“Sanjaya said, ‘Then the younger brother of Karna, uttering loud roars,
bow in hand, and repeatedly stretching the bow-string, quickly placed
himself between those two illustrious warriors. And Karna’s brother, with
ten shafts, pierced invincible Abhimanyu and his umbrella and standard
and charioteer and steeds, smiling the while. Beholding Abhimanyu thus
afflicted with those arrows, although he had achieved those superhuman
feats in the manner of his sire and grandsire, the warriors of thy army
were filled with delight. Then Abhimanyu, forcibly bending the bow and
smiling the while, with one winged arrow cut off his antagonist’s head.
That head, severed from the trunk, fell down on the earth. Beholding his
brother slain and overthrown, like a Karnikara tree shaken and thrown
down by the wind from the mountain top, Karna, O monarch, was filled with
pain. Meanwhile, the son of Subhadra, causing Karna by means of his
arrows to turn away from the field, quickly rushed against the other
great bowmen. Then Abhimanyu of fierce energy and great fame, filled with
wrath, broke that host of diverse forces abounding with elephants and
steeds and cars and infantry. As regards Karna, afflicted by Abhimanyu
with countless shafts, he fled away from the field borne by swift steeds.
The Kaurava array then broke. When the welkin was covered with
Abhimanyu’s shafts, like flights of locusts or thick showers of rain,
nothing, O monarch, could be distinguished. Amongst thy warriors thus
slaughtered by Abhimanyu with sharp shafts, none, O monarch, stayed any
longer on the field of battle except the ruler of the Sindhus. Then that
bull among men, viz., the son of Subhadra, blowing his conch, speedily
fell upon the Bharata host, O bull of Bharata’s race! Like a burning
brand thrown into the midst of dry grass, Arjuna’s son began to consume
his foes, quickly careering through the Kaurava army. Having pierced
through their array, he mangled cars and elephants and steeds and human
beings by means of his sharp shafts and caused the field of battle teem
with headless trunks. Cut off by means of excellent arrows shot from the
bow of Subhadra’s son, the Kaurava warriors fled away, slaying, as they
fled, their own comrades before them. Those fierce arrows, of terrible
effect whetted on stone and countless in number, slaying car-warriors
and elephants, steeds, fell fast on the field. Arms, decked with Angadas
and other ornaments of gold, cut off and hands cased in leathern covers,
and arrows, and bows, and bodies and heads decked with car-rings and
floral wreaths, lay in thousands on the field. Obstructed with Upashkaras
and Adhishthanas and long poles also with crushed Akshas and broken
wheels and yokes, numbering thousands, with darts and bows and swords and
fallen standards, and with shields and bows lying all about, with the
bodies, O monarch, of slain Kshatriyas and steeds and elephants, the
field of battle, looking exceedingly fierce, soon became impassable. The
noise made by the princes, as they called upon one another while
slaughtered by Abhimanyu, became deafening and enhanced the fears of the
timid. That noise, O chief of the Bharatas, filled all the points of the
compass. The son of Subhadra, rushed against the (Kaurava) troops,
slaying foremost of car-warriors and steeds and elephants, Quickly
consuming his foes, like a fire playing in the midst of a heap of dry
grass, the son of Arjuna was seen careering through the midst of the
Bharata army. Encompassed as he was by our troops and covered with dust,
none of us could obtain a sight of that warrior when, O Bharata, he was
careening over the field in all directions, cardinal and subsidiary. And
he took the lives of steeds and elephants and human warriors, O Bharata,
almost incessantly. And soon after we saw him (come out of the press).
Indeed, O monarch, we beheld him then scorching his foes like the
meridian sun (scorching everything with his rays). Equal to Vasava
himself in battle, that son of Vasava’s son, viz., Abhimanyu, looked
resplendent in the midst of the (hostile) army.’”