Chapter 19

“Sanjaya said, ‘Wheeling round, like the planet Mercury in the curvatureof its orbit, Jishnu (Arjuna) once more slew large number of thesamsaptakas. Afflicted with the shafts of Partha, O king, men, steeds,and elephants, O Bharata, wavered and wondered and lost colour and felldown and died. Many foremost of animals tied to yokes and drivers andstandards, and bows, and shafts and hands and weapons in grasp, and arms,and heads, of heroic foes fighting with him, the son of Pandu cut off inthat battle, with arrows, some of which were broad-headed, some equippedwith heads like razors, some crescent-shaped, and some furnished withheads like the calf’s tooth. Like bulls fighting with a bull for the sakeof a cow in season, brave warriors by hundreds and thousands closed uponArjuna. The battle that took place between them and him made the hair tostand on end like the encounter between the Daityas and Indra, thewielder of the thunderbolt on the occasion of the conquest of the threeworlds. Then the son of Ugrayudha pierced Partha with three shaftsresembling three venomous snakes. Partha, however, cut off from hisenemy’s trunk the latter’s head. Then those warriors, filled with rage,covered Arjuna from every side with diverse kinds of weapons like theclouds urged by the Maruts shrouding Himavat at the close of summer.Checking with his own weapons those of his foes on every side, Arjunaslew a large number of his enemies with well-shot shafts. With his arrowsArjuna then cut off the Trivenus, the steeds, the drivers, and theparshni drivers of many cars, and displaced the weapons and quivers ofmany, and deprived many of their wheels and standards, and broke thecords, the traces and the axles of many, and destroyed the bottoms andyokes of others, and caused all the equipment of many to fall from theirplaces. Those cars, thus smashed and injured by Arjuna in large numbers,looked like the luxurious mansions of the rich destroyed by fire, wind,and rain. Elephants, their vitals pierced with shafts resemblingthunderbolts in impetuosity, fell down like mansions on mountain-topsoverthrown by blasts of lightning. Large numbers of steeds with theirriders, struck by Arjuna, fell down on the Earth, their tongues andentrails pressed out, themselves deprived of strength and bathed inblood, and presenting an awful sight. Men and steeds and elephants,pierced by Savyasaci (Arjuna) with his shafts, wondered and tottered andfell down and uttered cries of pain and looked pale, O sire. LikeMahendra smiting down the danavas, Partha smote down large numbers of hisfoes, by means of shafts whetted on stone and resembling the thunder ofpoison in deadliness. Brave warriors, cased in costly coats of mail anddecked with ornaments and armed with diverse kinds of weapons, lay on thefield, with their cars and standards, slain by Partha. Vanquished (anddeprived of life) persons of righteous deeds, possessed of noble birthand great knowledge, proceeded to heaven in consequence of those gloriousdeeds of theirs while their bodies only lay on Earth. Then the chief,belonging to thy army, of various realms, filled with wrath andaccompanied by their followers, rushed against Arjuna, that foremost ofcar-warriors. Warriors borne on their cars and steeds and elephants, andfoot-soldiers also, all desirous of slaying (Arjuna), rushed towards him,shooting diverse weapons with great speed. Then Arjuna like wind, bymeans of keen shafts, destroyed that thick shower of weapons dropped bythose warriors constituting a mass of congregated clouds. People thenbeheld Arjuna crossing that raftless ocean constituted by steeds andfoot-soldiers and elephants and cars, and having mighty weapons for itswaves, on a bridge constituted by his own mighty weapons of offence anddefence. Then Vasudeva, addressing Partha, said, “Why, O sinless one,dost thou sport in this way? Grinding these samsaptakas, haste thyselffor Karna’s slaughter.” Saying, “So be it” unto Krishna, Arjuna then,forcibly smiting the remnant of the samsaptakas with his weapons, beganto destroy them like Indra destroying the Daityas. At that time, witheven the closest attention, men could not mark when Arjuna took out hisshafts, when he aimed them and when he let them off quickly. Govindahimself, O Bharata, regarded it wonderful. Like swans diving into a lakethe shafts of Arjuna, white and active as swans, penetrated into thehostile force. Then Govinda, beholding the field of battle during theprogress of that carnage, said these words to Savyasaci, “Here, O Partha,for the sake of Duryodhana alone, occurreth this great and terribledestruction of the Bharatas and other kings of Earth. Behold, O son ofBharata, these bows, with golden backs, of many mighty bowmen, and thesegirdles and quivers loosened from