SECTION 21
"Dhritarashtra said, 'When Pandya had been slain and when that foremost
of heroes, viz., Karna was employed in routing and destroying the foe,
what, O Sanjaya, did Arjuna do in battle? That son of Pandu is a hero,
endued with great might, attentive to his duties, and a complete master
of the science of arms. The high-souled Sankara himself hath made him
invincible among all creatures. My greatest fears proceed from that
Dhananjaya, that slayer of foes. Tell me, O Sanjaya, all that Partha
achieved there on that occasion.'
"Sanjaya said, 'After Pandya's fall, Krishna quickly said unto Arjuna
these beneficial words, "I do not behold the King. The other Pandavas
also have retreated. If the Parthas had returned, the vast force of the
enemy would have been broken. In fulfilment of purposes entertained by
Ashvatthama, Karna is slaying the Srinjayas. A great carnage is being
made (by that warrior) of steeds and car-warriors and elephants." Thus
the heroic Vasudeva represented everything unto the diadem-decked
(Arjuna). Hearing of and beholding that great danger of his brother
(Yudhishthira), Partha quickly addressed Krishna, saying, "Urge the
steeds, O Hrishikesha." Then Hrishikesha proceeded on that irresistible
car. The encounter then that once more took place became exceedingly
fierce. The Kurus and the Pandavas once more fearlessly closed with each
other, that is, the Parthas headed by Bhimasena and ourselves headed by
the Suta's son. Then, O best of kings, there once more commenced a battle
between Karna and the Pandavas that swelled the population of Yama's
kingdom. With bows and arrows and spiked clubs and swords and lances and
axes and short clubs and Bhushundis and darts and rapiers and battle-axes
and maces and spears and polished Kuntas, and short shafts and hooks, the
combatants quickly fell upon one another, desirous of taking one
another's life. Filling the welkin, the cardinal points of the compass,
the subsidiary ones, the firmament, and the Earth, with the whizz of
arrows, the twang of bow-strings, the sound of palms, and the clatter of
car-wheels, foes rushed upon foes. Gladdened by that loud noise, heroes,
fought with heroes desirous of reaching the end of the hostilities. Loud
became the noise caused by the sound of bow-strings and fences and bows,
the grunt of elephants, and the shouts of foot-soldiers and falling men.
Hearing the terrible whizz of arrows and the diverse shouts of brave
warriors, the troops took fright, became pale, and fell down. Large
numbers of those foes thus employed in shouting and shooting weapons, the
heroic son of Adhiratha crushed with his arrows. With his shafts Karna
then despatched to Yama's abode twenty car-warriors among the brave
Pancala heroes, with their steeds, drivers, and standards. Then many
foremost of warriors of the Pandava army, endued with great energy and
quick in the use of weapons, speedily wheeling round, encompassed Karna
on all sides. Karna agitated that hostile force with showers of weapons
like the leader of an elephantine herd plunging into a lake adorned with
lotuses and covered with swans. Penetrating into the midst of his foes,
the son of Radha, shaking his best of bows, began to strike off and fell
their heads with his sharp shafts. The shield and coats of mail of the
warriors, cut off, fell down on the Earth. There was none amongst them
that needed the touch of a second arrow of Karna's. Like a driver
striking the steeds with the whip, Karna, with his shafts capable of
crushing coats of mail and bodies and the life that quickened them,
struck the fences (of his foes) perceivable only by their bow-strings.
Like a lion grinding herds of deer, Karna speedily grinded all those
Pandus and Srinjayas and Pancalas that came within range of his arrows.
Then the chief of the Pancalas, and the sons of Draupadi, O sire, and the
twins, and Yuyudhana, uniting together, proceeded against Karna. When
those Kurus, and Pancalas and Pandus were thus engaged in battle, the
other warriors, reckless of their very lives, began to strike at one
another. Well-cased in armour and coats of mail and adorned with
head-gears, combatants endued with great strength rushed at their foes,
with maces and short clubs and spiked bludgeons looking like uplifted
rods of the Destroyer, and jumping, O sire, and challenging one another,
uttered loud shouts. They struck one another, and fell down, assailed by
one another with blood rising from their limbs and deprived of brains and
eyes and weapons. Covered with weapons, some, as they lay there with
faces beautiful as pomegranates, having teeth-adorned mouths filled with
blood, seemed to be alive. Others, in that vast ocean of battle, filled
with rage mangled or cut or pierced or overthrew or lopped off or slew
one another with battle-axes and short arrows and hooks and spears and
lances. Slain by one another they fell down, covered with blood and
deprived of life like sandal trees cut down with the axe falling down and
shedding as they fall their cool blood-red juice. Cars destroyed by cars,
elephants by elephants, men by men, and steeds by steeds, fell down in
thousands. Standards, and heads, and umbrellas, and elephants, trunks,
and human arms, cut off with razor-faced or broad-headed or
crescent-shaped arrows, fell down on the Earth. Large numbers also of
men, and elephants, and cars with steed yoked thereto, were crushed in
that battle. Many brave warriors, slain by horsemen, fell down, and many
tuskers, with their trunks cut off, and banners and standards (on their
bodies), fell down like fallen mountains. Assailed by foot-soldiers, many
elephants and cars, destroyed or in course of destruction, fell down on
all sides. Horsemen, encountering foot-soldiers with activity, were slain
by the latter. Similarly crowds of foot-soldiers, slain by horsemen, laid
themselves down on the field. The faces and the limbs of those slain in
that dreadful battle looked like crushed lotuses and faded floral
wreaths. The beautiful forms of elephants and steeds and human beings, O
king, then resembled cloths foul with dirt, and became exceedingly
repulsive to look at.'"
--------------------END OF PARVA 8 : UPA-PARVA 21 ---------------------
