“Sanjaya said, ‘Upon the fall of Sudakshina and of the heroic Srutayudha,
O monarch, thy warriors, filled with wrath, rushed with speed at Partha.
The Abhishahas, the Surasenas, the Sivis, the Vasatis began, O king, to
scatter their arrowy showers on Dhananjaya. The son of Pandu then
consumed by means of his arrows six hundred of them at once. Thereupon,
those warriors, terrified, fled away like smaller animals from a tiger.
Rallying, they once more surrounded Partha, who was slaying his foes and
vanquishing them in battle. Dhananjaya then, with shafts sped from
Gandiva, speedily felled the heads and arms of the combatants thus
rushing upon him. Not an inch of the field of battle was unstrewn with
fallen heads, and the flights of crows and vultures and ravens that
hovered over the field seemed to form a cloudy canopy. Seeing their men
thus exterminated, Srutayus and Achyutayus were both filled with wrath.
And they continued to contend vigorously with Dhananjaya. Endued with
great might, proud, heroic, of noble lineage, and possessed of strength
of arms, those two bowmen, O king, solicitous of winning great fame and
desirous, for the sake of thy son, to compass the destruction of Arjuna,
quickly showered upon the latter their arrowy downpours at once from his
right and left. Those angry heroes, with a thousand straight shafts,
covered Arjuna like two masses of clouds filling a lake. Then that
foremost of car-warriors viz., Srutayus filled with wrath, struck
Dhananjaya with a well-tempered lance. That crusher of foes viz., Arjuna,
then, deeply pierced by his mighty foe, swooned away in that battle,
stupefying Kesava also (by that act). Meanwhile, the mighty car-warrior
Achyutayus forcibly struck the son of Pandu with a keen-pointed spear. By
the act he seemed to pour an acid upon the wound of the high-souled son
of Pandu. Deeply pierced therewith, Partha supported himself by seizing
the flag-staff. Then a leonine shout was sent forth by all the troops, O
monarch, in the belief that Dhananjaya was deprived of life. And Krishna
also was scorched with grief upon beholding Partha senseless. Then Kesava
comforted Dhananjaya with soothing words. Then those foremost of
car-warriors, (viz., Srutayus and Achyutayus), of true aim, pouring their
arrowy showers on all sides, in that battle, made Dhananjaya and Vasudeva
of Vrishni’s race invisible with their car and car-wheels and Kuvaras,
their steeds and flagstaff and banner. And all this seemed wonderful.
Meanwhile, O Bharata, Vibhatsu slowly regained his senses, like one come
back from the very abode of the king of the dead. Beholding his car with
Kesava overwhelmed with arrows and seeing also those two antagonists of
his staying before him like two blazing fires, the mighty car-warrior
Partha then invoked into existence the weapon named after Sakra. From
that weapon flowed thousands of straight shafts. And those shafts struck
Srutayus and Achyutayus, those mighty bowmen. And the arrows shot by the
latter, pierced by those of Partha, coursed through the welkin. And the
son of Pandu quickly baffling those arrows by the force of his own
arrows, began to career over the field, encountering mighty car-warriors.
Meanwhile Srutayus and Achyutayus were, by Arjuna’s arrowy showers,
deprived of their arms and heads. And they fell down on the earth, like a
couple of tall trees broken by the wind. And the death of Srutayus and
slaughter of Achyutayus created surprise equal to what men would feel at
the sight of the ocean becoming dry. Then slaying fifty car-warriors
amongst the followers of those two princes, Partha proceeded against the
Bharata army, slaying many foremost of warriors. Beholding both Srutayus
and Achyutayus slain, their sons, those foremost of men, viz., Niyatayus
and Dirghayus, O Bharata, both filled with rage, rushed against the son
of Kunti, scattering shafts of diverse kinds, and much pained by the
calamity that had happened to their sires. Arjuna, excited with rage, in
a moment despatched them both towards Yama’s abode, by means of straight
shafts. And those bulls among Kshatriyas (that were in the Kuru army)
were unable to resist Partha who agitated the Dhartarashtra ranks, like
an elephant agitating the waters of a lake filled with lotuses. Then
thousands of trained elephant-riders amongst the Angas, O monarch, filled
with rage, surrounded the son of Pandu with their elephant-force. Urged
by Duryodhana, many kings also of the west and the south, and many others
headed by the ruler of the Kalingas, also surrounded Arjuna, with their
elephants huge as hills. Partha however, with shafts sped from Gandiva,
quickly cut off the heads and arms, decked with ornaments, of those
advancing combatants. The field of battle, strewn with those heads and
arms decked with Angadas, looked like golden stones entwined by snakes.
