Chapter 24

“Sanjaya said, ‘While Nakula was employed in destroying and routing theKaurava divisions in battle with great force, Vikartana’s son Karna,filled with rage, checked him, O king. Then Nakula smiling the while,addressed Karna, and said, “After a long time, through the favour of thegods, I am seen by thee, and thou also, O wretch, dost become the objectof my sight. Thou art the root of all these evils, this hostility, thisquarrel. It is through thy faults that the Kauravas are being thinned,encountering one another. Slaying thee in battle today, I will regardmyself as one that has achieved his object, and the fever of my heartwill be dispelled.” Thus addressed by Nakula, the Suta’s son said untohim the following words befitting a prince and a bowman in particular,”Strike me, O hero. We desire to witness thy manliness. Having achievedsome feats in battle, O brave warrior, thou shouldst then boast. O sire,they that are heroes fight in battle to the best of their powers, withoutindulging in brag. Fight now with me to the best of thy might. I willquell thy pride.” Having said these words the Suta’s son quickly struckthe son of Pandu and pierced him, in that encounter, with three andseventy shafts. Then Nakula, O Bharata, thus pierced by the Suta’s son,pierced the latter in return with eighty shafts resembling snakes ofvirulent poison. Then Karna, that great bowman, cutting off hisantagonist’s bow with a number of arrows winged with gold and whetted onstone, afflicted him with thirty arrows. Those arrows, piercing throughhis armour drank his blood in that battle, like the Nagas of virulentpoison drinking water after having pierced through the Earth. ThenNakula, taking up another formidable bow whose back was decked with gold,pierced Karna with twenty arrows and his driver with three. Then, Omonarch, that slayer of hostile heroes, viz., Nakula, filled with rage,cut off Karna’s bow with a razor-headed shaft of great keenness. Smilingthe while, the heroic son of Pandu then struck the bowless Karna, thatforemost of car-warriors, with three hundred arrows. Beholding Karna thusafflicted, O sire, by the son of Pandu, all the carwarriors there, withthe gods (in the welkin), were filled with great wonder. Then Vikartana’sson Karna taking up another bow, struck Nakula with five arrows in theshoulder-joint. With those arrows sticking to him here, the son of Madrilooked resplendent like the Sun with his own rays while shedding hislight on the Earth. Then Nakula piercing Karna with seven shafts, oncemore, O sire, cut off one of the horns of Karna’s bow. Then Karna, takingup in that battle a tougher bow, filled the welkin on every side ofNakula with his arrows. The mighty car-warrior, Nakula, however, thussuddenly shrouded with the arrows shot from Karna’s bow quickly cut offall those shafts with shafts of his own. Then was seen overspread in thewelkin a vast number of arrows like to the spectacle presented by the skywhen it is filled with myriads of roving fireflies. Indeed, the skyshrouded with those hundreds of arrows shot (by both the warriors)looked, O monarch, as if it was covered with flights of locusts. Thosearrows, decked with gold, issuing repeatedly in continuous lines, lookedbeautiful like rows of cranes while flying through the welkin. When thesky was thus covered with showers of arrows and the sun himself hid fromthe view, no creature ranging the air could descend on the Earth. Whenall sides were thus covered with showers of arrows, those two high-souledwarriors looked resplendent like two Suns risen at the end of the Yuga.Slaughtered with the shafts issuing from Karna’s bow the Somakas, Omonarch, greatly afflicted and feeling much pain, began to breathe theirlast. Similarly, thy warriors, struck with the shafts of Nakula,dispersed on all sides, O king, like clouds tossed by the wind. The twoarmies thus slaughtered by those two warriors with their mighty celestialshafts, retreated from the range of those arrows and stood as spectatorsof the encounter. When both the armies were driven off by means of theshafts of Karna and Nakula, those two high-souled warriors began topierce each other with showers of shafts. Displaying their celestialweapons on the field of battle, they quickly shrouded each other, eachdesirous of compassing the destruction of the other. The shafts shot byNakula, dressed with Kanka and peacock feathers, shrouding the Suta’sson, seemed to stay in the welkin. Similarly, the shafts sped by theSuta’s son in that dreadful battle, shrouding the son of Pandu, seemed tostay in the welkin. Shrouded within arrowy chambers, both the warriorsbecame invisible, like the Sun and the Moon, O king, hidden by theclouds. Then Karna, filled with rage and assuming a terrible aspect inthe battle, covered the son of Pandu with showers of arrows from everyside. Completely covered, O monarch, by the Suta’s son, the son of Pandufelt no pain like the Maker of day when covered by the clouds. The son ofAdhiratha then, smiling the while, sped arrowy lines, O sire, in hundredsand thousands, in that battle. With those shafts of the high-souledKarna, an extensive shade seemed to rest on the field of battle. Indeed,with those excellent shafts constantly issuing out (of his bow), a shadewas caused there like that formed by the clouds. Then Karna, O monarch,cutting off the bow of the high-souled Nakula, felled the latter’s driverfrom the car-niche with the greatest ease. With four keen shafts, next,he quickly despatched the four steeds of Nakula, O Bharata, to the abodeof Yama. With his shafts, he also cut off into minute fragments thatexcellent car of his antagonist as also his standard and the protectorsof his car-wheels, and