`Sanjaya continued, Having said these words Drona, that bull among preceptors, once more addressed thy son, of great splendour, saying, ’O king, I put this armour on thy body, joining its pieces with the aid of Brahma strings.  In days of yore, Brahma himself had thus put it on Vishnu in battle.  Even as Brahma himself had put this celestial armour on Sakra in the battle caused by the abduction of Taraka, I put it on thee.’  Having thus, with mantras, donned that armour duly on Duryodhana, the regenerate Drona sent the king to battle.  And the mighty-armed king, cased in armour by the high-souled preceptor, and accomplished in smiting, and a thousand infuriated elephants endued with great prowess, and a hundred thousand horses, and many other mighty car-warriors, proceeded towards the car of Arjuna.  And the mighty-armed king proceeded, with the sound of diverse kinds of musical instruments, against his foe, like Virochana’s son (Vali in days of yore).  Then, O Bharata, a loud uproar arose among thy troops, beholding the Kuru king proceeding like a fathomless ocean.’”

SECTION XCIV

“Sanjaya said, ’After that bull among men, viz., Duryodhana, had set out from behind, following Partha and him of Vrishni’s race, O king, both of whom had penetrated into the Kaurava army, the Pandavas accompanied by the Somakas, quickly rushed against Drona with loud shouts.  And then commenced the battle (between them and Drona’s troops).  And the battle that took place between the Kurus and the Pandavas at the gate of the array, was fierce and awful, making the hair stand on end.  The sight filled the spectators with wonder.  O king, the sun was then in the meridian.  That encounter, O monarch, was truly such that we had never seen or heard of its like before.  The Parthas headed by Dhrishtadyumna, all accomplished in smiting and arrayed properly covered the troops of Drona with showers of arrows.  Ourselves also, placing Drona, that foremost of all wielders of weapons, at our head, covered the Parthas, gathered by Prishata’s son, with our shafts.  The two hosts, adorned with cars and looking beautiful, then appeared like two mighty masses of clouds in the summer sky, driven towards each other by opposite winds.  Encountering each other, the two hosts increased their impetuosity, like the rivers the Ganga and the Yamuna, swollen with water during the season of the rains.  Having diverse kinds of weapons for the winds that ran before them, teeming with elephants and steeds and cars charged with lightning, constituted by the maces wielded by the warriors, the fierce and mighty cloud formed by the Kuru host, urged on by the Drona-tempest, and pouring incessant shafts that constituted its torrents of rain, sought to quench the scorching Pandava-fire.  Like an awful hurricane in summer agitating the ocean, that best of Brahmanas, viz., Drona, agitating the Pandava host.  Exerting themselves with great