Then king Duryodhana, that foremost of mighty men, that great car-warrior, beholding that terrible carnage of his troops and remembering the slaughter of his brothers (on the previous day), came quickly towards Bharadwaja’s son, and addressing him, said, ‘O preceptor, O sinless one, thou art ever my well-wisher,–Relying on thee as also on the grandsire Bhishma, ourselves, hope to vanquish without doubt the very gods in battle, let alone the sons of Pandu that are destitute of energy and prowess. Blessed be thou, act in such away that the Pandavas may be slain. Thus addressed in battle by thy son, Drona penetrated into the Pandava array in the very sight of Satyaki. Then O Bharata, Satyaki checked the son of Bharadwaja, (and thereupon) ensued a battle that was fierce in its incidents and awful to behold. Then Bharadwaja’s son excited with rage and endued with great prowess, as if smiling the while, pierced the grandson of Sini with ten shafts at his shoulder-joint. And Bhimasena also, excited with rage, pierced Bharadwaja’s son (with many shafts), desirous of protecting Satyaki, O king, from Drona that foremost of all warriors.
Then Drona and Bhishma, and Salya also, O sire, excited with rage, covered Bhimasena, in that battle, with their shafts. Thereupon Abhimanyu excited with wrath, and the sons of Draupadi, O sire, pierced with their sharp-pointed shafts all those warriors with upraised weapons. Then in that fierce battle, the great bowman Sikhandin rushed against those two mighty warriors, viz., Bhishma and Drona who, excited with rage, had (thus) fallen upon the Pandavas. Firmly grasping his bow whose twang resembled the roar of the clouds, that hero, shrouding the very Sun with his arrows, quickly covered his antagonists therewith. The grandsire of the Bharatas, however, getting Sikhandin before him, avoided him, remembering the femininity of his sex. Then, O king, urged by thy son, Drona rushed to battle, desirous of protecting Bhishma in that stress. Sikhandin, however, approaching Drona that foremost of all wielders of weapons, avoided, from fear, that warrior resembling the blazing fire that appears at the end of the Yuga. Then, O king, thy son with a large force, desirous of winning great glory, proceeded to protect Bhishma. And the Pandavas also proceeded, O king, firmly setting their hearts upon victory, and the battle then that took place between the combatants of both armies desirous of victory and fame, was fierce and highly wonderful, resembling that (in days of yore) between the gods and Danavas.
SECTION LXX
Sanjaya said, “Then Bhishma the son of Santanu fought fiercely,[394] desirous of protecting the sons from the fear of Bhimasena. And the battle that then took place between the kings of the Kaurava and the Pandava armies was awful in the extreme and destructive of great heroes. And in that general engagement, so fierce and terrible, tremendous was the din that arose, touching the very heavens. And in consequence of the shrieks of huge elephants and the neigh of steeds and the blare of conches and beat of drums, the uproar was deafening. Fighting for the sake of victory, the mighty combatants endued with great prowess roared at one another like bulls in a cow-pen. And heads cut off in that battle with keen-edged shafts, incessantly falling, created, O bull of Bharata’s race, the appearance of a stony shower in the welkin. Indeed, O bull of Bharata’s race, innumerable were the heads lying on the field of battle, decked with ear-rings and turbans and resplendent with ornaments of gold.
And the earth was covered with limbs cut off with broad-headed shafts, with heads decked with ear-rings, and with arms adorned with ornaments. And in a moment the whole field was strewn over with bodies cased in mail, with arms decked with ornaments, with faces beautiful as the moon and having eyes with reddish corners, and with every limb, O king, of elephants, steeds and men. And the dust (raised by the warriors) looked like a thick cloud, and the bright implements of destruction, like flashes of lightning. And the noise made by the weapons resembled the roar of thunder. And that fierce and awful passage-at-arms, O Bharata, between the Kurus and the Pandavas caused a very river of blood to flow there. And in that terrible, fierce, and awful battle causing the hair stand on end, Kshatriya warriors incapable of defeat incessantly poured their arrowy showers. And the elephants of both thy army and the enemy’s, afflicted with those arrowy showers, shrieked aloud and ran hither and thither in fury.
And in consequence of (the twang of) bows, endued with great energy, of fierce and heroic warriors excited with fury, and of flapping of their bow-strings against their leathern fences, nothing could be distinguished.[395] And all over the field which looked like a lake of blood, headless trunks stood up, and the kings bent upon slaying their foes, rushed to battle. And brave warriors of immeasurable energy and possessed of arms resembling stout bludgeons, slew one another with arrows and darts and maces and scimitars. And elephants, pierced with arrows and deprived of riders to guide them with hooks, and steeds destitute of riders, wildly ran in all directions.
And many warriors, O best of the Bharatas, belonging to both thy army and that of the foe, deeply pierced with shafts jumped up and fell down. And in that encounter between Bhima and Bhishma, heaps of arms and heads, as also of bows and maces and spiked clubs and hands and thighs, of legs and ornaments and bracelets, were seen lying over the field. And here and there over the field, O king, were seen large bodies of unretreating elephants and steeds and cars. And the Kshatriya warriors, urged on by fate, slew one another with maces, swords, lances, and straight shafts. And others endued with great heroism and accomplished in fight, encountered one another with their bare arms that resembled spiked clubs made of iron. And other heroic warriors of thy army, engaged with the combatants of the Pandava host, fought on slaying one another with clenched fists and knees, and slaps and blows, O king. And with the fallen and falling warriors and those weltering in agony on the ground, the field of battle everywhere became, O king, terrible to behold, and car-warriors, deprived of the cars and grasping excellent swords, rushed at one another, desirous of slaughter. Then king Duryodhana, surrounded by a large division of Kalingas, and placing Bhishma ahead, rushed towards the Pandavas. And so the Pandava combatants also, supporting Vrikodara, and owning fleet animals, rushed, excited with rage, against Bhishma.”
SECTION LXXI
Sanjaya said, “Beholding his brothers and the other kings engaged in battle with Bhishma, Dhananjaya, with weapons upraised, rushed against the son of Ganga. Hearing the blare of Panchajanya and the twang of the bow Gandiva, and seeing also the standard of Pritha’s son, a great fear entered our hearts. And the standard that we behold, O king, of the wielder of Gandiva bore the device of lion’s tail and looked like a blazing mountain in the welkin. Beautiful and of celestial workmanship, it was variegated with diverse hues, and looking like a risen comet it could not be obstructed by trees. And in that great battle, the warriors beheld Gandiva, the back of whose staff was decked with pure gold, and which looked beautiful like a flash of lightning in the midst of a mass of clouds in the firmament. And while slaying the combatants of thy army, the shouts we heard uttered by Arjuna seemed to resemble the loud roars of Indra himself, and the slaps also of his palms were frightfully loud.