And the arms of warriors cut off therewith, while falling down, looked
like birds dropping down from trees. And the elephants, pierced with
thousands of arrows and shedding blood (from their wounds), looked like
hills in the season of rains with liquefied red chalk streaming down
their sides. Others, slain by Partha with sharp shafts, lay prostrate on
the field. And many Mlecchas on the backs of elephants, of diverse kinds
of ugly forms, robed in diverse attires, O king, and armed with diverse
kinds of weapons, and bathed in blood, looked resplendent as they lay on
the field, deprived of life by means of diverse kinds of arrows. And
thousands of elephants along with their riders and those on foot that
urged them forward, struck with Partha’s shafts, vomited blood, or
uttered shrieks of agony, or fell down, or ran ungovernably in all
directions. And many, exceedingly frightened, trod down and crushed their
own men. And many which were kept as reserves and which were fierce as
snakes of virulent poison, did the same. And many terrible Yavanas and
Paradas and Sakas and Valhikas, and Mlecchas born of the cow (belonging
to Vasishtha), of fierce eyes, accomplished in smiting looking like
messengers of Death, and all conversant with the deceptive powers of the
Asuras and many Darvabhisaras and Daradas and Pundras numbering by
thousands, of bands, and together forming a force that was countless,
began to shower their sharp shafts upon the son of Pandu. Accomplished in
various modes of warfare, those Mlecchas covered Arjuna with their
arrows. Upon them, Dhananjaya also quickly poured his arrows. And those
arrows, shot from Gandiva, looked like flights of locusts, as they
coursed through the welkin. Indeed, Dhananjaya, having by his arrows
caused a shade over the troops like that of the clouds, slew, by the
force of his weapons, all the Mlecchas, with heads completely shaved or
half-shaved or covered with matted locks, impure in habits, and of
crooked faces. Those dwellers of hills, pierced with arrows, those
denizens of mountain-caves, fled away in fear. And ravens and Kankas and
wolves, with great glee, drank the blood of those elephants and steeds
and their Mleccha-riders overthrown on the field by Partha with his sharp
shafts. Indeed, Arjuna caused a fierce river to flow there whose current
consisted of blood. (Slain) foot-soldiers and steeds and cars and
elephants constituted its embankments. The showers of shafts poured
constituted its rafts and the hairs of the combatants formed its moss and
weeds. And the fingers cut off from the arms of warriors, formed its
little fishes. And that river was as awful as Death itself at the end of
the Yuga. And that river of blood flowed towards the region of Yama, and
the bodies of slain elephants floating on it, obstructed its current. And
the earth was covered all over with the blood of Kshatriyas and of
elephants and steeds and their riders, and became one bloody expanse like
to what is seen when Indra showers a heavy down-pour covering uplands and
lowlands alike. And that bull among Kshatriyas despatched six thousand
horsemen and again a thousand foremost of Kshatriyas in that battle into
the jaws of death. Thousands of well-equipped elephants, pierced with
arrows, lay prostrate on the field, like hills struck down by thunder.
And Arjuna careered over the field, slaying steeds and car-warriors and
elephants, like an elephant of rent temples crushing a forest a reeds. As
a conflagration, urged by the wind, consumes a dense forest of trees and
creepers and plants and dry wood and grass, even so did that fire, viz.,
Pandu’s son Dhananjaya, having shafts for its flames and urged on by the
Krishna-wind, angrily consume the forest of thy warriors. Making the
terraces of cars empty, and causing the earth to be strewn, with human
bodies, Dhananjaya seemed to dance bow in hand, in the midst of those
vast masses of men. Deluging the earth with blood by means of his shafts,
endued with the strength of the thunder, Dhananjaya, excited with wrath,
penetrated into the Bharata host. While thus proceeding, Srutayus, the
ruler of the Amvashthas, resisted him. Arjuna then, O sire, speedily
felled with keen shafts equipped with Kanka feathers, the steeds of
Srutayus struggling in battle. And cutting off with other shafts, the bow
also of his antagonist, Partha careered over the field. The ruler of the
Amvashthas, then with eyes troubled in wrath, took up a mace and
approached the mighty car-warrior Partha and Kesava also in that battle.
Then that hero, uplifting his mace, stopped the (progress of Arjuna’s)
car by its strokes, and struck Kesava also therewith. Then that slayer of
hostile heroes, viz., Arjuna, beholding Kesava struck with that mace,
became filled with wrath. And, then, O Bharata, that hero, with his
shafts, equipped with wings of gold, covered the ruler of the Amvashthas,
that foremost or car-warriors, armed with mace, like clouds covering the
risen sun. With other shafts, Partha then cut off the mace of that
high-souled warrior in fragments, reducing it almost to dust. And all
this seemed highly wonderful. Beholding that mace of his cut off in
fragments, the ruler of the Amvashthas took up another huge mace, and
repeatedly struck both Arjuna and Kesava therewith. Then, Arjuna with a
couple of sharp broad-faced arrows, cut off the uplifted arms of Srutayus
which held the mace, those arms that looked like a couple of Indra’s
standard, and with another winged arrow, he cut off the head of that
warrior. Thus slain, Srutayus fell down, O king, filling the earth with a
loud noise, like a tall standard of Indra when the strings, tying it to
the engine on which it is set, are cut off. Surrounded then on all sides
by rounds of cars and by hundreds upon hundreds of elephants and cars,
Partha became invisible like the sun covered with clouds.’”