth and entered it; and the gods marveled at the sight.

7.150.93 All beings straightway honored Karṇa, in that he had leaped up and seized the great god-fashioned thunderbolt.

7.150.94 Having done this in battle, Karṇa mounted his chariot again, and then the son of the charioteer, scorcher of foes, let fly his iron shafts.

7.150.95 What Karṇa then accomplished in that battle, dreadful to behold, no other among all beings could have done, O bestower of honor.

7.150.96 Struck by his iron shafts as a mountain by streams of rain, the rākṣasa—like a city of the gandharvas—vanished once again.

7.150.97 Thus that great wielder of illusion, slayer of foes, by his magic and his swiftness foiled those celestial weapons.

7.150.98 Though his weapons were thus baffled by that rākṣasa's sorcery, Karṇa, undismayed, fought back against the demon.

7.150.99 Then, enraged, O great king, the mighty son of Bhīmasena multiplied himself into many forms, striking terror into the lords of men.

7.150.100 Then from every quarter there came rushing lions, tigers, and hyenas, fire-tongued serpents, and birds with beaks of iron.

7.150.101 Strewn upon by the keen arrows loosed from Karṇa's bow, that one—seeming like a city, a mountain, a forest—vanished there once more.

7.150.102 And rākṣasas and piśācas, fiends and ravening wolves, eager to devour Karṇa, rushed upon him from every side, and then sought to terrify him with savage cries.

7.150.103 With many dreadful weapons upraised and dripping with blood they came; yet Karṇa pierced each one of them with several swift shafts.

7.150.104 Having beaten back that rākṣasa illusion with a celestial weapon, he struck down his foe's horses with smooth-jointed arrows.

7.150.105 Shattered, their bodies mangled and their backs cleft by his shafts, they sank to the earth before the very eyes of that rākṣasa.

7.150.106 His illusion broken, the son of Hiḍimbā then said to Karṇa, son of Vikartana, "This one has ordained your death," and vanished away.

7.151.1 Saṃjaya said: While the combat between Karṇa and the rākṣasa was thus raging, Alāyudha, a valiant lord of the rākṣasas, advanced to the fray.

7.151.2 Attended by a great army, ringed about by thousands of misshapen rākṣasas—warriors who wore all manner of forms—he came to Suyodhana, brooding upon an old enmity.

7.151.3 For his valiant kinsman Baka, devourer of brahmins, had been slain, and Kirmīra of great might, and likewise his friend Hiḍimba.

7.151.4 Recalling that old enmity, long harbored, and learning of this battle by night, he longed to slay Bhīma in the fight.

7.151.5 Like a rutting elephant, like an angry serpent, athirst for battle, he spoke these words to Duryodhana:

7.151.6 "You know, great king, how by Bhīma the rākṣasas Hiḍimba, Baka, and Kirmīra—my kinsmen—were slain.

7.151.7 And of old he laid violent hands upon the maiden Hiḍimbā—what need to say more?—setting at naught both other rākṣasas and ourselves.

7.151.8 To slay him with his band, O king, together with his horses, chariots, and elephants—and Hiḍimbā's son too, with his counselors—I have come hither myself.

7.151.9 This day I shall slay all the sons of Kuntī, with Vāsudeva at their head, and devour them, together with all my followers. Hold back all your forces; we shall fight the Pāṇḍavas."

7.151.10 Hearing these words of his, Duryodhana was glad, and, surrounded by his brothers, he honored him and replied:

7.151.11 "With you and your band at our head we shall fight our foes; for my soldiers, bent on ending the feud, will not hold back."

7.151.12 "So be it," said that bull among rākṣasas to the king, and swiftly he advanced upon Bhīma, attended by his man-eaters.

7.151.13 With blazing form, in a chariot bright as the sun, even such, O lord of kings, as the one in which Ghaṭotkaca rode.

7.151.14 His great car too was of matchless thunder, adorned with many arched gateways, its frame sheathed in bear-hides, vast as a measure of land.

7.151.15 His steeds too were swift, huge-bodied as elephants, harsh-voiced—a hundred yoked, mighty of frame, feeders on flesh and blood.

7.151.16 The din of his chariot too was like the roar of a great thundercloud; his bow too was vast, strong-stringed, and mightier still.

7.151.17 His arrows too were like axle-shafts, gold-feathered, whetted on stone; and that mighty-armed hero was every bit the equal of Ghaṭotkaca.

7.151.18 His banner too, guarded by jackal and crow, blazed like fire or the sun; in form, too, more splendid even than Ghaṭotkaca's, its face wildly aglow.

7.151.19 With glittering armlets, garlanded with a blazing diadem, girt with a wreath and turban and a fastened sword, bearing mace and sling, club and plough, and bow—huge in stature as an elephant.

7.151.20 In that chariot bright as fire, driving the Pāṇḍava host in rout, he shone as he wheeled through the battle, like a lightning-garlanded cloud in the sky.

7.151.21 And all those foremost lords of men, mighty, armored and shield-bearing, filled with joy, fought there on every side, O king—the heroic warriors of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.152.1 Saṃjaya said: Beholding that doer of dreadful deeds arrived for the battle, all the Kurus alike gave way to joy.

7.152.2 And so too your sons, with Duryodhana at their head, were like men without a raft who, finding one, would cross the sea.

7.152.3 Reckoning themselves as it were born anew, the princes then welcomed Alāyudha, lord of the rākṣasas, and did him honor.

7.152.4 While that more-than-mortal combat, fearsome to behold, raged on through the night between Karṇa and the rākṣasa, dreadful in its sight,

7.152.5 the Pāñcālas with their kings looked on, smiling; and your men too, O king, swayed this way and that.

7.152.6 Droṇa, Droṇa's son, Kṛpa, and the rest cried out, "This cannot be!"—dismayed at beholding that feat of Hiḍimbā's son upon the field of battle.

7.152.7 All grew agitated, given over to wailing and stunned out of their senses; your host, great king, despaired of Karṇa's life.

7.152.8 But Duryodhana, seeing Karṇa fallen into utmost distress, summoned Alāyudha, lord of the rākṣasas, and spoke to him thus:

7.152.9 "This Karṇa, son of Vikartana, is locked with Hiḍimbā's son, and is performing a mighty feat, such as befits him in the fray.

7.152.10 Behold these valiant princes slain by the son of Bhīmasena, struck down by his many weapons like trees by a tusker.

7.152.11 This share in the battle, here amid the kings, I have set apart for you. With your own consent, O hero, fall upon him in your might and destroy him.

7.152.12 That wicked Ghaṭotkaca, tormentor of foes, leaning upon the power of illusion, has long been wearing down Karṇa, son of Vikartana."

7.152.13 Thus addressed by the king, that rākṣasa of fierce prowess, mighty of arm, said "So be it," and rushed upon Ghaṭotkaca.

7.152.14 Then the son of Bhīmasena too, O lord, left off from Karṇa and crushed with his shafts the foe that came against him.

7.152.15 Between those two enraged lords of the rākṣasas there arose a battle, as between two rutting elephants in the forest contending for a cow.

7.152.16 Freed of the rākṣasa, Karṇa too, foremost of chariot-warriors, charged upon Bhīmasena in his chariot bright as the sun.

7.152.17 Heedless of him as he came on, Bhīma saw Ghaṭotkaca beset in the battle by Alāyudha, as a bull might be by a lion.

7.152.18 In his chariot shaped like the sun, Bhīma, foremost of strikers, scattering floods of arrows, advanced against Alāyudha's car.

7.152.19 Seeing him approach, Alāyudha then, O lord, left off from Ghaṭotkaca and challenged Bhīmasena.

7.152.20 Bhīma, the bringer of doom to rākṣasas, O lord, rushing suddenly upon him, overwhelmed that lord of the rākṣasas and his band with showers of arrows.

7.152.21 And so too Alāyudha, O king, that subduer of foes, rained again and again upon the son of Kuntī shafts whetted on stone and flying straight.

7.152.22 And all those rākṣasas, terrible, bearing weapons of every kind, rushed upon Bhīmasena, seeking victory for your sons.

7.152.23 Battered by those powerful foes, the mighty Bhīmasena pierced them each, with five sharp arrows apiece.

7.152.24 Slain by Bhīma, those rākṣasas, born of the ass's womb, raised a tumult of howls and fled in all ten directions.

7.152.25 Seeing them put to terror by Bhīma, the mighty rākṣasa rushed upon him with speed and overwhelmed him with arrows.

7.152.26 Bhīmasena wore him down in the battle with sharp-pointed shafts; but Alāyudha cut off some of those arrows loosed by Bhīma in the fray, and some he caught in his haste.

7.152.27 Beholding that lord of the rākṣasas, Bhīma of dreadful prowess then hurled with force his mace, like the fall of the thunderbolt.

7.152.28 As that mace came hurtling on, wreathed in flame, the rākṣasa struck it with his own mace; and Bhīma's mace turned back upon him.

7.152.29 The son of Kuntī overwhelmed the lord of the rākṣasas with showers of arrows; but those too the rākṣasa rendered vain with his keen shafts.

7.152.30 And all those rākṣasa soldiers of fearsome form, at the command of the lord of the rākṣasas, fell to slaughtering chariots and elephants.

7.152.31 The Pāñcālas and Sṛñjayas, the horses and the great elephants, found no respite there, sorely afflicted by the rākṣasas.

7.152.32 Seeing that most terrible turn of the great battle, the best of men spoke these words to Dhanaṃjaya:

7.152.33 "Look, O mighty-armed one, Bhīma has fallen under the power of the lord of the rākṣasas. Go to his aid, O Pāṇḍava, and do not hesitate."

7.152.34 "Let Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Śikhaṇḍin, Yudhāmanyu and Uttamaujas, together with the sons of Draupadī, those great chariot-warriors, advance upon Karṇa."

7.152.35 "Let Nakula and Sahadeva, and the valiant Yuyudhāna, slay the other rākṣasas at your command, O Pāṇḍava."

7.152.36 "And you yourself, O mighty-armed tiger among men, hold back this host that has Droṇa at its head, for a great peril has come upon us."

7.152.37 When Kṛṣṇa had spoken thus, the great chariot-warriors, as directed, advanced in battle against Vaikartana Karṇa and against the other rākṣasas.

7.152.38 Then with arrows like venomous serpents, loosed from a bow drawn to its full, the mighty lord of the rākṣasas severed the bow of Bhīma.

7.152.39 And with sharp shafts that mighty one slew his horses and his charioteer in battle, O Bhārata, before the very eyes of Bhīmasena.

7.152.40 His horses slain and his charioteer slain, he leapt down from the body of the chariot and, roaring aloud, hurled at him his heavy and terrible mace.

7.152.41 Then, as that great mace came hurtling on with a fearsome roar, the dread rākṣasa struck it down with his own mace, and let forth a shout.

7.152.42 Beholding that terrible, terror-striking feat of the lord of the rākṣasas, Bhīmasena, his spirit elated, swiftly took up his mace.

7.152.43 A tumultuous combat broke out between the man and the rākṣasa, the crash of their falling maces making the earth tremble violently.

7.152.44 Their maces flung away, the two closed once more upon each other and smote one another with fists that crashed like thunderbolts.

7.152.45 Seizing whatever lay at hand—chariot-wheels, yokes, axles, chariot-frames, and gear—the two furious warriors struck each other down.

7.152.46 Streaming blood, grappling with one another, they dragged each other back and forth again and again, like two great rutting elephants.

7.152.47 Hṛṣīkeśa, devoted to the welfare of the Pāṇḍavas, beheld this; and to protect Bhīmasena he urged on the son of Hiḍimbā.

7.153.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing Bhīma hard pressed in battle, seized close at hand by the rākṣasa, Vāsudeva then spoke these words to Ghaṭotkaca:

7.153.2 "Look, O mighty-armed one of great splendor, how Bhīma is held fast at close quarters by the rākṣasa, in the sight of all the armies and of you yourself."

7.153.3 "Leave off Karṇa, and quickly slay Alāyudha, lord of the rākṣasas, O mighty-armed one; Karṇa you shall slay afterward."

7.153.4 Hearing the words of the Vṛṣṇi hero, the valiant Ghaṭotkaca left off Karṇa and fought with the lord of the rākṣasas, the brother of Baka; and a most tumultuous combat arose between those two rākṣasas in the night.

7.153.5 Now the warriors of Alāyudha, rākṣasas terrible to behold, brave and gripping their bows, were rushing on with speed.

7.153.6 Weapons in hand and greatly enraged, Yuyudhāna the great chariot-warrior, with Nakula and Sahadeva, cut them down with sharp arrows.

7.153.7 And in that battle, O king, the diademed Bībhatsu scattered all those bulls among the kṣatriyas, loosing his arrows on every side.

7.153.8 And Karṇa in that battle, O king, drove off the princes—Dhṛṣṭadyumna, Śikhaṇḍin and the rest, the great chariot-warriors of the Pāñcālas.

7.153.9 Seeing them being slaughtered, Bhīma of terrible prowess advanced swiftly upon Karṇa, scattering his shafts in the battle.

7.153.10 Then, having slain the rākṣasas, Nakula and Sahadeva and Sātyaki the great chariot-warrior came to where the son of the sūta stood; they engaged Karṇa in battle, while the Pāñcālas engaged Droṇa.

7.153.11 But Alāyudha, in great fury, struck Ghaṭotkaca, that crusher of foes, upon the head with a huge iron club.

7.153.12 By that blow the mighty son of Bhīmasena was a little dazed, yet, valorous as he was, he steadied himself.

7.153.13 Then in that combat he hurled at him a mace adorned with gold, bright as blazing fire and decked with a hundred bells.

7.153.14 Loosed with force by that doer of terrible deeds, the loud-clanging mace ground his horses, his charioteer, and his chariot to powder.

7.153.15 His horses, wheels, and axle broken, his banner and chariot-pole shattered, he sprang up swiftly from the chariot, taking to rākṣasa sorcery.

7.153.16 Resorting to that illusion, he rained down a great flood of blood, and the sky grew thick with murky clouds, lit by flashes of lightning.

7.153.17 Then came the fall of thunderbolts with lightning and crashing thunder, and a mighty crackling din arose there in that great battle.

7.153.18 Seeing the illusion wrought by one rākṣasa, the other rākṣasa, the son of Hiḍimbā, sprang upward and undid that illusion by an illusion of his own.

7.153.19 When the master of illusion saw his illusion destroyed, by illusion he loosed a most violent rain of stones upon Ghaṭotkaca.

7.153.20 That terrible rain of stones the valiant one scattered to all quarters with a downpour of arrows, and the deed seemed a marvel.

7.153.21 Then the two rained down upon each other with weapons of every kind—with iron clubs, spears, maces, pestles, and mallets,

7.153.22 with trident-staves and swords, with lances, javelins, and pikes, with iron shafts, sharp broad-headed arrows, ordinary arrows, discuses, and battle-axes,

7.153.23 with iron balls, with slings, with ox-headed clubs and mortars, and with all manner of great-branched trees torn up by the roots.

7.153.24 With śamī, pīlu, and karīra trees, and with śamyāka too, O Bhārata, with iṅgudas and jujubes, and with kovidāras in full flower,

7.153.25 with palāśas and arimedas, with great plakṣas, banyans, and pippal trees, they smote one another in that combat.

7.153.26 And with mountain-peaks of every sort, studded with manifold minerals, they fought; and the din of these was great, as of thunderbolts splitting asunder.

7.153.27 Terrible was that combat between the son of Bhīma and Alāyudha, O king, like the strife of old between those lords of the monkeys, Vālin and Sugrīva.

7.153.28 Having fought with terrible weapons of every kind and with arrows, the two seized their sharp swords and smote at one another.

7.153.29 Rushing each upon the other, those two of vast bodies and mighty strength grasped one another by the hair and gripped each other with their arms.

7.153.30 Their limbs torn, those two of vast frame streamed with sweat and blood, O ruler of men, like two mountains drenched with rain.

7.153.31 Then, falling upon him with speed, the son of Hiḍimbā whirled the rākṣasa about, hurled him down with all his might, and struck off his great head.

7.153.32 And bearing off that head adorned with its two earrings, the mighty one then let forth a most tumultuous roar.

7.153.33 Seeing slain that vast-bodied crusher of foes, the kinsman of Baka, the Pāñcālas and the Pāṇḍavas raised their lion-roars.

7.153.34 Then, when that rākṣasa had been laid low, the Pāṇḍavas sounded thousands of kettledrums and tens of thousands of conches.

7.153.35 Most rich in victory did that night become for them, and it shone resplendent all around, garlanded with lamps.

7.153.36 And the mighty son of Bhīmasena flung the lifeless head of Alāyudha down before Duryodhana.

7.153.37 Then King Duryodhana, seeing Alāyudha slain, became utterly stricken with dismay, together with his army, O Bhārata.

7.153.38 For that one, coming of his own accord and remembering an old and grievous enmity, had promised him: "I will slay Bhīmasena in battle."

7.153.39 The king had believed that Bhīma would surely be slain by him, and had reckoned upon long life for himself and for his brothers.

7.153.40 But seeing him struck down by the son of Bhīmasena, he reckoned the vow of Bhīmasena as good as fulfilled.

7.154.1 Saṃjaya said: Having slain the rākṣasa Alāyudha, Ghaṭotkaca, his spirit elated, standing before the host, let forth roars of every kind.

7.154.2 Hearing that tumultuous cry of his, which made the elephants tremble, a most dreadful fear came upon your men, O great king.

7.154.3 Seeing the mighty son of Bhīmasena entangled with Alāyudha, the mighty-armed Karṇa rushed upon the Pāñcālas.

7.154.4 With ten arrows each—firm shafts with bent joints, loosed from a fully drawn bow—he pierced Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Śikhaṇḍin.

7.154.5 Then with excellent iron shafts he set trembling Yudhāmanyu and Uttamaujas, and the noble chariot-warrior Sātyaki, with his arrows.

7.154.6 As all of them plied their bows there, to left and right, their bows appeared as so many circles, O ruler of men.

7.154.7 The twang of their bowstrings and the rattle of their chariot-rims grew tumultuous in the night, like the roar of clouds at the close of the hot season.

7.154.8 With the twang of bowstrings and the rattle of rims for its thunder, with bows for its lightning and circled bow-arcs for its banner-peaks, raining a turbid downpour of arrow-floods—such a battle-cloud did he become, O king.

7.154.9 Unshakable as a mountain, with might equal to a mountain's, Vaikartana the crusher of enemy hosts shattered in battle that uprushing great downpour, O lord of men.

7.154.10 Then with peerless, sharp arrows like falling thunderbolts, their shafts bright with gold, the great-souled Vaikartana, intent upon the welfare of your sons, drove off his foes in the battle.

7.154.11 Some had their banners hewn and broken, some had their bodies torn and pierced by his shafts, some were stripped of charioteer, and some of horses—so swiftly were they made by Vaikartana.

7.154.12 Finding no refuge in the battle, they fell back upon the host of Yudhiṣṭhira; and beholding them broken and turned to flight, Ghaṭotkaca was seized with exceeding wrath.

7.154.13 Mounting that splendid chariot bright with gold and gems, he roared aloud like a lion, and drawing near to Vaikartana Karṇa, he pierced him with shafts like thunderbolts.

7.154.14 With barbed darts, iron shafts, and arrows; with tubular and staff-like arrows, and calf-toothed ones; with boar-eared and horn-tipped shafts, and with showers of razor-arrows, the two made the sky resound.

7.154.15 The mid-air, veiled in showers of arrows flying crosswise through the battle, shone with the blazing radiance of golden-feathered shafts, as though with garlands of many-colored flowers.

7.154.16 Evenly matched and of incomparable might, the two struck at one another with their finest weapons; and in that battle no one could mark any difference between those two foremost of heroes.

7.154.17 Most wondrous and most splendid in form was that battle between the son of the Sun and the son of Bhīma, turbulent and terrible with the fall of weapons, blazing as if in the sky between Rāhu and the radiant Sun.

7.154.18 When Ghaṭotkaca could gain no advantage over Karṇa, O king, then that foremost of those skilled in weapons brought forth a fearsome missile.

7.154.19 With that weapon the rākṣasa, the son of Hiḍimbā, first slew Karṇa's horses and his charioteer, and then swiftly vanished from sight.

7.154.20 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When that rākṣasa, that fighter by guile, had thus vanished, tell me, Saṃjaya, what my men then did.

7.154.21 Saṃjaya said: Knowing that the rākṣasa had vanished, all the Kurus cried out together: "How shall this rākṣasa, this fighter by guile, unseen, not slay Karṇa in the battle?"

7.154.22 Then Karṇa, fighting with deft and dazzling skill in weapons, covered every quarter with nets of arrows; yet no creature there was struck, in the mid-air made dark with his shafts.

7.154.23 Neither drawing out an arrow, nor fitting it to the string, nor touching his quivers with his fingertips could the son of the sūta be seen, so swift was he—yet he covered the whole sky with arrows.

7.154.24 Then we beheld an illusion wrought in the mid-air by the rākṣasa—horrible, frightful, and dread—glowing red as a blood-hued cloud, blazing fierce like a tongue of fire.

7.154.25 Then out of it lightnings broke forth, and blazing meteors too, O lord of the Kurus; and another sound arose, most terrible, as of thousands of kettledrums thundering.

7.154.26 Then there rained down arrows with golden shafts, and spears, lances, clubs, and every kind of weapon, battle-axes and swords washed bright with oil, and flame-tipped pikes and javelins.

7.154.27 Iron-bound bludgeons gleaming with spikes, gaily-wrought maces and keen-edged spears, heavy clubs bound about with bands of gold, and śataghnīs appeared on every side.

7.154.28 Great boulders fell here and there by the thousand, charged with lightning and with thunderbolts, and discus-wheels rimmed with many hundred blades appeared, blazing with the splendour of fire.

7.154.29 That vast and blazing downpour as it fell—of spears and stones and battle-axes, of lances, swords, thunderbolts, lightnings, and mallets—Karṇa could not beat back with his floods of arrows.

7.154.30 Of horses falling, struck down by arrows, of elephants falling, smitten by thunderbolts, and of great chariot-warriors crushed by stones, a mighty din arose as they came toppling down.

7.154.31 Battered on every side by Ghaṭotkaca with that fearful rain of weapons of every kind, the host of Duryodhana was seen reeling in distress, whirling about and spinning round.

7.154.32 Crying out in horror, surging back upon itself, dissolving away in utter dismay—yet those foremost of men, out of their noble temper, did not then turn their faces from the fight.

7.154.33 Beholding that most dreadful, terrible, demon-conjured downpour of mighty weapons as it fell, and seeing the floods of their troops struck down, a great fear entered your sons.

7.154.34 And jackals with tongues blazing like fire, howling by the hundred with dreadful cries, and the troops of demons roaring—seeing these, the warriors of the kings were filled with anguish.

7.154.35 Those demons, with flaming tongues and mouths and sharp fangs, hideous, their bodies huge as mountains, ranging the sky with spears clutched fast in their hands, poured down their volleys as storm-clouds pour the rain.

7.154.36 Struck by them with arrows, spears, and pikes, with terrible maces and with blazing bludgeons, with thunderbolts, with tridents, with strokes of lightning, with discuses, and crushed by śataghnīs, the warriors fell.

7.154.37 Slings, bhuśuṇḍis, stone-balls, śataghnīs, and posts bound about with bands of black iron showered down upon your son's army, and so dread a confusion broke forth.

7.154.38 Their entrails spilled out, their heads shattered, their limbs broken, the warriors lay there strewn; horses were torn open and elephants smashed, and chariots ground to powder by the stones.

7.154.39 Thus loosing that great rain of weapons, those night-prowlers, dread of form upon the earth, conjured into being there by Ghaṭotkaca's sorcery, spared neither the suppliant nor the frightened.

7.154.40 In that grim slaughter of the Kuru heroes, loosed by Time itself, in the ruin of the warriors, the Kauravas, broken, fled away all at once, every one of them, crying aloud.

7.154.41 "Flee, O Kurus! There is no help in this! The gods with Indra slay us for the Pāṇḍavas' sake!"—and as those Bhāratas thus sank down, there was no island of refuge for any of them there.

7.154.42 While that tumultuous uproar went on, and the host of the Kurus, broken, melted away, the ordering of the ranks grown invisible, neither Kurus nor others could be told apart.

7.154.43 In that dreadful, boundless rout, all the quarters, as we gazed, appeared empty; and Karṇa alone, O king, I saw there, breasting that downpour of weapons with his chest.

7.154.44 Then he veiled the sky with his arrows, battling against the demon's celestial sorcery; modest, performing a noble deed scarce to be done, the son of the charioteer was not bewildered in the fray.

7.154.45 Then in their fear all looked up toward Karṇa, O king—the men of Sindhu and the Bāhlīkas alike—honouring his steadiness in the battle, even as they watched the demon prevailing.

7.154.46 A śataghnī fitted with wheels, hurled by the demon, slew all four horses together at once; sinking to their knees, they came down upon the earth, lifeless, their teeth and eyes and tongues all gone.

7.154.47 Then, dismounting from the car whose horses were slain, his mind composed though the Kurus fled and his celestial weapon was being undone by sorcery, he was not bewildered, but pondered what the hour required.

7.154.48 Then all the Kurus cried out, beholding Karṇa and that dread sorcery: "With the spear, O Karṇa, slay the demon now, this instant! These Kurus, these sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, are perishing!

7.154.49 What will Bhīma and Pārtha do to us then? Slay this demon who scorches us at midnight! He who delivers us from this battle of dread aspect—he it is who could make us face the Pārthas in the fight.

7.154.50 Therefore slay this demon of dreadful form with the spear that was given you by Vāsava! Let not all the Kauravas, peers of Indra, with their warriors, O Karṇa, be lost at the onset of night!"

7.154.51 Hard pressed by the demon there at midnight, and seeing, O king, his army perishing, and hearing the loud lament of the Kauravas, Karṇa set his mind upon loosing the spear.

