SECTION 94
"Sanjaya said, 'The ruler of the Madras then, beholding your son employed
in rallying the troops, with fear depicted on his countenance and with
heart stupefied with grief, said these words unto Duryodhana.
"'Shalya said, "Behold this awful field of battle, O hero, covered with
heaps of slain men and steeds and elephants. Some tracts are covered with
fallen elephants huge as mountains, exceedingly mangled, their vital
limbs pierced with shafts, lying helplessly, deprived of life, their
armour displaced and the weapons, the shields and the swords with which
they were equipped lying scattered about. These fallen animals resemble
huge mountains riven with thunder, with their rocks and lofty trees and
herbs loosened from them and lying all around. The bells and iron hooks
and lances and standards with which those huge creatures had been
equipped are lying on the ground. Adorned with housings of gold, their
bodies are now bathed in blood. Some tracts, again, are covered with
fallen steeds, mangled with shafts, breathing hard in pain and vomitting
blood. Some of them are sending forth soft wails of pain, some are biting
the earth with rolling eyes and some are uttering piteous neighs.
Portions of the field are covered with horsemen and elephant-warriors
fallen off from their animals, and with bands of car-warriors forcibly
thrown down from their cars. Some of them are already dead and some are
at the point of death. Covered also with the corpses of men and steeds
and elephants as also with crushed cars and other huge elephants with
their trunks and limbs cut off, the earth has become awful to look at
like the great Vaitarani (skirting the domains of Yama). Indeed, the
earth looketh even such, being strewn with other elephants, stretched on
the ground with trembling bodies and broken tusks, vomiting blood,
uttering soft cries in pain, deprived of the warriors on their backs,
divested of the armour that covered their limbs, and reft of the
foot-soldiers that protected their flank and rear, and with their quivers
and banners and standards displaced, their bodies adorned with housings
of gold struck deep with the weapons of the foe. The earth looked like
the cloud-covered welkin in consequence of being strewn with the fallen
bodies of elephant-warriors and horse-men and carwarriors, all of great
fame, and of foot-soldiers slain by foes fighting face to face, and
divested of armour and ornaments and attire and weapons. Covered with
thousands of fallen combatants mangled with arrows, fully exposed to
view, and deprived of consciousness, with some amongst them whose breaths
were returning slowly, the earth seemed as if covered with many
extinguished fires. With those foremost of heroes among both the Kurus
and the Srinjayas, pierced with arrows and deprived of life by Partha and
Karna, the earth seemed as if strewn with blazing planets fallen from the
firmament, or like the nocturnal firmament itself bespangled with blazing
planets of serene light. The shafts sped from the arms of Karna and
Arjuna, piercing through the bodies of elephants and steeds and men and
quickly stilling their lives, entered the earth like mighty snakes
entering their holes with heads bent downwards. The earth has become
impassable with heaps of slain men and steeds and elephants, and with
cars broken with the shafts of Dhananjaya and Adhiratha's son and with
the numberless shafts themselves shot by them. Strewn with well-equipped
cars crushed by means of mighty shafts along with the warriors and the
weapons and the standards upon them, cars, that is, with their traces
broken, their joints separated, their axles and yokes and Trivenus
reduced to fragments, their wheels loosened, their Upaskaras destroyed,
their Anukarsanas cut in pieces, the fastenings of their quivers cut off,
and their niches (for the accommodation of drivers) broken, strewn with
those vehicles adorned with gems and gold, the earth looks like the
firmament overspread with autumnal clouds. In consequence of
well-equipped royal cars deprived of riders and dragged by fleet steeds,
as also of men and elephants and cars and horses that fled very quickly,
the army has been broken in diverse ways. Spiked maces with golden bells,
battle-axes, sharp lances, heavy clubs, mallets, bright unsheathed
swords, and maces covered with cloth of gold, have fallen on the field.
Bows decked with ornaments of gold, and shafts equipped with beautiful
wings of pure gold, and bright unsheathed rapiers of excellent temper,
and lances, and scimitars bright as gold, and umbrellas, and fans, and
conchs, and arms decked with excellent flowers and gold, and caparisons
of elephants, and standards, and car fences and diadems, and necklaces,
and brilliant crowns, and yak-tails lying about, O king, and garlands
luminous with corals and pearls, and chaplets for the head, and bracelets
for both the wrist and the upper arms, and collars for the neck with
strings of gold, and diverse kinds of costly diamonds and gems and
pearls, and bodies brought up in a great luxury, and heads beautiful as
the moon, are lying scattered about. Abandoning their bodies and
enjoyments and robes and diverse kinds of agreeable pleasures, and
acquiring great merit for the devotion they showed to the virtuous of
their order, they have speedily gone in a blaze of flame to regions of
bliss. Turn back, O Duryodhana! Let the troops retire! O king, O giver of
honours, proceed towards your camp! There, the Sun is hanging low in the
welkin, O lord! Remember, O ruler of men, that you are the cause of all
this!"