their bodies. Behold these straightshafts equipped with wings of gold, and these long arrows washed with oiland looking like snakes freed from their sloughs. Behold these beautifullances decked with gold lying scattered about, and these coats of mail, OBharata, adorned with gold and fallen off from the bodies of thewarriors. Behold these spears embellished with gold, these darts adornedwith the same metal, and these huge maces twined round with threads ofgold, and cords of hemp. Behold these swords decked with bright gold andthese axes adorned with the same, and these battle-axes equipped withgold-decked handles. Behold also these spiked clubs, these short arrows,these Bhusundis, and these Kanapas; these iron Kuntas lying around, andthese heavy Mushalas. These victory-longing warriors endued with greatactivity and armed with diverse weapons, though dead, still seem to bequick with life. Behold those thousands of warriors, their limbs crushedwith maces, and heads split with Mushalas or smashed and trod byelephants and steeds and cars. O slayer of foes, the field of battle isstrewn with the bodies of men and elephants and steeds, deprived of life,dreadfully mangled with shafts and darts and swords and lances andscimitars and axes and spears and Nakharas and bludgeons, and bathed instreams of blood. Strewn with arms smeared with sandal-paste and deckedwith Angadas and graced with auspicious indications and cased in leathernfences and adorned with Keyuras, the Earth looks resplendent, O Bharata.Strewn also with hands having fingers cased in fences, decked withornaments, and lopped off from arms, and with severed thighs looking likethe trunks of elephants, of heroes endued with great activity and withheads adorned with earrings and headgears set with gems, (the Earth looksexceedingly beautiful). Behold those beautiful cars, decked with goldenbells, broken in diverse ways. Behold those numerous steeds bathed inblood, those bottoms of cars and long quivers, and diverse kinds ofstandards and banners and those huge conchs, of the combatants, and thoseyak-tails perfectly white, and those elephants with tongues lolling outand lying on the field like hills, and those beautiful with triumphalbanners, and those slain elephant-warriors, and those rich coverlets,each consisting of one piece of blanket, for the backs of those hugebeasts, and those beautiful and variegated and torn blankets, and thosenumerous bells loosened from the bodies of elephants and broken intofragments by those falling creatures, and those hooks with handles setwith stones of lapis lazuli fallen upon the Earth, and those ornamentalyokes of steeds, and those armours set with diamonds for their breastsand those rich cloths, adorned with gold and tied to the ends of thestandards borne by horsemen, and those variegated coverlets and housingsand Ranku skins, set with brilliant gems and inlaid with gold, for thebacks of steeds and fallen on the ground, and those large diamondsadorning the head-gears of kings, and those beautiful necklaces of gold,and those umbrellas displaced from their positions, and those yak-tailsand fans. Behold the earth strewn with faces adorned with earrings brightas the moon or stars, and embellished with well-cut beards, and eachlooking like the full moon. The earth, strewn with those faces lookinglike lilies and lotuses, resembles a lake adorned with a dense assemblageof lilies and lotuses. Behold, the earth possessing the effulgence of thebright moon and diversified as if with myriads of stars, looks like theautumnal firmament bespangled with stellar lights. O Arjuna, these featsthat have been achieved by thee in great battle today are, indeed, worthyof thee or of the chief of the celestials himself in heaven.” Even thusdid Krishna show the field of battle unto Arjuna. And while returning(from the field to their camp), they heard a loud noise in the army ofDuryodhana. Indeed the uproar that was heard consisted of the blare ofconchs and the beat of cymbals and drums and Patahas and the clatter ofcar wheels, the neighing of steeds, the grunt of elephants, and thefierce clash of weapons. Penetrating into that force by the aid of hissteeds possessing the fleetness of the wind, Krishna became filled withwonder upon beholding the army grinded by Pandya. Like Yama himselfslaying creatures whose lives have run out, Pandya, that foremost ofwarriors skilled in shafts and weapons, was destroying crowds of foes bymeans of diverse kinds of shafts. Piercing the bodies of the elephantsand steeds and men with sharp shafts, that foremost of smiters overthrewand deprived them of life. Cutting off with his own shafts the diverseweapons hurled at him by many foremost of foes, Pandya slew his enemieslike Sakra (Indra) destroying the Danavas.'”