7.154.52 Wrathful as a lion and beyond all bearing, he would brook no thwarting of him in that battle; and so he took up that supreme, victory-giving, irresistible spear, resolved to slay the demon.

7.154.53 That spear, O king, which had been laid by for years on end, kept honoured for the slaying of Phalguna in battle—the supreme spear that Śakra gave to the son of the charioteer in exchange for his earrings—

7.154.54 That spear, licking the air and blazing bright, bound with snares like the very Night of the Ender, like the sister of Death, like a flaming meteor—Vaikartana hurled it at the demon.

7.154.55 Seeing that supreme, body-shattering weapon blazing in the charioteer's son's hand, the demon fled away in terror, O king, having made himself the size of a Vindhya foothill.

7.154.56 Beholding the spear poised in the crook of Karṇa's arm, the spirits of the air cried out, O lord of men; tumultuous winds blew, O king, and lightning with a crash of thunder struck the earth.

7.154.57 Blazing, it burned that sorcery to ashes, and cleaving deep through the demon's heart, it soared aloft, shining in the night, passing in among the spaces of the stars.

7.154.58 Having fought with manifold and wondrous volleys of weapons—celestial, human, and demonic—the hero, roaring his many dreadful roars, was made to yield up his dear life by the spear of Śakra.

7.154.59 And this further marvel, of wondrous form, he wrought as a deed for the destruction of his foes: in that hour, his vitals pierced through by the spear, he shone, O king, like a mountain wreathed in cloud.

7.154.60 Then from the sky there fell, his life gone out, that lord of demons, his body cleft, upon the earth—head downward, his limbs grown rigid, his tongue lolling out—Ghaṭotkaca, having taken on a vast form.

7.154.61 That son of Bhīmasena, dread in his deeds, having made his shape fearful and huge, fell down; and even slain, he thus crushed a whole quarter of your army, striking terror into the Kauravas.

7.154.62 Then, mingled with their lion-roars, the kettledrums and conches, tabors and war-drums sounded; and seeing the sorcery burned away and the demon slain, the Kauravas, rejoicing, shouted aloud.

7.154.63 Then Karṇa, honoured by the Kurus as Śakra was by the Maruts at the slaying of Vṛtra, mounted the chariot beside your son who stood upon it, and rejoicing entered his own army.

7.155.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing the son of Hiḍimbā slain and strewn upon the ground like a fallen mountain, the Pāṇḍavas were all downcast in spirit, their eyes blurred with tears.

7.155.2 But Vāsudeva, overwhelmed with a mighty joy, roared a roar like a lion, as though to dismay the foe, O Bhārata; and having let forth that great roar, he embraced Phalguna.

7.155.3 Having sounded that great cry and drawn in the reins, he danced, wrapped about with joy, like a tree shaken by the wind.

7.155.4 Then, whirling about and clapping Pārtha again and again upon the arms, Acyuta, standing in the body of the chariot, shouted aloud once more in his delight.

7.155.5 Knowing that the mighty Vāsudeva was glad at heart, Arjuna spoke, O king, like one whose own heart was not much gladdened.

7.155.6 "This great rejoicing of yours today is out of place, O Madhusūdana, when a fresh occasion for grief has come upon us through the slaying of Hiḍimbā's son.

7.155.7 Our armies have turned their faces from the field, seeing Ghaṭotkaca slain, and we ourselves are sore distressed at the fall of Hiḍimbā's son.

7.155.8 Surely the cause of this cannot be a slight one, O Janārdana; therefore, being asked, tell me now the truth of it, O best of the truthful.

7.155.9 If this be no secret of yours, you should declare it, O subduer of foes; tell me now, O Madhusūdana, the cause of this break in your composure."

7.155.10 "Like a churning of the ocean, like a shifting of Meru, so do I count this light-hearted conduct of yours, O Janārdana."

7.155.11 Vāsudeva said: Hear from me, O Dhanaṃjaya, the cause of this great joy that has come upon me—a thing that on the instant brings the highest gladness to the heart.

7.155.12 Now that this spear has been spent upon Ghaṭotkaca, O greatly resplendent one, know Karṇa, O Dhanaṃjaya, to be as good as slain in battle this very moment.

7.155.13 Were the spear yet in Karṇa's hand, what man in the world is there who could stand before him in battle, as before Kārttikeya himself?

7.155.14 By good fortune his armour was taken from him, by good fortune his earrings were carried off, and by good fortune his unfailing spear has been spent upon Ghaṭotkaca.

7.155.15 For had he still his armour and his earrings as well, the mighty Karṇa, alone, could have conquered the three worlds, gods and all.

7.155.16 Neither Vāsava, nor Kubera, nor Varuṇa the lord of waters, nor Yama would dare to close with Karṇa in battle.

7.155.17 Though you drew the Gāṇḍīva and I bore the discus Sudarśana, we two could not have conquered in battle that bull among men so armed.

7.155.18 But for your good, by Śakra, through a stratagem, this conqueror of hostile cities was robbed of his earrings and stripped of his armour.

7.155.19 Because he cut away that armour and those two bright earrings of his and gave them to Śakra, Karṇa is therefore remembered as Vaikartana, 'the Cutter.'

7.155.20 Like an angry venomous serpent stilled by the power of a spell, so does Karṇa appear to me today, like a fire whose flame is quenched.

7.155.21 From the very day, O mighty-armed one, that the spear was given to Karṇa by the great-souled Vāsava—the spear that has now been spent upon Ghaṭotkaca—

7.155.22 —obtaining it in exchange for his earrings and his celestial armour, the bull Karṇa, once he had it, deemed you slain in battle for good and all.

7.155.23 Yet even so, this man can be slain by no one else but you, O tiger among men; I swear it by my truth, O sinless one.

7.155.24 Devoted to the brahmins, truthful in speech, given to austerity, steadfast in his vows, and compassionate even toward his foes—therefore is Karṇa remembered as Vṛṣa, the bull of virtue.

7.155.25 Greedy for battle, mighty-armed, his bow ever bent and ready, like a lion in the forest crushing the lords of rutting elephant-herds, he leaves the tiger-warriors of the chariots stripped of their pride in the forefront of the fight.

7.155.26 Like the sun gone to mid-heaven, he cannot be looked upon, O tiger among men, by the great-souled foremost of your warriors—his thousand rays the web of his arrows, like the day-maker in autumn.

7.155.27 As a rain-cloud at the end of the hot season, he pours down his streams of arrows; Karṇa, a thundercloud of celestial weapons, is like Parjanya laden with rain—yet today he is brought down to mere mortal estate, parted from the gift of Śakra.

7.155.28 There is but one way for his slaying: in a moment of opening, you yourself unheedless while he is heedless, when he has come to grief and his chariot-wheel has sunk in the earth—then you must strike him down first, taking thought and choosing your moment.

7.155.29 Jarāsaṃdha, and the king of the Cedis, that great soul, and the mighty Ekalavya the Niṣāda—all of these, one by one, were slain by me alone, by this device or that, for your good.

7.155.30 And other lords of demons too were slain—chief among them Hiḍimba, Kirmīra, and Baka—and Alāyudha, the crusher of hostile hosts, and the swift Ghaṭotkaca, dreadful in his deeds.

7.156.1 Arjuna said: How, and by what devices, O Janārdana, were Jarāsaṃdha and the other lords of the earth made to be slain for our good?

7.156.2 Vāsudeva said: Jarāsaṃdha, and the king of the Cedis, and the mighty son of the Niṣāda—had they not been slain before, they would now be a source of terror.

7.156.3 Suyodhana would surely have sought out those foremost of chariot-warriors, and they, forever hostile to us, would have taken the side of the Kauravas.

7.156.4 For those great-souled heroes, masters of weapons and steadfast in fight, would have guarded the whole host of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's sons like immortals.

7.156.5 The son of the charioteer, and Jarāsaṃdha, and the king of the Cedis, and the son of the Niṣāda—leaning upon Suyodhana, they would have scorched this earth.

7.156.6 Hear from me, O Dhanaṃjaya, the devices by which they were slain; for without such stratagems they were unconquerable in battle even by the gods.

7.156.7 Each one of them, alone and singly, O Pārtha, could have given battle to the whole host of the gods, guarded though it be by the World-Guardians.

7.156.8 For Jarāsaṃdha, enraged and provoked by the son of Rohiṇī, hurled, to slay us, a mace with a blood-red mouth.

7.156.9 Cleaving as it were a parting through the sky, with the radiance of fire, it was seen falling like the thunderbolt loosed by Śakra.

7.156.10 Seeing that mace come hurtling down, the son of Rohiṇī, to beat it back, let fly the weapon called Sthūṇākarṇa.

7.156.11 Checked by the force of that weapon, the mace fell down upon the earth, rending the goddess Earth and seeming to make the very mountains tremble.

7.156.12 There a dreadful demoness, swift in her might, Jarā by name, had joined together at his birth that subduer of foes, Jarāsaṃdha.

7.156.13 Born of two mothers, his body in two halves, each apart from the other, he was joined together by her—and because she joined him, he is remembered as Jarāsaṃdha.

7.156.14 And that rākṣasī, brought down to the earth, O Pārtha, was slain together with her sons and kinsmen by that mace and by the weapon Sthūṇākarṇa.

7.156.15 Deprived thus of his mace, Jarāsaṃdha in the great battle was slain by Bhīmasena before your very eyes, O Dhanaṃjaya.

7.156.16 For had the mighty Jarāsaṃdha held the mace in his hand, the gods themselves with Indra would not have been able to slay him in battle, O best of men.

7.156.17 It was for your sake that the Niṣāda's son, of true valor, was parted from his thumb—when, by a stratagem, he had made Droṇa his teacher.

7.156.18 That son of the Niṣāda, of firm valor, his finger-guard bound on, shooting alone, a forest-dweller, shone like a second Rāma.

7.156.19 For with his thumb intact, Ekalavya could never have been vanquished in battle, O Pārtha, by gods or dānavas, by rākṣasas or serpents.

7.156.20 How then could a mere mortal even dare to look upon him—firm of grip, accomplished, ever shooting his shafts by day and by night?

7.156.21 For your sake he was slain by me at the forefront of battle; and the valiant king of the Cedis was struck down before your very eyes.

7.156.22 He too could not be conquered in battle by all the gods and asuras together; and it was for his slaying, and that of the other foes of the gods, that I was born.

7.156.23 As your ally, O tiger among men, out of desire for the welfare of the worlds—Hiḍimba, Baka, and Kirmīra, equal in life-force to Rāvaṇa, destroyers of the Brahmins' sacrifices, were brought low by Bhīmasena.

7.156.24 So too the sorcerer Alāyudha was slain by Hiḍimbā's son; and Hiḍimbā's son in turn, by a stratagem, was killed by Karṇa with the spear.

7.156.25 For had Karṇa not slain him with the spear in the great battle, that Ghaṭotkaca, Bhīmasena's son, would have had to be slain by me.

7.156.26 He was not slain by me before, out of my wish to do what was dear to you; for this rākṣasa was a hater of Brahmins and a hater of sacrifices.

7.156.27 A destroyer of dharma, evil of soul—therefore he was struck down; and the spear given by Indra was, by a stratagem, made to fail, O sinless one.

7.156.28 For those who would destroy dharma are to be slain by me, O Pāṇḍava; this is my imperishable vow, made for the establishment of dharma.

7.156.29 Sacred knowledge, truth, self-restraint, purity, dharma, modesty, prosperity, fortitude, forbearance—wherever these are, there I ever delight: by truth I swear it to you.

7.156.30 You must not grieve on account of Karṇa, the son of the Sun; I will teach you the means by which you shall overcome him.

7.156.31 And Vṛkodara shall slay Suyodhana in battle; the means of his slaying too I will declare to you, O Pāṇḍava.

7.156.32 But this tumultuous din swells against the enemy's host, and your own troops are scattering in flight to the ten directions.

7.156.33 For the Kauravas, having found their mark, are shattering your army; and Droṇa, best of strikers, is burning down your forces.

7.157.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When the spear of the Sūta's son was wasted upon the slaying of a single hero, why, passing over all the rest, did he not hurl it at Pārtha?

7.157.2 For with him slain, all the Pāṇḍavas and Sṛñjayas would have been slain; why, by the slaying of that one hero, did he not seize victory in the war?

7.157.3 "Once challenged, I will not turn back"—such was Phalguna's great vow; therefore the Sūta's son had only to challenge him himself.

7.157.4 Then, having drawn Phalguna into a chariot-duel, why did the bull-like Karṇa not slay him with Indra's gift? Tell me that, Saṃjaya.

7.157.5 Surely my son is bereft of wisdom and without true allies; his designs thwarted by his foes—how then could he ever conquer his enemies?

7.157.6 For that supreme spear of his, the very mainstay of his victory—that spear was made by Vāsudeva to be spent upon Ghaṭotkaca.

7.157.7 As a bilva fruit in the hand of a crippled man is snatched away by one stronger, so that unfailing spear was made to fail upon Ghaṭotkaca.

7.157.8 As when a boar and a dog fight and, both being destroyed, the dog-eater gains the spoil—so too, O learned one, I deem it was Vāsudeva who gained from the combat of Karṇa and Hiḍimbā's son.

7.157.9 For if Ghaṭotkaca should slay Karṇa, that would be the greater gain for the Pāṇḍavas; and if the son of the Sun should slay him, even so the purpose would be achieved through the loss of the spear.

7.157.10 Thus the wise Vāsudeva, lion among men, having weighed this in his wisdom, set Ghaṭotkaca to fight the Sūta's son in battle, doing what was dear and beneficial to the Pāṇḍavas.

7.157.11 Saṃjaya said: Knowing this intent in Karṇa, O king, the slayer of Madhu then set the lord of the rākṣasas to the chariot-duel.

7.157.12 The deeply wise Janārdana set mighty Ghaṭotkaca to draw forth the unfailing spear, O king—amid your evil counsels.

7.157.13 Then indeed our purpose would have been accomplished, O scion of Kuru, had Kṛṣṇa not been guarding that Pārtha from Karṇa, the great chariot-warrior.

7.157.14 With his horses, his banner, and his chariot, O Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Pārtha would have fallen to the earth in battle—but for Janārdana, the lord and master of all yogas.

7.157.15 Guarded by those many devices, O king, Pārtha, protected by Kṛṣṇa, conquers his foes face to face.

7.157.16 But it was above all from the unfailing spear that Kṛṣṇa guarded the Pāṇḍava; for that spear, once hurled, would have struck down Kuntī's son as a thunderbolt fells a tree.

7.157.17 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: A maker of strife, ill in counsel, and yet deeming himself wise is my son—he for whom this means of slaying, the path to victory, has been let slip.

7.157.18 And how was this let slip by you too, O son of Gavalgaṇa—that you, O deeply wise one, did not make this matter understood?

7.157.19 Saṃjaya said: Night after night, this very counsel was urged, ever and again, by Duryodhana, by Śakuni, by me, and by Duḥśāsana:

7.157.20 "Tomorrow, Karṇa, leave aside all the troops and slay Dhanaṃjaya; then shall we make the Pāṇḍus and Pāñcālas serve us like menials."

7.157.21 "Or else, with Pārtha slain, the Vārṣṇeya would set up some other among the Pāṇḍus in the fight; therefore let Kṛṣṇa be struck down."

7.157.22 "For Kṛṣṇa is the root of the Pāṇḍus, and Pārtha is the trunk risen up; the other sons of Pṛthā are as the branches, and the Pāñcālas may be called the leaves."

7.157.23 "The Pāṇḍavas have Kṛṣṇa for their refuge, Kṛṣṇa for their strength, Kṛṣṇa for their lord; Kṛṣṇa is their supreme recourse, as the moon among the lights of heaven."

7.157.24 "Therefore, son of the Sūta, leaving aside the leaves, the branches, and the trunk, cut down Kṛṣṇa, the root of the Pāṇḍus, everywhere and always."

7.157.25 "For if Karṇa should slay the Dāśārha, the joy of the Yādavas, then the whole earth, O king, would fall under your sway—of that there is no doubt."

7.157.26 "For if that great soul, the joy of the Yadu line and of the Pāṇḍavas, were slain and lay upon the earth, then surely, O lord of men, the whole world, with its mountains, seas, and forests, would pass under your sway."

7.157.27 But this resolve, though so taken, faltered in the hour of battle, while the immeasurable Hṛṣīkeśa, lord of the thirty gods, kept watch.

7.157.28 For Keśava ever guards Arjuna, the son of Kuntī; he did not wish to set him in the battle face to face with the Sūta's son.

7.157.29 And the unfallen one set other noble chariot-warriors against him, thinking, "How may I make that unfailing spear to fail?"—O lord.

7.157.30 Then mighty-armed Sātyaki, of true valor, that tiger among chariot-warriors, asked Kṛṣṇa concerning Karṇa, the great chariot-warrior:

7.157.31 "There was this confidence placed in Karṇa, O you of measureless valor, by reason of the spear; why then was it not loosed by the Sūta's son upon Phalguna?"

7.157.32 Vāsudeva said: Duḥśāsana, Karṇa, and Śakuni, together with the king of the Sindhus, ever took counsel, with Duryodhana at their head:

7.157.33 "Karṇa, Karṇa, mighty archer, of measureless prowess in battle—this spear of yours must be loosed upon none other, O best of the victorious—

7.157.34 "—save upon the great chariot-warrior Pārtha, Dhanaṃjaya, the son of Kuntī; for he is the most glorious among them, as Vāsava among the gods."

7.157.35 "With him slain, all the Pāṇḍavas along with the Sṛñjayas will be as souls departed, like gods bereft of their sacred fires."

7.157.36 And "So be it" was Karṇa's pledge, O bull of the Śini line; yet ever in Karṇa's heart was the slaying of the wielder of Gāṇḍīva.

7.157.37 But it was I myself who bewildered the son of Rādhā, O best of warriors, so that he did not loose the spear upon the Pāṇḍava of the white steeds.

7.157.38 For, knowing that spear to be the death of Phalguna who longs to fight, I have had no sleep nor any gladness of mind, O best of warriors.

7.157.39 But now, having seen that spear made to fail upon Ghaṭotkaca, O bull of the Śini line, I behold Dhanaṃjaya this day delivered from the very jaws of death.

7.157.40 Not my father, nor my mother, nor you, nor my brothers, nor even my own life is so to be guarded as Bībhatsu in battle.

7.157.41 Were there anything beyond the sovereignty of the three worlds, however hard to win, I would not desire it, O Sātvata, if it lacked Pārtha, Dhanaṃjaya.

7.157.42 Therefore a very great joy has come to me this day, O Yuyudhāna, beholding Pārtha, Dhanaṃjaya, as one returned from the dead.

7.157.43 And for this reason was the rākṣasa sent by me against Karṇa in the battle; for no other was able to press Karṇa hard in the combat by night.

7.157.44 Saṃjaya said: Thus did the son of Devakī speak then to Sātyaki—he who was devoted to Dhanaṃjaya's welfare and ever delighted in what was dear to him.

7.158.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: Great was the misjudgment of Karṇa, Duryodhana, and the rest, of Śakuni the son of Subala—and yours above all, my son.

7.158.2 For you knew that spear, slayer of one alone, ever in battle unstoppable and unbearable even to the gods with Vāsava;

7.158.3 why then was it not loosed by Karṇa when battle was first joined, neither upon the son of Devakī nor upon Phalguna, O Saṃjaya?

7.158.4 Saṃjaya said: When all of us had withdrawn from the fighting, O lord of peoples, this counsel arose in the night, O best of the Kuru line:

7.158.5 "At the very break of day, when tomorrow comes, this spear must be loosed upon Keśava or upon Arjuna, Karṇa, Karṇa"—thus, again and again.

7.158.6 But then, when daybreak came, O king, by the will of the gods that resolve was lost again to Karṇa and to the other warriors.

7.158.7 I deem fate supreme indeed, in that Karṇa, with the spear set in his very hand, did not slay in battle either Pārtha or Kṛṣṇa, the son of Devakī.

7.158.8 That spear, resting in his hand, raised aloft like the Night of Doom—because his judgment was struck down by fate, Karṇa did not loose it.

7.158.9 Bewildered by the gods' own magic, he loosed not Vāsava's spear, O lord, for the slaying of Kṛṣṇa, the son of Devakī, nor of Pārtha, the peer of Śakra.

7.158.10 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: By fate alone were you undone, and by your own judgment, and by Keśava's; for Vāsava's spear was spent in slaying Ghaṭotkaca, who was but as a blade of grass.

7.158.11 And Karṇa, and my sons, and all the other kings as well, by this ill-conceived design have gone to the abode of Vaivasvata.

7.158.12 But tell me yet again how the battle of the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas went forward then, when Hiḍimbā's son had been slain.

7.158.13 And those striking warriors who charged upon Droṇa in ordered ranks—the Sṛñjayas together with the Pāñcālas—how too did they wage the fight?

7.158.14 Droṇa, made fierce by the slaying of Somadatta's son and of the Sindhu king, casting away his very life in his fury, plunging into the host—

7.158.15 —like a tiger stretching itself, like Death with jaws agape: how did the Pāṇḍus and Sṛñjayas advance against Droṇa as he loosed his shafts?

7.158.16 And those who guarded the teacher, with Duryodhana at their head — Aśvatthāman, Karṇa, and Kṛpa — what, my son, did they too do in the battle?

7.158.17 When Savyasācin and Vṛkodara sought to slay the son of Bharadvāja, how did my men close with them in the fight? Tell me, Saṃjaya.

7.158.18 By the slaying of the king of the Sindhus and by the slaying of Ghaṭotkaca, these men were made furious and greatly enraged — how did they wage the battle in the night?

7.158.19 Saṃjaya said: When the rākṣasa Ghaṭotkaca had been slain by Karṇa in the night, O king, and your men, eager for battle, were roaring in their delight,

7.158.20 as they charged on with fury and the army was being cut down, deep in the night the king fell into the utmost wretchedness.

7.158.21 And the mighty-armed scorcher of foes said to Bhīmasena: "Hold back, O mighty-armed one, the host of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son; at the death of Haiḍimba's son a great stupor has come over me."

7.158.22 Having so charged Bhīma, the king sat down upon his own chariot, his face filled with tears and sighing again and again; beholding Karṇa's prowess, he sank into a dreadful despondency.

7.158.23 Seeing him so stricken, Kṛṣṇa spoke these words: "Grieve not, son of Kuntī; such faltering does not befit you, O best of the Bhāratas, as it would a common man."

7.158.24 "Rise, O king, fight, bear the heavy yoke, O lord; should faltering overtake you, victory itself would fall into doubt."

7.158.25 Hearing Kṛṣṇa's words, the Dharma King Yudhiṣṭhira wiped his eyes with both hands and spoke to Kṛṣṇa:

7.158.26 "Known to you, O mighty-armed one, is the highest course of all duties; the guilt of slaying a brahmin belongs to him who does not recognize a kindness done to him."

7.158.27 "For when we dwelt in the forest, the great-souled son of Hiḍimbā, though still but a boy, rendered us his aid, O Janārdana."

7.158.28 "When he learned that the white-steeded Pāṇḍava had gone in quest of weapons, that mighty archer, O Kṛṣṇa, attended upon me in the Kāmyaka forest, and dwelt with us all the while Dhanaṃjaya was absent."

7.158.29 "On the journey to Gandhamādana we were carried across the hard passes by him, and the weary Pāñcālī was borne upon the back of that great-souled one."

7.158.30 "And from the very outset of the battles, whatever this one performed — a hard task accomplished for my sake by that great-souled one, O lord —"

7.158.31 "and the love I bear by nature for Sahadeva, O Janārdana — even that love, doubled, I bore for Ghaṭotkaca, lord of the rākṣasas."

7.158.32 "Devoted to me was that mighty-armed one, and I was dear to him, and he was dear to me — and through him, O Vārṣṇeya, I am sunk in despair, tormented by grief."

7.158.33 "Look, O Vārṣṇeya, at the armies being driven in rout by the Kauravas; look at Droṇa and Karṇa, those great chariot-warriors, locked in the fight."

7.158.34 "At dead of night behold the Pāṇḍava army crushed by these two, as a great thicket of reeds is trampled by two rutting elephants."

7.158.35 "Heedless of the strength of Bhīmasena's arms, O Mādhava, and of the varied weaponry of Pārtha, the Kauravas press on in their might."

7.158.36 "Here are Droṇa and Karṇa, and king Suyodhana too, having slain the rākṣasa in battle, roaring in their joy upon the field."

7.158.37 "How, while we yet live, and you too, O Janārdana, has Haiḍimba met his death, fallen upon by the son of the sūta?"

7.158.38 "Setting us all at naught, before the very eyes of Savyasācin, the mighty rākṣasa, Bhīmasena's son, has been slain, O Kṛṣṇa."

7.158.39 "When Abhimanyu was slain by the evil-souled sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the great chariot-warrior Savyasācin was not there in that battle, O Kṛṣṇa."

7.158.40 "And we were all held off by the evil-souled lord of the Sindhus; Droṇa, together with his son, was the instrument in that deed."

7.158.41 "The means of the slaying was taught to Karṇa by the teacher himself, who cut in two with his sword the sword of the struggling boy."

7.158.42 "As he stood in his distress, Kṛtavarman, like one without pity, suddenly slew his horses and both his rear-guard charioteers; thus did the other mighty archers bring down the son of Subhadrā in the fight."

7.158.43 "And for but a slight cause, O Kṛṣṇa, the lord of the Sindhus was slain by the wielder of the Gāṇḍīva, O best of the Yādavas — and even that is not greatly to my liking."

7.158.44 "If the slaying of an enemy were proper and to be done by the Pāṇḍavas, then it was Droṇa and Karṇa who should first have been slain in battle — such is my judgment."

7.158.45 "For these two are the root of our sorrows, O bull among men; relying upon these two in battle, Suyodhana is filled with confidence."

