Chapter 43

“Sanjaya said, ‘Engaged in taking the lives of brave warriors, Arjuna’sson then resembled the Destroyer himself, when the latter takes the livesof all creatures on the arrival of the Universal Dissolution. Possessedof prowess resembling that of Sakra himself, the mighty son of Sakra’sson, viz., Abhimanyu, agitating the Katirava army looked exceedinglyresplendent. Penetrating into the Katirava host, O king, that destroyerof foremost Kshatriyas resembling Yama himself, seized Satvasravas, likean infuriated tiger seizing a deer. Beholding Satyasrayas, seized by him,many mighty car-warriors, taking up diverse kinds of weapons, rushed uponhim. Indeed, those bulls among Kshatriyas, from a spirit of rivalry,rushed at the son of Arjuna from desire of slaying him, all exclaiming,’I shall go first, I shall go first!’ As a whale in the sea obtaining ashoal of small fish seizes them with the greatest ease, even so didAbhimanyu receive that whole division of the rushing Kshatriyas. Likerivers that never go back when they approach the sea, none amongst thoseunretreating Kshatriyas turned back when they approached Abhimanyu. Thatarmy then reeled like a boat tossed on the ocean when overtaken by amighty tempest, (with its crew) afflicted with panic caused by theviolence of the wind. Then the mighty Rukmaratha, son of the ruler of theMadras, for assuring the frightened troops, fearlessly said, ‘Ye heroes,ye need not fear! When I am here, what is Abhimanyu? Without doubt, Iwill seize this one a living captive’. Having said these words, thevaliant prince, borne on his beautiful and well-equipped car, rushed atAbhimanyu. Piercing Abhimanyu with three shafts in the chest, three inthe right arm, and three other sharp shafts in the left arm, he uttered aloud roar. Phalguni’s son, however, cutting off his bow, his right andleft arms, and his head adorned with beautiful eyes and eye-brows quicklyfelled them on the earth. Beholding Rukmaratha, the honoured son ofSalya, slain by the illustrious son of Subhadra, that Rukmaratha viz.,who had vowed to consume his foe or take him alive, many princely friendsof Salya’s son, O king, accomplished in smiting and incapable of beingeasily defeated in battle, and owning standards decked with gold, (cameup for the fight). Those mighty car-warriors, stretching their bows fullsix cubits long, surrounded the son of Arjuna, all pouring their arrowyshowers upon him. Beholding the brave and invincible son of Subhadrasingly encountered by all those wrathful princes endued with heroism andskill acquired by practice and strength and youth, and seeing him coveredwith showers of arrows, Duryodhana rejoiced greatly, and regardedAbhimanyu as one already made a guest of Yama’s abode. Within thetwinkling of an eye, those princes, by means of their shafts of goldenwings, and of diverse forms and great impetuosity, made Arjuna’s soninvisible. Himself, his standard, and his car, O sire, were seen by uscovered with shafts like (trees overwhelmed with) flights of locusts.Deeply pierced, he became filled with rage like an elephant struck withthe hook. He then, O Bharata, applied the Gandharva weapon and theillusion consequent to it.[73] Practising ascetic penances, Arjuna hadobtained that weapon from the Gandharva Tumvuru and others. With thatweapon, Abhimanyu now confounded his foes. Quickly displaying hisweapons, he careered in that battle like a circle of fire, and was, Oking, seen sometimes as a single individual, sometimes as a hundred, andsometimes as a thousand ones. Confounding his foes by the skill withwhich his car was guided and by the illusion caused by his weapons, hecut in a hundred pieces, O monarch, the bodies of the kings (opposed tohim). By means of his sharp shafts the lives of living creatures weredespatched. These, O king attained to the other world while their bodiesfell down on the earth. Their bows, and steeds and charioteers, andstandards, and armies decked with Angadar, and heads, the son of Phalgunicut off with his sharp shafts. Those hundred princes were slain andfelled by Subhadra’s son like a tope of five-year old mango-trees just onthe point of bearing fruit (laid low by a tempest). Beholding thoseyouthful princes brought up in every luxury, and resembling angry snakesof virulent poison, all slain by the single-handed Abhimanyu, Duryodhanawas filled with fear. Seeing (his) car-warriors and elephants and steedsand foot-soldiers crushed, the Kuru king quickly proceeded in wrathagainst Abhimanyu. Continued for only a short space of time, theunfinished battle between them became exceedingly fierce. Thy son then,afflicted with Abhimanyu’s arrows, was obliged to turn back from thefight.’