“Sanjaya said, ‘Engaged in taking the lives of brave warriors, Arjuna’s
son then resembled the Destroyer himself, when the latter takes the lives
of all creatures on the arrival of the Universal Dissolution. Possessed
of prowess resembling that of Sakra himself, the mighty son of Sakra’s
son, viz., Abhimanyu, agitating the Kaurava army looked exceedingly
resplendent. Penetrating into the Kaurava host, O king, that destroyer
of foremost Kshatriyas resembling Yama himself, seized Satyasravas, like
an infuriated tiger seizing a deer. Beholding Satyasrayas, seized by him,
many mighty car-warriors, taking up diverse kinds of weapons, rushed upon
him. Indeed, those bulls among Kshatriyas, from a spirit of rivalry,
rushed at the son of Arjuna from desire of slaying him, all exclaiming,
“I shall go first, I shall go first!” As a whale in the sea obtaining a
shoal of small fish seizes them with the greatest ease, even so did
Abhimanyu receive that whole division of the rushing Kshatriyas. Like
rivers that never go back when they approach the sea, none amongst those
unretreating Kshatriyas turned back when they approached Abhimanyu. That
army then reeled like a boat tossed on the ocean when overtaken by a
mighty tempest, (with its crew) afflicted with panic caused by the
violence of the wind. Then the mighty Rukmaratha, son of the ruler of the
Madras, for assuring the frightened troops, fearlessly said, “Ye heroes,
ye need not fear! When I am here, what is Abhimanyu? Without doubt, I
will seize this one a living captive”. Having said these words, the
valiant prince, borne on his beautiful and well-equipped car, rushed at
Abhimanyu. Piercing Abhimanyu with three shafts in the chest, three in
the right arm, and three other sharp shafts in the left arm, he uttered a
loud roar. Phalguni’s son, however, cutting off his bow, his right and
left arms, and his head adorned with beautiful eyes and eye-brows quickly
felled them on the earth. Beholding Rukmaratha, the honoured son of
Salya, slain by the illustrious son of Subhadra, that Rukmaratha viz.,
who had vowed to consume his foe or take him alive, many princely friends
of Salya’s son, O king, accomplished in smiting and incapable of being
easily defeated in battle, and owning standards decked with gold, (came
up for the fight). Those mighty car-warriors, stretching their bows full
six cubits long, surrounded the son of Arjuna, all pouring their arrowy
showers upon him. Beholding the brave and invincible son of Subhadra
singly encountered by all those wrathful princes endued with heroism and
skill acquired by practice and strength and youth, and seeing him covered
with showers of arrows, Duryodhana rejoiced greatly, and regarded
Abhimanyu as one already made a guest of Yama’s abode. Within the
twinkling of an eye, those princes, by means of their shafts of golden
wings, and of diverse forms and great impetuosity, made Arjuna’s son
invisible. Himself, his standard, and his car, O sire, were seen by us
covered with shafts like (trees overwhelmed with) flights of locusts.
Deeply pierced, he became filled with rage like an elephant struck with
the hook. He then, O Bharata, applied the Gandharva weapon and the
illusion consequent to it.[73] Practising ascetic penances, Arjuna had
obtained that weapon from the Gandharva Tumvuru and others. With that
weapon, Abhimanyu now confounded his foes. Quickly displaying his
weapons, he careered in that battle like a circle of fire, and was, O
king, seen sometimes as a single individual, sometimes as a hundred, and
sometimes as a thousand ones. Confounding his foes by the skill with
which his car was guided and by the illusion caused by his weapons, he
cut in a hundred pieces, O monarch, the bodies of the kings (opposed to
him). By means of his sharp shafts the lives of living creatures were
despatched. These, O king attained to the other world while their bodies
fell down on the earth. Their bows, and steeds and charioteers, and
standards, and armies decked with Angadar, and heads, the son of Phalguni
cut off with his sharp shafts. Those hundred princes were slain and
felled by Subhadra’s son like a tope of five-year old mango-trees just on
the point of bearing fruit (laid low by a tempest). Beholding those
youthful princes brought up in every luxury, and resembling angry snakes
of virulent poison, all slain by the single-handed Abhimanyu, Duryodhana
was filled with fear. Seeing (his) car-warriors and elephants and steeds
and foot-soldiers crushed, the Kuru king quickly proceeded in wrath
against Abhimanyu. Continued for only a short space of time, the
unfinished battle between them became exceedingly fierce. Thy son then,
afflicted with Abhimanyu’s arrows, was obliged to turn back from the
fight.’”