7.158.46 "Where Droṇa ought to have been slain, and the sūta's son with his followers, there the mighty-armed one slew instead the far-dwelling lord of the Sindhus."

7.158.47 "Yet without fail the subduing of the sūta's son must be wrought by me; therefore I shall go myself, O hero, in my desire to slay Karṇa, while the mighty-armed Bhīmasena is engaged with Droṇa's host."

7.158.48 Having spoken thus, Yudhiṣṭhira hastened swiftly forth, twanging his great bow and blowing a fearsome blast upon his conch.

7.158.49 Then, surrounded by a thousand chariots, three hundred elephants, five thousand horse, and three thousand Prabhadrakas, Śikhaṇḍin followed swiftly behind the king.

7.158.50 Then, clad in mail, the Pāñcālas and the Pāṇḍavas, with Yudhiṣṭhira at their head, beat their kettledrums and blew their conches.

7.158.51 Then the mighty-armed Vāsudeva said to Dhanaṃjaya: "Here goes Yudhiṣṭhira in haste, possessed by wrath and bent on slaying the sūta's son; to neglect him would not be fitting."

7.158.52 Having spoken thus, Hṛṣīkeśa swiftly urged on the horses, and Janārdana followed after the king, who had gone far ahead.

7.158.53 Seeing him rushing on in his desire to slay the sūta's son, his resolve broken by grief and as if burning with fire, Vyāsa came up and spoke to Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Dharma:

7.158.54 "By good fortune Phalguna lives, though he met Karṇa in battle; for that one, longing to slay Savyasācin, kept his lance in reserve."

7.158.55 "And by good fortune, O bull of the Bhāratas, the victorious one did not come to single combat with him; for these two rivals would have loosed against each other their celestial weapons in every kind."

7.158.56 "And as his weapons were struck down and the son of the sūta was hard pressed, he would surely have hurled in battle the lance of Vāsava, O Yudhiṣṭhira."

7.158.57 "Then a dreadful calamity would have befallen you, O best of the Bhāratas; by good fortune it was the rākṣasa who was slain in the fight by the sūta's son, O bestower of honour."

7.158.58 "Making the lance of Vāsava the occasion, he was carried off by Time; for your sake, my son, was the rākṣasa slain in battle."

7.158.59 "Be not wrathful, O best of the Bhāratas, nor set your mind upon grief; this is the end of all living beings here, O Yudhiṣṭhira."

7.158.60 "Together with all your brothers and the great-souled kings, do battle against the Kauravas, O king, O Bhārata; and on the fifth day the earth shall be yours."

7.158.61 "And ever, O tiger among men, dwell upon righteousness alone — upon mercy, austerity, charity, forbearance, and truth, O Pāṇḍava."

7.158.62 "Cherish these with the highest delight; where dharma is, there is victory." Having so spoken to the Pāṇḍava, Vyāsa vanished then and there.

7.159.1 Saṃjaya said: When Ghaṭotkaca had been slain by the sūta's son that night, the son of Dharma, Yudhiṣṭhira, fell under the sway of grief and indignation.

7.159.2 Seeing your mighty host held back by Bhīma, he said this to Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Hold off the pitcher-born one."

7.159.3 "For you were born from the fire for the destruction of Droṇa, armed with arrows, mailed, sword-bearing, bow-wielding, a scorcher of foes; charge joyfully into battle, and let there be no fear in you at all."

7.159.4 "Let Janamejaya and Śikhaṇḍin and Daurmukhi, rich in glory, charge in their joy upon the pitcher-born one from every side."

7.159.5 "Let Nakula and Sahadeva, the sons of Draupadī, the Prabhadrakas, and Drupada and Virāṭa, attended by their sons and brothers,"

7.159.6 "and Sātyaki and the Kekayas, and the Pāṇḍava Dhanaṃjaya — let them charge with fury in their desire to slay the son of Bharadvāja."

7.159.7 "And likewise let all the chariot-warriors, every elephant and horse there is, and the foot-soldiers, bring the great chariot-warrior Droṇa to bay in battle."

7.159.8 Thus commanded by the great-souled Pāṇḍava, they all charged with fury upon the pitcher-born one, eager for battle.

7.159.9 As the Pāṇḍavas came on suddenly with all their effort, Droṇa, the best of weapon-bearers, received them in battle.

7.159.10 Then king Duryodhana, with all his effort, greatly enraged, charged upon the Pāṇḍavas, wishing to preserve Droṇa's life.

7.159.11 Then there broke out a battle of warriors and mounts grown weary, of Pāṇḍavas and Kurus roaring at one another.

7.159.12 Blinded by sleep, O great king, and worn out in the fray, those great chariot-warriors could not summon up any exertion in the battle.

7.159.13 And that night of three watches, dreadful of aspect and terrifying, became like a night of a thousand watches, life-destroying, above all to those being slain and to the wounded.

7.159.14 Ah, what a night it grew to be, above all for those blinded by sleep! For all the warriors, yours and the foe's alike, were without spirit and downcast in heart, their weapons spent, their arrows gone.

7.159.15 Yet, enduring as they were and possessed of shame above all else, looking to their own duty, they did not forsake their own battle-line.

7.159.16 Some men, casting away their weapons, lay blinded by sleep — some upon elephants, some upon chariots, and some upon horses, O Bhārata.

7.159.17 Blinded by sleep, the chieftains were aware of no exertion at all; those warriors sent one another in battle to the abode of Yama.

7.159.18 Others, sunk as in a dream and bereft of sense, took men for foes and in the battle struck down their own selves, their own people, and the enemy alike.

7.159.19 Uttering all manner of cries, blinded by sleep in that great battle, they stood saying "We must fight," though their eyes were fast clinging with slumber.

7.159.20 Some heroes, crushing one another in the fray and blinded by sleep, struck one another down in the battle, O king, in that fearsome darkness.

7.159.21 Many men, sorely stupefied by sleep, did not even perceive in the battle that their own selves were being struck down by the foe.

7.159.22 Perceiving such a plight among them, Bībhatsu, that bull among men, spoke aloud these words, making the quarters resound:

7.159.23 "You are all weary and blinded by sleep, mounts and all, and the army is enveloped in darkness and in thick clouds of dust."

7.159.24 "If you, O soldiers, think it good, then desist, and close your eyes here upon this very battlefield for a little while."

7.159.25 "Then, sleep gone and rested, when the moon has risen again, you Kurus and Pāṇḍavas shall once more dispatch one another to heaven."

7.159.26 Hearing that word of the righteous one, the armies, knowing every duty, found it good, and spoke thus to one another:

7.159.27 They cried out, "Karṇa, O Karṇa!" and, "O Duryodhana!" — "Desist! the host of the Pāṇḍavas has indeed left off the fight," O king.

7.159.28 And as Phalguna cried out thus on every side, the army of the Pāṇḍavas and yours too left off the battle, O Bhārata.

7.159.29 That word of the great-souled one the gods and the sages, and all the noble-hearted armies, applauded with delight.

7.159.30 Honouring that gentle word, all the wearied armies slept for a little while, O king, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.159.31 And your banner-host, O Bhārata, having gained its rest and won its ease, paid honour to the hero Arjuna.

7.159.32 "In you abide the Vedas and the weapons; in you both wisdom and valour; in you dwells dharma, O mighty-armed one, and compassion for all beings, O sinless one."

7.159.33 "And the well-being we, restored, wish for you, O Pārtha — may it be yours; and swiftly may you attain, O hero, the dear desires of your heart."

7.159.34 Thus praising that tiger among men, the great car-warriors, overcome by sleep, fell silent, O lord of the people.

7.159.35 Some slept upon the backs of horses, others within the boxes of their chariots, others seated on the shoulders of elephants, and still others upon the bare ground.

7.159.36 With their weapons, with their maces, with their swords and battle-axes, with their lances and armor, the men slept each apart from the other.

7.159.37 Those elephants, blind with sleep, with their trunks coiling like serpents' bodies and dusted with the earth's powder, cooled the ground with the breath of their nostrils.

7.159.38 The elephants, breathing upon the surface of the earth, shone there like sundered mountains breathed upon by great serpents.

7.159.39 The horses, with their golden harnesses, made the level ground uneven, gashing the earth with the points of their hooves; and there, O king of kings, with their yokes hung with garlands, they slept, still harnessed everywhere to their teams.

7.159.40 That host, thus broken by sleep, slept speechless, like a wondrous picture laid out upon a canvas by skilled hands.

7.159.41 Those young warriors, wearing earrings, their limbs gashed by one another's arrows, slept clinging to the temple-globes of the elephants, as though pressed against the breasts of their beloved women.

7.159.42 Then the eastern quarter of Indra was adorned by the moon, the lord of the water-lilies, pale as the cheek of a lovely woman, the delight of the eyes.

7.159.43 Then, after a little while, the blessed lord marked with the hare showed his reddish glow in the east, the radiant one swallowing up the brilliance of the stars.

7.159.44 And following that reddish dawn, the moon, little by little, let fall a great net of rays bright as gold.

7.159.45 Driving away the darkness with their splendor, those rays of the moon slowly spread over all the quarters, over the sky, and over the earth as well.

7.159.46 Then in a moment the world became as though made of light, and the darkness, dim and unillumined, swiftly fled away.

7.159.47 When the world was lit up again and the moon, lord of the night, had become as bright as day, then, O king, the creatures that roam by night roamed about—or roamed no more.

7.159.48 That army, being awakened by the rays of the moon, O king, came awake like a great grove of lotuses upon the water.

7.159.49 As the ocean, stirred up at the rising of the moon, would surge in agitation, so did that sea of armies surge, stirred up at the moon's rising.

7.159.50 Then once more the battle broke out, O lord of the people, for the destruction of the world among men who longed for the world beyond.

7.160.1 Saṃjaya said: Then Duryodhana, approaching Droṇa, spoke these words, given over to wrath, kindling both joy and ardor.

7.160.2 Enemies who in battle were resting, worn out with toil, dejected in spirit, and who had found their opening—these are above all not to be borne with.

7.160.3 Yet this we endured, out of a wish to please you; and now these Pāṇḍavas, well rested, have grown the stronger.

7.160.4 In every way we are fallen short, in vigor and in strength, while they, protected by you, wax greater again and again.

7.160.5 All the celestial weapons, the Brahmā-weapon and the rest—all of these abide above all in you alone.

7.160.6 Neither the Pāṇḍavas, nor we, nor any other bowmen in the world are a match for you when you fight—this truth I tell you.

7.160.7 O best of the twice-born, knowing every weapon, you could slay these worlds with their gods, asuras, and gandharvas by your celestial arms—of this there is no doubt.

7.160.8 Yet you bear with these men, who are above all afraid of you—whether you do so out of regard for their pupilship, or for my own ill fortune.

7.160.9 Thus stung and provoked by your son, O king, Droṇa, filled with anger, spoke these words to Duryodhana.

7.160.10 Old though I am, I strive with utmost power in battle, Duryodhana; and beyond this, greedy for victory, I must even stoop to a base deed—all these folk who know not weapons must be slain by me who knows them.

7.160.11 Whatever you judge, be it good or be it evil, that indeed I shall do, O Kaurava, at your word, and not otherwise.

7.160.12 Having slain all the Pāñcālas and shown my valor in battle, I shall lay aside my armor, O king—by my truth I lay my hand upon my weapon and swear it.

7.160.13 And as for your thinking that Arjuna the son of Kuntī is weary in battle—hear, O mighty-armed Kaurava, in truth, of his prowess.

7.160.14 Neither the gods, nor the gandharvas, nor the yakṣas, nor the rākṣasas dare to withstand in battle Savyasācin when he is enraged.

7.160.15 By him at Khāṇḍava the blessed lord of the gods himself was withstood, and though he poured down rain, he was checked by that great-souled one with his arrows.

7.160.16 Yakṣas, nāgas, and daityas, and others puffed up with their strength, were slain by that lord among men—this too is known to you.

7.160.17 In the cattle-expedition the gandharvas, Citrasena and the rest, were vanquished, and you yourselves, being carried off by them, were set free by that firm-bowed one.

7.160.18 The Nivātakavacas, too, the foes of the gods, who could not be slain in battle by the celestials, were conquered by that hero.

7.160.19 Thousands of dānavas dwelling in Hiraṇyapura that tiger among men subdued—how then can he be withstood by mortal men?

7.160.20 And it is before your very eyes that this whole host of yours has been wasted by the son of Pāṇḍu, while we strove on, O lord of the people.

7.160.21 As Droṇa thus extolled Arjuna, your son, enraged, O king, spoke to him once more these words.

7.160.22 I, Duḥśāsana, Karṇa, and Śakuni my maternal uncle shall slay Arjuna in battle this day, after dividing the Bhārata host in two.

7.160.23 Hearing that speech of his, the son of Bharadvāja, as though laughing, fell in with the king and said, "May it be well with you."

7.160.24 For who—what warrior—could destroy the wielder of Gāṇḍīva, blazing as if with splendor, the inexhaustible one, that bull among warriors?

7.160.25 Him neither the lord of wealth, nor Indra, nor Yama, nor the lord of the waters, nor asuras, serpents, and rākṣasas could destroy, weapons and all.

7.160.26 Only fools speak such things as those you utter, O Bhārata; for having met Arjuna in battle, who could return home unscathed?

7.160.27 But you, suspicious of everyone, harsh, fixed upon evil, would have those devoted to your welfare speak now this thing and now that.

7.160.28 Go yourself, then, against the son of Kuntī—delay not, for your own sake; you too hope to fight, for you are nobly born and a warrior.

7.160.29 Why will you have all these kings, who are guiltless, slain? You are the root of this enmity—therefore go yourself against Arjuna.

7.160.30 Here is your wise maternal uncle, the son of Gāndhāra, devoted to the warrior's duty—that gambler of crooked dice—let him march against Arjuna in battle.

7.160.31 This man, skilled at dice, crooked, a gamester, a cheat, a deceiver, a player versed in trickery, shall conquer the Pāṇḍavas in battle!

7.160.32 Endlessly have you and Karṇa boasted in your glee, again and again, vainly and out of folly, in the very hearing of Dhṛtarāṣṭra:

7.160.33 "I, dear son, and Karṇa, and my brother Duḥśāsana—we three together shall slay the sons of Pāṇḍu in battle."

7.160.34 Such boasting of yours has been heard in assembly after assembly—now make good that vow, and prove yourself a man of his word along with them.

7.160.35 Here stands before you the Pāṇḍava, your foe, not to be withstood—look to the warrior's duty; more praiseworthy for you is death than such a victory.

7.160.36 Gifts you have given, pleasures enjoyed, scriptures studied, and the lordship you longed for attained; your task is fulfilled and you are free of debt—fear not, fight the Pāṇḍava.

7.160.37 Having spoken thus, Droṇa turned in battle toward where the foes were, and then, the army being divided in two, the fight began once more.

7.161.1 Saṃjaya said: When but a third part of the night remained, the battle raged on between the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas, both filled with eager joy, O lord of the people.

7.161.2 Then Aruṇa, the forerunner of the sun, stealing away the splendor of the moon, brought on the dawn, making the heavens as if coppery red.

7.161.3 Then, the army being divided in two, Droṇa, with Duryodhana at his head, charged against the Somakas, the Pāṇḍavas, and the Pāñcālas.

7.161.4 Seeing the Kurus split in two, Mādhava said to Arjuna: "These foes, these Kurus, let me bring round to your left, O Savyasācin."

7.161.5 Granting Mādhava leave with the word "Do so," Dhanaṃjaya wheeled round, keeping the two great archers Droṇa and Karṇa to his left.

7.161.6 But the conqueror of hostile cities, learning Kṛṣṇa's intent and seeing Bhīmasena posted at the forefront of the fray, drew near to him.

7.161.7 Bhīma said: Arjuna, Arjuna, Bībhatsu, hear my words truly: the hour has come for which a warrior-woman bears a son.

7.161.8 If, now that this hour has come, you do not seize the better course, then, your worth set at naught, you will be playing the part of a coward in disguise of mercy.

7.161.9 By your valor pay off your debt to truth, to fortune, to duty, and to fame; break through the line, O best of fighters—make an end of these, O Savyasācin.

7.161.10 Saṃjaya said: That Savyasācin, urged on by Bhīma and by Keśava, passed beyond Karṇa and Droṇa and beset the foe on every side.

7.161.11 As he came on at the forefront of the fray, consuming those bulls among warriors, the bulls among warriors strove with all their might against him, yet could not check him, growing as he was like a kindled fire.

7.161.12 Then Duryodhana, Karṇa, and Śakuni the son of Subala rained down floods of arrows upon Dhanaṃjaya, the son of Kuntī.

7.161.13 Setting at naught the weapons of all of them, that foremost of those who know the highest weapons, O king of kings, overwhelmed them with showers of arrows.

7.161.14 Warding off weapons with weapons, the light-handed Dhanaṃjaya pierced each of them with ten sharpened arrows apiece.

7.161.15 A storm of dust was raised up, and likewise a storm of arrows, and a fearful darkness, and a mighty din arose at that time.

7.161.16 Neither sky nor earth nor the quarters could be discerned, things having come to such a pass; bewildered by the dust raised by the army, all became as if blind.

7.161.17 Neither they nor we, O king, could make out one another; only by guesswork did the kings keep up the fight.

7.161.18 Car-warriors bereft of their chariots, O king, closing with one another, grappled by the hair, by the armor, and by the arms.

7.161.19 Car-warriors whose horses and charioteers were slain, motionless and stricken with fear, appeared there then as though scarcely alive.

7.161.20 The horses, clinging to slain elephants that lay like mountains, appeared lifeless, and so too did their riders along with them.

7.161.21 Then, withdrawing from the combat to the northern quarter, Droṇa stood in the battle like a smokeless fire.

7.161.22 But seeing him drawn off apart from the forefront of the fray, the armies of the Pāṇḍavas trembled, O lord of the people.

7.161.23 Beholding Droṇa, resplendent and graced with glory, blazing as if with splendor, the foes shook, wavered, and grew faint, O sire.

7.161.24 As he challenged the enemy host like an elephant in must, they did not reckon they could conquer him, even as the dānavas could not hope to conquer Vāsava.

7.161.25 Some were robbed of all spirit, some of the high-minded were filled with wrath, some became amazed, and some were seized with indignation.

7.161.26 Some of the kings ground their finger-tips against their hands, while others, swooning with anger, bit their lips with their teeth.

7.161.27 Some flung their weapons at him, others crushed his arms in their grip, and yet others, men of mighty vigor who had renounced all care for their lives, hurled themselves upon Droṇa.

7.161.28 The Pāñcālas above all, sorely afflicted by Droṇa's shafts and racked with anguish, closed with him in battle, O lord of kings.

7.161.29 Then Virāṭa and Drupada advanced against Droṇa in the fight as he ranged through the conflict, well-nigh unconquerable in war.

7.161.30 Then the three grandsons of Drupada, O lord of peoples, and the mighty bowmen of the Cedis bore down upon Droṇa in battle.

7.161.31 With three whetted arrows Droṇa took the lives of those three grandsons of Drupada, and slain they fell to the earth.

7.161.32 Then Droṇa conquered in the fight the Cedis, the Kekayas, and the Sṛñjayas, and the great chariot-warrior, son of Bharadvāja, vanquished all the Matsyas as well.

7.161.33 Then Drupada in his wrath poured down a rain of arrows upon Droṇa, O great king, and Virāṭa did likewise in the encounter.

7.161.34 Then Droṇa, crusher of foes, with two well-burnished broad-headed shafts dispatched both Drupada and Virāṭa to the abode of Vaivasvata.

7.161.35 When Virāṭa and Drupada were slain, and the Kekayas likewise, and the Cedis and Matsyas and Pāñcālas as well, and when the three heroes who were Drupada's grandsons had been killed—

7.161.36 beholding that deed of Droṇa, the high-minded Dhṛṣṭadyumna, filled with wrath and grief, swore an oath in the midst of the chariot-warriors:

7.161.37 "Let that man fall from the merit of his sacrifices and pious works, from his Kṣatriya estate and his Brahmin standing, who today lets Droṇa go free, or who turns his back upon Droṇa."

7.161.38 Having thus pledged himself in the midst of all the bowmen, the Pāñcāla prince, slayer of enemy heroes, advanced upon Droṇa together with his host; the Pāñcālas struck at Droṇa from one side and the Pāṇḍavas from the other.

7.161.39 And Duryodhana and Karṇa, and Śakuni the son of Subala, and his foremost brothers—these guarded Droṇa in the battle.

7.161.40 Droṇa being thus guarded in the fray by those great-souled warriors, the Pāñcālas, strive as they might, could not so much as look upon him.

7.161.41 Thereupon Bhīmasena grew angry with Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O venerable one, and that bull among men cut him with harsh words:

7.161.42 "Born in the line of Drupada, most learned in all weapons—what Kṣatriya worthy of the name would stand and merely gaze upon his foe before him?

7.161.43 Having suffered the slaying of his father and his sons, what man would let the matter slip—above all after swearing an oath in the assembly of kings?

7.161.44 Like the fire of Vaiśvānara kindled bright by its own splendor, this Droṇa, with bow and arrows for his fuel, consumes the Kṣatriya host with his blazing might.

7.161.45 Before he leaves the army of the Pāṇḍavas without a remnant—stand and watch my deed: I go straight against Droṇa myself."

7.161.46 Having spoken thus, Vṛkodara in his wrath plunged into Droṇa's division, scattering your army with firm shafts loosed from a bow drawn to the full.

7.161.47 Dhṛṣṭadyumna the Pāñcāla too, breaking into the great host, came upon Droṇa in the fight; and then a great tumult arose.

7.161.48 Never before had we seen or heard of such a battle as this, O king: at sunrise a great confusion arose.

7.161.49 Throngs of chariots were seen locked together, O venerable one, and the bodies of the slain lay scattered all about.

7.161.50 Some, making their way elsewhere, were set upon by others on the road; some who had turned away were struck from behind, and others were struck upon the flank.

7.161.51 So that close-grappled fighting grew exceedingly terrible; and presently the sun reached the twilight hour.

7.162.1 Saṃjaya said: Even so, O great king, those warriors in their armor, at the forefront of battle, did homage to the thousand-rayed sun as it came to the hour of twilight.

7.162.2 But when the thousand-rayed one rose again, gleaming like molten gold, and the worlds were lit with its light, the battle was renewed.

7.162.3 Those single combats which had been joined there before the dawn, O Bhārata, were taken up afresh when the sun had risen.

7.162.4 Horses met chariots, elephants met horses, foot-soldiers met the great tuskers, horse closed with horse and foot-soldier with foot-soldier; and the warriors, locked together and torn apart, fell upon one another in the battle.

7.162.5 Spent with their night-long labors, and now scorched by the sun's heat, their limbs beset by hunger and thirst, many of them swooned away.

7.162.6 Of the conches, kettledrums, and tabors, of the trumpeting elephants, and of the bows stretched wide and twanging—

7.162.7 a din arose, O king, that touched the very heavens, O bull of the Bhāratas—the noise of fleeing foot-soldiers and of weapons hurled down,

7.162.8 of horses neighing and chariots wheeling about, of men crying out and roaring—and a great tumult arose.

7.162.9 Swelling ever greater, the tumultuous roar mounted to the sky in a mighty voice; and the anguished cries of those mangled by manifold weapons, writhing where they lay,

7.162.10 were heard loud upon the earth; and great was the misery then—of foot-soldiers, horses, chariots, and elephants falling and fallen.

7.162.11 As all those hosts became entangled together in countless ways, one's own struck down one's own, foes struck one's own, one's own struck foes, and foes struck foes.

7.162.12 Swords loosed by the arms of heroes flashed among the warriors and the elephants like washermen's paddles at the washing of garments.

7.162.13 Of the blades raised high and beaten together by the arms of heroes there came that very sound, as of garments being pounded at the wash.

7.162.14 With half-swords and broadswords, with lances and battle-axes, a great close-quarters fight was joined, hand to hand and exceedingly terrible.

7.162.15 Rising from the bodies of elephants and horses, bearing along the corpses of men, well filled with weapons for its fish, its mire made of flesh and blood,

7.162.16 loud with the cries of the stricken, foaming with banners and garments—such a river the heroes set flowing, that bore men onward to the other world.

7.162.17 Tormented by arrows and spears, worn out, their wits dulled and bewildered by the night, the elephants and horses stood there, bracing every limb; and the heroes, their faces parched, with their heads adorned by lovely earrings—

7.162.18 and with the other implements of war glittering here and there, with the dead and the half-dead, and thronged by packs of carrion-eaters, the whole battlefield was so strewn that there was no path left for a chariot anywhere upon it.

7.162.19 As the wheels sank deep, the horses—mustering their spirit—somehow dragged the chariots on, weary, trembling, tormented by arrows, those steeds endowed with good breeding, mettle, and strength, the equals of elephants.

7.162.20 All that host, O Bhārata, was then reeling, frenzied, fearful, and distressed—save only those two, Droṇa and Arjuna.

7.162.21 They two were the refuge, they two the recourse of the afflicted; yet others, approaching those two, went only to the abode of Vaivasvata.

7.162.22 The whole great army of the Kauravas was thrown into confusion, and so too the host of the Pāñcālas locked with it; nothing whatever could be made out.

7.162.23 As that great destruction of the royal houses arose upon the earth—like the playground of Death, swelling the terror of the timid—

7.162.24 there neither Karṇa nor Droṇa, neither Arjuna nor Yudhiṣṭhira, neither Bhīmasena nor the twins, neither the Pāñcāla prince nor Sātyaki,

7.162.25 nor Duḥśāsana, nor Droṇa's son, nor Duryodhana and the son of Subala, nor Kṛpa, nor the king of the Madras, nor even Kṛtavarman—

7.162.26 nor any others, nor even our own selves, nor the earth, nor the quarters of the sky—none of these could we see, O king, all locked in the press of the host and veiled in dust.

