The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose: Sabha Parva
Religion
The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose: Sabha Parva
Epic literature, Sanskrit
Accomplished in wrestling, the two heroes clasping each
other with their arms and each dragging the other unto himself, began
to press each other with great violence. The heroes then performed
those grandest of all feats in wrestling called Prishtabhanga, which
consisted in throwing each other down with face towards the earth and
maintaining the one knocked down in that position as long as possible.
And employing his arms, each also performed the feats called
Sampurna-murchcha and Purna-kumbha. At times they twisted each other's
arms and other limbs as if these were vegetable fibres that were to be
twisted into chords. And with clenched fists they struck each other at
times, pretending to aim at particular limbs while the blows descended
upon other parts of the body. It was thus that those heroes fought with
each other. The citizens consisting of thousands, of Brahmanas,
Kshatriyas and Vaisyas and Sudras, and even women and the aged, O tiger
among men, came out and gathered there to behold the fight. And the
crowd became so great that it was one solid mass of humanity with no
space between body and body. The sound the wrestlers made by the
slapping of their arms, the seizing of each other's necks for bringing
each other down, and the grasping of each other's legs for dashing each
other to the ground, became so loud that it resembled the roar of
thunder or of falling cliffs. Both of them were foremost of mighty men,
and both took great delight in such encounter. Desirous of vanquishing
the other, each was on the alert for taking advantage of the slightest
lapse of the other. And, O monarch, the mighty Bhima and Jarasandha
fought terribly on in those lists, driving the crowd at times by the
motions of their hands like Vritra and Vasava of old. Thus two heroes,
dragging each other forward and pressing each other backward and with
sudden jerks throwing each other face downward and sideways, mangled
each other dreadfully. And at times they struck each other with their
knee-joints. And addressing each other loudly in stinging speeches,
they struck each other with clenched fists, the blows descending like a
mass of stone upon each other. With broad shoulders and long arms and
both well-skilled in wrestling encounters, they struck each other with
those long arms of theirs that were like maces of iron. That encounter
of the heroes commenced on the first (lunar) day of the month of Kartic
(October) and the illustrious heroes fought on without intermission and
food, day and night, till the thirteenth lunar day. It was on the night
of the fourteenth of the lunar fortnight that the monarch of Magadha
desisted from fatigue. And O king, Janardana beholding the monarch
tired, addressed Bhima of terrible deeds, and as if to stimulate him
said,--'O son of Kunti, a foe that is fatigued cannot be pressed for if
pressed at such a time he may even die. Therefore, O son of Kunti, this
king should not be oppressed by thee. On the other hand, O bull of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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