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
shedding as they fall their cool blood-red juice. Cars destroyed by cars,
elephants by elephants, men by men, and steeds by steeds, fell down in
thousands. Standards, and heads, and umbrellas, and elephants, trunks,
and human arms, cut off with razor-faced or broad-headed or
crescent-shaped arrows, fell down on the Earth. Large numbers also of
men, and elephants, and cars with steed yoked thereto, were crushed in
that battle. Many brave warriors, slain by horsemen, fell down, and many
tuskers, with their trunks cut off, and banners and standards (on their
bodies), fell down like fallen mountains. Assailed by foot-soldiers, many
elephants and cars, destroyed or in course of destruction, fell down on
all sides. Horsemen, encountering foot-soldiers with activity, were slain
by the latter. Similarly crowds of foot-soldiers, slain by horsemen, laid
themselves down on the field. The faces and the limbs of those slain in
that dreadful battle looked like crushed lotuses and faded floral
wreaths. The beautiful forms of elephants and steeds and human beings, O
king, then resembled cloths foul with dirt, and became exceedingly
repulsive to look at.'"
22
"Sanjaya said, 'Many elephant-warriors riding on their beasts, urged by
thy son, proceeded against Dhrishtadyumna, filled with rage and desirous
of compassing his destruction. Many foremost of combatants skilled in
elephant-fight, belonging to the Easterners, the Southerners, the Angas,
the Vangas, the Pundras, the Magadhas, the Tamraliptakas, the Mekalas,
the Koshalas, the Madras, the Dasharnas, the Nishadas uniting with the
Kalingas, O Bharata, and showering shafts and lances and arrows like
pouring clouds, drenched the Pancala force therewith in that battle.
Prishata's son covered with his arrows and shafts those (foe-crushing)
elephants urged forward by their riders with heels and toes and hooks.
Each of those beasts that were huge as hills, the Pancala hero pierced
with ten, eight, or six whetted shafts, O Bharata. Beholding the prince
of the Pancalas shrouded by those elephants like the Sun by the clouds,
the Pandus and the Pancalas proceeded towards him (for his rescue)
uttering loud roars and armed with sharp weapons. Pouring their weapons
upon those elephants, those warriors began to dance the dance of heroes,
aided by the music of their bow-strings and the sound of their palms, and
urged by heroes beating the time. Then Nakula and Sahadeva, and the sons
of Draupadi, and the Prabhadrakas, and Satyaki, and Shikhandi, and
Chekitana endued with great energy,--all those heroes--drenched those
elephants from every side with their weapons, like the clouds drenching
the hills with their showers. Those furious elephants, urged on by
Mleccha warriors dragging down with their trunks men and steeds and cars,
crushed them with their feet. And some they pierced with the points of
their tusks, and some they raised aloft and dashed down on the ground;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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