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
persons conversant with Brahma, casting off their bodies. As regards
ourselves, deprived of those great car-warriors possessed of numerous
accomplishments, we shall have to pass our time in grief, having caused
numerous kings to perish. When all those heroes were alive, even then
Vibhatsu could not be vanquished. Having Krishna, for his eyes, that
mighty-armed hero is incapable of being defeated by the very gods. The
vast (Kaurava) host, approaching his Ape-bearing standard that is lofty
as an Indra's pole (set up in the season of spring) and that is effulgent
as Indra's bow, hath always trembled in fear. At the leonine roars of
Bhimasena and the blare of Panchajanya and the twang of Gandiva, our
heart will die away within us. Moving like flashes of lightning, and
blinding our eyes, Arjuna's Gandiva is seen to resemble a circle of fire.
Decked with pure gold, that formidable bow as it is shaken, looks like
lightning's flash moving about on every side. Steeds white in hue and
possessed of great speed and endued with the splendour of the Moon or the
Kusa grass, and that run devouring the skies, are yoked unto his car.
Urged on by Krishna, like the masses of clouds driven by the wind, and
their limbs decked with gold, they bear Arjuna to battle. That foremost
of all persons conversant with arms, Arjuna, burned that great force of
thine like a swelling conflagration consuming dry grass in the forest in
the season of winter. Possessed of the splendour of Indra himself, while
penetrating into our ranks, we have seen Dhananjaya to look like an
elephant with four tusks. While agitating thy army and inspiring the
kings with fear, we have seen Dhananjaya to resemble an elephant
agitating a lake overgrown with lotuses. While terrifying all the
warriors with the twang of his bow, we have again seen the son of Pandu
to resemble a lion inspiring smaller animals with dread. Those two
foremost of bowmen in all the worlds, those two bulls among all persons
armed with the bow, the two Krishnas, clad in mail, are looking
exceedingly beautiful. Today is the seventeenth day of this awful battle,
O Bharata, of those that are being slaughtered in the midst of this
fight. The diverse divisions of thy army are broken and dispersed like
autumnal clouds dispersed by the wind. Savyasaci, O monarch, caused thy
army to tremble and reel like a tempest-tossed boat exposed on the bosom
of the ocean. Where was the Suta's son, where was Drona with all his
followers, where was I, where wert thou, where was Hridika's son, where
thy brother Duhshasana accompanied by his brothers (when Jayadratha was
slain)? Upon beholding Jayadratha and finding him within the range of his
arrows, Arjuna, putting forth his process upon all thy kinsmen and
brothers and allies and maternal uncles, and placing his feet upon their
heads, slew king Jayadratha in the very sight of all. What then is there
for us to do now? Who is there among thy troops now that would vanquish
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