7.162.27 When the whirling, dreadful tumult arose and a cloud of dust mounted up, men deemed that a second night had come upon them.

7.162.28 The Kauravas were not to be known, nor the Pāñcālas, nor the Pāṇḍavas; neither the quarters, nor the sky, nor the earth, nor level ground from broken could be told apart.

7.162.29 Whomever came within the touch of their hands, whether foe or even one of their own, the men, eager for victory, struck down in that battle.

7.162.30 But because the dust had been thrown up, and through the sprinkling of blood, and through the swiftness of the wind, the dust of the earth was laid.

7.162.31 There the elephants, horses, warriors, chariot-fighters, and foot-soldiers, drenched in blood, shone like groves of pārijāta in flower.

7.162.32 Then Duryodhana, Karṇa, Droṇa, and Duḥśāsana—four chariot-warriors—closed in combat with four of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.162.33 Duryodhana with his brother engaged the twins, Rādheya engaged Vṛkodara, and Arjuna engaged the son of Bharadvāja.

7.162.34 That dread and mighty marvel all beheld on every side—the superhuman clash of those fierce bulls among chariot-warriors.

7.162.35 With their varied chariot-courses, all crowded with wondrous cars, the chariot-fighters watched the marvelous battle of those warriors who fought in marvelous ways.

7.162.36 Straining and valorous, each longing to overcome the other, they showered down their rains of arrows like thunderclouds at the close of the hot season.

7.162.37 Mounted upon their chariots bright as the sun, those bulls among men shone like autumn clouds drawn up together.

7.162.38 Those rival mighty bowmen, putting forth their utmost effort, the bearers of the bow, went at one another like rutting bull-elephants.

7.162.39 Surely the body knows no breaking when its appointed hour has not yet come—for there not all those great chariot-warriors perished together at once.

7.162.40 With severed arms and legs, with heads adorned by lovely earrings, with bows, arrows, javelins, swords, axes, and spears,

7.162.41 with nālīka shafts, razor-edged and iron arrows, with claw-spikes, lances, and pikes, and with other excellent burnished weapons of manifold forms,

7.162.42 with bright body-armor of many shapes, with wondrous chariots shattered, and with slain elephants and horses,

7.162.43 with empty chariots vast as towns, their warriors slain and their banners cut down, and with riderless, terrified horses dragging them this way and that,

7.162.44 with steeds running swift as the wind again and again, decked out yet their heroes slain, with fans and coats of mail and banners fallen down,

7.162.45 with parasols, ornaments, garments, and sweetly fragrant garlands, with necklaces, diadems, crowns, turbans, and clusters of little bells,

7.162.46 with breast-jewels, golden ornaments, and crest-gems, the battlefield there was strewn as the sky is strewn with the host of stars.

7.162.47 Then there came an encounter between Duryodhana and Nakula—the one wrathful and indignant, the other indignant and wrathful.

7.162.48 Then the son of Mādrī wheeled rightward about your son, joyfully scattering arrows by the hundred; and a great roar went up at that.

7.162.49 Circled rightward in the battle by his exceedingly indignant cousin, he too in his indignation wheeled rightward about him in turn.

7.162.50 But as your son sought to wheel rightward in return, the brilliant Nakula, skilled in wondrous maneuvers, held him back.

7.162.51 Checking him on every side and pressing him with a net of arrows, Nakula made him turn away; and the soldiers applauded that feat.

7.162.52 "Stand, stand!" cried Nakula to your son, calling to mind all the sorrows brought about by your ill counsel.

7.163.1 Saṃjaya said: Then Duḥśāsana in his wrath rushed upon Sahadeva, all but making the earth tremble with the fierce speed of his chariot.

7.163.2 As he bore swiftly down, the son of Mādrī, that scourge of foes, with a broad-headed shaft severed the head of his charioteer, helmet and all.

7.163.3 Neither Duḥśāsana nor any soldier marked that the charioteer's head had been struck off by Sahadeva, so swiftly was it done.

7.163.4 But when the horses, no longer held in check, ran on at their own pleasure, then Duḥśāsana realized that his charioteer had lost his senses.

7.163.5 Skilled himself in handling horses, he reined them in upon the field and, foremost of chariot-warriors, fought on with a craft at once dazzling, swift, and sure.

7.163.6 Both his own men and his foes in that battle honored this feat of his—that with charioteer slain he ranged across the field as one without fear.

7.163.7 But Sahadeva covered those horses with his sharp arrows, and tormented by the shafts they at once bolted this way and that.

7.163.8 Since the reins entangled him, he let go his bow; and when he plied his bow in action, he again let go the reins.

7.163.9 In those openings the son of Mādrī covered him with arrows; but Karṇa, seeking to save your son, swooped into the breach.

7.163.10 Then Vṛkodara struck Karṇa with three well-aimed broad-headed shafts, drawn back to the ear, upon both arms and on the chest, and roared aloud.

7.163.11 Karṇa turned upon him like a serpent that has been trodden on, and then there arose a tumultuous battle between Bhīma and the son of Rādhā.

7.163.12 Like two enraged bulls, both with eyes rolling, the two in fury fell upon each other with tremendous speed.

7.163.13 As those two passionate warriors closed and locked together, and the fall of their arrows could no longer divide them, the fight turned to a duel of maces.

7.163.14 With his mace Bhīmasena at once shattered the pole of Karṇa's chariot, O king, and that seemed a marvel.

7.163.15 Then the valiant son of Rādhā took up a mace and hurled it at Bhīma's chariot; but Bhīma with his own mace broke that mace asunder.

7.163.16 Then Bhīma again flung a heavy mace at the charioteer; but Karṇa struck it back with ten well-feathered, well-aimed shafts, and then with others, so that it returned once more toward Bhīma.

7.163.17 By the recoiling fall of that mace Bhīma's tall banner came down, and his charioteer, struck by it, swooned away.

7.163.18 Maddened with wrath, he loosed eight arrows at Karṇa—at his banner, his bow, and his quiver, O Bhārata.

7.163.19 Then again the son of Rādhā with chariot-shafts swiftly slew his antelope-colored horses, and both his flank-guarding drivers as well.

7.163.20 His chariot disabled, Bhīma the foe-subduer leapt onto Nakula's car, as a lion springs to a mountain peak.

7.163.21 Meanwhile Droṇa and Arjuna, those great chariot-warriors, teacher and pupil, both masters of striking in battle, fought on wondrously, O lord of kings.

7.163.22 With swift nocking of arrows and with the wheeling combat of their two cars, they bewildered both the eyes and the minds of men.

7.163.23 Our warriors and the foes alike all paused, beholding that never-before-seen combat of teacher and pupil.

7.163.24 As they drove their cars in wondrous, ever-shifting courses through the midst of the army, each hero sought to keep the other on his right; and the warriors gazed upon their prowess, filled with amazement.

7.163.25 Mighty was the battle that arose between those two, Droṇa and the son of Pāṇḍu, O great king, like that of two hawks in the sky contending for a piece of flesh.

7.163.26 Whatever Droṇa attempted in his desire to defeat the son of Kuntī, all of it the Pāṇḍava at once countered, laughing the while.

7.163.27 When Droṇa found he could not gain the upper hand over the Pāṇḍava, then, skilled in the ways of celestial weapons, he brought forth his missiles.

7.163.28 The weapons of Indra, of Paśupati, of Tvaṣṭṛ, of Vāyu, and of Varuṇa—each as it sped from Droṇa's bow, Dhanaṃjaya struck down.

7.163.29 When the Pāṇḍava duly quelled his weapons with weapons, Droṇa then overwhelmed Pārtha with the highest celestial missiles.

7.163.30 Whatever weapon he loosed at Pārtha in his will to conquer, Arjuna fashioned the very means to undo that weapon.

7.163.31 As Arjuna duly quelled even his celestial weapons, Droṇa honored Arjuna within his very heart.

7.163.32 And he reckoned himself, O Bhārata, exalted upon the earth above all who know the use of arms, by reason of such a pupil.

7.163.33 Held in check by Pārtha thus before the great-souled host, yet striving on, with a smile and with affection he warded Arjuna off in turn.

7.163.34 Then in the firmament the gods and gandharvas by the thousand, the sages and the hosts of siddhas, took their stand, eager to behold.

7.163.35 Thronged with apsarases and crowded with yakṣas and rākṣasas, the splendid sky grew dense as though massed with clouds.

7.163.36 There unseen voices passed back and forth again and again, joined in praise of Droṇa and of the great-souled Pārtha, as the weapons were loosed, setting the ten directions ablaze.

7.163.37 "This is no human combat, nor of the asuras, nor of the rākṣasas, nor of the gods, nor of the gandharvas; surely this is supreme and Brahmic. Wondrous and marvelous is this—never have we seen its like, nor heard of it."

7.163.38 "The teacher surpasses the Pāṇḍava, and the Pāṇḍava surpasses Droṇa; no difference between the two can be discerned by any weapon."

7.163.39 "Were Rudra to divide himself in two and fight himself against himself, there a comparison might be drawn—but nowhere else is it to be found."

7.163.40 "In the teacher knowledge dwells alone; in the Pāṇḍava, knowledge and discipline both. In the teacher valor dwells alone; in the Pāṇḍava, strength and valor both."

7.163.41 "These two great bowmen cannot be flung down in battle by their foes; and should they so will it, the two could slay the whole world together with its gods."

7.163.42 Thus spoke, O great king, beholding those two bulls among men, the invisible beings and the visible ones, in throng upon throng.

7.163.43 Then the great-minded Droṇa brought forth the Brāhma weapon, scorching in the battle both Pārtha and the unseen beings.

7.163.44 Then the earth trembled with its mountains, forests, and trees; a turbulent wind blew, and the oceans too were stirred to their depths.

7.163.45 Then great terror seized the armies of the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas, and indeed all beings, when that weapon was raised by the great-souled one.

7.163.46 Then Pārtha too, unshaken, quelled that weapon with the Brahmā weapon itself, O lord of kings, and so brought all to calm.

7.163.47 When neither of the two could be brought to the end of the other, then by a confused melee that combat was thrown into disorder.

7.163.48 Thereafter nothing whatever could be made out, O lord of the people, once the tumultuous fray of Droṇa and the Pāṇḍava was joined upon the field.

7.163.49 With the sky overspread by nets of arrows as by masses of cloud, not a single creature that moves through the air could fly there then.

7.164.1 Saṃjaya said: While that slaughter of men, horses, and elephants was thus going on, Duḥśāsana, O great king, did battle with Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.164.2 He, mounted on his golden car and sore wounded by Duḥśāsana's arrows, in his wrath covered the horses of your son with his shafts.

7.164.3 In an instant that chariot of his, with its banner and its charioteer, was no longer to be seen, O great king, so thickly was it studded with the arrows of Pārṣata.

7.164.4 But Duḥśāsana, O lord of kings, harried by the nets of arrows, could not stand before the great-souled prince of the Pāñcālas.

7.164.5 And Pārṣata, having turned Duḥśāsana away with his arrows, scattering thousands of shafts, advanced upon Droṇa himself in the battle.

7.164.6 The son of Hṛdika, Kṛtavarman, moved into the breach, and three brothers as well, and they hemmed him in on every side.

7.164.7 The twins, those bulls among men, followed close behind to guard him as he bore down on Droṇa, blazing like fire.

7.164.8 All those seven great chariot-warriors joined battle, wrathful and resolute, having set death itself before them.

7.164.9 Pure of soul and pure of conduct, O king, with heaven held before them, they waged a noble fight, each longing to conquer the other.

7.164.10 Of stainless birth and stainless deeds, those wise lords of men fought a righteous fight, with eyes fixed upon the highest goal.

7.164.11 There was nothing unrighteous in that combat, no fighting without proper weapons; no barbed arrow was there, no hollow reed-shaft, no poisoned dart, nor any double-headed one.

7.164.12 No needle-pointed shaft was there, no brown one, none tipped with the bone of ox or elephant; no arrow was barbed, none foul, and none that flew crooked.

7.164.13 Straight and pure alone were all the weapons they bore, as they sought through fair fighting the higher worlds and renown besides.

7.164.14 Then there was a tumultuous combat, free of every fault, between four of your warriors and those three of the Pāṇḍava side.

7.164.15 But Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O king, leaving those bulls among your chariot-warriors—seeing them held off by the twins—and swift with his weapons, advanced upon Droṇa.

7.164.16 Held back by those two lions among men, the four heroes closed together with them, like winds dashing between two mountains.

7.164.17 The twins, those foremost of chariot-warriors, each engaged two cars; and meanwhile Dhṛṣṭadyumna bore down upon Droṇa.

7.164.18 Seeing the Pāñcāla, battle-frenzied, advancing upon Droṇa, and those others locked in combat with the twins, Duryodhana rushed into the gap.

7.164.19 Duryodhana, O great king, scattering arrows that drink blood; but Sātyaki, swifter still, turned again to meet him.

7.164.20 Drawing near to each other, those two—the Kuru and the Mādhava, tigers among men—came together fearless and laughing.

7.164.21 Recalling with fondness all that had passed between them in their boyhood, they gazed upon one another and laughed again and again.

7.164.22 Then King Duryodhana spoke in answer to Sātyaki, his ever-dear friend, reproaching his own conduct:

7.164.23 "A curse upon anger, O friend, a curse upon greed, a curse upon delusion, a curse upon wrath! A curse upon the way of the warrior, and a curse upon brute strength of the breast!"

7.164.24 "—that you should take aim at me, and I at you, O bull of the Śini race! For you are dearer to me than my own life, and I have ever been so to you."

7.164.25 "I remember all those things that passed between us in our boyhood; but now upon the field of battle all of it is undone. What else but through anger and greed do I fight you this day, O Sātvata?"

7.164.26 To him who spoke thus, O king, Sātyaki, master of the highest weapons, made answer with a laugh, raising aloft his sharp shafts:

7.164.27 "This is no assembly hall, O prince, nor the teacher's dwelling, where once, O king, we sported together when we met."

7.164.28 Duryodhana said: "Whither has that play of our boyhood gone, O bull of the Śini race, and whence again has this battle come? For time is hard to overpass."

7.164.29 "What need have we of wealth, or of the craving for wealth, that here we all do battle, gathered together out of greed for riches?"

7.164.30 Saṃjaya said: To the king who spoke thus the Mādhava replied: "Such has ever been the way of the warrior, that here he slays even his elders."

7.164.31 "If I am dear to you, O king, then slay me, and do not delay; through you may I go to the worlds won by good deeds, O bull of the Bhāratas."

7.164.32 "What power and strength are yours, show them quickly upon me; I do not wish to behold this—the great calamity that befalls one's friends."

7.164.33 Having spoken plainly thus and made his reply, Sātyaki advanced swiftly, unperturbed and heedless of all, O lord of the people.

7.164.34 Beholding him as he came on, your son met him, and your son covered Śaineya with arrows, O king.

7.164.35 Then a terrible battle broke out between those two lions, the Kuru and the Mādhava, each enraged against the other, like a duel between an elephant and a lion.

7.164.36 Then Duryodhana struck the Sātvata, that warrior frenzied for battle, in return with ten sharp arrows loosed from a fully drawn bow.

7.164.37 Sātyaki struck him back likewise with ten arrows, and again in that fight with fifty, with thirty, and with ten more.

7.164.38 As Duryodhana was fitting his shafts, Sātyaki swiftly cut apart his bow with its arrow already nocked, and rained his own shafts down upon him.

7.164.39 Pierced deep and shaken, O great king, Duryodhana, tormented by the arrows of the Dāśārha, withdrew to another chariot.

7.164.40 But once he had recovered, your son again advanced upon Sātyaki, loosing networks of arrows against the chariot of Yuyudhāna.

7.164.41 And so Sātyaki too loosed his arrows in a steady stream against Duryodhana's chariot, O king, and a tumult of close fighting arose.

7.164.42 There, from the arrows hurled and falling on every side, a great roar arose, like fire raging through a vast thicket.

7.164.43 Seeing the Mādhava, that foremost of chariot-warriors, gaining the upper hand, Karṇa swiftly rushed in, eager to save your son.

7.164.44 But the mighty Bhīmasena would not endure this; he rushed swiftly upon Karṇa, loosing many shafts.

7.164.45 Karṇa, as if laughing, beat back his sharp arrows, cut apart his bow and shafts, and struck down his charioteer with his own arrows.

7.164.46 But Bhīmasena the Pāṇḍava, enraged, took up his mace and in the battle crushed the banner, bow, and charioteer of his foe.

7.164.47 Unable to bear this, Karṇa fought against Bhīmasena in the encounter with manifold networks of arrows and with weapons of every kind.

7.164.48 While the press of battle raged on, the king, the son of Dharma, spoke to the tigers among men of the Pāñcālas and the bulls among men of the Matsyas:

7.164.49 "Those who are our very breath, who are our head, our warriors of mighty strength — those bulls among men are now locked in struggle against the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra."

7.164.50 "Why do you stand here, all of you, like bewildered men robbed of your wits? Go there, where these chariot-warriors of mine are fighting!"

7.164.51 "Setting the warrior's duty foremost, every one of you with your fevered fear cast off — whether conquering or slain, you shall attain the destiny you desire."

7.164.52 "And conquering, you shall offer many sacrifices with abundant gifts; or slain, having passed into the company of the gods, you shall attain bountiful worlds."

7.164.53 Urged on by the king, those heroes, the great chariot-warriors eager to fight, formed their host into four divisions and swiftly advanced upon Droṇa.

7.164.54 From one side the Pāñcālas assailed Droṇa with many arrows, and from another those led by Bhīmasena hemmed him in.

7.164.55 Among the sons of Pāṇḍu there were three unswerving great chariot-warriors — the twins and Bhīmasena — and they cried out to Dhanaṃjaya:

7.164.56 "Charge swiftly, Arjuna! Drive the Kurus away from Droṇa, and then the Pāñcālas will slay him, his protector removed."

7.164.57 Then Pārtha rushed suddenly upon the Kauravas, while Droṇa fell upon the Pāñcālas led by Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.164.58 Then Droṇa too wrought great slaughter among the Pāñcālas, as Śakra in his wrath had once wrought the destruction of the Dānavas in battle.

7.164.59 Though slaughtered by Droṇa's weapon in the fight, O great king, those great chariot-warriors of resolute spirit did not flinch from Droṇa in the battle.

7.164.60 Though being slaughtered, O great king, the Pāñcālas and the Sṛñjayas pressed on against Droṇa in the fight, bewildering that great chariot-warrior.

7.164.61 As those Pāñcālas were being cut down on every side, slain by arrows and lances, a fearful cry arose among them.

7.164.62 As the Pāñcālas were being slaughtered in the battle by that great soul, and as Droṇa's weapon raged on, fear entered into the Pāṇḍavas.

7.164.63 Seeing the vast destruction of their hosts of horses and men in the fight, the Pāṇḍavas, O great king, then despaired of victory.

7.164.64 "Will not Droṇa, master of the supreme weapons, destroy us all — like a blazing fire at winter's end consuming dry brushwood?"

7.164.65 "None in battle is able even to look him in the face, nor would Arjuna, who knows what is right, ever fight against him."

7.164.66 Seeing the sons of Kuntī terrified and tormented by Droṇa's arrows, the wise Keśava, intent upon their welfare, spoke to Arjuna:

7.164.67 "This commander of the leaders of chariot-bands can in no way be conquered in open battle, not even by the Slayer of Vṛtra himself."

7.164.68 "For the sake of victory, O Pāṇḍava, let some stratagem be employed, setting aside strict righteousness, so that he of the golden chariot may not slay you all in the encounter."

7.164.69 "It is my belief that, were Aśvatthāman slain, he would fight no more. Let some man announce to him that his son has been slain in battle."

7.164.70 This did not please the son of Kuntī, Dhanaṃjaya, O king; but all the others approved of it, and Yudhiṣṭhira only with great reluctance.

7.164.71 Then mighty-armed Bhīma, within his own ranks, slew with his mace a great elephant named Aśvatthāman, O king.

7.164.72 Then Bhīmasena, somewhat abashed, approached Droṇa in the battle and cried aloud, "Aśvatthāman is slain!"

7.164.73 It was the elephant known by the name Aśvatthāman that had been slain; keeping that in his mind, Bhīma then spoke falsely.

7.164.74 Hearing Bhīmasena's words, that most unwelcome news, Droṇa grew limp in his limbs in spirit, like a bank of sand in water.

7.164.75 Suspecting it to be false, for he knew his own son's valor, and hearing "He is slain," he did not waver from his steadfastness.

7.164.76 Regaining his composure, Droṇa recovered himself in but a moment, reflecting that his own son was invincible to his foes.

7.164.77 Rushing upon the son of Pṛṣata, seeking to slay him who was his own death, he covered him with a thousand sharp heron-feathered arrows.

7.164.78 As he ranged thus through the battle, twenty thousand of those bulls among men of the Pāñcālas showered him with arrows from every side.

7.164.79 Then Droṇa, scorcher of foes, in his fury brought forth the Brāhma weapon for the destruction of those heroic Pāñcālas.

7.164.80 Then Droṇa blazed forth, striking down all the Somakas; in that great battle he made the heads of the Pāñcālas fall, and likewise their arms, shaped like iron clubs and adorned with gold.

7.164.81 Those kings, slaughtered in battle by the son of Bharadvāja, were strewn upon the earth like trees felled by the wind.

7.164.82 With elephants and floods of horses falling, O descendant of Bharata, the earth, a mire of flesh and blood, became impassable to behold.

7.164.83 Having slain twenty thousand bands of Pāñcāla chariot-warriors, Droṇa stood in the battle blazing like a smokeless fire.

7.164.84 And so once more the mighty son of Bharadvāja in his wrath struck off the head of Vasudāna from his body with a broad-headed shaft.

7.164.85 Again, slaying five hundred Matsyas and six thousand Sṛñjayas and ten thousand elephants, he then slew ten thousand horses as well.

7.164.86 Seeing Droṇa set upon the annihilation of the warriors, the seers swiftly drew near, led by the Bearer of Oblations.

7.164.87 Viśvāmitra, Jamadagni, Bharadvāja, and Gautama, Vasiṣṭha, Kaśyapa, and Atri, desiring to lead him to the world of Brahmā —

7.164.88 the Sikatās, the Pṛśnis, the Gargas, the Vālakhilyas, the Marīcipas, the Bhṛgus and the Aṅgirases, and other subtle great seers —

7.164.89 all these said to Droṇa, resplendent in battle: "Unrighteously has this war been waged; the hour of your death has come."

7.164.90 "Lay down your weapon in the battle, O Droṇa, and come to join us who stand here. You ought not again to do a deed more cruel than this."

7.164.91 "For you who know the Vedas and their auxiliaries, who are devoted to truth and righteousness, and a Brāhmaṇa above all — this is unbecoming."

7.164.92 "Lay down your weapon, O you whose shafts never miss; stand upon the eternal path. Your time for dwelling in this human world is now fulfilled."

7.164.93 Hearing these words of theirs, and those words of Bhīmasena, and beholding Dhṛṣṭadyumna in the battle, he became downcast in spirit.

7.164.94 Burning within and troubled, he asked Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Kuntī, whether his own son was unslain or slain.

7.164.95 For Droṇa was firm in his conviction that Pārtha would not speak a falsehood, not even for the lordship of all three worlds.

7.164.96 Therefore he questioned him in particular and no other; for in that Pāṇḍava his hope of truth had rested from boyhood.

7.164.97 Then, knowing that Droṇa, that lord of warriors, was about to make the earth bereft of the Pāṇḍavas, Govinda, troubled, spoke to the King of Righteousness:

7.164.98 "If Droṇa, possessed by wrath, fights for half a day longer, I tell you truly: your army will go to its destruction."

7.164.99 "Therefore save us from Droṇa: a falsehood here may be greater than truth. He who utters an untruth to save a life is not tainted by untruths."

7.164.100 As the two were thus speaking together, Bhīmasena, having heard of that device for slaying the great soul, said this, O great king:

7.164.101 "As I was plunging into your host, there was an elephant named Aśvatthāman, like unto the elephant of Śakra, belonging to Indravarman the Mālava;"

7.164.102 "him I valiantly slew in the fight, and then I said to Droṇa: 'Aśvatthāman is slain, O Brāhmaṇa; withdraw from the battle!'"

7.164.103 "Surely this bull among men did not believe my word. So now do you honor the words of Govinda, who desires victory."

7.164.104 "Declare to Droṇa, O king, that the son of Śāradvatī is slain. Told so by you, this bull among the twice-born would surely fight no more, O king; for in this world of men you are renowned as truthful, O ruler of peoples."

7.164.105 Hearing those words of his, urged on by the words of Kṛṣṇa, and because of what was destined to be, O great king, Yudhiṣṭhira set himself to speak.

7.164.106 Sunk in dread of the untruth yet clinging to victory, Yudhiṣṭhira said indistinctly, O king, "He is slain" — and under his breath, "the elephant."

7.164.107 Before this his chariot had stood four finger-breadths above the earth; but when he had spoken thus, his horses touched the ground.

7.164.108 Hearing those words from Yudhiṣṭhira, Droṇa, the great chariot-warrior, scorched by grief at his son's calamity, lost all hope of life.

7.164.109 Deeming himself an offender against the great-souled Pāṇḍavas, and pondering the words of the seers, and having heard his son was slain —

7.164.110 bewildered and stricken with the deepest dismay, and looking upon Dhṛṣṭadyumna, he was no longer able to fight as before, O king, O subduer of foes.

7.164.111 Seeing him utterly distraught, his mind overwhelmed by grief, Dhṛṣṭadyumna, the son of the Pāñcāla king, rushed upon him.

7.164.112 He who, when the lord of men Drupada had sacrificed at the great rite, had been obtained for Droṇa's destruction from the blazing Bearer of Oblations —

7.164.113 he, taking up his victorious bow, terrible, roaring like a thundercloud, firm-stringed, undecaying, and divine, and arrows like venomous serpents —

7.164.114 the Pāñcāla, seeking to slay Droṇa, fitted to that bow a shaft like a venomous serpent, like a vast-flaming fire.

