troops, speedily proceeded towards Drona.  Then thousands of princes placing Duhsasana at their head, hastily proceeded towards Drona (for protecting him) who was surrounded by foes.  Then, O king, commenced a fierce battle between them and thy bowmen.  The earth was covered with dust and with showers of arrows shot (by both sides).  And everything being thus covered, nothing could any longer be discerned.  Indeed, when the troops were thus overwhelmed with dust, the battle proceeded in utter disregard (of persons and rules).’”

SECTION XCVIII

“Sanjaya said, ’When the sun turned in his downward course towards the summit of the Asta hills, when the welkin was covered with dust, when the heat of the solar rays abated, the day began to fade fast.  As regards the soldiers, some rested, some fought on, some returned to the encounter, desirous of victory.  And while the troops, inspired with hope of victory, were thus engaged, Arjuna and Vasudeva proceeded towards the place where the ruler of the Sindhus was.  The son of Kunti, by means of his shafts, made (through the hostile soldiers) a way sufficiently wide for his car.  And it was in this way that Janardana proceeded, (guiding the car).  Thither where the car of the high-souled son of Pandu proceeded, thither thy troops, O monarch, broke and yielded a way.  And he of Dasarha’s race, endued with great energy, displayed his skill in driving car by showing diverse kinds of circling motions.  And the shafts of Arjuna, engraved with his name, well-tempered, resembling the Yuga-fire, tied round with catgut, of straight joints, thick, far-reaching, and mace either of (cleft) bamboo (or their branches) or wholly of iron, taking the lives of diverse foes, drank in that battle, with the birds (of prey assembled there), the blood of living creatures.  Standing on his car, as Arjuna shot his shafts full two miles ahead, those shafts pierced and despatched his foes just as that car itself came up to the spot.[141] Hrishikesa proceeded, borne by those yoke-bearing steeds endued with the speed of Garuda or the wind, with such speed that he caused the whole universe to wonder at it.  Indeed, O king, the car of Surya himself, or that of Rudra or that of Vaisravana, never goeth so fast.  Nobody else’s car had ever before moved with such speed in battle as Arjuna’s car, moving with the celerity of a wish cherished in the mind.  Then Kesava, O king, that slayer of hostile heroes, having taken the car of battle quickly urged the steeds, O Bharata, through the (hostile) troops.  Arrived in the midst of that throng of cars, those excellent steeds bore Arjuna’s car with difficulty, suffering as they did from hunger, thirst, and toil, and mangled as they had been with the weapons of many heroes delighting in battle.  They frequently, however, described beautiful circles as they moved, proceeding over the bodies of slain steeds and men, over broken cars, and the bodies of dead elephants, looking like hills by thousands.