warriors, the sons of Pandu, fearlessly encounter each other in that forest.  The Gandharvas were flushed with success, and beholding the four brave sons of Pandu coming to battle seated on their cars, they all turned back towards the advancing combatants.  And, the dwellers of the Gandhamadana, beholding the Pandavas looking like blazing guardians of the world provoked to ire, stood arrayed in order of battle.  And, O Bharata, in accordance with words of king Yudhishthira of great wisdom, the encounter that took place was a skirmish.  But when Arjuna—­that persecutor of foes—­saw that the foolish soldiers of the king of Gandharvas could not be made to understand what was good for them by means of a light skirmish, he addressed those invincible rangers of the skies in a conciliatory tone and said, ’Leave ye my brother king Suyodhana.’  Thus addressed by the illustrious son of Pandu, the Gandharvas, laughing aloud, replied unto him saying, ’O child, there is but one in the world whose behests we obey and living under whose rule we pass our days in happiness:  O Bharata, we always act as that one only person commandeth us!  Besides that celestial chief there is none that can command us!’ Thus addressed by the Gandharvas, Dhananjaya, the son of Kunti, replied unto them, saying, ’This contact with other people’s wives and this hostile encounter with human beings are acts that are both censurable in the king of the Gandharvas and not proper for him.  Therefore, leave ye these sons of Dhritarashtra all endued with mighty energy.  And liberate ye also these ladies, at the command of king Yudhishthira the just.  If, ye Gandharvas, ye do not set the sons of Dhritarashtra free peacefully, I shall certainly rescue Suyodhana (and his party) by exerting my prowess.’  And speaking unto them thus, Pritha’s son, Dhananjaya, capable of wielding the bow with his left hand also, then rained a shower of sharp pointed sky-ranging shafts upon those rangers of the firmament.  Thus attacked, the mighty Gandharvas then encountered the sons of Pandu with a shower of arrows equally thick, and the Pandavas also replied by attacking those dwellers of heaven.  And the battle then, O Bharata, that ranged between the active and agile Gandharvas and the impetuous son of Pandu was fierce in the extreme.”

SECTION CCXLIII

Vaisampayana said, “Then those Gandharvas decked in golden garlands and accomplished in celestial weapons, showing their blazing shafts, encountered the Pandavas from every side.  And as the sons of Pandu were only four in number and the Gandharvas counted by thousands, the battle that ensued appeared to be extraordinary.  And as the cars of Karna and Duryodhana had formerly been broken into a hundred fragments by the Gandharvas, so were the cars of the four heroes attempted to be broken.  But those tigers among men began to encounter with their showers of arrows thousands upon thousands of Gandharvas rushing towards them.  Those rangers