SECTION 28
"Sanjaya said, 'King Duryodhana, O monarch, himself fearlessly received
Yudhishthira, as the latter was engaged in shooting large numbers of
shafts. The royal Yudhishthira the just, speedily piercing your son, that
mighty car-warrior, as the latter was rushing towards him with
impetuosity, addressed him, saying, "Wait, Wait." Duryodhana, however,
pierced Yudhishthira, in return, with nine keen arrows, and filled with
great wrath, struck Yudhishthira's driver also with a broad-headed shaft.
Then king Yudhishthira sped at Duryodhana three and ten arrows equipped
with wings of gold and whetted on stone. With four shafts that mighty
car-warrior then slew the four steeds of his foe, and with the fifth he
cut off from his trunk the head of Duryodhana's driver. With the sixth
arrow he felled the (Kuru) king's standard on the Earth, with the seventh
his bow, and with the eighth his scimitar. And then with five more shafts
king Yudhishthira the just deeply afflicted the Kuru monarch. Thy son,
then, alighting from that steedless car, stood on the Earth in imminent
danger. Beholding him in that situation of great peril, Karna and Drona's
son and Kripa and others rushed suddenly towards the spot, desirous of
rescuing the king. Then the (other) sons of Pandu, surrounding
Yudhishthira, all proceeded to the encounter, upon which, O king, a
fierce battle was fought. Thousands of trumpets then were blown in that
great engagement, and a confused din of myriad voices arose there, O
king. There where the Pancalas engaged the Kauravas, in battle, men
closed with men, and elephants with foremost of elephants. And
car-warriors closed with car-warriors, and horse with horse. And the
various couples of battling men and animals, of great prowess and armed
with diverse kinds of weapons and possessed of great skill presented a
beautiful sight, O king, over the field. All those heroes endued with
great impetuosity and desirous of compassing the destruction of one
another, fought beautifully and with great activity and skill. Observing
the (sanctioned) practices of warriors, they slew one another in battle.
None of them fought from behind others. For only a very short time that
battle presented a beautiful aspect. Soon it became an encounter of mad
men, in which the combatants showed no regard for one another. The
car-warrior, approaching the elephant, pierced the latter with keen
shafts and despatched it to Yama's presence by means of straight arrows.
Elephants, approaching steeds, dragged down many of them in that battle,
and tore them (with their tusks) most fiercely in diverse places. Large
numbers of horsemen also, encompassing many foremost of steeds, made a
loud noise with their palms, and closed with them. And those horsemen
slew those steeds as they ran hither and thither, as also many huge
elephants as these wandered over the field, from behind and the flanks.
Infuriate elephants, O king, routing large numbers of steeds, slew them
with their tusks or crushed them with great force. Some elephants, filled
with wrath pierced with their tusks horses with horsemen. Others seizing
such with great force hurled them to the ground with violence. Many
elephants, struck by foot-soldiers availing of the proper opportunities,
uttered terrible cries of pain and fled away on all sides. Among the
foot-soldiers that fled away in that great battle throwing down their
ornaments, there were many that were quickly encompassed on the field.
Elephant-warriors, riding on huge elephants, understanding indications of
victory, wheeled their beasts and causing them to seize those beautiful
ornaments, made the beasts to pierce them with their tusks. Other
foot-soldiers endued with great impetuosity and fierce might, surrounding
those elephant-warriors thus engaged in those spots began to slay them.
Others in that great battle, thrown aloft into the air by elephants with
their trunks, were pierced by those trained beasts with the points of
their tusks as they fell down. Others, suddenly seized by other
elephants, were deprived of life with their tusks. Others, borne away
from their own divisions into the midst of others, were, O king, mangled
by huge elephants which rolled them repeatedly on the ground. Others,
whirled on high like fans, were slain in that battle. Others, hither and
thither on the field, that stood full in front of other elephants had
their bodies exceedingly pierced and torn. Many elephants were deeply
wounded with spears and lances and darts in their cheeks and frontal
globes and parts between their tusks. Exceedingly afflicted by fierce
car-warriors and horsemen stationed on their flanks, many elephants,
ripped open, fell down on the Earth. In that dreadful battle many
horsemen on their steeds, striking foot-soldiers with their lances,
pinned them down to the Earth or crushed them with great force. Some
elephants, approaching mail-clad car-warriors, O sire, raised them aloft
from their vehicles and hurled them down with great force upon the Earth
in that fierce and awful fight. Some huge elephants slain by means of
cloth-yard shafts, fell down on the Earth like mountain summits riven by
thunder. Combatants, encountering combatants, began to strike each other
with their fists, or seizing each other by the hair, began to drag and
throw down and mangle each other. Others, stretching their arms and
throwing down their foes on the Earth, placed their feet on their chests
and with great activity cut off their heads. Some combatant, O king,
struck with his feet some foe that was dead, and some, O king, struck off
with his sword, the head of a falling foe, and some thrust his weapon
into the body of a living foe. A fierce battle took place there, O
Bharata, in which the combatants struck one another with fists or seized
one another's hair or wrestled with one another with bare arms. In many
instances, combatants, using diverse kinds of weapons, took the lives of
combatants engaged with others and, therefore, unperceived by them.
During the progress of that general engagement when all the combatants
were mangled in battle, hundreds and thousands of headless trunks stood
up on the field. Weapons and coats of mail, drenched with gore, looked
resplendent, like cloths dyed with gorgeous red. Even thus occurred that
fierce battle marked by the awful clash of weapons. Like the mad and
roaring current of the Ganga it seemed to fill the whole universe with
its uproar. Afflicted with shafts, the warriors failed to distinguish
friends from foes. Solicitous of victory, the kings fought on because
they fought that fight they should. The warriors slew both friends and
foes, with whom they came in contact. The combatants of both the armies
were deprived of reason by the heroes of both the armies assailing them
with fury. With broken cars, O monarch, the fallen elephants, and steeds
lying on the ground, and men laid low, the Earth, miry with gore and
flesh, and covered with streams of blood, soon became impassable, Karna
slaughtered the Pancalas while Dhananjaya slaughtered the Trigartas. And
Bhimasena, O king, slaughtered the Kurus and all the elephant divisions
of the latter. Even thus occurred that destruction of troops of both the
Kurus and the Pandavas, both parties having been actuated by the desire
of winning great fame, at that hour when the Sun had passed the
meridian.'"
--------------------END OF PARVA 8 : UPA-PARVA 28 ---------------------