7.164.115 The form of that arrow, set within the circle of the bowstring, shone like the blazing sun ringed with a halo at the breaking of the clouds.

7.164.116 When the son of Pṛṣata grasped that bow, it seemed to blaze; and the soldiers, beholding it, deemed that their final hour had come.

7.164.117 Seeing that arrow fitted to the string by him, the mighty son of Bharadvāja judged that the appointed turn of his body's end had come.

7.164.118 Then, O lord of kings, the teacher set himself to ward off that shaft, yet the celestial weapons of the great-souled one would not come forth.

7.164.119 For four days and one night his weapons had served him without fail, but by a third part of that day his winged shafts ran out.

7.164.120 His arrows spent, afflicted by grief for his son, and finding the manifold celestial weapons no longer favorable to him—

7.164.121 —wishing to lay down his arms, urged on by the words of the brāhmaṇas, yet driven still by his own splendor, he fought on more than mortally.

7.164.122 Then, taking up another celestial bow, that of the Aṅgirases, and arrows like the rod of Brahmā, he gave battle to Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.164.123 Then with a great rain of arrows he overwhelmed him, and the wrathful, unforgiving one beat Dhṛṣṭadyumna back.

7.164.124 Droṇa cut that arrow of his into a hundred pieces with his shafts, and with keen darts he felled his banner, his bow, and his charioteer as well.

7.164.125 Dhṛṣṭadyumna, laughing, took up another bow and pierced him in return between the breasts with a sharpened arrow.

7.164.126 That mighty archer, deeply wounded, as if bewildered in the fray, with a keen-edged broad-headed shaft cut asunder his great bow.

7.164.127 And whatever arrow he sent, and his bows besides, O lord of peoples, the unassailable one cut them all to pieces, and his mace and his sword as well.

7.164.128 Then the scorcher of foes, enraged, pierced the wrathful-looking Dhṛṣṭadyumna with nine keen arrows that bring life to its end.

7.164.129 That great chariot-warrior of measureless soul mingled the horses of Dhṛṣṭadyumna's car with the horses of his own, and loosed the Brāhma weapon.

7.164.130 Thus mingled, those swift steeds, fleet as the wind, shone splendidly—some dove-colored, some red, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.164.131 As thundering clouds charged with lightning at the coming of the rains, so, O great king, they shone, intermingled at the head of the battle.

7.164.132 The pole-fastenings, the wheel-fastenings, and likewise the chariot-fastenings of Dhṛṣṭadyumna's car—all these that brāhmaṇa of measureless soul destroyed.

7.164.133 His bow severed, his car broken, his horses slain, his charioteer slain, the hero, fallen into the direst straits, laid hold of his mace.

7.164.134 As he hurled it, that great chariot-warrior Droṇa, enraged, whose valor was true, struck it down with his keen, barbless arrows.

7.164.135 Seeing his mace struck down by Droṇa's arrows, that tiger among men took up a spotless sword and a shining shield marked with a hundred moons.

7.164.136 In such a pass the Pāñcāla prince held, beyond doubt, that the time had surely come for slaying the foremost of teachers, that great-souled one.

7.164.137 Then, standing in the body of his own car, he advanced along the chariot-pole, raising aloft his sword and the shining shield of a hundred moons.

7.164.138 Seeking to accomplish a deed hard to do, the great chariot-warrior Dhṛṣṭadyumna desired to cleave the breast of the son of Bharadvāja in the fight.

7.164.139 He took his stand in the middle of the yoke, and upon the yoke-fastenings, and upon the hindquarters of the red steeds; and the soldiers honored that feat.

7.164.140 As he stood upon the yoke-rails and trod even upon the red horses, Droṇa could find no opening in him; and that was as though a marvel.

7.164.141 Swift as the wheeling of a hawk that hungers for its prey, even so was the onset of him who sought out Droṇa in the battle.

7.164.142 Then the enraged and valiant Droṇa, with the spear of his car, slew his horses—all of them, one by one—those steeds dove-gray in hue.

7.164.143 Slain, the horses of Dhṛṣṭadyumna fell to the earth, and the red steeds were loosed from the chariot-harness, O lord of peoples.

7.164.144 Seeing those horses slain by the foremost of brāhmaṇas, the son of Pṛṣata, that best of warriors, the son of Yajñasena, the great chariot-warrior, brooked it not.

7.164.145 Carless, that best of swordsmen seized his sword and rushed upon Droṇa, O king, as the son of Vinatā swoops upon a serpent.

7.164.146 His form, O king, as he sought to slay the son of Bharadvāja, shone like the supreme form of Viṣṇu in the slaying of Hiraṇyakaśipu.

7.164.147 He moved through manifold paths, the one-and-twenty modes: wheeling, soaring up, weaving, leaping, advancing, gliding,

7.164.148 turning about and turning back—and bearing sword and shield, the son of Pṛṣata displayed the swooping strike and the upraised stroke.

7.164.149 Then with a thousand arrows that brāhmaṇa struck down, in the press of battle, the hundred-mooned shield, and the sword and buckler of Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.164.150 Those arrows, called vaitastika, a span in length, that strike at close quarters in the grappling fight, belonged to Droṇa alone; none others possessed such shafts—

7.164.151 —save for Śāradvata, for Pārtha, for Droṇa's son, and for the son of Vikartana, for Pradyumna and Yuyudhāna, and for Abhimanyu—theirs too were such arrows.

7.164.152 Then the teacher fitted to his bow a firm, exceedingly keen arrow, seeking to slay his own pupil, dear to him as a son.

7.164.153 That arrow the bull of Śini's line cut through with ten keen shafts, before the very eyes of your son and of the great-souled Karṇa, and freed Dhṛṣṭadyumna, seized by the foremost of teachers.

7.164.154 And Sātyaki of true valor, ranging along the chariot-paths, passing between Droṇa and Karṇa and Kṛpa as well, O Bhārata—him the two great-souled ones, Viṣvaksena and Dhanaṃjaya, beheld.

7.164.155 They honored the Vārṣṇeya, crying "Well done! Well done!" as the unfaltering one struck down the celestial weapons of all in the fight; then Viṣvaksena and Dhanaṃjaya fell upon the host.

7.164.156 Then Dhanaṃjaya said to Kṛṣṇa: "Behold, O Keśava, the scion of the Madhus, sporting in the very midst of the foremost of great teachers!

7.164.157 Sātyaki of true valor gladdens me again and again, and the two sons of Mādrī, and Bhīma, and King Yudhiṣṭhira.

7.164.158 For by his training Sātyaki, unboastful, ranges through the battle, sporting among the great chariot-warriors—he who magnifies the glory of the Vṛṣṇis."

7.164.159 Him the Siddhas and the wondering soldiers acclaimed, beholding the invincible Sātvata in battle, crying "Well done! Well done!"; and the warriors of both sides honored him for his deeds.

7.165.1 Saṃjaya said: A cruel slaughter arose at that gathering of kings, like that of an enraged Rudra striking down the beasts.

7.165.2 With severed hands and heads, with bows, O Bhārata, with parasols struck down and with yak-tail whisks in the fray,

7.165.3 with broken-wheeled chariots, with great banners cast down, and with slain heroic horsemen, the earth was strewn over.

7.165.4 The warriors mangled by the fall of arrows, O best of the Kurus, were seen writhing in manifold contortions amid the great battle.

7.165.5 As the dreadful battle, like that of gods and demons, went on, the Dharma King Yudhiṣṭhira spoke to the kṣatriyas there: "Charge, you great chariot-warriors, girded for the fight, upon the pitcher-born one!

7.165.6 Here is the heroic son of Pṛṣata, joined in combat with the son of Bharadvāja, striving with all his might at the destruction of the son of Bharadvāja.

7.165.7 By such portents as we see in this great battle, the son of Pṛṣata, enraged, will today bring Droṇa down in the fight. Be you united, then, and press hard upon the pitcher-born one."

7.165.8 Commanded thus by Yudhiṣṭhira, the great chariot-warriors of the Sṛñjayas, girded for battle, rushed upon the son of Bharadvāja, eager to slay him.

7.165.9 As they all bore down upon him, the great chariot-warrior, the son of Bharadvāja, charged them with speed, resolved that he must die.

7.165.10 When the one true to his vow set forth, the earth trembled, and winds blew with crashing thunderclaps, striking terror into the host.

7.165.11 And a great meteor fell, as if it had issued from the sun, seeming to set all aflame with its heat, seeming to portend some mighty terror.

7.165.12 The weapons of the son of Bharadvāja blazed up, O honored one, his chariots groaned exceedingly, and his horses let fall their tears.

7.165.13 The great chariot-warrior, the son of Bharadvāja, seemed as one whose vigor had been struck away; and resolving upon the heaven-bound path of the seers who proclaim the Veda, he began, through a worthy fight, to give up his life-breaths.

7.165.14 Then, hemmed in on all four sides by Drupada's troops, Droṇa ranged through the battle, consuming the hosts of kṣatriyas.

7.165.15 The crusher of foes, having slain twenty thousand kṣatriyas, slew a hundred thousand more with his keen, sharp-pointed barbless shafts.

7.165.16 He stood firm in the battle, intent, like a smokeless fire, set upon the destruction of the kṣatriyas, having assumed the form of Brahman within himself.

7.165.17 The self-controlled Bhīma hastened toward the Pāñcāla prince, carless, stripped of all his weapons, yet unflinching and great of soul.

7.165.18 Then the crusher of foes, taking the Pāñcāla up onto his own car, looked upon Droṇa loosing his shafts close at hand, and spoke:

7.165.19 "No other man than you here dares to fight the teacher. Make haste to his slaying; upon you the burden is laid."

7.165.20 Thus addressed, the mighty-armed one swiftly seized a fresh and firm weapon, the choicest of arms, able to bear every strain.

7.165.21 And in fury, loosing his arrows, eager to hold back the teacher Droṇa, hard to ward off in battle, he overwhelmed him with showers of shafts.

7.165.22 Those two foremost warriors, wrathful, the glory of the battlefield, held each other in check, and again and again loosed celestial weapons sprung from Brahmā.

7.165.23 With his mighty weapons, O great king, the son of Pṛṣata enveloped Droṇa in the battle, having quelled all the weapons of the son of Bharadvāja.

7.165.24 And the unfaltering one scattered the Vasātis and the Śibis, the Bāhlīkas and the Kauravas too, as they sought to shield Droṇa in the fray.

7.165.25 Then Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O king, shone like the sun with its rays, veiling all the quarters about him with nets of arrows on every side.

7.165.26 Droṇa cut through his bow and, piercing him with stone-headed arrows, struck again at his vital parts; and he came to the utmost anguish.

7.165.27 Then Bhīma, his wrath grown firm, gripping that chariot of Droṇa's, spoke to Droṇa, O lord of kings, slowly and deliberately:

7.165.28 "If only these so-called brāhmaṇas, trained for war yet unsatisfied with their own proper duties, did not fight, the kṣatriya order would not be going to ruin.

7.165.29 Harmlessness toward all beings the wise hold to be the higher law, and of that law the brāhmaṇa is the root—and you are the foremost knower of the Veda.

7.165.30 Like an outcaste dog-cooker, O brāhmaṇa, slaying hordes of barbarians and others of every sort, ignorant men, as a deluded creature might, out of craving for son and wife and wealth—

7.165.31 —for the sake of one, your son, slaying many, like one heedless of dharma, you who have strayed from your own calling slay those who keep to theirs: how is it you feel no shame?

7.165.32 And he today lies fallen, as the Dharma King declared to you when you asked. That word you ought not to doubt overmuch."

7.165.33 Thus addressed by Bhīma, the righteous-souled Droṇa, wishing to cast away that bow and all his weapons, spoke: "Karṇa, Karṇa, great archer! Kṛpa! Duryodhana!

7.165.34 Let your utmost effort be made in the battle—this I tell you again and again. Against the Pāṇḍavas may all go well with you. I am laying down my arms."

7.165.35 Thus, O great king, he cried out there, and to Droṇa's son as well; and casting away his weapon in the battle and seating himself upon the body of the car, the one yoked in yoga granted safety to all beings.

7.165.36 Marking that opening of his, Dhṛṣṭadyumna rose up, sword in hand, and leaping suddenly down from his chariot rushed upon Droṇa.

7.165.37 All beings, men and others alike, cried out in horror to see Droṇa brought to such a pass, fallen into Dhṛṣṭadyumna's power.

7.165.38 They raised a great wail and cried, "Alas! Shame!" And Droṇa himself, casting aside his weapons, took his stand in the highest equanimity.

7.165.39 Having so spoken, the great ascetic took to yoga and, become pure light, the teacher ascended to that heaven hard to attain, together with the holy ones.

7.165.40 When he passed on in that manner, our thought was that there were two suns; the sky, filled with radiances, seemed gathered into one, and the son of Bharadvāja, like the moon, took on the splendor of the sun.

7.165.41 In the space of an eye's blink that light vanished away; there arose a glad clamor of the rejoicing dwellers of heaven, now that Droṇa had gone to the world of Brahmā and Dhṛṣṭadyumna stood bewildered.

7.165.42 We five alone, born of human wombs, beheld the great-souled one, yoked in yoga, going to the supreme goal.

7.165.43 I, and Dhanaṃjaya the son of Pṛthā, and Kṛpa the brahmin son of Śaradvat, and Vāsudeva of the Vṛṣṇis, and the Pāṇḍava Yudhiṣṭhira the King of Righteousness.

7.165.44 But all the others did not see, O great king, the glory of the wise son of Bharadvāja as, freed by yoga, he departed.

7.165.45 Not knowing that he had attained the supreme goal, the human-born ones did not see the teacher going, together with the bulls among sages, taking to yoga toward the world of Brahmā—he, the tamer of foes.

7.165.46 His limbs pierced by hundreds of arrows, his weapons laid down, streaming with blood—him the son of Pṛṣata seized, though reproached for it by all beings.

7.165.47 Grasping the head of that embodied one whose life had fled and who spoke not a word, he severed the head from the body with his sword.

7.165.48 Filled with mighty joy now that the son of Bharadvāja had been struck down, he raised a lion's roar, brandishing his sword upon the field.

7.165.49 Gray-haired to the ears, dark of hue, eighty-five years of age, yet for your sake he had ranged the battle like one of sixteen years.

7.165.50 And the mighty-armed Dhanaṃjaya, son of Kuntī, had cried out, "Bring the teacher to me alive! Do not slay him, O son of Drupada!"

7.165.51 "He must not be slain, he must not be slain!"—so cried the soldiers too, and Arjuna himself, full of compassion, ran toward him.

7.165.52 Yet though Arjuna cried out, and all the kings on every side, Dhṛṣṭadyumna slew Droṇa, that bull among men, upon the floor of his chariot.

7.165.53 Drenched in blood, that tamer of foes, fallen from chariot to ground, became hard to look upon, like the sun with the body of Mars; and so the host of soldiers beheld him slain in battle.

7.165.54 Then Dhṛṣṭadyumna, that great archer, O king, hurled the great head of Bharadvāja's son before the very faces of your men.

7.165.55 And when your men, O king, beheld the head of Bharadvāja's son, their whole resolve turned to flight, and they fled in every direction.

7.165.56 But Droṇa, taking to the sky, entered the pathway of the stars; I alone, O king, beheld the passing of Droṇa.

7.165.57 By the grace of the seer Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana, the son of Satyavatī, we beheld him of great splendor mounting and traversing the sky, like a blazing meteor coursing on, smokeless and aflame.

7.165.58 When Droṇa was slain, the Pāṇḍavas and Sṛñjayas charged with great fury upon the dispirited Kurus, and thereupon the army was torn asunder.

7.165.59 Most of them slain along with their horses in battle by whetted arrows, your men, with Droṇa slain, became as if their breath had fled.

7.165.60 Having met with defeat, and with great dread of the world beyond, undone by both alike, they could find no steadiness in themselves.

7.165.61 The kings, searching for the body of Bharadvāja's son, could not then find it, O king, in that press thronged with ten thousand headless trunks.

7.165.62 But the Pāṇḍavas, having won the victory and great fame in the world beyond, made the twang of bowstrings ring out and raised abundant lion-roars.

7.165.63 Then, O king, Bhīmasena and Dhṛṣṭadyumna the son of Pṛṣata danced amid the host, embracing one another.

7.165.64 And Bhīma then said to the son of Pṛṣata, the scorcher of foes, "Again I shall embrace you victorious, O son of Pṛṣata, when the wicked son of the charioteer and the son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra are slain in battle."

7.165.65 Having said only this much, Bhīma the Pāṇḍava, filled with mighty joy, made the earth quake with the clapping of his arms.

7.165.66 Terrified by that sound, your men fled in the battle, casting aside the warrior's code and bent wholly upon flight.

7.165.67 But the Pāṇḍavas, having won the victory, were glad, O lord of peoples, and through the destruction of their foes in battle they attained happiness.

7.165.68 Then, O king, with Droṇa slain, the Kurus, sorely afflicted by weapons, their champions struck down, shattered, were given over utterly to grief.

7.165.69 Bereft of sense, their courage broken, their vigor smitten with faintness, with a great cry of anguish they thronged about your son.

7.165.70 Covered with dust, trembling, gazing about the ten directions, their throats choked with tears, like the Daityas of old when Hiraṇyākṣa was slain.

7.165.71 Surrounded by them, terrified as they were like little beasts, your son the king, unable to hold his ground, withdrew.

7.165.72 Worn out by hunger and thirst, those warriors of yours, O Bhārata, and scorched by the sun, became utterly disheartened.

7.165.73 It was as though the sun had fallen, as though the ocean had dried up, as though Meru had been overturned, as though Vāsava himself had been vanquished.

7.165.74 Beholding that unbearable downfall of Bharadvāja's son, the Kauravas, O king, more terror-stricken still, fled in fear.

7.165.75 Śakuni, king of the Gāndhāras, terrified, together with those more terrified still, seeing the lord of the golden chariot slain, fled away with his chariots.

7.165.76 Gathering up the swift army in its rout, with its banners, that great host, the son of the charioteer withdrew in fear.

7.165.77 Setting before him the army thronged with chariots, elephants, and horses, Śalya, lord of the Madras, gazing about, withdrew in fear.

7.165.78 Surrounded by elephants whose champions were mostly slain and by many footmen, the son of Śaradvat went off crying, "Woe, woe!"

7.165.79 Surrounded by the remnant of the Bhoja host and by the Kaliṅgas, Āraṭṭas, and Bāhlīkas, Kṛtavarman, O king, went forth on his swift horses.

7.165.80 Joined with a band of footmen, terrified and stricken with fear, Ulūka there fled away, O king, on seeing Droṇa struck down.

7.165.81 Comely and young, and marked out for his valor, Duḥśāsana, deeply agitated, fled away surrounded by his elephants.

7.165.82 Joined with elephants, horses, and chariots, and surrounded by footmen, Duryodhana, O great king, that mighty chariot-warrior, went off from there.

7.165.83 Mounting elephants, chariots, and even the horses of another, the men with hair flying loose, shattered, ran—no two together in one place.

7.165.84 "This is the end!"—so cried the men, their courage broken, their vigor gone; and others of your folk, casting off their armor, fled away, O lord.

7.165.85 The soldiers called out to one another, O bull of the Bhāratas, "Stand! Stand!"—yet they themselves did not stand their ground there.

7.165.86 Loosing the well-adorned draught-horses from chariots whose drivers were slain, the warriors mounted them and urged them swiftly on with their heels.

7.165.87 As the army thus fled, terror-stricken and stripped of vigor, the son of Droṇa moved against the foe like a crocodile breasting the current.

7.165.88 Having slain the manifold army of the Pāṇḍavas, that warrior fierce in battle, with the prowess of a rutting elephant, freed himself only with difficulty from the peril.

7.165.89 Seeing the army in flight, with no thought but to flee, the son of Droṇa came up to Duryodhana and spoke these words.

7.165.90 "Why does this army flee as though in terror, O Bhārata? And why, O king of kings, do you not halt it in the battle as it flees?

7.165.91 You too, O ruler of men, are not as you were before, settled in your nature; and these kings, Karṇa and the rest, do not hold their ground.

7.165.92 In other battles too the army never fled like this then. Is all well, O mighty-armed one, with this host of yours, O Bhārata?

7.165.93 At the slaying of what lion among chariot-warriors, O king, has this army of yours come to such a plight? Tell me that, O Kaurava."

7.165.94 But Duryodhana, hearing this speech of Droṇa's son, that bull among kings, could not bring himself to tell the dread and grievous tidings.

7.165.95 Your son, like a shattered boat, was sunk in the sea of grief, his sight veiled with tears as he gazed upon the son of Droṇa standing in his chariot.

7.165.96 Then the king said this to the son of Śaradvat, in shame, "Tell here everything—blessings upon you—how it is that this army has fled."

7.165.97 Then the son of Śaradvat, O king, sinking again and again into anguish, recounted to the son of Droṇa how Droṇa had been struck down.

7.165.98 Kṛpa said: Setting Droṇa before us, the foremost chariot-warrior upon earth, we joined battle with the Pāñcālas alone.

7.165.99 Then, when the battle was joined, the Kurus and Somakas, mingling together and roaring at one another, brought down each other's bodies with their weapons.

7.165.100 Then Droṇa, that bull among men, wielding the Brāhma weapon, slew his foes with broad-headed shafts by hundreds and by thousands.

7.165.101 The Pāṇḍavas, the Kekayas, the Matsyas, and the Pāñcālas above all, coming up against Droṇa's chariot in battle, perished, driven on by fate.

7.165.102 A thousand lions among chariot-warriors and two thousand elephants Droṇa, having scorched them with the Brahmā weapon, dispatched to death.

7.165.103 Gray-haired to the ears, dark of hue, eighty-five years of age, Droṇa, old as he was, ranged the battle like one of sixteen years.

7.165.104 As the armies were sorely afflicted and the kings were being slain, the Pāñcālas, given over to wrath, turned their faces from the fight.

7.165.105 When they were somewhat broken and had turned away, the vanquisher of his rivals, wielding a celestial weapon, became like the risen sun.

7.165.106 Reaching the midst of the Pāṇḍavas, that majestic one, his arrows for rays, became hard to look upon, like the sun arrived at its zenith—your father did.

7.165.107 Burned by Droṇa, who blazed like the sun, their valor scorched away, they grew dispirited and lost their senses.

7.165.108 Seeing them tormented by Droṇa's arrows, the Slayer of Madhu, desiring the victory of the sons of Pāṇḍu, spoke these words.

7.165.109 "This foremost of weapon-bearers can never be vanquished in battle by his foes, not even by the slayer of Vṛtra—he, the chief of chariot-troop leaders."

7.165.110 "Therefore do you, O Pāṇḍavas, set righteousness aside and guard the victory, so that he of the golden car may not slay you all in the battle."

7.165.111 "With Aśvatthāman slain, he would fight no more—such is my thought. Let some man falsely tell him that he has been slain in the battle."

7.165.112 This counsel found no favor with Dhanaṃjaya, the son of Kuntī; but all the others approved it, and Yudhiṣṭhira too, though with difficulty.

7.165.113 Then Bhīmasena, in shame, said to your father, "Aśvatthāman is slain!"—and your father came to know of this.

7.165.114 Suspecting that this was false, your father, fond of his son, asked the King of Righteousness whether he had been slain or not slain in the fight.

7.165.115 Sunk in the dread of speaking untruth, yet bent upon victory, Yudhiṣṭhira said this concerning Aśvatthāman—"the elephant"—that had been slain by Bhīma, the mountain-bodied beast of Indravarman of the Mālavas: "He is slain."

7.165.116 Then he drew near to Droṇa and spoke aloud these words: "He for whose sake you take up your weapon, he by looking on whom you go on living, your beloved son Aśvatthāman has been struck down."

7.165.117 Hearing that grievous news, the teacher there grew sick at heart, and withholding his celestial weapons he fought no longer as he had before.

7.165.118 Seeing him utterly stricken, his mind overwhelmed by grief, the son of the Pāñcāla king, a doer of cruel deeds, rushed upon him.

7.165.119 Seeing that his death was ordained, he, skilled in the true nature of the worlds, then cast aside his celestial weapons and sat down upon the field, fasting unto death.

7.165.120 Then the son of Pṛṣata, seizing his hair with his left hand, severed his head while the heroes cried out in protest.

7.165.121 "He must not be slain, he must not be slain!" they cried out on every side, and Arjuna too, leaping down from his chariot, ran toward him.

7.165.122 Raising his arms in haste and crying again and again, that knower of righteousness called out, "Bring the teacher to me alive—do not kill him!"

7.165.123 Yet even so, though forbidden by the Kauravas and by Arjuna, your father was slain outright by that ruthless one, O bull among men.

7.165.124 Then all the soldiers fled, tormented by fear, and we too were robbed of spirit, O blameless one, when your father had been slain.

7.165.125 Saṃjaya said: But when the son of Droṇa heard of his father's death in battle, he gathered a fierce wrath, like a serpent trodden underfoot.

7.166.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When he heard, Saṃjaya, that his aged father, the brāhmaṇa, had been slain unrighteously by Dhṛṣṭadyumna, what did Aśvatthāman say?

7.166.2 He, the mighty one, in whom were ever established the human weapon, those of Varuṇa and Agni, the Brāhma weapon, that of Indra, and the Nārāyaṇa weapon as well—

7.166.3 When he heard, Saṃjaya, that the teacher, most righteous of men, had been slain unrighteously by Dhṛṣṭadyumna, what did Aśvatthāman say?

7.166.4 He, the great soul, who having gained the science of archery from Rāma, declared its celestial weapons to his son who longed for his teacher's lore—

7.166.5 For in this world men desire one thing alone—a son more excellent than themselves; none other, in any way, in all the world.

