“Sanjaya said, ‘After the divisions of the Kuru army had been (thus)
arrayed, and a loud uproar, O sire, had arisen; after drums and
Mridangas began to be beaten and played upon, after the din of the
warriors and the noise of musical instruments had become audible; after
conch began to be blown, and an awful roar had arisen, making the hair
stand on end; after the field of battle had been slowly covered by the
Bharata heroes desirous of fight; and after the hour called Rudra had set
in, Savyasachin made his appearance. Many thousands of ravens and crows,
O Bharata, proceeded sporting on the front of Arjuna’s car. Various
animals of terrible cries, and jackals of inauspicious sight, began to
yell and howl on our right as we proceeded to battle. Thousands of
blazing meteors fell with great noise. The whole earth trembled on that
dreadful occasion. Dry winds blew in all directions, accompanied by
thunder, and driving hard pebbles and gravel when Kunti’s son came at the
commencement of battle. Then Nakula’s son, Satanika, and Dhrishtadyumna,
the son of Pritha, those two warriors possessed of great wisdom, arrayed
the several divisions of the Pandavas. Then thy son Durmarshana,
accompanied by a thousand cars, a hundred elephants, three thousand
heroes, and ten thousand foot-soldiers, and covering a piece of ground
that measured the length of fifteen hundred bows, took up his position at
the very van of all the troops, and said: “Like the continent resisting
the surging sea, even I will today resist the wielder of Gandiva, that
scorcher of foes, that warrior who is irresistible in battle. Let people
today behold the wrathful Dhananjaya collide with me, like a mass of
stone against another stony mass. Ye car-warriors that are desirous of
battle, stay ye (as witness). Alone I will fight with all the Pandavas
assembled together, for enhancing my honour and fame.” That high-souled
and noble son of thine, that great bowman saying this, stood there
surrounded by many great bowmen. Then, like the Destroyer himself in
wrath, or Vasava himself armed with the thunder, or Death’s irresistible
self armed with his club and urged on by Time, or Mahadeva armed with the
trident and incapable of being ruffled, or Varuna bearing his noise, or
the blazing fire at the end of the Yuga risen for consuming the creation,
the slayer of the Nivatakavachas inflamed with rage and swelling with
might, the ever-victorious Jaya, devoted to truth and desirous of
achieving his great vow, clad in mail and armed with sword, decked in
golden diadem, adorned with garlands of swords of white flowers and
attired in white robes, his arms decked with beautiful Angadas and ears
with excellent ear-rings, mounted on his own foremost of cars, (the
incarnate) Nara, accompanied by Narayana, shaking his Gandiva in battle,
shone brilliantly like the risen sun. And Dhananjaya of great prowess,
placing his car, O king, at the very van of his army, where densest
showers of arrows would fall, blew his conch. Then Krishna also, O sire,
fearlessly blew with great force his foremost of conchs called
Panchajanya as Partha blew his. And in consequence of the blare of the
conchs, all the warriors in thy army, O monarch, trembled and became lost
of heart. And their hair stood on end at that sound. As all creatures are
oppressed with fright at the sound of the thunder, even so did all thy
warriors take fright at the blare of those conchs. And all the animals
ejected urine and excreta. Thy whole army with its animals became filled
with anxiety, O king, and in consequence of the blare of those (two)
conchs, all men, O sire, lost their strength. And some amongst them, O
monarch, were inspired with dread, and some lost their senses. And the
ape on Arjuna’s banner, opening his mouth wide, made an awful noise with
the other creatures on it, for terrifying thy troops. Then conchs and
horns and cymbals and Anakas were once more blown and beat for cheering
thy warriors. And that noise mingled with the noise of diverse (other)
musical instruments, with the shouts of warriors and the slaps of their
arm-pits, and with their leonine roars uttered by great car-warriors in
summoning and challenging (their antagonists). When that tumultuous
uproar rose there, an uproar that enhanced the fear of the timid, the son
of Pakasana, filled with great delight, addressing him of Dasarha’s race,
said (these words).’
“‘Arjuna said, “Urge the steeds, O Hrishikesa, to where Durmarshana
stayeth. Piercing through that elephant division I will penetrate into
the hostile army.”’
