SECTION 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 as
those were being massacred by Dandadhara. Turning the course of the car,
but without stopping the steeds which were as fleet as Garuda or the
wind, Keshava, addressing Arjuna, said, "The chief of the Magadhas, with
his (foe-crushing) elephant is unrivalled in prowess. In training and
might 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 the
Magadhas, peerless in handling the elephant-hook even as the headless
planet Ketu (is peerless) among all the planets, was destroying the
hostile army like a fierce comet destroying the whole earth. Riding on
his foe-slaying and well-equipped elephant which looked like the danava
with elephantine face and form, and whose roar resembled that of a
congregated mass of clouds, Dandadhara was destroying with his shafts
thousands of cars and steeds and elephants and men. The elephants also,
treading upon cars with their feet, pressed down into the Earth a large
number of men with their steeds and drivers. Many were the elephants,
also, which that foremost of elephants, crushed and slew with his two
forefeet and trunk. Indeed, the beast moved like the wheel of Death.
Slaying men adorned with steel coats of mail, along with their horses and
foot-soldiers, the chief of the Magadhas caused these to be pressed down
into the earth, like thick reeds pressed down with crackling sounds, by
means of that mighty and foremost of elephants belonging to him. Then
Arjuna, riding on that foremost of cars, rushed quickly towards that
prince of elephants in the midst of that host teeming with thousands of
cars and steeds and elephants, and resounding with the beat and blare of
innumerable cymbals and drums and conchs and uproarious with the clatter
of car-wheels, the twang of bow-strings, and the sound of palms. Even
Dandadhara pierced Arjuna with a dozen foremost of shafts and Janardana
with sixteen and each of the steeds with three, and then uttered a loud
shout and laughed repeatedly. Then Partha, with a number of broad-headed
shafts, cut off the bow of his antagonist with its string and arrow fixed
thereon, as also his well-decked standard, and then the guides of his
beast and the footmen that protected the animal. At this, the lord of
Girivraja became filled with rage. Desirous of agitating Janardana with
that tusker of his, whose temples had split from excitement, and which
resembled 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 of
time, the two arms each looking like the trunk of an elephant, and then
the head, resembling the full Moon, of his foe. Then Arjuna struck the
elephant of this antagonist with hundreds of arrows. Covered with the
gold-decked arrows of Partha, that elephant equipped with golden armour
looked as resplendent as a mountain in the night with its herbs and trees
blazing in a conflagration. Afflicted with the pain and roaring like a
mass of clouds, and exceedingly weakened, the elephant crying and
wandering and running with tottering steps, fell down with the guide on
its neck, like a mountain summit riven by thunder. Upon the fall of his
brother in battle, Danda advanced against Indra's younger brother and
Dhananjaya, desirous of slaying them, on his tusker white as snow and
adorned with gold and looking like a Himalayan summit. Danda struck
Janardana with three whetted lances bright as the rays of the sun, and
Arjuna with five, and uttered a loud shout. The son of Pandu then
uttering a loud shout cut off the two arms of Danda. Cut off by means of
razor-headed shafts, those two arms, smeared with sandal-paste, adorned
with angadas, and with lances in grasp, as they fell from the elephant's
back at the same instant of time, looked resplendent like a couple of
large snakes of great beauty falling down from a mountain summit. Cut off
with a crescent-shaped arrow by the diadem-decked (Partha), the head also
of Danda fell down on the Earth from the elephant's back, and covered
with blood it looked resplendent as it lay like the sun dropped from the
Asta mountain towards the western quarter. Then Partha pierced with many
excellent 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 noise
like a Himalayan summit riven with thunder. Then other huge elephants
capable of winning victory and resembling the two already slain, were cut
off by Savyasaci, in that battle, even as the two (belonging to Danda and
Dandadhara) had been cut off. At this the vast hostile force broke. Then
elephants and cars and steeds and men, in dense throngs, clashed against
one another and fell down on the field. Tottering, they violently struck
one another and fell down deprived of life. Then his soldiers,
encompassing Arjuna like the celestials encompassing Purandara, began to
say, "O hero, that foe of whom we had been frightened like creatures at
the sight of Death himself, hath by good luck been slain by thee. If thou
hadst not protected from that fear those people that were so deeply
afflicted by mighty foes, then by this time our foes would have felt that
delight which we now feel at their death, O slayer of enemies." Hearing
these and other words uttered by friends and allies, Arjuna, with a
cheerful heart, worshipped those men, each according to his deserts, and
proceeded once more against the samsaptakas.'"
--------------------END OF PARVA 8 : UPA-PARVA 18 ---------------------
