Chapter 12

“Sanjaya said, ‘Then those two vast armies, teeming with rejoicing menand steeds and elephants, resembling in splendour the celestial and theAsura hosts, meeting together, began to strike each other. Men, cars,steeds, elephants, and foot-soldiers of fierce prowess, made sturdystrokes destructive of bodies and sin. Lion-like men strewed the Earthwith the heads of lion-like men, each resembling the full moon or the sunin splendour and the lotus in fragrance. Combatants cut off the heads ofcombatants, with crescent-shaped and broad-headed shafts and razor-facedarrows and axes, and battle-axes. The arms of men of long and massivearms, cut off by men of long and massive arms, falling upon the Earth,shone, decked with weapons and bracelets. With those writhing armsadorned with red fingers and palms, the Earth looked resplendent as ifstrewn with fierce five-headed snakes slain by Garuda. From elephants andcars and steeds, brave warriors fell down, struck by foes, like thedenizens of heaven from their celestial cars on the exhaustion of theirmerits. Other brave warriors fell down by hundreds, crushed in thatbattle by brave combatants with heavy maces spiked clubs and shortbludgeons. Cars also, in that tumultuous fight, were crushed by cars, andinfuriate elephants by infuriate compeers, and horsemen by horsemen. Mendestroyed by cars, and cars by elephants, and horsemen by foot-soldiers,and foot-soldiers by horsemen, dropped down on the field, as also carsand steeds and foot-soldiers destroyed by elephants and cars and steedsand elephants by foot-soldiers, and cars and foot-soldiers and elephantsby steeds and men and elephants by cars. Great was the carnage made ofcar-warriors and steeds and elephants and men by men and steeds andelephants and car-warriors, using their hands and feet and weapons andcars. When that host was being thus struck and slain by heroic warriorsthe Parthas, headed by Vrikodara, advanced against us. They consisted ofDhrishtadyumna and Shikhandi and the five sons of Draupadi and thePrabhadrakas, and Satyaki and Chekitana with the Dravida forces, and thePandyas, the Cholas, and the Keralas, surrounded by a mighty array, allpossessed of broad chests, long arms, tall statures, and large eyes.Decked with ornaments, possessed of red teeth, endued with the prowess ofinfuriate elephants, attired in robes of diverse colours, smeared withpowdered scents, armed with swords and nooses, capable of restrainingmighty elephants, companions in death, and never deserting one another,equipped with quivers, bearing bows adorned with long locks, andagreeable in speech were the combatants of the infantry files led bySatyaki, belonging to the Andhra tribe, endued with fierce forms andgreat energy. Other brave warriors such as the Cedis, the Pancalas, theKaikayas, the Karushas, the Kosalas, the Kanchis, and the Maghadhas, alsorushed forward. Their cars and steeds and elephants, all of the foremostkind, and their fierce foot-soldiers, gladdened by the notes of diverseinstruments, seemed to dance and laugh. In the midst of that vast force,came Vrikodara, riding on the neck of an elephant, and surrounded by manyforemost of elephant-soldiers, advancing against thy army. That fierceand foremost of elephants, duly equipped, looked resplendent, like thestone-built mansion on the top of the Udaya mountain, crowned with therisen Sun. Its armour of iron, the foremost of its kind, studded withcostly gems, was as resplendent as the autumnal firmament bespangled withstars. With a lance in his outstretched arm, his head decked with abeautiful diadem, and possessed of the splendour of the meridian Sun atautumn, Bhima began to burn his foes. Beholding that elephant from adistance, Kshemadhurti, himself on an elephant, challenging, rushedcheerfully towards Bhima who was more cheerful still. An encounter thentook place between those two elephants of fierce forms resembling twohuge hills topped with trees, each, fighting with the other as it liked.Those two heroes, then, whose elephants thus encountered each other,forcibly struck each other with lances endued with the splendour of solarrays, and uttered loud roars. Separating, they then careered in circleswith their elephants, and each taking up a bow began to strike the other.Gladdening the people around with their loud roars and the slaps on theirarmpits and the whizz of this arrows, they continued to utter leonineshouts. Endued with great strength, both of them, accomplished inweapons, fought, using their elephants with upturned trunks and deckedwith banners floating on the wind. Then each cutting off the other’s bow,they roared at each other, and rained on each other showers of darts andlances like two masses of clouds in the rainy season pouring torrents ofrain. Then Kshemadhurti pierced Bhimasena in the centre of the chest witha lance endued with great impetuosity, and then with six others, anduttered a loud shout. With those lances sticking to his body, Bhimasena,whose form then blazed with wrath, looked resplendent like thecloud-covered Sun with his rays issuing through the interstices of thatcanopy. Then Bhima carefully hurled at his antagonist a lance bright asthe rays of the Sun, coursing perfectly straight, and made entirely ofiron. The ruler of the Kulutas then, drawing his bow, cut off that lancewith ten shafts and then pierced the son of Pandu with sixty shafts. ThenBhima the son of Pandu, taking up a bow whose twang resembled the roar ofthe clouds, uttered a loud shout and deeply afflicted with his shafts theelephants of his antagonist. Thus afflicted in that battle by Bhimasenawith his arrows, that elephant, though sought to be restrained, stayednot on the field like a wind-blown cloud. The fierce prince of elephantsowned by Bhima then pursued his (flying) compeer, like a wind-blown massof clouds pursuing another mass driven by the tempest. Restraining hisown elephant valiant Kshemadhurti pierced with his shafts the pursuingelephant of Bhimasena. Then with a well-shot razor-headed arrow that wasperfectly straight, Kshemadhurti cut off his antagonist’s bow and thenafflicted that hostile elephant. Filled with wrath, Kshemadhurti then, inthat battle, pierced Bhima and struck his elephant with many long shaftsin every vital part. That huge elephant of Bhima then fell down, OBharata! Bhima, however, who had jumped down from his elephant and stoodon the Earth before the fall of the beast, then crushed the elephant ofhis antagonist with his mace. And Vrikodara then struck Kshemadhurtialso, who, jumped down from his crushed elephant, was advancing againsthim with uplifted weapon. Kshemadhurti, thus struck, fell down lifeless,with the sword in his arm, by the side of his elephant, like a lionstruck down by thunder beside a thunder-riven hill. Beholding thecelebrated king of the Kulutas slain, thy troops, O bull of Bharata’srace exceedingly distressed, fled away.'”