“Sanjaya continued, ‘Thus addressed by Savyasachin, the mighty-armed
Kesava urged the steeds to where Durmarshana was staying. Fierce and
awful was the encounter that commenced there between one and the many, an
encounter that proved very destructive of cars and elephants and men.
Then Partha, resembling a pouring cloud, covered his foes with showers of
shafts, like a mass of clouds pouring rain on the mountain breast.[135]
The hostile of car-warriors also, displaying great lightness of hand,
quickly covered both Krishna and Dhananjaya with clouds of arrows. The
mighty-armed Partha, then, thus opposed in battle by his foes, became
filled with wrath, and began to strike off with his arrows the heads of
car-warriors from their trunks. And the earth became strewn with
beautiful heads decked with ear-rings and turbans, the nether lips bit by
the upper ones, and the faces adorned with eyes troubled with wrath.
Indeed, the scattered heads of the warriors looked resplendent like an
assemblage of plucked off and crushed lotuses lying strewn about the
field. Golden coats of mail[136] dyed with gore (lying thick over the
field), looked like masses of clouds charged with lightning. The sound, O
king, of severed heads dropping on the earth, resembled that of falling
palmyra fruits ripened in due time, headless trunks arose, some with bow
in hand, and some with naked swords upraised in the act of striking.
Those brave warriors incapable of brooking Arjuna’s feats and desirous of
vanquishing him, had no distinct perception as to when their heads were
struck off by Arjuna. The earth became strewn with heads of horses,
trunks of elephants, and the arms and legs of heroic warriors. “This is
one Partha”, “Where is Partha? Here is Partha!” Even thus, O king, the
warriors, of thy army became filled with the idea of Partha only.
Deprived of their senses by Time, they regarded the whole world to be
full of Partha only, and therefore, many of them perished, striking one
another, and some struck even their own selves. Uttering yells of woe,
many heroes, covered with blood, deprived of their senses, and in great
agony, laid themselves down, calling upon their friends and kinsmen.
Arms, bearing short arrows, or lances, or darts, or swords, or
battle-axes, or pointed stakes, or scimitars, or bows, or spears, or
shafts, or maces, and cased in armour and decked with Angadas and other
ornaments, and looking like large snakes, and resembling huge clubs, cut
off (from trunks) with mighty weapons, were seen to jump about, jerk
about, and move about, with great force, as if in rage. Every one amongst
those that wrathfully advanced against Partha in that battle, perished,
pierced in his body with some fatal shafts of that hero. While dancing on
his car as it moved, and drawing his bow, no one there could detect the
minutest opportunity for striking him. The quickness with which he took
his shafts, fixed them on the bow, and let them off, filled all his
enemies with wonder. Indeed Phalguna, with his shafts, pierced elephants
and elephant-riders, horses and horse-riders, car-warriors and drivers of
cars. There was none amongst his enemies, whether staying before him or
struggling in battle, or wheeling about, whom the son of Pandu did not
slay. As the sun rising in the welkin destroyeth the thick gloom, even so
did Arjuna destroy that elephant-force by means of his shafts winged with
Kanka plumes. The field occupied by thy troops, in consequence of riven
elephants fallen upon it, looked like the earth strewn with huge hills at
the hour of universal dissolution. As the midday sun is incapable of
being looked at by all creatures, even so was Dhananjaya, excited with
wrath, incapable of being looked at, in battle, by his enemies. The
troops of thy son, O chastiser of foes, afflicted (with the arrows of
Dhananjaya), broke and fled in fear. Like a mass of clouds pierced and
driven away by a mighty wind, that army was pierced and routed by Partha.
None indeed could gaze at the hero while he was slaying the foe. Urging
their heroes to great speed by spurs, by the horns of their bows, by deep
growls, by encouraging behests, by whips, by cuts on their flanks, and by
threatening speeches, thy men, viz., thy cavalry and thy car-warriors, as
also thy foot-soldiers, struck by the shafts of Arjuna, fled away from
the fields. Others (that rode on elephants), fled away, urging those huge
beasts by pressing their flanks with their hooks and many warriors struck
by Partha’s arrows, in flying, ran against Partha himself. Indeed, thy
warriors, then became all cheerless and their understandings were all
confused.’”