"'Having said these words unto Duryodhana, Shalya, with heart filled with
grief, stopped. Duryodhana, however, at that time, deeply afflicted and
deprived of his senses, and with eyes bathed in tears, wept for the
Suta's son, saying, "Karna! Oh Karna!" Then all the kings headed by
Drona's son, repeatedly comforting Duryodhana, proceeded towards the
camp, frequently looking back at the lofty standard of Arjuna that seemed
to be ablaze with his fame. At that terrible hour when everything around
looked so resplendent, the Kauravas, all of whom had resolved to repair
to the other world, their features incapable of recognition owing to the
blood that covered them, beholding the earth, that was drenched with the
blood flowing from the bodies of men and steeds and elephants, looking
like a courtesan attired in crimson robes and floral garlands and
ornaments of gold, were unable, O king, to stand there! Filled with grief
at the slaughter of Karna, they indulged in loud lamentations, saying,
"Alas, Karna! Alas Karna!" Beholding the Sun assume a crimson hue, all of
them speedily proceeded towards their camp. As regards Karna, though
slain and pierced with gold-winged shafts whetted on stone and equipped
with feathers and dyed in blood and sped from gandiva, yet that hero,
lying on the ground, looked resplendent like the Sun himself of bright
rays. It seemed that illustrious Surya, ever kind to his worshippers,
having touched with his rays the gore-drenched body of Karna, proceeded,
with aspect crimson in grief, to the other ocean from desire of a bath.
Thinking so, the throngs of celestials and rishis (that had come there
for witnessing the battle) left the scene for proceeding to their
respective abodes. The large crowd of other beings also, entertaining the
same thought, went away, repairing as they chose to heaven or the earth.
The foremost of Kuru heroes also, having beheld that wonderful battle
between Dhananjaya and Adhiratha's son, which had inspired all living
creatures with dread, proceeded (to their nightly quarters), filled with
wonder and applauding (the encounter). Though his armour had been cut off
with arrows, and though he had been slain in course of that dreadful
fight, still that beauty of features which the son of Radha possessed did
not abandon him when dead. Indeed, everyone beheld the body of the hero
to resemble heated gold. It seemed to be endued with life and possessed
of the effulgence of fire or the sun. All the warriors, O king, were
inspired with fright at sight of the Suta's son lying dead on the field,
like other animals at sight of the lion. Indeed, though dead, that tiger
among men seemed ready to utter his commands. Nothing, in that
illustrious dead, seemed changed. Clad in beautiful attire, and possessed
of a neck that was very beautiful, the Suta's son owned a face which
resembled the full moon in splendour. Adorned with diverse ornaments and
decked with Angadas made of bright gold, Vaikartana, though slain, lay
stretched like a gigantic tree adorned with branches and twigs. Indeed,
that tiger among men lay like a heap of pure gold, or like a blazing fire
extinguished with the water of Partha's shafts. Even as a blazing
conflagration is extinguished when it comes in contact with water, the
Karna-conflagration was extinguished by the Partha-cloud in the battle.
Having shot showers of arrows and scorched the ten points of the compass,
that tiger among men, viz., Karna, along with his sons, was quieted by
Partha's energy. He left the world, taking away with him that blazing
glory of his own which he had earned on earth by fair fight. Having
scorched the Pandavas and the Pancalas with the energy of his weapons,
having poured showers of arrows and burnt the hostile divisions, having,
indeed, heated the universe like the thousand-rayed Surya of great
beauty, Karna, otherwise called Vaikartana, left the world, with his sons
and followers. Thus fell that hero who was a Kalpa tree unto those swarms
of birds represented by suitors. Solicited by suitors he always said, "I
give" but never the words "I have not!" The righteous always regarded him
as a righteous person. Even such was Vrisha who fell in single combat.
