The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3: Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12
General
The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3: Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12
Epic literature, Sanskrit
Tell me how
my son Duryodhana fell in battle. Tell me how all the Pancalas with their
followers, and Dhrishtadyumna and Shikhandi and the five sons of
Draupadi, fell. Tell me how the (five) Pandavas and the two Satwatas
(Krishna and Satyaki), and Kripa and Kritavarma and Drona's son, have
escaped with life. I desire to hear everything about the manner in which
the battle occurred and the kind of battle it was. Thou art skilled, O
Sanjaya, in narration. Tell me everything.'"
3
"Sanjaya said, 'Hear, O king, with attention, how that great carnage of
the Kurus and the Pandavas occurred when they encountered each other.
After the Suta's son had been slain by the illustrious son of Pandu, and
after thy troops had been repeatedly rallied and had repeatedly fled
away, and after a terrible carnage had taken place, O foremost of men, of
human beings in battle subsequent to Karna's death, Partha began to utter
leonine roars. At that time a great fear entered the hearts of thy sons.
Indeed, after Karna's death, there was no warrior in thy army who could
set his heart upon rallying the troops or displaying his prowess. They
then looked like ship-wrecked merchants on the fathomless ocean without a
raft to save themselves. When their protector was slain by the
diadem-decked Arjuna, they were like persons on the wide sea desirous of
reaching some shore of safety. Indeed, O king, after the slaughter of the
Suta's son, thy troops, struck with panic and mangled with arrows, were
like unprotected men desirous of a protector or like a herd of deer
afflicted by a lion. Vanquished by Savyasaci, they retired in the evening
like bulls with broken horns or snakes shorn of their fangs. Their
foremost of heroes slain, themselves thrown into confusion and mangled
with keen arrows, thy sons, O king, upon the slaughter of the Suta's son,
fled away in fear. Deprived of weapons and coats of mail, all of them
lost their senses and knew not in which direction to fly. Casting their
eyes on all sides in fear, many of them began to slaughter one another.
Many fell down or became pale, thinking, "It is me whom Vibhatsu is
pursuing!" "It is me whom Vrikodara is pursuing!" Some riding on fleet
steeds, some on fleet cars, and some on fleet elephants, many great
car-warriors fled away from fear, abandoning the foot-soldiers. Cars were
broken by elephants, horsemen were crushed by great car-warriors, and
bands of foot-soldiers were smashed and slain by bodies of horses as
these fled away from the field. After the fall of the Suta's son, thy
troops became like stragglers from a caravan in a forest abounding with
robbers and beasts of prey. Some elephants whose riders had been slain,
and others whose trunks had been cut off, afflicted with fear, beheld the
whole world to be full of Partha. Beholding his troops flying away
afflicted with the fear of Bhimasena Duryodhana then, with cries of "Oh!"
and "Alas!" addressed his driver, saying, "If I take up my post at the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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