of skies endued with great energy, thus checked on
all sides by that arrowy down-pour, succeeded not
in even coming near to the sons of Pandu. Then
Arjuna whose ire had been provoked, aiming at the
angry Gandharvas, prepared to hurl against them his
celestial weapons. And in that encounter, the
mighty Arjuna, by means of his Agneya weapon,
sent ten hundreds of thousands of Gandharvas to the
abode of Yama. And that mighty bowman, Bhima,
also, that foremost of all warriors in battle, slew,
by means of his sharp arrows, Gandharvas by hundreds.
And the mighty sons of Madri also, battling with vigour,
encountered hundreds of Gandharvas, O king, and slaughtered
them all. And as Gandharvas were being thus slaughtered
by the mighty warriors with their celestial weapons,
they rose up to the skies, taking with them the sons
of Dhritarashtra. But Dhananjaya, the son of Kunti,
beholding them rise up to the skies, surrounded them
on every side by a wide net of arrows. And confined
within that arrowy net like birds within a cage, they
showered in wrath upon Arjuna maces and darts and broad-swords.
But Arjuna who was conversant with the most efficacious
weapons, soon checked that shower of maces and darts
and broad-swords, and in return began to mangle the
limbs of the Gandharvas with his crescent-shaped arrows.
And heads and legs and arms began to drop down from
above resembling a shower of stones. And at that
sight, the foe was struck with panic. And as
the Gandharvas were being slaughtered by the illustrious
son of Pandu, they began to shower from the skies a
heavy downpour of shafts upon Arjuna, who was on the
surface of the earth. But that chastiser of foes,
Arjuna, endued with mighty energy checked that shower
of arrows by means of his own weapons and began, in
return, to wound them. Then Arjuna of the Kuru
race shot his well-known weapons called Sthunakarna,
Indrajala, Saura, Agneya and Saumya.
And the Gandharvas consumed by the fiery weapons of
Kunti’s son, began to suffer heavily, like the
sons of Diti, while being scorched by Sakra’s
thunder-bolt. And when they attacked Arjuna from
above, they were checked by his net of arrows.
And while they attacked him from all sides on the
surface of the earth, they were checked by his crescent-shaped
arrows. And beholding the Gandharvas put in fear
by Kunti’s son, Chitrasena rushed, O Bharata,
at Dhananjaya, armed with a mace. And as the
king of the Gandharvas was rushing at Arjuna from above
with that mace in hand, the latter cut with his arrows
that mace wholly made of iron into seven pieces.
And beholding that mace of his cut into many pieces
by Arjuna of great activity, with his arrows, Chitrasena,
by means of his science, concealed himself from the
view of the Pandava and began to fight with him.
The heroic Arjuna, however, by means of his own celestial
weapons checked all the celestial weapons that were
aimed at him by the Gandharvas. And when the
chief of the Gandharvas saw that he was checked by