Chapter 18

“Sanjaya said, ‘Meanwhile towards the northern part of the Pandava army,a loud uproar arose of cars and elephants and steeds and foot-soldiers asthose were being massacred by Dandadhara. Turning the course of the car,but without stopping the steeds which were as fleet as Garuda or thewind, Keshava, addressing Arjuna, said, “The chief of the Magadhas, withhis (foe-crushing) elephant is unrivalled in prowess. In training andmight he is not inferior to Bhagadatta himself. Having slain him first,thou wilt then slay the samsaptakas.” At the conclusion of his words,Keshava bore Partha to the presence of Dandadhara. The chief of theMagadhas, peerless in handling the elephant-hook even as the headlessplanet Ketu (is peerless) among all the planets, was destroying thehostile army like a fierce comet destroying the whole earth. Riding onhis foe-slaying and well-equipped elephant which looked like the danavawith elephantine face and form, and whose roar resembled that of acongregated mass of clouds, Dandadhara was destroying with his shaftsthousands of cars and steeds and elephants and men. The elephants also,treading upon cars with their feet, pressed down into the Earth a largenumber of men with their steeds and drivers. Many were the elephants,also, which that foremost of elephants, crushed and slew with his twoforefeet and trunk. Indeed, the beast moved like the wheel of Death.Slaying men adorned with steel coats of mail, along with their horses andfoot-soldiers, the chief of the Magadhas caused these to be pressed downinto the earth, like thick reeds pressed down with crackling sounds, bymeans of that mighty and foremost of elephants belonging to him. ThenArjuna, riding on that foremost of cars, rushed quickly towards thatprince of elephants in the midst of that host teeming with thousands ofcars and steeds and elephants, and resounding with the beat and blare ofinnumerable cymbals and drums and conchs and uproarious with the clatterof car-wheels, the twang of bow-strings, and the sound of palms. EvenDandadhara pierced Arjuna with a dozen foremost of shafts and Janardanawith sixteen and each of the steeds with three, and then uttered a loudshout and laughed repeatedly. Then Partha, with a number of broad-headedshafts, cut off the bow of his antagonist with its string and arrow fixedthereon, as also his well-decked standard, and then the guides of hisbeast and the footmen that protected the animal. At this, the lord ofGirivraja became filled with rage. Desirous of agitating Janardana withthat tusker of his, whose temples had split from excitement, and whichresembled a mass of clouds and was endued with the speed of the wind,Dandadhara struck Dhananjaya with many lances. The son of Pandu then,with three razor-headed arrows, cut off, almost at the same instant oftime, the two arms each looking like the trunk of an elephant, and thenthe head, resembling the full Moon, of his foe. Then Arjuna struck theelephant of this antagonist with hundreds of arrows. Covered with thegold-decked arrows of Partha, that elephant equipped with golden armourlooked as resplendent as a mountain in the night with its herbs and treesblazing in a conflagration. Afflicted with the pain and roaring like amass of clouds, and exceedingly weakened, the elephant crying andwandering and running with tottering steps, fell down with the guide onits neck, like a mountain summit riven by thunder. Upon the fall of hisbrother in battle, Danda advanced against Indra’s younger brother andDhananjaya, desirous of slaying them, on his tusker white as snow andadorned with gold and looking like a Himalayan summit. Danda struckJanardana with three whetted lances bright as the rays of the sun, andArjuna with five, and uttered a loud shout. The son of Pandu thenuttering a loud shout cut off the two arms of Danda. Cut off by means ofrazor-headed shafts, those two arms, smeared with sandal-paste, adornedwith angadas, and with lances in grasp, as they fell from the elephant’sback at the same instant of time, looked resplendent like a couple oflarge snakes of great beauty falling down from a mountain summit. Cut offwith a crescent-shaped arrow by the diadem-decked (Partha), the head alsoof Danda fell down on the Earth from the elephant’s back, and coveredwith blood it looked resplendent as it lay like the sun dropped from theAsta mountain towards the western quarter. Then Partha pierced with manyexcellent arrows bright as the rays of the sun that elephant of his foe,resembling a mass of white clouds whereupon it fell down with a noiselike a Himalayan summit riven with thunder. Then other huge elephantscapable of winning victory and resembling the two already slain, were cutoff by Savyasaci, in that battle, even as the two (belonging to Danda andDandadhara) had been cut off. At this the vast hostile force broke. Thenelephants and cars and steeds and men, in dense throngs, clashed againstone another and fell down on the field. Tottering, they violently struckone another and fell down deprived of life. Then his soldiers,encompassing Arjuna like the celestials encompassing Purandara, began tosay, “O hero, that foe of whom we had been frightened like creatures atthe sight of Death himself, hath by good luck been slain by thee. If thouhadst not protected from that fear those people that were so deeplyafflicted by mighty foes, then by this time our foes would have felt thatdelight which we now feel at their death, O slayer of enemies.” Hearingthese and other words uttered by friends and allies, Arjuna, with acheerful heart, worshipped those men, each according to his deserts, andproceeded once more against the samsaptakas.'”