mace, and sword, and shield decked with a hundredmoons, and other utensils and equipments of battle. Then Nakula,steedless and carless and armourless, O monarch, quickly alighting fromhis car, stood, armed with a spiked bludgeon. Even that terriblebludgeon, so uplifted by the son of Pandu, the Suta’s son, O king, cutoff with many keen arrows capable of bearing a great strain. Beholdinghis adversary weaponless. Karna began to strike him with many straightshafts, but took care not to afflict him greatly. Thus struck in thatbattle by that mighty warrior accomplished in weapons, Nakula, O king,fled away precipitately in great affliction. Laughing repeatedly, the sonof Radha pursued him and placed his stringed bow, O Bharata, around theneck of the retreating Nakula. With the large bow around his neck, Oking, the son of Pandu looked resplendent like Moon in the firmament whenwithin a circular halo of light, or a white cloud girdled round byIndra’s bow. Then Karna, addressing him, said, “The words thou hadstuttered were futile. Canst thou utter them now once more in joy,repeatedly struck as thou art by me? Do not, O son of Pandu, fight againwith those amongst the Kurus that are possessed of greater might. Ochild, fight with them that are thy equals. Do not, O son of Pandu, feelany shame for it. Return home, O son of Madri, or go thither whereKrishna and Phalguna are.” Having addressed him thus he abandoned himthen. Acquainted with morality as the brave Karna was, he did not thenslay Nakula who was already within the jaws of death. Recollecting thewords of Kunti, O king, Karna let Nakula go. The son of Pandu, thus letoff, O king, by that bowman, Suta’s son, proceeded towards Yudhishthira’scar in great shame. Scorched by the Suta’s son, he then ascended hisbrother’s car, and burning with grief he continued to sigh like a snakekept within a jar. Meanwhile Karna, having vanquished Nakula, quicklyproceeded against the Pancalas, riding on that car of his which bore manygorgeous pennons and whose steeds were as white as the Moon. There, Omonarch, a great uproar arose among the Pandavas when they saw the leaderof the Kaurava army proceeding towards the Pancala car-throngs. TheSuta’s son, O monarch, made a great massacre there at that hour when theSun had reached the meridian, that puissant warrior careering all thewhile with the activity of a wheel. We beheld many Pancala car-warriorsborne away from the battle on their steedless and driverless cars withbroken wheels and broken axles and with standards and pennons also thatwere broken and torn, O sire. And many elephants were seen to wanderthere in all directions (with limbs scorched by arrows) like individualsof their species in the wide forest with limbs scorched and burned in aforest conflagration. Others with their frontal globes split open, orbathed in blood, or with trunks lopped off, or with their armour cutdown, or their tails lopped off, fell down, struck by the high-souledKarna, like straggling clouds. Other elephants, frightened by the shaftsand lances of Radha’s son proceeded against Radha’s son himself likeinsects towards a blazing fire. Other huge elephants were seen strikingagainst one another and shedding blood from various limbs like mountainswith rillets running down their breasts. Steeds of the foremost breed,divested of breast-plates and their ornaments of silver and brass andgold, destitute of trappings and bridle-bits and yak-tails andsaddle-cloths, with quivers fallen off from their backs, and with theirheroic riders,–ornaments of battle,–slain, were seen wandering here andthere on the field. Pierced and cut with lances and scimitars and swords,O Bharata, we beheld many a horseman adorned with armour and head-gear,slain or in course of being slain or trembling with fear, and deprived, OBharata, of diverse limbs. Cars also, decked with gold, and unto whichwere yoked steeds of great fleetness, were seen by us dragged withexceeding speed hither and thither, their riders having been slain. Someof these had their axles and poles broken, and some, O Bharata, had theirwheels broken; and some were without banners and standards, and some weredivested of their shafts. Many car-warriors also were seen there, by us,O monarch, wandering all around, deprived of their cars and scorched withthe shafts of the Suta’s son. And some destitute of weapons and some withweapons still in their arms were seen lying lifeless on the field inlarge numbers. And many elephants also were seen by us, wandering in alldirections, studded with clusters of stars, adorned with rows ofbeautiful bells, and decked with variegated banners of diverse hues.Heads and arms and chests and other limbs, cut off with shafts sped fromKarna’s bow, were beheld by us lying around. A great and fierce calamityovertook the warriors (of the Pandava army) as they fought with whettedarrows, and mangled as they were with the shafts of Karna. The Srinjayas,slaughtered in that battle by the Suta’s son, blindly proceeded againstthe latter’s self like insects rushing upon a blazing fire. Indeed, asthat mighty car-warrior was engaged in scorching the Pandava divisions,the kshatriyas avoided him, regarding him to be the blazing Yuga fire.Those heroic and mighty car-warriors of the Pancala that survived theslaughter fled away. The brave Karna, however, pursued those broken andretreating warriors from behind, shooting his shafts at them. Endued withgreat energy, he pursued those combatants divested of armour anddestitute of standards. Indeed, the Suta’s son, possessed of great might,continued to scorch them with his shafts, like the dispeller of darknessscorching all creatures when he attains to the meridian.'”