Chapter 27

“Sanjaya said, ‘The white steeded (Arjuna) also, O monarch, routed thyforce even as the winds, approaching a heap of cotton, scatters it on allsides. Against him rushed the Trigartas, the Sivis, the Kauravas, theSalwas, the samsaptakas, and that force which consisted of the Narayanas.And Satyasena and Candradeva, and Mitradeva and Satrunjaya, and Susruta’sson, and Citrasena, and Mitravarman, O Bharata, and the king of theTrigartas surrounded by his brothers and by his sons that were all mightybowmen accomplished in diverse weapons, suddenly advanced, shooting andscattering showers of shafts in that battle, against Arjuna, like afierce current of water towards the ocean. Those warriors in hundreds ofthousands, approaching Arjuna, seemed to melt away like snakes at sightof Garuda. Though slaughtered in battle, they did not still leave the sonof Pandu like insects, O monarch, never receding from a blazing fire.Satyasena, in that encounter, pierced that son of Pandu with threearrows, and Mitradeva pierced him with three and sixty, and Candradevawith seven. And Mitravarman pierced him with three and seventy arrows,and Susruta’s son with seven. And Satrunjaya pierced him with twenty, andSusharma with nine. Thus pierced in that encounter by many, Arjunapierced all those kings in return. Indeed, piercing the son of Susrutawith seven arrows, he pierced Satyasena with three, Satrunjaya withtwenty and Candradeva with eight, Mitradeva with a hundred, Srutasenawith three, Mitravarman with nine, and Susharma with eight. Then slayingking Satrunjaya with a number of arrows whetted on stone, he smote offfrom his trunk, the head, decked with headgear, of Susruta’s son. Withoutany delay he then, with a number of other shafts, despatched Candradevato the abode of Yama. As regards the other mighty car-warriors vigorouslycontending with him, he checked each of them with five arrows. ThenSatyasena filled with rage, hurled a formidable lance in that battleaiming at Krishna and uttered a leonine roar. That ironmouthed lancehaving a golden shaft, piercing through the left arm of the high-souledMadhava, penetrated into the Earth. Madhava being thus pierced with thatlance in great battle the goad and the reins, O king, fell down from hishands. Beholding Vasudeva’s limb pierced through, Pritha’s son Dhananjayamustered all his wrath and addressing Vasudeva said, “O mighty-armed one,bear the car to Satyasena, O puissant one, so that I may, with keenshafts, despatch him to Yama’s abode.” The illustrious Keshava then,quickly taking up the goad and the reins, caused the steeds to bear thecar to the front of Satyasena’s vehicle. Beholding the Ruler of theUniverse pierced, Pritha’s son Dhananjaya, that mighty car-warrior,checking Satyasena with some keen arrows, cut off with a number ofbroad-headed shafts of great sharpness, the large head of that kingdecked with earrings, from off his trunk at the head of the army. Havingthus cut off Satyasena’s head, he then despatched Citravarman with anumber of keen shafts, and then the latter’s driver, O sire, with a keencalf-toothed arrow. Filled with rage, the mighty Partha then, withhundreds of shafts, felled the samsaptakas in hundreds and thousands.Then, O king, with a razor-headed arrow equipped with wings of silver,that mighty car-warrior cut off the head of the illustrious Mitrasena.Filled with rage he then struck Susharma in the shoulder-joint. Then allthe samsaptakas, filled with wrath, encompassed Dhananjaya on all sidesand began to afflict him with showers of weapons and make all the pointsof the compass resound with their shouts. Afflicted by them thus, themighty car-warrior Jishnu, of immeasurable soul, endued with prowessresembling that of Sakra himself, invoked the Aindra weapon. From thatweapon, thousands of shafts, O king, began to issue continually. Then Oking, a loud din was heard of falling cars with standards and quivers andyokes, and axles and wheels and traces with chords, of bottoms of carsand wooden fences around them, of arrows and steeds and spears andswords, and maces and spiked clubs and darts and lances and axes, andSataghnis equipped with wheels and arrows. Thighs and necklaces andAngadas and Keyuras, O sire, and garlands and cuirasses and coats ofmail, O Bharata, and umbrellas and fans and heads decked with diadems layon the battle-field. Heads adorned with earrings and beautiful eyes, andeach resembling the full moon, looked, as they lay on the field, likestars in the firmament. Adorned with sandal-paste, beautiful garlands offlowers and excellent robes, many were the bodies of slain warriors thatwere seen to lie on the ground. The field of battle, terrible as it was,looked like the welkin teeming with vapoury forms. With the slain princesand kshatriyas of great might and fallen elephants and steeds, the Earthbecame impassable in that battle as if she were strewn with hills. Therewas no path on the field for the wheels of the illustrious Pandava’s car,engaged as he was in continually slaying his foes and striking downelephants and steeds with his broad-headed shafts. It seemed, O sire,that the wheels of his car stopped in fright at the sight of his own selfcareering in that battle through that bloody mire. His steeds, however,endued with the speed of the mind or the wind, dragged with great effortsand labour those wheels that had refused to move. Thus slaughtered byPandu’s son armed with the bow, that host fled away almost entirely,without leaving even a remnant, O Bharata, contending with the foe.Having vanquished large numbers of the samsaptakas in battle, Pritha’sson Jishnu looked resplendent, like a blazing fire without smoke.'”