7.166.6 Great-souled teachers do indeed have their secret lore, and this they would impart either to a son or to a devoted disciple.

7.166.7 Having received all that craft, and with special favor besides, Saṃjaya, the valiant son of Śāradvatī's lord stood second only to Droṇa in battle.

7.166.8 Approved by Rāma in the science of arms, the equal of Purandara in battle, of Kārtavīrya in valor, of Bṛhaspati in wisdom,

7.166.9 the equal of a mountain in steadfastness, of Agni in splendor, that youth—deep as the ocean in gravity, and in his wrath like the venom of a serpent.

7.166.10 He, the foremost chariot-warrior in the world, of unyielding bow, conqueror of fatigue, swift as the wind upon the field of clamor, ranging like Death enraged—

7.166.11 by whose shooting the earth was pressed down hard in battle, that hero of unfailing prowess who never falters in the fight—

7.166.12 bathed in the Vedas, bathed in vows, and master to the end of the science of archery, unshakable as the great ocean, like Rāma the son of Daśaratha.

7.166.13 When he heard that the teacher, most righteous of men, had been slain unrighteously by Dhṛṣṭadyumna in the encounter, what did Aśvatthāman say?

7.166.14 As the Pāñcāla prince, the son of Yajñasena, was made the death ordained for Droṇa by that great soul, so was a death likewise ordained for Dhṛṣṭadyumna.

7.166.15 When he heard that the teacher had been slain by that ruthless, wicked, cruel man of meanest vision, what did Aśvatthāman say?

7.166.16 Saṃjaya said: Hearing that his father had been slain by treachery by that doer of evil deeds, the son of Droṇa was filled with tears and with fury, O bull among men.

7.166.17 As he raged, O lord of kings, his form appeared more than mortal, like that of Death itself, eager to take away all beings at the turning of the age.

7.166.18 Then, wiping again and again his eyes that brimmed with tears, sighing in his anger, he spoke these words to Duryodhana:

7.166.19 "How my father, having laid down his weapons, was struck down by base men—I know that this sin was wrought by one who flaunts the banner of righteousness; ignoble it was, and I have heard of it from that most ruthless son of Dharma."

7.166.20 "For those engaged in battles, victory and defeat are both certain; either of the two may come to pass, O king, and slaying therein is held praiseworthy."

7.166.21 "But a slaying that befalls a man fighting in battle by lawful conduct brings no cause for grief; in such wise was that twice-born one seen to fall."

7.166.22 "My father has gone to the world of heroes, of that there is no doubt; nor is that tiger among men to be mourned, having met his end in such a way."

7.166.23 "But that he, engaged in righteousness, should suffer his hair to be seized in the sight of all the armies—that cuts through my very vitals."

7.166.24 "Out of desire, out of wrath, out of contempt, out of pride, or again out of childishness, and out of insolence too, men do deeds contrary to righteousness."

7.166.25 "This great unrighteous deed has been done here by the son of Pṛṣata—surely in contempt of me, by that ruthless and evil-souled wretch."

7.166.26 "That Dhṛṣṭadyumna shall behold the dire consequence of it, having wrought a most ignoble deed; and the lying Pāṇḍava too shall behold it."

7.166.27 "He who by treachery made the teacher lay down his weapon then—the earth shall today drink the blood of that king of righteousness."

7.166.28 "By every means I shall strive for the destruction of the Pāñcālas, and in battle I shall slay that doer of evil, Dhṛṣṭadyumna."

7.166.29 "By whatever deed it be—gentle or terrible—having wrought the slaughter of the Pāñcālas, I shall win peace, O Kaurava."

7.166.30 "That for which men desire a son, O tiger among men—deliverance both hereafter and here from great fear—that has now come to be."

7.166.31 "Yet my father came to such a plight, as though he had no kinsman at all, while I, his son and disciple, mountain-like, was living still."

7.166.32 "A curse upon my celestial weapons, a curse upon my arms, a curse upon my prowess—that Droṇa, though he had me for a son, should suffer his hair to be seized!"

7.166.33 "So shall I act, O best of the Bhāratas, that even toward my father gone to the other world I shall pass free of all debt to him."

7.166.34 "A noble man should never speak praise of himself; yet, unable to bear my father's slaying, I shall today proclaim my manhood here."

7.166.35 "Let the Pāṇḍavas with Janārdana behold my valor today, as I crush all their armies, working as it were the end of the age."

7.166.36 "For neither gods nor gandharvas, neither asuras nor rākṣasas are able today to conquer me in battle, mounted on my chariot, O bull among men."

7.166.37 "There is none in this world, save Arjuna, who knows weapons better than I; for I, come into the host, am a wielder of the weapons fashioned by the gods, blazing like the sun among its rays."

7.166.38 "For today the offspring of Kṛśāśva, loosed by me in the great fray, displaying their own might, shall crush the Pāṇḍavas."

7.166.39 "Today, O king, men shall behold all the quarters thronged, as it were with torrents, covered over with my keen feathered shafts."

7.166.40 "Scattering nets of arrows on every side with a fearful roar, I shall lay the enemy low, as a great wind lays low the trees."

7.166.41 "Neither Bībhatsu knows that weapon, nor Janārdana, nor Bhīmasena, nor the twins, nor King Yudhiṣṭhira;"

7.166.42 "nor that evil-souled son of Pṛṣata, nor Śikhaṇḍin, nor Sātyaki—this art, complete with its means of recall, that lies in me, O Kaurava."

7.166.43 "Long ago my father, bowing down to Nārāyaṇa with due rite, offered an oblation when the god appeared in the form of Brahmā."

7.166.44 "Then the Blessed One, accepting it in person, granted a boon; and my father thereupon chose the supreme weapon, the Nārāyaṇa."

7.166.45 "Then, O king, the Blessed One, best of the gods, said to him: 'There shall be no other man anywhere, ever, equal to you in battle.'"

7.166.46 "'But this, O brāhmaṇa, is in no way to be loosed rashly; for this weapon turns not back save by the slaying of the foe.'"

7.166.47 "'And it cannot be known, O lord, who shall not be slain by it; indeed it would strike down even one who ought not to be slain—therefore one should not employ it lightly.'"

7.166.48 "Slaughter in battle, or flight, or the laying down of weapons, or the foes' suing for mercy, or the seeking of refuge—"

7.166.49 "these are the means of quelling the great weapon, O scorcher of foes; for in every way he who, harassing in battle, harms those who ought not to be slain, would himself be afflicted."

7.166.50 "My father received it, and the Lord said to him: 'You shall pour down celestial showers of weapons again and again; with this weapon in battle you shall blaze forth in splendor.'"

7.166.51 "Having spoken thus, the Blessed Lord ascended to heaven; this is the weapon gained from Nārāyaṇa by my kinsman."

7.166.52 "With it I shall scatter in battle the Pāṇḍavas, the Pāñcālas, the Matsyas and the Kekayas, as the lord of Śacī scatters the asuras."

7.166.53 "In whatever fashion I may wish, in just that fashion my arrows, becoming so, shall fall upon my foes even as they show their prowess, O Bhārata."

7.166.54 "Standing in the field, I shall rain down at will a shower of stones, and with iron-beaked birds I shall drive off the great chariot-warriors, and I shall hurl forth manifold battle-axes—of this there is no doubt."

7.166.55 "With the mighty Nārāyaṇa weapon, O scorcher of foes, I shall shatter the enemy and bring the Pāṇḍavas to naught."

7.166.56 "That hater of friends, of brāhmaṇas, and of teachers, that base and utterly contemptible outcast of the Pāñcālas shall not escape me alive today."

7.166.57 Hearing that, the host of the son of Droṇa rallied and turned back, and then all those best of men blew their great conches.

7.166.58 In their joy they beat their kettledrums and tabors by the thousand; the earth too resounded, pressed by hooves and wheel-rims, and that tumultuous din made sky, heaven, and earth ring out.

7.166.59 Hearing that sound, like the roar of a thundercloud, the Pāṇḍavas, those foremost of chariot-warriors, came together and took counsel as one.

7.166.60 And having spoken thus, the son of Droṇa too, having sipped water in due rite, then brought forth that celestial weapon, the Nārāyaṇa, O Bhārata.

7.167.1 Saṃjaya said: When that Nārāyaṇa weapon had then appeared, a wind blew laden with raindrops, and thunder rolled in a cloudless sky.

7.167.2 The earth too quaked, and the great ocean was stirred, and the rivers that flow to the sea began to run there against their current.

7.167.3 The peaks of the mountains split asunder there, O Bhārata, and the beasts kept the sons of Pāṇḍu on their left as an ill omen.

7.167.4 All things were strewn over with darkness, and the sun grew dim; and the flesh-eating creatures came flocking together as though delighted.

7.167.5 Gods, dānavas, and gandharvas were filled with terror, O lord of peoples, and a sharp dismay arose—"What is this? What is this?"—as they beheld that great turmoil.

7.167.6 All the kings then grew distressed and bewildered, beholding the dreadful, terror-bringing weapon of the son of Droṇa.

7.167.7 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When the armies had been turned back in the encounter by the son of Droṇa, sorely scorched by grief and unable to bear his father's slaying,

7.167.8 and when the Pāṇḍavas saw the Kurus bearing down upon them, what counsel was there among them for the protection of Dhṛṣṭadyumna? Tell me that, Saṃjaya.

7.167.9 Saṃjaya said: Seeing the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, who had fled before, and hearing once again the tumultuous din, Yudhiṣṭhira spoke to Arjuna:

7.167.10 "Now that the teacher Droṇa has been slain by Dhṛṣṭadyumna in the encounter, even as the great asura Vṛtra was slain by the wielder of the thunderbolt—"

7.167.11 No longer did they hope for victory in the battle, O Dhanaṃjaya; their spirits broken, the Kurus, fixing their minds only on saving themselves, fled away as best they could.

7.167.12 Some of the princes were swiftly carried off in reeling chariots whose flank-guards and drivers had been slain, their banners, standards, and parasols gone, their chariot-poles shattered.

7.167.13 Others, out of their senses, mounted chariots with broken cabs and panic-stricken horses; some in their fear urged the horses on with their own feet from the cars; and others, frantic with terror, fled in chariots whose yokes, wheels, and axles were broken.

7.167.14 Some, pinned to the necks of elephants by iron shafts, were dislodged from their seats; and some were borne off in the ten directions by maddened elephants that, tormented by arrows, ran wild.

7.167.15 Others, stripped of weapons and armor, fell from their mounts to the ground; some, cut to pieces, were caught beneath the wheel-rims, and others were trampled by horses and elephants.

7.167.16 Others fled in fear, crying out 'O father!' and 'O son!'; their vigor smitten by bewilderment, they no longer recognized one another.

7.167.17 Some, lifting up sons, fathers, friends, and brothers grievously wounded, loosened their armor and bathed their wounds with water.

7.167.18 Reduced to such a state, the army fled when Droṇa was slain; if you know by whom it was made to turn back again, tell me.

7.167.19 The neighing of horses, the trumpeting of elephants, and the rumble of chariot-wheels, all mingled together, are heard there as a mighty din.

7.167.20 These exceedingly fierce sounds, rising up again and again over the ocean of the Kurus, make my people tremble.

7.167.21 This tumultuous, hair-raising sound that is heard could, I think, shatter the three worlds together with Indra himself.

7.167.22 I think this terrible roar is the thunder of the wielder of the vajra; surely, now that Droṇa is slain, Vāsava is coming for the sake of the Kauravas.

7.167.23 The hairs of our bodies stood erect, and our chariot-warriors and elephants were thrown into panic, O Dhanaṃjaya, on hearing there that deep and most terrible roar.

7.167.24 Who is this great chariot-warrior who, having rallied the broken Kauravas, turns them back to battle in the fray, like the lord of the gods himself?

7.167.25 Arjuna said: Rousing themselves to a terrible deed and standing firm in resolve, the Kauravas blow their conches, relying on the valor of one man.

7.167.26 The one about whom you are in doubt, O king—who, now that the teacher who had laid down his weapons is slain, has rallied the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and roars aloud—

7.167.27 that modest one, mighty-armed, who moves with the gait of a rutting elephant, of terrible deeds, the giver of fearlessness to the Kurus—him I shall describe to you.

7.167.28 He at whose birth Droṇa gave a thousand cows in wealth to most worthy Brāhmaṇas—that one, Aśvatthāman, is the one who roars.

7.167.29 By that hero, the moment he was born, neighing like Uccaiḥśravas, the earth and all three worlds were made to tremble.

7.167.30 Hearing this, an unseen being then gave him his name—'Aśvatthāman'; and that hero it is who roars today, O Pāṇḍava.

7.167.31 For him who today, as though he had no protector, was thus assailed and slain by the son of Pṛṣata through a most cruel deed, a protector now stands forth.

7.167.32 That the prince of the Pāñcālas laid hold of my teacher by the locks of his hair—this the son of Droṇa, knowing his own manhood, will never forgive.

7.167.33 By you the teacher was approached with a falsehood for the sake of the kingdom; though called a knower of righteousness, you have committed a most grievous unrighteousness.

7.167.34 'This Pāṇḍava is endowed with every virtue and is my pupil; he will not speak a falsehood'—such was the trust he placed in you.

7.167.35 And so, with the untruth clad in the garb of truth, he, the teacher, was told by you, 'The elephant is slain.'

7.167.36 Then, casting away his weapons, freed of all attachment and bereft of his senses, that lord became overcome, O king, just as you saw him.

7.167.37 Filled with grief and turned away from the fight, fond of his son—the teacher, abandoning the eternal law, was struck down by his own pupil.

7.167.38 Having unrighteously caused the teacher to be slain when he had laid down his weapons, let your lordship now, with your counselors, protect the son of Pṛṣata if you can.

7.167.39 When the son of the teacher, enraged and bereft of his kinsman, has seized the son of Pṛṣata, not all of us together shall be able to save him today.

7.167.40 He who shows boundless friendship toward all beings—when he hears today of his father being seized by the hair, he will burn us up in battle.

7.167.41 Though I cried out aloud, longing eagerly for the teacher, yet the teacher was slain by his pupil, who cast aside his own duty.

7.167.42 When the greater part of his life had passed and but little of ours remains, this monstrous wrong was now done to him—a great unrighteousness.

7.167.43 Ever like a father in his affection, and like a father indeed by right—that teacher was slain for the sake of a kingdom that lasts but a little while.

7.167.44 By Dhṛtarāṣṭra, O lord of peoples, the whole earth, together with his sons devoted to them, was made over to Bhīṣma and to Droṇa.

7.167.45 Yet though he had won such a station and was ever honored by our foes, the teacher always favored me, his pupil, above his own sons.

7.167.46 Undiminished in strength, he laid down his weapons at your word and was slain in the fight; while he was fighting, not even the performer of a hundred sacrifices could have slain him.

7.167.47 Against that aged teacher, our constant benefactor, this treachery was wrought by us ignoble men of petty understanding, for the sake of a kingdom.

7.167.48 The son of Vāsava would give up sons, brothers, fathers, wives, and life itself—everything—out of love for me; this my teacher knew well.

7.167.49 And yet, in my desire for a kingdom, I looked on heedless while he was being slain; therefore, O king, head bowed down, I have come, O lord, to hell.

7.167.50 Having today caused the slaying of a Brāhmaṇa, aged, a teacher, who had laid down his weapons like a sage—for the sake of a kingdom—death is better for me than life.

7.168.1 Saṃjaya said: Hearing the words of Arjuna, the great chariot-warriors there spoke to Dhanaṃjaya nothing, O great king, whether pleasant or unpleasant.

7.168.2 Then the mighty-armed Bhīmasena, enraged, as if smiling, addressed the son of Kuntī, Arjuna, O bull of the Bhāratas.

7.168.3 You speak words bound up with righteousness, O Pārtha, like a sage gone to the forest, like a Brāhmaṇa of strict vows who has laid down the rod of punishment.

7.168.4 A protector from harm, surviving harm, forbearing toward the good of all three orders—such a Kṣatriya swiftly wins the earth, righteousness, fame, and prosperity.

7.168.5 You, the upholder of our line, endowed with all the virtues of a Kṣatriya, do not shine today, speaking your words like a man of no understanding.

7.168.6 Your prowess, O son of Kuntī, is like that of Śakra, the lord of Śacī; and you do not overstep righteousness, as the great ocean does not overstep its shore.

7.168.7 Who indeed would not honor you today, who—putting behind you the wrath of thirteen years—still desire righteousness alone?

7.168.8 By good fortune, dear one, your mind today follows your own duty; and by good fortune, O undiminished one, your understanding is ever bent on mercy.

7.168.9 But that your kingdom, while you walked in righteousness, was unjustly taken away, and Draupadī was brought into the assembly hall and laid hold of by our foes,

7.168.10 and that we were driven into the forest, clad in bark and deerskin, made by our enemies to endure for thirteen years a state we did not deserve—

7.168.11 all these occasions for wrath you have borne in patience, O sinless one; devoted to the law of the Kṣatriya, you have endured all this.

7.168.12 To undo that wrong I have set out, joined with you; together with their followers I shall slay those base men who seized the kingdom.

7.168.13 It was said by you before that we had come for battle; and we strive with all our might—yet today you reproach us.

7.168.14 You will not understand your own duty; your words are false. With your speech you cut to the quick of us who are stricken with fear.

7.168.15 Like one strewing caustic upon the wounds of the wounded, O scourge of foes, you make my heart split asunder, tormented by the arrow of your words.

7.168.16 Righteous though you are, you do not perceive this monstrous wrong—that you praise neither yourself nor us, who are worthy of praise, while you praise one who is not worth a sixteenth part of you.

7.168.17 It is not fitting to proclaim one's own virtues with one's own mouth; yet in my wrath I could rend the earth and scatter the mountains.

7.168.18 Whirling my heavy, terrible mace garlanded with gold, I could shatter the mountain-like beings born of earth, as the wind shatters trees.

7.168.19 You, then, knowing your brother to be of such a kind, O bull among men, ought not, O you of measureless prowess, to make us fear the son of Droṇa.

7.168.20 Or else stand aside, O Bībhatsu, with all these bulls among men; mace in hand, I alone shall vanquish him in the great battle.

7.168.21 Then the son of the king of the Pāñcālas spoke to Pārtha, as Hari spoke to Hiraṇyakaśipu roaring in his fury.

7.168.22 O Bībhatsu, the duties of a Brāhmaṇa are known to the wise: officiating at sacrifices and teaching, giving gifts, and the offering and receiving of sacrifices.

7.168.23 The sixth is study; in which of these did the Droṇa stand whom I have slain, that you should blame me, O Pārtha?

7.168.24 Fallen away from his own duty and resorting to the duty of a Kṣatriya, that doer of base deeds slew us with a weapon not of human kind.

7.168.25 He who employed magic, who was unbearable, a Brāhmaṇa only in name—if one slew him by magic itself, what is unfitting in that, O Pārtha?

7.168.26 If, now that he has been slain by me in that manner, the son of Droṇa in his rage makes a terrible roar, what is diminished in me thereby?

7.168.27 Nor do I think it any wonder that the son of Droṇa, with mere empty roaring, will get the Kauravas killed, being unable to save them.

7.168.28 And whereas you, becoming righteous, call me the slayer of a teacher—for that very purpose was I, the son of the Pāñcāla king, born from the fire.

7.168.29 He for whom, when he fights in battle, the proper deed and the improper are all the same—how could you call such a one a Brāhmaṇa, or even a Kṣatriya, O Dhanaṃjaya?

7.168.30 He who, frenzied with wrath, would slay with the Brahmā-weapon men ignorant of weapons—how is such a one not to be slain by any means whatever, O best of men?

7.168.31 It is declared by those who know the law that, against violators of the law, what is like poison toward them is sanctioned; knowing this, O Arjuna, you who understand the truth of duty and meaning—why do you blame me?

7.168.32 That cruel man, assailed by me, was struck down upon his very chariot; for this I deserve your praise, O Bībhatsu—why do you not rejoice?

7.168.33 The battle being done, O Pārtha, why do you not praise as praiseworthy the dread cutting-off of Droṇa's head, like blazing fire, the sun, and poison?

7.168.34 He who slew in battle the kinsmen of me alone and of none other—even having severed his head, I am not yet rid of my fever.

7.168.35 And this cuts me to the quick—that his head was not flung by me into the country of the Niṣādas, as was the head of Jayadratha.

7.168.36 To leave one's foes unslain, too, remains an unrighteousness, O Arjuna; for this is the law of the Kṣatriya—he should slay, or in turn be slain.

7.168.37 That foe was slain by me in battle by righteous means, O Pāṇḍava, just as the hero Bhagadatta, your father's friend, was slain by you.

7.168.38 Having slain the grandsire in battle, you account it your righteousness; then when a wicked foe is slain by me, why do you not account it righteousness?

7.168.39 The eldest Pāṇḍava is no liar, nor am I unrighteous, O Arjuna; the wicked betrayer of his teacher has been slain. Fight on—the victory is yours.

7.169.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: He, the great soul by whom the Vedas with their ancillary sciences had been duly studied, in whom the science of archery was firmly established as in its very seat, restrained by modesty—

7.169.2 When that son of the great sage, Droṇa, was thus reviled—reviled by a base-souled, cruel, and contemptible slayer of his own teacher—

7.169.3 by whose grace those bulls among men perform feats in battle that are more than human, deeds hard even for the gods to accomplish—

7.169.4 when Droṇa was thus reviled before their very eyes by that doer of evil deeds, they showed no resentment. A curse upon the kṣatriya order, and a curse upon their want of indignation!

7.169.5 What did all the sons of Pṛthā and the kings of the earth who bear the bow say when they heard the Pāñcāla prince? Tell me that, Saṃjaya.

7.169.6 Saṃjaya said: Having heard those words of Drupada's son, that doer of cruel deeds, all the kings fell silent, O lord of peoples.

7.169.7 But Arjuna, eyeing the son of Pṛṣata askance with a sidelong glance, sighed with tears in his eyes and said, 'Shame, shame, shame!'

7.169.8 Yudhiṣṭhira and Bhīma, the twins, Kṛṣṇa, and the others were sorely abashed, O king, and Sātyaki spoke these words:

7.169.9 'Is there here no man who would swiftly strike down this wicked wretch, this vilest of men, as he utters words so unholy?

7.169.10 How is it, base one, that your tongue does not split into a hundred pieces and your head burst asunder, when you revile your teacher, and how is it that you are not cast down by your own unrighteousness?

7.169.11 You are to be reproached by the sons of Pṛthā and by all the Andhakas and Vṛṣṇis, for having done so foul a deed you yet boast of it in the assembly of men.

7.169.12 Having committed such an undoable deed and now reviling your teacher besides, you deserve death; there is no profit in your living even for a single moment.

7.169.13 What noble man other than you, vilest of men, would have resolved upon this—to seize by the hair and slay a teacher, righteous and good?

7.169.14 Seven generations of your kinsmen, those before and those to come, have been cast down and forsaken by their renown, having gotten you, the defiler of your line.

7.169.15 And as for what you said to Pārtha concerning Bhīṣma, that bull among men—the end of that great-souled one was ordained by his very own self.

7.169.16 And of him too the slayer was your own brother, that doer of the worst of deeds; no greater doer of evil than the sons of Pāñcāla is to be found upon the earth.

7.169.17 And he too, Śikhaṇḍin, was begotten by your father to be the bringer of Bhīṣma's end; he was guarded by Arjuna, and he became the death of that great-souled one.

7.169.18 The Pāñcālas have fallen from righteousness, base traitors to friend and teacher, having gotten you together with your brother, condemned by all good men.

7.169.19 If once again you utter such words in my presence, I shall strike off your head with my mace, mighty as the thunderbolt.'

7.169.20 Thus assailed by the Sātvata with harsh syllables, the son of Pṛṣata, enraged, spoke to Sātyaki in wrath, yet as though laughing:

7.169.21 'It is heard, it is heard—and it is borne, it is borne, O Mādhava. But you, ignoble one, ought not to revile a good and worthy man.

7.169.22 Forbearance is praised in the world, but the wicked man does not deserve forbearance; for the evil-souled one thinks of the forbearing man, "This one is beaten."

7.169.23 You, of mean conduct, base-souled, and fixed upon evil, deserve to be reproached from the tips of your hair to the tips of your nails—yet you wish to speak.

7.169.24 That Bhūriśravas, his arm severed and seated in the vow of fasting to death, was slain by you though you were being restrained—what is more wicked than that?

7.169.25 As I shielded Droṇa with a celestial weapon in the fray, he was slain when he had laid down his arms—what cruel ill deed is there in that, you savage?

7.169.26 But he who would slay in battle, with another's help, a sage not fighting, seated in the vow of death, his arm already severed—what manner of man is he, O Sātyaki?

7.169.27 When that valiant one, having struck you to the ground, was striding upon you, why did you not then slay him, you who would be the best of men?

7.169.28 But the heroic son of Somadatta, glorious in might, was first vanquished by Pārtha and then slain by you, ignoble one.

7.169.29 Wherever Droṇa, scattering thousands of arrows, put the host of the Pāṇḍavas to flight, thither and thither did I go.

7.169.30 Having yourself done such a deed, like an outcaste, why then do you, who deserve reproach, wish to speak harsh words to me?

7.169.31 You are the doer of that ghastly deed, not I, O basest of the Vṛṣṇi line; you are the dwelling-place of wicked deeds—speak no more.

7.169.32 Hold your peace; you ought not to address me further from here on, for this that you wish to say to me is utter nonsense, the lowest set above the highest.

7.169.33 And if out of folly you address such harsh words to me again, I shall send you with my arrows in battle to the abode of Vaivasvata.

7.169.34 And not by righteousness alone, you fool, can it be done; hear what manner of unrighteous deeds were wrought even by these.

7.169.35 The Pāṇḍava Yudhiṣṭhira was first deceived through unrighteousness, and Draupadī too was tormented likewise through unrighteousness, O Sātyaki.

