“Dhritarashtra said, ‘O Suta, O Sanjaya, this grievous result that has
now overtaken us is, I think, certainly due to my evil policy. I had
hitherto thought that what is past. But, O Sanjaya, what measures should
I now adopt? I am now once more calm, O Sanjaya, therefore, tell me how
this slaughter of heroes is going on, having my evil policy for its
cause.’
“Sanjaya said, ‘Indeed, O king, Karna and Bhima, both endued with great
prowess, continued in that battle to pour their arrowy showers like two
rain-charged clouds. The arrows, winged with gold and whetted on stone
and marked with Bhima’s name, approaching Karna, penetrated into his
body, as if piercing into his very life. Similarly, Bhima also, in that
battle was shrouded with the shafts of Karna in hundreds and thousands,
resembling snakes of virulent poison. With their arrows, O king, falling
on all sides, an agitation was produced among the troops resembling that
of the very ocean. Many were the combatants, O chastiser of foes, in thy
host that were deprived of life by arrows, resembling snakes of virulent
poison shot from Bhima’s bow. Strewn with fallen elephants and steeds
mixed with the bodies of men, the field of battle looked like one covered
with trees broken by a tempest. Slaughtered in battle with the arrows
from Bhima’s bow, thy warriors fled away, saying, “What is this?” Indeed,
that host of the Sindhus, the Sauviras, and the Kauravas, afflicted with
the impetuous shafts of both Karna and Bhima, was removed to a great
distance. The remnant of those brave soldiers, with their steeds and
elephants killed, leaving the vicinity of both Karna and Bhima, fled away
in all directions. (And they cried out), “Verily, for the sake of the
Parthas, the gods are stupefying us, since those arrows shot by both
Bhima and Karna are slaying our forces.” Saying those words, these troops
of thine afflicted with fear avoiding the range of (Karna’s and Bhima’s)
arrows, stood at a distance for witnessing that combat. Then, on the
field of battle there began to flow a terrible river enhancing the joy of
the heroes and the fears of the timid. And it was caused by the blood of
elephants and steeds and men. And covered with the lifeless forms of men
and elephants and steeds, with flagstaffs and the bottoms of cars, with
the adornments of cars and elephants and steeds with broken cars and
wheels and Akshas and Kuveras, with loud-twanged bows decked with gold,
and gold-winged arrows and shafts in thousands, shot by Karna and Bhima,
resembling snakes just freed from their sloughs, with countless lances
and spears and scimitars and battleaxes, with maces and clubs and axes,
all adorned with gold, with standards of diverse shapes, and darts and
spiked clubs, and with beautiful Sataghnis, the earth, O Bharata, looked
resplendent. And strewn all over with earrings and necklaces of gold and
bracelets loosened (from wrists), and rings, and precious gems worn on
diadems and crowns, and head-gears, and golden ornaments of diverse
kinds, O sire, and coats of mail, and leathern fences, and elephants’
ropes, and umbrellas displaced (from their places) and Yak-tails, and
fans with the pierced bodies of elephants and steeds and men, with
blood-dyed arrows, and with diverse other objects, lying about and
loosened from their places, the field of battle looked resplendent like
the firmament bespangled with stars. Beholding the wonderful,
inconceivable, and superhuman feats of those two warriors, the Charanas
and the Siddhas were exceedingly amazed. As a blazing conflagration,
having the wind for its ally, courses through an (extended) heap of dry
grass, even so, Adhiratha’s son, engaged with Bhima, coursed fiercely in
that battle.[161] Both of them felled countless standards and cars and
slew steeds and men and elephants, like a pair of elephants crushing a
forest of reeds while engaged in battle with other. Thy host looked like
a mass of clouds, O king of men, and great was the carnage caused in
that battle by Karna and Bhima.’”[162]