SECTION LXXIX
Sanjaya said, "Then Abhimanyu, accompanied by Bhimasena pursuing thy
sons, afflicted them all. Then the mighty car-warriors of your army,
including Duryodhana and others, beholding Abhimanyu and Bhimasena united
with Prishata's son in the midst of the (Kauravas) troops, took up their
bows, and borne by their fleet steeds rushed to the spot where those
warriors were. And on that afternoon, O king, a dreadful conflict took
place between the mighty combatants of your army and those of the foe, O
Bharata. And Abhimanyu, having, in that fierce battle, slain the steeds
of Vikarna, pierced the latter with five and twenty small arrows. Then
that mighty car-warrior, Vikarna, abandoning that car whose steeds had
been slain, mounted on the resplendent car, O king, of Chitrasena. Then
thus stationed on the same car, viz., those two brothers of Kuru's race,
the son of Arjuna covered, O Bharata, with showers of arrows. Then
Durjaya and Vikarna pierced Abhimanyu with five shafts made wholly of
iron. Abhimanyu however, shook not in the least but stood firm like the
mountain Meru. Dussasana in that battle, O sire, fought with the five
Kekaya brothers. All these, O great king, seemed exceedingly wonderful.
The sons of Draupadi, excited with rage, resisted Duryodhana in that
battle. And each of them, O king, pierced your son with three shafts. Thy
son also, invincible in battle, pierced each of the sons of Draupadi, O
monarch, with sharp shafts. And pierced by them (in return) and bathed in
blood, he shone like a hill with rillets of water mixed with red-chalk
(gliding down its breast). And the mighty Bhishma also, in that battle, O
king, afflicted the Pandava army like a herdsman belabouring his herd.
Then, O monarch, the twang of Gandiva was heard, of Partha, who was
engaged in slaughtering the foe on the right of the army.
And in that part of the field headless trunks stood up by thousands,
amongst the troops, O Bharata, of both the Kauravas and the Pandavas. And
the field of battle resembled an ocean whose water was blood, and whose
eddies were the shafts (shot by the combatants). And the elephants
constituted the islands of that ocean, and the steeds its waves. And cars
constituted the boats by which brave men crossed it. And many brave
combatants, with arms cut off, divested of armour, and hideously
mutilated, were seen lying there in hundreds and thousands. And with the
bodies of infuriate elephants deprived of life and bathed in blood, the
field of battle. O Bharata, looked as if strewn with hills. And the
wonderful sight we saw there, O Bharata, was that neither in their army
nor in yours was a single person that was unwilling to fight. And thus, O
monarch, did those brave warriors, of both your army and the Pandavas,
fight, seeking glory and desirous of victory."
--------------------END OF PARVA 6 : UPA-PARVA 79 ---------------------