7.169.36 All the Pāṇḍavas were sent into exile in the forest together with Kṛṣṇā, and all their possessions were stripped away likewise through unrighteousness, you simpleton.

7.169.37 And the king of the Madras was drawn off from this side by his foes through unrighteousness; and from this side too Bhīṣma, the grandsire of the Kurus, was slain through unrighteousness; and Bhūriśravas was slain through unrighteousness by you, knower of righteousness though you be.

7.169.38 Thus was it practiced in battle by your foes and by the Pāṇḍavas alike—by heroes who, though knowers of righteousness, were guarding their victory, O Sātvata.

7.169.39 The highest righteousness is hard to know, and so too unrighteousness is most difficult to discern. Fight with the Kauravas; go not to the dwelling of your fathers.'

7.169.40 Made to hear these and other words, cruel and harsh, the illustrious Sātyaki became as though shaken.

7.169.41 Hearing this, Sātyaki, his eyes copper-red with wrath, took up his mace, hissing like a serpent, having set down his bow upon the chariot.

7.169.42 Then rushing upon the Pāñcāla, he said this in his fury: 'I will not speak harsh words to you; I will slay you, who deserve death.'

7.169.43 As he fell suddenly upon the Pāñcāla, mighty, impatient of insult, and wrathful, like Death itself against another Death—

7.169.44 urged on by Vāsudeva, the mighty Bhīmasena leapt swiftly from his chariot and held him back with both his arms.

7.169.45 The strong Pāṇḍava, seizing the wrathful Sātyaki as he rushed and struggled forward, dragged the powerful one back by force.

7.169.46 Standing firm and planting his feet, Bhīma held back that bull of Śini's line, the foremost of the strong, by main strength at the sixth step.

7.169.47 And Sahadeva, descending from his chariot, spoke to him in gentle words as he was being dragged back by the stronger one, O lord of peoples:

7.169.48 'O tiger among men, no other friend higher than the Andhakas and Vṛṣṇis and the Pāñcālas is known to us, O Mādhava.

7.169.49 And so too for the Andhakas and Vṛṣṇis, and for you in particular, and for Kṛṣṇa, no other friend than ourselves is known.

7.169.50 And for the Pāñcālas too, O scion of Vṛṣṇi, were they to search to the very shores of the ocean, there is no other friend so great as the Pāṇḍavas and Vṛṣṇis are to one another.

7.169.51 You regard such a friend even as he regards you; and as you are to us, so are we to you.

7.169.52 Therefore, you who know all righteousness, remembering the duty owed to a friend, restrain your wrath against the Pāñcāla and be appeased, O bull of Śini's line.

7.169.53 Forgive the son of Pṛṣata, and let the son of Pṛṣata forgive you; we are here to make peace between you—what is there to gain apart from calm?'

7.169.54 As the grandson of Śini was being pacified by Sahadeva, O honored one, the son of the Pāñcāla king said this, laughing:

7.169.55 'Release, release the grandson of Śini, Bhīma, possessed as he is by the frenzy of battle; let him come at me as the wind comes against a mountain.

7.169.56 that with my sharp arrows I may quell his fury, his appetite for battle, and his very hold on life in the fray, O son of Kuntī.

7.169.57 But what indeed can I do? A great task is upon the sons of Pāṇḍu, for here the Kauravas are advancing.

7.169.58 Or else Phalguna will hold them all back in battle; and I too shall strike off this man's head with my arrows.

7.169.59 He thinks me a Bhūriśravas with severed arm in the battle. Let him go—either I shall slay him, or he shall slay me.'

7.169.60 Hearing the words of the Pāñcāla, Sātyaki, hissing like a serpent, the mighty one held fast in the clasp of Bhīma's arms, writhed without ceasing.

7.169.61 Then in haste Vāsudeva and the Dharma King, O honored one, with great effort held back those two heroes.

7.169.62 Having restrained those two great archers, their eyes red with wrath, those bulls among kṣatriyas, eager for combat, advanced against their foes in battle.

7.170.1 Saṃjaya said: Then the son of Droṇa wrought havoc among his foes, like Death created by Time at the end of an age to destroy all beings.

7.170.2 With banners for its trees and weapons for its peaks, slain elephants for its great boulders, strewn with horses and kiṃpuruṣas, and overgrown with bows for creepers—

7.170.3 resounding with pikes and flesh-eating beasts, thronged with hosts of spirits and yakṣas—having slain his enemies with his broad-headed arrows, he heaped up a mountain of corpses.

7.170.4 Then with great vehemence that bull among men roared aloud and proclaimed his vow once more to your son:

7.170.5 'Because, while my teacher was fighting, Kuntī's son Yudhiṣṭhira, donning righteousness as a coat of mail, said to him, "Lay down your weapon"—

7.170.6 therefore, before his very eyes, I shall rout his host; and having routed it, in truth I shall slay that wicked Pāñcāla.

7.170.7 I shall slay all of these if they fight me in battle—this I truly vow to you. Turn back your host!'

7.170.8 Hearing this, your son turned the host about, dispelling its great fear with a mighty lion's roar.

7.170.9 Then, O king, the clash of the Kuru and Pāṇḍava armies arose once more, fierce as that of two full oceans meeting.

7.170.10 For the Kauravas, enraged, were made steadfast by the son of Droṇa, while the Pāṇḍavas and Pāñcālas were exultant at the slaying of Droṇa.

7.170.11 A mighty onrush arose upon the field of battle from those exceedingly joyful warriors, who, enraged, saw victory already within their grasp.

7.170.12 As a mountain might dash against a mountain, or an ocean against an ocean, O lord of kings, so were the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas.

7.170.13 Then the soldiers of the Kurus and Pāṇḍavas, full of joy, sounded thousands of conches and tens of thousands of kettledrums.

7.170.14 Then there arose from that army a tumult, exceedingly great and wondrous, like the roar of an ocean being churned.

7.170.15 Then the son of Droṇa brought forth the Nārāyaṇa weapon, aiming it at the host of the Pāṇḍavas and Pāñcālas.

7.170.16 Then there appeared in the sky arrows by the thousand, their points ablaze, eager to devour the Pāṇḍavas like serpents with flaming jaws.

7.170.17 In that great battle they shrouded the quarters, the sky, and the army in a moment, O king, as the rays of the sun cover the world.

7.170.18 And others appeared, blazing like stars in a clear sky, O guardian of the earth—balls wrought of black iron.

7.170.19 And on every side appeared wondrous śataghnīs spewing fire, and razor-edged discuses, like the radiant orbs of the sun.

7.170.20 Beholding the sky, O bull of the Bhāratas, thickly strewn with shapes of every kind of weapon, the Pāṇḍavas, the Pāñcālas, and the Sṛñjayas were filled with dread.

7.170.21 For the more the mighty chariot-warriors of the Pāṇḍavas fought on, the more that weapon swelled in power, O lord of men.

7.170.22 Slain by that Nārāyaṇa weapon, scorched as if by fire, they were tormented on every side in the battle.

7.170.23 As at winter's end fire consumes the dry grass, so, O lord, that weapon consumed the host of the Pāṇḍavas.

7.170.24 As the weapon waxed full and the army dwindled, O mighty one, Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Dharma, fell into utmost terror.

7.170.25 Seeing that army routed and bereft of sense, and Pārtha standing aloof, the son of Dharma spoke these words.

7.170.26 "Dhṛṣṭadyumna, flee with the Pāñcāla host; and you, Sātyaki, go home, surrounded by the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas.

7.170.27 Vāsudeva too, righteous of soul, will do what befits himself; he who is able to counsel the whole world will surely look after his own.

7.170.28 Let no battle be waged—this I say to all the troops; for I, with my brothers, shall enter the fire that bears the oblations.

7.170.29 Having crossed the battle-ocean of Bhīṣma and Droṇa, that flood impassable to cowards, I shall be left sunk and waterless, with my host, in this cow's-hoofprint pool that is the son of Droṇa.

7.170.30 Let this his wish toward me, toward Bībhatsu, be swiftly fulfilled—for it was by me that the preceptor of blameless conduct was struck down in battle.

7.170.31 By whose contrivance that boy, the son of Subhadrā, unskilled in warfare, was slain by many ruthless and able warriors, and went unguarded.

7.170.32 He who, refusing to answer the question, allowed Kṛṣṇā, dragged into the assembly, to be reduced to bondage, he and his son looking on.

7.170.33 And that son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, armored, eager to slay Phalguna when his horses were spent, fought to protect the Saindhava.

7.170.34 He who, knowing the Brahmā weapon, struck down root and branch the Pāñcālas led by Satyajit, even as they strove to overwhelm him.

7.170.35 He whom, when we were unjustly driven into exile from our kingdom, we begged to follow us, yet he held us back.

7.170.36 He who ever showed us the highest friendship has been slain; for his sake I shall go to my death, together with my kinsmen."

7.170.37 As the son of Kuntī spoke thus, the Dāśārha hastily stayed the army with his arms and uttered these words.

7.170.38 "Quickly lay down your weapons and dismount from your vehicles; here is the prescribed device, the counter ordained by the great-souled one.

7.170.39 Dismount, all of you, to the ground from elephants, horses, and chariots; thus the weapon will not slay you, weaponless upon the earth.

7.170.40 For the more the warriors fight against the power of the weapon, the stronger do these Kauravas become.

7.170.41 But those men who, dismounting from their vehicles, cast down their weapons—them this weapon will not slay in the battle.

7.170.42 Yet whoever shall withstand it, even in thought, all those it will slay, though they had gone down to the nethermost depths."

7.170.43 Hearing that speech of Vāsudeva, O Bhārata, they all resolved to lay aside their weapons, in mind and in deed alike.

7.170.44 Then, marking them eager to cast aside their weapons, the Pāṇḍava Bhīmasena, O king, spoke these words to rouse their spirit.

7.170.45 "By no means shall any here lay down his weapons; I will ward off the weapon of Droṇa's son with my swift arrows.

7.170.46 Or else, with this heavy mace of golden frame, I shall range over the field like Death itself, shattering the son of Droṇa's weapon.

7.170.47 For no man here is the equal of my valor, even as there is no other light to match the light of the Sun.

7.170.48 Behold these two firm arms of mine, like the trunks of a king of elephants, able to bring down even Himālaya, the snow-clad mountain.

7.170.49 For I alone among men have the strength of ten thousand elephants, even as Śakra is renowned in heaven as the peerless rival among the gods.

7.170.50 This day behold the prowess of my thick-shouldered arms in the fray, as I ward off the blazing, flaming weapon of Droṇa's son.

7.170.51 If there be none to withstand the Nārāyaṇa weapon, this day I shall withstand it before the eyes of the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas."

7.170.52 Having spoken thus, Bhīma, the tamer of foes, advanced upon the son of Droṇa in his sun-bright chariot, thundering like a cloud.

7.170.53 Swift in his nimbleness, the son of Kuntī reached him in the twinkling of an eye and overwhelmed him with a net of arrows.

7.170.54 Then the son of Droṇa, laughing and addressing him with disdain, showered upon him those consecrated arrows with blazing points.

7.170.55 As though by flame-mouthed serpents vomiting fire in the battle, Pārtha was covered over, as if with golden sparks.

7.170.56 Such, O king, was the aspect of Bhīmasena in the fray—like a mountain wrapped about with fireflies at the close of day.

7.170.57 As that weapon of Droṇa's son met him in conflict, it grew greater, O great king, like fire fanned by the wind.

7.170.58 Seeing that weapon of terrible power waxing ever greater, a mighty fear seized the Pāṇḍava host, save Bhīma alone.

7.170.59 Then they all cast their weapons down upon the earth and dismounted, every one, from their chariots, elephants, and horses.

7.170.60 When they had laid down their weapons and quit their vehicles, the vast might of that weapon fell upon the head of Bhīma.

7.170.61 All beings cried out in dismay, and the Pāṇḍavas above all, as they beheld Bhīmasena then enveloped in that fiery splendor.

7.171.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing Bhīmasena overspread by the weapon, Dhanaṃjaya, to counter its fiery splendor, enveloped him with the Varuṇa weapon.

7.171.2 None could descry him, shrouded by the Varuṇa weapon, by reason of Arjuna's swiftness and of the splendor that enveloped him.

7.171.3 Bhīma, with horses, charioteer, and car, shrouded by the weapon of Droṇa's son, garlanded in flame and scarcely to be looked upon, was like fire cast into fire.

7.171.4 As at the close of night, O king, the stars sink toward the western mountain, so did the arrows converge upon the chariot of Bhīmasena.

7.171.5 For Bhīma, and his chariot, his horses, and his charioteer, O sire, enveloped by Droṇa's son, seemed sunk within the very fire.

7.171.6 As the fire, having burned at the appointed time the whole world with all that moves and moves not, passes into the mouth of the Almighty, so did that weapon enwrap Bhīma.

7.171.7 As fire might enter the sun, or the sun enter fire, so that splendor entered in, and nothing whatever could be discerned.

7.171.8 Seeing that weapon poured forth upon Bhīma's chariot, and the son of Droṇa rising up without a rival in the battle,

7.171.9 all the hosts of the Pāṇḍavas, weapons laid aside and senses fled, with Yudhiṣṭhira at their head—those mighty chariot-warriors turned their faces away.

7.171.10 Then Arjuna and Vāsudeva, those two heroes of great splendor, leaping in haste from their chariot, ran toward Bhīma.

7.171.11 Then those two mighty ones plunged into the splendor of Droṇa's son, born of the weapon's power, and entered it by their magic art.

7.171.12 They had laid aside their weapons, and so the fire born of the weapon could not burn them—both by the working of the Varuṇa weapon and by the might of the two Kṛṣṇas.

7.171.13 Then Nara and Nārāyaṇa, to quell the Nārāyaṇa weapon, forcibly dragged forth Bhīma and all his weapons.

7.171.14 Even as he was being dragged away, the son of Kuntī, that mighty car-warrior, kept roaring on; and the dreadful, scarce-conquerable weapon of Droṇa's son kept growing.

7.171.15 Vāsudeva said to him: "What is this, son of Pāṇḍu? Why, O son of Kuntī, though restrained, do you not turn back from battle?

7.171.16 Were these sons of the Kurus to be conquered by fighting, we too would fight here, and so would these bulls among men.

7.171.17 But all your own people have dismounted from their chariots; therefore you too, O son of Kuntī, withdraw at once from your car."

7.171.18 Having spoken thus, Kṛṣṇa brought him down from the chariot to the ground, hissing like a serpent, his eyes red with wrath.

7.171.19 When he had been dragged from the chariot and his weapon laid upon the ground, then that Nārāyaṇa weapon, scorcher of foes, grew still.

7.171.20 When that unbearable splendor was thus quelled by the prescribed device, all the quarters and the intermediate quarters became clear.

7.171.21 Auspicious breezes blew, the beasts and birds grew calm, and the vehicles and the warriors were filled with cheer, O lord of men.

7.171.22 And when that terrible splendor was withdrawn, O Bhārata, the wise Bhīma shone forth like the sun risen at the close of night.

7.171.23 There stood the remnant of the Pāṇḍavas' host that the slaughter had spared, rejoicing at the ceasing of the weapon, eager to slay your son.

7.171.24 When that army had rallied and the weapon had been thus countered, Duryodhana, O great king, spoke to the son of Droṇa.

7.171.25 "Aśvatthāman, loose this weapon again, and swiftly; for the Pāñcālas have rallied once more, hungry for victory."

7.171.26 Aśvatthāman, thus addressed by your son, O sire, sighing most piteously, said this to the king.

7.171.27 "This weapon does not return, O king; it cannot be employed a second time. He who would call it back, it slays him who wields it—of this there is no doubt.

7.171.28 And this Vāsudeva has applied the counter to the weapon; otherwise the slaughter of the foe in battle had been ordained, O lord of men.

7.171.29 Defeat or death—death is the better, not so this victory; for these foes, vanquished, are as good as dead, having cast away their weapons."

7.171.30 Duryodhana said: "Son of the preceptor, if this weapon may not be loosed twice, then with other weapons let the slayers of the teacher be slain, O best of those who know the arts of war.

7.171.31 For in you the celestial weapons abide as they do in the Three-eyed God; should you wish it in your wrath, not even Purandara could escape you."

7.171.32 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When that weapon had been countered, and Droṇa slain by guile, and the son of Droṇa thus addressed by Duryodhana, what did he do next?

7.171.33 And seeing the Pārthas arrayed for battle in the fray, freed from the Nārāyaṇa weapon, ranging at the head of the host—

7.171.34 Saṃjaya said: He whose banner bore the lion's tail, knowing the slaying of his father, full of wrath, casting off all fear, rushed upon the son of Pṛṣata.

7.171.35 And rushing on, that bull among men pierced that bull among men with twenty small arrows and with five more, in a great fury.

7.171.36 Then Dhṛṣṭadyumna, O king, pierced the son of Droṇa—blazing like fire—with sixty-three feathered shafts, O king.

7.171.37 And he pierced his charioteer with twenty gold-feathered, stone-whetted shafts, and his four horses with four sharp arrows.

7.171.38 Piercing and piercing again, the son of Droṇa roared, as though making the earth tremble, as though seizing the life-breaths of all the world in that great battle.

7.171.39 But the mighty son of Pṛṣata, O king, accomplished in arms and tireless in toil, rushed straight at the son of Droṇa, having made death itself the boundary of his turning back.

7.171.40 Then the prince of the Pāñcālas, that immeasurable spirit, the best of chariot-warriors, loosed a rain of arrows upon the head of Droṇa's son.

7.171.41 Enraged in the battle, the son of Droṇa veiled him with feathered shafts and pierced him with ten, remembering the slaying of his father.

7.171.42 With two well-drawn razor-headed arrows the son of Droṇa cut down the standard and the bow of the Pāñcāla king, and with others he tormented him sorely.

7.171.43 In that great battle the son of Droṇa stripped him of horses, charioteer, and car, and in his wrath he overspread all his followers with arrows.

7.171.44 Then the army of the Pāñcālas broke and fled, O lord of peoples, bewildered in aspect, anguished, and mangled by the rain of arrows.

7.171.45 Seeing the warriors turning away and Dhṛṣṭadyumna hard pressed, the grandson of Śini swiftly urged the fight on toward the chariot of Droṇa's son.

7.171.46 With eight whetted arrows he afflicted Aśvatthāman, and striking that unforgiving warrior again with twenty of varied form, he pierced likewise the charioteer with four and the four horses each with one.

7.171.47 Deeply pierced by those many-marked shafts of Yuyudhāna, the unforgiving mighty bowman, the son of Droṇa, laughed and spoke these words.

7.171.48 "Grandson of Śini, I know your loyalty toward the slayer of my teacher; yet you shall not rescue him from me, who is in my grasp—nor yourself either."

7.171.49 So speaking, the son of Droṇa loosed at the Sātvata a peerless, well-jointed arrow bright as a sunbeam, as Indra hurled the thunderbolt at Vṛtra.

7.171.50 That shaft, sped by him, pierced through both the warrior and his armor, and cleaving the earth it entered her, hissing like a serpent entering its hole.

7.171.51 His armor shattered, the hero, like an elephant stung by the goad, let fall his bow with its arrow, streaming from many wounds.

7.171.52 Sinking and drenched in blood, he sank down upon the floor of his car, and was swiftly borne by his charioteer to another chariot, away from the son of Droṇa.

7.171.53 Then with another well-feathered, smooth-jointed arrow that scorcher of foes struck Dhṛṣṭadyumna between the brows.

7.171.54 Already deeply pierced before and grievously afflicted thereafter, the Pāñcāla prince sank down in the battle and leaned upon his standard.

7.171.55 Upon him—like a rutting elephant tormented by a lion, O king—five heroic chariot-warriors of the Pāṇḍava side charged at speed.

7.171.56 The Diademed One, Bhīmasena, Vṛddhakṣatra the Paurava, the crown-prince of the Cedis, and Sudarśana the Mālava struck him together from every side, each with five arrows.

7.171.57 With twenty serpent-venom-like arrows, and with five more, the son of Droṇa cut down all at once those twenty-five shafts.

7.171.58 With seven sharpened arrows the son of Droṇa tormented the Paurava, the Mālava with three, Pārtha with one, and Vṛkodara with six.

7.171.59 Then all those great chariot-warriors, O king, pierced the son of Droṇa, together and severally, with arrows gold-feathered and whetted on stone.

7.171.60 The crown-prince pierced the son of Droṇa with twenty feathered shafts, Pārtha again with eight, and all the rest each with three.

7.171.61 Then the son of Droṇa struck Arjuna with six arrows, Vāsudeva with ten, Bhīma with five, the crown-prince with four; and having cut the prince's bow and standard with two, the son of Droṇa, piercing Pārtha again with a shower of arrows, roared a terrible lion's roar.

7.171.62 As the son of Droṇa shot his well-whetted, sharp-edged shafts behind and before, the earth, the air, the heavens, the quarters and the intermediate quarters were covered with arrows of dreadful form.

7.171.63 That warrior of fierce splendor, of valor equal to Indra's, with three arrows at once severed the two arms—shining like Indra's banner—and the head of Sudarśana as he sat in his own car.

7.171.64 Slaying the Paurava with a chariot-lance, and cutting his car to bits with arrows, he severed his two arms anointed with fine sandal, and with a broad-headed shaft lifted his head from his trunk.

7.171.65 Laughing, with swift arrows like blazing fire he pierced the young crown-prince, beloved of the Cedis, dark as a wreath of blue lotuses, and gave him over to death together with his horses and charioteer.

7.171.66 Having slain them in battle, the heroic son of Droṇa, that unvanquished lord of warriors, blew his great conch in his joy.

7.171.67 Then all the Pāñcālas, and Bhīmasena the Pāṇḍava, in terror abandoned the chariot of Dhṛṣṭadyumna and fled in every direction.

7.171.68 As they broke, the son of Droṇa, scattering arrows upon their backs, bore down with speed upon the host of the Pāṇḍavas like Death himself.

7.171.69 As they were slaughtered in the battle by Droṇa's son, those warriors, O king, in their terror saw the son of Droṇa in all the quarters.

7.172.1 Saṃjaya said: Seeing that army broken, Dhanaṃjaya the son of Kuntī, that immeasurable spirit, held it back, longing to slay the son of Droṇa.

7.172.2 Yet those soldiers, O king, would not stand fast there, though Govinda and Arjuna strove with all their effort to rally them.

7.172.3 But Bībhatsu alone, with the remnants of the Somakas, the Matsyas, and others, marshalled his ranks and turned back against the Kauravas.

7.172.4 Then Savyasācin, swiftly outstripping him whose banner bore the lion's tail, spoke to the mighty bowman Aśvatthāman.

7.172.5 "Whatever is your power, your valor, your knowledge and your manhood, whatever your love for the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and your hatred of us, and whatever splendor still is yours—show me all of it now, to the utmost."

7.172.6 "That very son of Pṛṣata, the slayer of Droṇa, will break your pride—he who is like the fire of doom, the ender of foes in battle. Come, then, against the Pāñcāla, and against me too, with Keśava beside me."

7.172.7 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: The teacher's son is worthy of honor and mighty too, Saṃjaya; he bears love toward Dhanaṃjaya, and dear is he in turn to the son of Vāsava.

7.172.8 Never before has such harsh speech come from Bībhatsu; why, then, did the son of Kuntī speak so roughly to his friend?

7.172.9 Saṃjaya said: When the crown-prince had been slain, and Vṛddhakṣatra the Paurava, and Sudarśana the Mālava, perfect in the rites of bow and arrow—

7.172.10 —and when Dhṛṣṭadyumna, Sātyaki, and Bhīma had been overcome, and Yudhiṣṭhira had been struck to the quick by his words—

7.172.11 —and when a rift had opened within them, and remembering his grief, O lord, an unprecedented wrath was born of sorrow in Bībhatsu.

7.172.12 Therefore he spoke to the son of Droṇa words undeserved, unseemly, and unkind—to the honorable son of his teacher he spoke harshly, as a base man might.

7.172.13 Thus addressed, O king, that foremost of mighty bowmen, hissing with wrath at Pārtha's harsh speech and at words that struck every vital part, the son of Droṇa grew enraged—against Pārtha, and against Kṛṣṇa above all.

7.172.14 Standing intent upon his car, the valiant one touched water in purification and took up the fiery weapon, hard to withstand even by the gods.

7.172.15 Aiming at the hosts of his foes, both seen and unseen, the teacher's son, that slayer of enemy heroes, charged a blazing arrow with mantras—like smokeless fire—and, filled with wrath on every side, hurled it forth.

7.172.16 Then a tumultuous rain of arrows arose in the sky; chill winds blew, and the sun gave no more heat.

7.172.17 The Dānavas too cried out frightfully in all the quarters, and raining down blood, they roared amid the rain-clouded sky.

7.172.18 Birds, beasts, and cattle, and even the sages of holy vows, though most self-restrained in spirit, could find no peace.

7.172.19 All the great elements were thrown into disorder, the maker of day was overturned, and the three worlds were scorched, stricken as if seized by a burning fever.

7.172.20 Scorched by the heat of the arrows, the serpents that dwell beneath the earth rose up hissing, eager to discharge their dreadful venom.

7.172.21 And the creatures of the waters, scorched, O descendant of Bharata, found no relief, for the very pools that held them were burning.

7.172.22 Upon the quarters and the sky, the intermediate quarters and the earth, showers of arrows great and small fell down with the speed of Garuḍa and the wind.

7.172.23 By those arrows of Droṇa's son, sped with the force of the thunderbolt, the foes were burned and fell like trees consumed by fire.

7.172.24 Great elephants, blazing, fell upon the earth on every side, bellowing fearful cries that rumbled like rain-clouds.

7.172.25 Other great elephants there, ablaze, fled away, and yet others trembled, like beasts ringed about by a forest fire in a dreadful wood.