All the wealth of that high-souled person had been dedicated to the
Brahmanas. There was nothing, not even his life, that he could not give
away unto the Brahmanas. He was ever the favourite of ladies, exceedingly
liberal, and a mighty car-warrior. Burnt by the weapons of Partha, he
attained to the highest end. He, relying upon whom your son had provoked
hostilities, thus went to heaven, taking away with him the hope of
victory, the happiness, and the armour of the Kauravas. When Karna fell,
the rivers stood still. The Sun set with a pale hue. The planet Mercury,
the son of Soma, assuming the hue of fire or the Sun, appeared to course
through the firmament in a slanting direction. The firmament seemed to be
rent in twain; the earth uttered loud roars; violent and awful winds
began to blow. All the points of the horizon, covered with smoke, seemed
to be ablaze. The great oceans were agitated and uttered awful sounds.
The mountains with their forests began to tremble, and all creatures, O
sire, felt pain. The planet Jupiter, afflicting the constellation Rohini
assumed the hue of the moon or the sun. Upon the fall of Karna, the
subsidiary points also of the compass became ablaze. The sky became
enveloped in darkness. The earth trembled. Meteors of blazing splendour
fell. Rakshasas and other wanderers of the night became filled with joy.
When Arjuna, with that razor-faced shaft, struck off Karna's head adorned
with a face beautiful as the moon, then, O king, loud cries of "Oh!" and
"Alas!" were heard of creatures in heaven, in the welkin, and on the
earth. Having in battle slain his foe Karna who was worshipped by the
gods, the gandharvas, and human beings, Pritha's son Arjuna looked
resplendent in his energy like the deity of a 1,000 eyes after the
slaughter of Vritra. Then riding on that car of theirs whose rattle
resembled the roar of the clouds and whose splendour was like that of the
meridian sun of the autumnal sky, which was adorned with banners and
equipped with a standard incessantly producing an awful noise, whose
effulgence resembled that of the snow or the Moon or the conch or the
crystal, and whose steeds were like those of Indra himself, those two
foremost of men, viz., the son of Pandu and the crusher of Keshi, whose
energy resembled that of the great Indra, and who were adorned with gold
and pearls and gems and diamonds and corals, and who were like fire or
the sun in splendour, fearlessly careered over the field of battle with
great speed, like Vishnu and Vasava mounted on the same chariot. Forcibly
divesting the enemy of his splendour by means of the twang of gandiva and
the slaps of their palms, and slaying the Kurus with showers of shafts,
the Ape-bannered Arjuna, the Garuda-bannered Krishna, both of whom were
possessed of immeasurable prowess, those two foremost of men, filled with
joy, took up with their hands their loud-sounding conchs adorned with
gold and white as snow, and placing them against their lips, blew
simultaneously with those beautiful mouths of theirs, piercing the hearts
of their foes with the sound. The blare of pancajanya and that of
devadatta filled the earth, the sky, and heaven.
At the sound of the heroic Madhava's conch as also at that of Arjuna's,
all the Kauravas, O best of kings, became filled with fright. Those
foremost of men, causing the forests, the mountains, the rivers and the
points of the compass to resound with the blare of their conchs, and
filling the army of your son with fright, gladdened Yudhishthira
therewith. As soon as the Kauravas heard the blare of those conchs that
were thus being blown, all of them left the field with great speed,
deserting the ruler of the Madras and the chief of the Bharatas, O
Bharata, viz., Duryodhana. Then diverse creatures, uniting together,
congratulated Dhananjaya, that hero shining resplendent on the field of
battle, as also Janardana, those two foremost of men who then looked like
a couple of risen suns. Pierced with Karna's arrows, those two chastisers
of foes, Acyuta and Arjuna, looked resplendent like the bright and
many-rayed moon and the sun risen after dispelling a gloom. Casting off
those arrows, those two mighty warriors, both endued with unrivalled
prowess, surrounded by well-wishers and friends, happily entered their
own encampment, like the lords Vasava and Vishnu duly invoked by
sacrificial priests. Upon the slaughter of Karna in that dreadful battle,
the gods, gandharvas, human beings, caranas, great rishis, yakshas, and
great nagas, worshipped Krishna and Arjuna with great respect and wished
them victory (in all things). Having received all their friends then,
each according to his age, and applauded by those friends in return for
their incomparable feats, the two heroes rejoiced with their friends,
like the chief of the celestials and Vishnu after the overthrow of Vali.'"
--------------------END OF PARVA 8 : UPA-PARVA 94 ---------------------