7.172.26 Like the crowns of trees seared by a forest blaze, O honored one, the troops of horses and the masses of chariots appeared, O lord; and floods of chariots fell here and there by the thousands.

7.172.27 That army the lord Agni burned in the battle, O descendant of Bharata, as the all-dissolving fire consumes every being at the end of an age.

7.172.28 But seeing the Pāṇḍava host burning in that great battle, your men, O king, rejoiced and let forth lion-roars.

7.172.29 Then your men, O descendant of Bharata, exulting and wearing the look of victory, joyfully struck up a thousand instruments of many kinds at once.

7.172.30 As the world was wrapped in darkness, an entire akṣauhiṇī, O king, and Savyasācin the Pāṇḍava, could no longer be seen in that great battle.

7.172.31 Never had we seen or even heard, O king, of such a weapon as the unforgiving son of Droṇa let loose.

7.172.32 But Arjuna, O great king, raised up the Brāhma weapon, ordained by the Lotus-born to counter every other weapon.

7.172.33 Then within a moment that darkness was stilled; a cool wind blew, and the quarters grew clear.

7.172.34 There we beheld a marvel: an entire akṣauhiṇī slain, its forms past recognition, burned utterly by the magic of that weapon.

7.172.35 Then the two heroes, the mighty bowmen Keśava and Arjuna, delivered unscathed, appeared together like the dispellers of darkness in the sky.

7.172.36 With its pennants, standard, and horses, with its axle-pole and its excellent weapons, that delivered chariot shone forth, a terror to your men.

7.172.37 Then in an instant a glad uproar arose from the rejoicing Pāṇḍavas, mingled with the blare of conches and drums.

7.172.38 "The two are slain"—such had been the thought of both the armies, until they saw Keśava and Arjuna come on swiftly, delivered and unharmed.

7.172.39 Unhurt and joyful, the two blew their finest of conches; and seeing the sons of Pṛthā so glad, your men were thrown into distress.

7.172.40 Seeing those two great-souled ones delivered, the son of Droṇa, sorely grieved, pondered for a moment, "What is this, then?" O honored one.

7.172.41 Having pondered, O lord of kings, given over to brooding and grief, sighing long and hot, he then grew downcast in heart.

7.172.42 Then the son of Droṇa laid down his bow and leapt in haste from his car, and crying, "Shame, shame! all this is in vain," he fled from the battle.

7.172.43 Then, by the dwelling of Sarasvatī, he beheld Veda-Vyāsa, stainless, with the sheen of a glistening rain-cloud—Vyāsa himself he saw.

7.172.44 Seeing him standing before him, O upholder of the Kuru line, the son of Droṇa, his throat choked, saluted him and spoke most piteously.

7.172.45 "O sir, O sir, is it illusion, or mere chance? I know not what this may be. How has this weapon of mine come to nothing? And what was my transgression?"

7.172.46 "Is this the world turned upside down, or the undoing of the worlds, that these two Kṛṣṇas yet live? For Time, indeed, is hard to overpass."

7.172.47 "Not Asuras, gods, or Gandharvas, not Piśācas, not Rākṣasas, not serpents, Yakṣas, or birds, nor men in any wise—"

7.172.48 "—are able to make otherwise this weapon launched by me. Yet here it has slain only a single arrayed akṣauhiṇī, blazing as it went."

7.172.49 "By what cause did it not slay these two, Keśava and Arjuna, who share the nature of mortals? Declare this to me, O blessed one, asked by me, even as it truly is."

7.172.50 Vyāsa said: This is a mighty matter on which, in wonder, you question me. I shall declare it all to you; compose your mind and listen.

7.172.51 He who is named Nārāyaṇa, born before even the most ancient ones, was born for a purpose as the son of Dharma, the maker of all the world.

7.172.52 He undertook a fierce penance, stationed upon Mount Maināka, his arms raised aloft, of vast splendor, resembling fire and the sun.

7.172.53 For sixty thousand years, and as many hundreds besides, the lotus-eyed one, feeding only on air, wasted away his own body.

7.172.54 Then, having performed yet another austerity, and twice again another great one, he filled the gulf between heaven and earth with his splendor.

7.172.55 When by that penance, my son, he had become one with Brahman, he then beheld the Lord of all, the source of the universe, the master of the whole world —

7.172.56 the Lord, exceedingly hard to behold even for all the gods, subtler than the subtlest and vaster than the vast,

7.172.57 Rudra the Ruler, the Bull, the all-perceiving, the unborn, the supreme, who whether men move or stand still abides in the heart of every being;

7.172.58 irresistible, hard to look upon, fierce in wrath, great of soul, the destroyer of all, the wise; bearing a divine bow and two quivers, clad in golden armor, of boundless valor;

7.172.59 wielder of the Pināka bow, of the thunderbolt, of the blazing trident, of the battle-axe, of the mace, of the long sword; fair of brow, crowned with the moon amid a circle of matted locks, clad in a tiger's skin, holding a bludgeon and a staff in his hand;

7.172.60 adorned with fair armlets, the sacred thread a serpent across his breast, resplendent with all his hosts, the throngs of spirits; the one made whole, the very repository of austerities, well-praised with chosen words by those who have passed beyond age;

7.172.61 whom water, heaven, the sky, the earth, the moon and sun, and wind and fire, and the measured world itself, cannot suffice to behold — the unborn one, whom those of perverse conduct cannot see, slayer of the foes of Brahman, the source of the deathless;

7.172.62 whom only Brāhmaṇas of holy conduct behold, who, their sin spent, are free of grief in mind. Devoted to him, through austerity and through love of him — that adorable, righteous one of universal form — he beheld him; and seeing him, with speech and mind and intellect and body, his soul thrilling, he rejoiced in the God of gods,

7.172.63 girded with a rosary of beads, the supreme treasure of all lights. Then Nārāyaṇa, beholding him, saluted the source of the universe —

7.172.64 the boon-giver, together with Pārvatī of broad and lovely form, the Lord, the unborn, the Ruler, the unperturbed, the very essence of all causes, the imperishable.

7.172.65 Then the lotus-eyed one, full of devotion, having paid homage to Rudra, the slayer of Andhaka in an instant, began to praise that god of the strange-set eyes:

7.172.66 "From you, O most excellent, sprang the makers of beings, the elder gods who today guard the world, who of old, entering this earth, protected your ancient creation, O God.

7.172.67 Gods and demons, Nāgas, Rākṣasas and Piśācas, men, Suparṇas, and Gandharvas and Yakṣas, and all the manifold hosts of beings — we know them all alike sprung from you. The work of Indra and of Yama, of Varuṇa and of the Lord of Wealth, of Mitra and of Tvaṣṭṛ, and of Soma, is yours.

7.172.68 Form and light, sound, ether and wind, touch, the tasted, water, scent, the earth, desire, Brahmā, the Veda, and the Brāhmaṇas — all this, the unmoving and the moving, has sprung from you.

7.172.69 As drops issue forth from the waters into separateness, and at dissolution return again into oneness with them, so the wise one, knowing both the origin and the passing of beings, leaves them behind and attains union there with you.

7.172.70 The two birds, mind-born, wrapped in divine concealment; the pippala tree whose branches turn downward; the seven herdsmen, and the ten others who sustain the body's city — these were created by you, and beyond them all are you. What was, what shall be, and what is to come, unassailable — all the worlds here have sprung from you.

7.172.71 Cherish me, your devotee who cherishes you; harm me not by anything unfriendly. He who knows you as his very self, in undivided being, thus attains the radiant Brahman.

7.172.72 I have praised you, longing for your favor, seeking you out together with your bull, O best of gods. Grant me the boons I cherish, hard though they are to win; and, thus extolled, turn me not away."

7.172.73 To him, the worthy chief of gods, the blue-throated wielder of the Pināka, whose nature is beyond thought, praised by sages, he granted boons:

7.172.74 The blue-throated one said: By my grace, O Nārāyaṇa, among men and in the wombs of gods and Gandharvas, you shall be of immeasurable strength of soul.

7.172.75 Neither gods nor demons nor great serpents shall prevail against you, nor Piśācas, nor Gandharvas, nor men, nor Rākṣasas,

7.172.76 nor Suparṇas, nor Nāgas, nor any of the misbegotten creatures of the world; not even a god shall ever vanquish you in battle.

7.172.77 Not by weapon, not by the thunderbolt, not by fire, nor by wind, not by the wet nor by the dry, not by the moving nor by the unmoving,

7.172.78 shall anyone, by my grace, ever do you injury in any way; and should you go to battle, you shall be greater even than I.

7.172.79 Vyāsa said: Know that these boons were thus won of old by the heroic one. This same god walks abroad by his māyā, bewildering the world.

7.172.80 Born of that same one's austerity was the great sage named Nara, the equal of this god; know that one to be ever Arjuna.

7.172.81 These two sages, most exalted among the elder gods, are born age after age to order the course of the worlds.

7.172.82 And likewise, O wise and great-minded one, from the whole of that great work and austerity were you born, fierce in splendor and in wrath, a very form of Rudra.

7.172.83 You, godlike and wise, knowing the world to be pervaded by Bhava, drew yourself inward through self-restraints, longing to win his favor.

7.172.84 Fashioning a fair and fresh image of the Great Person in the manner of Ūrva, you worshipped him, O giver of honor, with prayers, oblations, and offerings.

7.172.85 That elder god, so worshipped by you, was well pleased, and granted you, O wise one, the abundant boons that dwelt within your heart.

7.172.86 The birth, the deeds, the austerity, and the discipline of those two and of you are alike abundant; by those two the god is worshipped in the liṅga, and by you in the image, age after age.

7.172.87 Whoever, knowing Bhava to be of all forms, worships the Lord in the liṅga, in him are everlasting union of the self and union prescribed by scripture.

7.172.88 Thus the gods and the Siddhas and the supreme sages, by sacrificing, seek the highest and everlasting station in the world.

7.172.89 This very Keśava is both a devotee of Rudra and sprung from Rudra; Kṛṣṇa indeed is the one to be worshipped, and he is the eternal one to be honored with sacrifices.

7.172.90 To him who, knowing Bhava as the source of all beings, worships the Lord in the liṅga, the bull-bannered god shows surpassing favor.

7.172.91 Saṃjaya said: Hearing that speech of his, the son of Droṇa, the mighty car-warrior, made obeisance to Rudra and held Keśava in high honor.

7.172.92 His hair bristling with joy, his soul subdued, having bowed to the great sage, he turned toward the army and ordered the withdrawal.

7.172.93 Then there was a withdrawal of the Pāṇḍavas, O lord of peoples, and of the stricken Kauravas, now that Droṇa had fallen in the fight.

7.172.94 Having waged war for five days and destroyed many a host, Droṇa, the Brāhmaṇa who had crossed to the far shore of the Vedas, went to the world of Brahmā, O king.

7.173.1 Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: When that surpassing car-warrior Droṇa had been slain there, O Saṃjaya, what did my men and the Pāṇḍavas do thereafter?

7.173.2 Saṃjaya said: When that surpassing car-warrior Droṇa had been slain by the son of Pṛṣata, and the Kauravas were broken, Dhanaṃjaya, the son of Kuntī,

7.173.3 having beheld a very great marvel that brought him victory, questioned Vyāsa, who had come by chance, O bull of the Bhāratas:

7.173.4 "As I slew my foes in battle with floods of gleaming arrows, I marked before me a Person moving on, with the radiance of fire,

7.173.5 holding aloft a blazing trident; and in whatever quarter he advanced, in that quarter my foes fell shattered, O great sage.

7.173.6 His feet touched not the ground, nor did he ever cast his trident; yet from that trident, by his splendor, thousands of tridents shot forth.

7.173.7 All the foes broken by him the people deem broken by me; the armies consumed by him I do but burn over again from behind.

7.173.8 Tell me this, O blessed one: who is that supreme Person, the great trident-bearer, dark of hue, in splendor like the sun?"

7.173.9 Vyāsa said: It was the first of the Lords of Creatures, the Person of fiery splendor, the all-pervading, the very abode of being, earth and atmosphere, the god, the Lord and master of all the worlds —

7.173.10 the Ruler, the boon-giver, Śaṃkara, whom you have seen, O Pārtha. Go for refuge to that god, the origin of all, the Lord of the world —

7.173.11 Mahādeva, the great of soul, the Ruler, the matted-haired, the auspicious Śiva, the three-eyed, the mighty-armed Rudra, crested, clad in rags, the giver to his devotees of boons granted in his grace.

7.173.12 The divine attendants of that pervading Lord are of forms manifold and various — dwarfish, matted-haired, shaven, short of neck, huge of belly,

7.173.13 and others vast of body, of great vigor, great of ear, with distorted faces and feet, O Pārtha, and with monstrous garbs.

7.173.14 Worshipped by such as these, that Mahādeva, the Great Lord, that splendid Śiva, my son, moves of his grace before you, O Pārtha, in that dreadful, hair-raising battle.

7.173.15 That army, guarded by Droṇa, Karṇa, and Kṛpa, mighty bowmen and smiters — who then, O Pārtha, could even in thought assail it, save the gods and the great bowman of many forms, the Great Lord?

7.173.16 None dares to stand his ground when that one stands before him; for no being is found equal to him in all the three worlds.

7.173.17 In battle, at the very scent of him when he is enraged, his foes, swooning and all but slain, tremble and fall.

7.173.18 Doing him homage, the gods abide in heaven, and so do other men in the world, and those mortals who have conquered heaven.

7.173.19 Those who are devoted to the boon-giving god, the auspicious Rudra, the lord of Umā, having won happiness in this world, go to the supreme goal.

7.173.20 Pay homage, O son of Kuntī, to him, ever serene — to Rudra, the white-throated, the youngest, the radiant,

7.173.21 to the one of braided locks, the terrible, the tawny-eyed, the boon-giver, the kin of Yama, the one of unkempt hair, and to Śaṃkara of good conduct;

7.173.22 to the lovely one, the green-eyed, the Pillar, the Person, the golden-haired, the shaven, the lean, and the deliverer;

7.173.23 to the radiant as the sun, the holy ford, the God of gods, the swift, the one of many forms, Śarva, the beloved, the one in dear raiment;

7.173.24 to the turbaned, the fair-faced, the thousand-eyed, the bountiful, the dweller on the mountain, the wholly tranquil, the Lord clad in rags;

7.173.25 to the golden-armed, to the fierce, to the Lord of the quarters, to the Lord of the rain-cloud, and to the Lord of beings — homage!

7.173.26 To the Lord of trees, and likewise to the Lord of the waters, to the one whose body is veiled by trees, to the army's leader, to the one in the midst;

7.173.27 to the god with the sacrificial ladle in hand, the bowman, the kinsman of Bhṛgu, the one of many forms, the Lord of all, clad in rags;

7.173.28 to the thousand-headed, and to the thousand-eyed, to the thousand-armed, and to the thousand-footed.

7.173.29 Take refuge, O son of Kuntī, in the boon-giving Lord of the world, the lord of Umā, the strange-eyed, the destroyer of Dakṣa's sacrifice, the unperturbed Lord of creatures, the imperishable Lord of beings;

7.173.30 the braided-haired, whose course is the bull, whose navel is the bull, whose banner is the bull, the bull's own pride, the lord of the bull, the bull-horned, the bull among bulls;

7.173.31 the bull-marked, exalted as a bull, the bull itself, bull-eyed, whose weapon is the bull, whose arrow is the bull, who has become the bull, the Great Lord;

7.173.32 the vast-bellied, the great-bodied, clad in a panther's skin, the Lord of the world, the boon-giver, the shaven, the friend of holiness, dear to the Brāhmaṇas;

7.173.33 the trident-handed, the boon-giver, the Lord who bears sword and shield, the wielder of the Pināka, the one of the broken axe, the Lord and Master of the worlds — to that god, the refuge of all, clad in rags, I go for shelter.

7.173.34 Homage to that Lord of the gods, whose friend is Vaiśravaṇa; to the well-clad, ever homage, to the one of holy vows, the bearer of the goodly bow;

7.173.35 to the god with the sacrificial ladle in hand, the one of the gladdening bow, the bowman, the one in the bow's interval, the bow itself, the master of archery, the archer.

7.173.36 Homage to the god of dreadful weapons, and to the best of the gods; homage be to him of manifold forms, and homage to him who wields many bows.

7.173.37 Homage forever to Sthāṇu, the firm of vows, the bearer of the goodly bow; homage to the slayer of Tripura, and homage indeed to him who struck down Bhaga.

7.173.38 Homage to the lord of the forest trees, to the lord of men; homage forever to the lord of the waters, and homage to the lord of sacrifices.

7.173.39 Homage to the destroyer of Pūṣan's teeth, to the three-eyed boon-giver, to the blue-throated, the tawny, the golden-haired indeed.

7.173.40 And the divine deeds of the wise Mahādeva — these I shall recount to you, as far as my understanding reaches and as I have heard them.

7.173.41 When he is angered, neither gods nor demons in the world, neither Gandharvas nor Rākṣasas, prosper in happiness — not even those who have hidden themselves in a cave.

7.173.42 Enraged, Bhava, the fearless, then pierced the sacrifice, and loosing an arrow from his bow he roared aloud with a great cry.

7.173.43 Then the gods found no shelter, much less peace, when the sacrifice scattered all at once and Maheśvara was wroth.

7.173.44 At that sound of the bowstring and the palm striking it, all the worlds were thrown into turmoil, O Pārtha, and gods and demons alike, overmastered, fell down.

7.173.45 All the waters were stirred up, the earth trembled, the mountains were shattered, and the quarters of the sky and the Nāgas were stupefied.

7.173.46 And the worlds, blinded by darkness and shrouded over, gave no light, for he had stricken away, along with the Sun, the radiance of all the luminaries.

7.173.47 And the seers, terror-stricken, cried out, and likewise performed rites of appeasement, desiring the welfare of all beings and of themselves.

7.173.48 Śaṃkara, as if laughing, rushed upon Pūṣan and dashed out the teeth of the god as he was eating the sacrificial cake.

7.173.49 Then the gods went forth, trembling and bowing low to him; and once more he fitted to the string his blazing, sharpened arrow aimed at the gods.

7.173.50 And out of fear the gods then assigned to Rudra a distinguished share in the sacrifice, O king, and took refuge with him.

7.173.51 And by that very excess of his wrath the sacrifice was then restored; the gods grew watchful of him, and watchful they remain toward him even to this day.

7.173.52 The mighty Asuras had three great cities in the sky: one of iron, one of silver, and another, the greatest, of gold.

7.173.53 The iron city was Tārakākṣa's, the silver Kamalākṣa's, and the supreme golden one belonged to Vidyunmālin.

7.173.54 Maghavan was unable to break those cities even with all his weapons; then all the immortals, sorely afflicted, went to Rudra for refuge.

7.173.55 All the gods, with Vāsava at their head, spoke to that great one: 'Rudra, beasts shall become the offering in all sacred rites; lay low these Asuras, O lord of the worlds.'

7.173.56 Thus addressed, he said 'So be it,' and out of desire for the gods' welfare he stood motionless as a post for a thousand full years.

7.173.57 When at last the three cities came together in the firmament, he pierced them with that three-jointed, three-barbed shaft.

7.173.58 And the Dānavas of those cities could not so much as look upon that arrow, joined with the fire of doom and conjoined with Viṣṇu and Soma.

7.173.59 Making himself a child with five tufts of hair seated in her lap, Umā, wishing to test the gods, asked them, 'Who is this?'

7.173.60 The Lord paralyzed the thunderbolt-bearing arm of the angered Śakra — he, this very god, the blessed one, sovereign of all the worlds.

7.173.61 Yet the gods, together with the Prajāpatis, all failed to recognize him, the lord of the worlds, whose radiance was like the newly risen sun.

7.173.62 Then Brahmā, drawing near and beholding that Maheśvara, knew 'This is the highest,' and the Grandfather paid him homage.

7.173.63 Thereupon those gods propitiated Umā and Rudra, and the arm of the thunderbolt-wielder became once more as it had been by nature.

7.173.64 The Lord, with his consort, the bull-bannered, best of the Thirty among gods, the destroyer of Dakṣa's sacrifice, was gracious to them.

7.173.65 He indeed is Rudra, and he is Śiva; he is Agni, he is Śarva, he the all-knowing; he is both Indra and Vāyu, he the Aśvins, and he the lightnings.

7.173.66 He is Bhava, and he is Parjanya; he is Mahādeva, and he the sinless; he is the moon, he is Īśāna, he is the Sun, and he is Varuṇa.

7.173.67 He is Time, he is the Ender, he is Death; he is Yama, and the nights and days; the months, the fortnights, the seasons, the twilights, and the year — that is he.

7.173.68 He is both Dhātṛ and Vidhātṛ, the soul of all, the doer of every work; and he, the formless, bears the form of all the deities.

7.173.69 Praised by all the gods, the god is one and yet manifold — a hundredfold, a thousandfold, and so a hundred-thousandfold.

7.173.70 Such is that Mahādeva, and yet more is the blessed unborn one; for not all the virtues of the Lord can be told by me.

7.173.71 Those seized by every malign planet and beset with every sin — them, well pleased, he sets free, the refuge of those who come to him for refuge.

7.173.72 Long life, health, lordship, wealth, and abundant desires he grants to men; and he too snatches them away again.

7.173.73 His sovereignty is proclaimed over the gods, Indra and the rest; and it is he who ordains in the world the good and the ill of men.

7.173.74 Because of his lordship over all desires he is again called the Lord; and he is Maheśvara, the great lord of beings, the lord of the mighty ones.

7.173.75 With many forms in many ways he pervades the whole universe; and that mouth of this god abides within the ocean.

7.173.76 And this god dwells perpetually in the cremation grounds; there men worship him, the Lord, by the name 'Abode of Heroes.'

7.173.77 His forms are blazing and terrible and many; those which men make and speak of in the world are his.

7.173.78 His names in the worlds are many, and here they are fittingly derived, according to his greatness, his pervading power, and his deeds.

7.173.79 And in the Veda the supreme Śatarudrīya is handed down concerning him, and by the name 'Endless Rudra' the worship of the great-souled one is performed.

7.173.80 That god is lord of all desires, the heavenly and the human alike; he is the all-pervading, he the sovereign god who fills the whole great universe.

7.173.81 The Brāhmaṇas and the sages call him the eldest of beings; for he is the first of the gods, and from his mouth the fire arose.

7.173.82 Because in every way he protects the creatures and again takes his delight in them, and because he is their overlord, he is therefore called Paśupati.

7.173.83 Because by his perpetual chastity his liṅga stands erect, and because the worlds magnify him, he is remembered as Maheśvara.

7.173.84 The seers and the gods, and likewise the Gandharvas and Apsarases, worship his liṅga, and it too stands upraised.

7.173.85 When that liṅga is worshipped, Maheśvara rejoices; Śaṃkara becomes happy and pleased and well delighted.

7.173.86 Because his form is manifold, abiding in past, future, and present, both unmoving and moving, he is therefore remembered as Bahurūpa, of many forms.

7.173.87 He sits blazing as the one-eyed, or else made all of eyes on every side; and because in wrath he entered into the worlds, he is therefore remembered as Śarva.

7.173.88 Because his form is smoke-grey he is called Dhūrjaṭi; and because all the gods abide in him, he is therefore remembered as Viśvarūpa.

7.173.89 And because the lord of the worlds embraces the three goddesses — heaven, the waters, and the earth — he is therefore remembered as Tryambaka.

7.173.90 Because he ever furthers all ends in all undertakings, desiring the welfare of men, he is therefore remembered as Śiva, the auspicious.

7.173.91 Thousand-eyed, or ten-thousand-eyed, or made all of eyes on every side, and because he protects this whole great universe, he is therefore remembered as Mahādeva.

7.173.92 Because, standing upright, he burns, and because he abides at the source of the life-breaths, and because his liṅga ever stands fixed, he is therefore remembered as Sthāṇu, the pillar.

7.173.93 Dwelling unevenly in bodies, yet equal in all living beings here, he is the Vāyu coursing unevenly within the bodies as the in-breath and the out-breath.

7.173.94 Whoever worships his image, or duly honors his liṅga — he who ever worships the liṅga attains great prosperity.

7.173.95 From the thighs upward, half his auspicious body is of fire and half of the moon; one half of himself is said to be Agni, and again the other half is Soma.

7.173.96 Toward the gods his auspicious body is fiery, vast, and blazing; among men this radiant body of his is called the dreadful fire.

7.173.97 With that body of his which is auspicious he practices chastity; but with that more terrible form of his the Lord devours all things.

7.173.98 Because he burns all utterly, because he is sharp, fierce, and full of scorching might, and because he is the devourer of flesh, blood, and marrow, he is therefore called Rudra.

7.173.99 This god is Mahādeva, he whom you, O Pārtha, beheld before you in battle, smiting down your foes — the bearer of the Pināka.

7.173.100 It is this blessed god who goes before you in battle — he by whom your weapons were given, and by which you slew the Dānavas.

7.173.101 The Śatarudriya of the god of gods — bestowing fortune, fame, and long life, holy, and named in the Vedas — has now been expounded to you, O Pārtha.

7.173.102 It accomplishes all ends, it is holy, it destroys all defilements, it stills all sins, and it takes away all sorrow and fear.

7.173.103 The man who ever hears this fourfold hymn of praise conquers all his enemies and is exalted in the world of Rudra.

7.173.104 This auspicious, divine, warlike deed of the great-souled one — reciting the Śatarudrīya and hearing it, ever diligent —

7.173.105 the man who among mortals is ever devoted to the god Viśveśvara obtains the boons of his desire when Tryambaka is well pleased.

7.173.106 Go, fight, O son of Kuntī; there is no defeat for you, for at your side, as counselor and protector, stands Janārdana.

7.173.107 Saṃjaya said: Having spoken thus to Arjuna on the field of battle, the son of Parāśara then departed, O best of the Bhāratas, scourge of foes, by the way he had come.