indulge, then, in such idle boast?  In this world the ancients witnessed the victory and defeat of the great Indra himself.  O thou of ignoble parentage, engage thyself with me in an athletic encounter with bare arms.  Even as I slew the mighty Kichaka of gigantic frame, I would then slay thee in the very sight of all kings.’  Understanding the motives of Bhima, Karna, that foremost of intelligent men, abstained from that combat in the very sight of all the bowmen.  Indeed, having made Bhima carless, Karna, O king, reproved him in such boastful language in the sight of that lion among the Vrishnis (viz., Krishna) and of the high-souled Partha.  Then the ape-bannered (Arjuna), urged by Kesava, shot at the Suta’s son, O king, many shafts whetted on stone.  Those arrows adorned with gold, shot by Partha’s arms and issuing out of Gandiva, entered Karna’s body, like cranes into the Krauncha mountains.  With those arrows shot from Gandiva which entered Karna’s body like so many snakes, Dhananjaya drove the Suta’s son from Bhimasena’s vicinity.  His bow cut off by Bhima, and himself afflicted with the arrows of Dhananjaya, Karna quickly fled away from Bhima on his great car.  Bhimasena also, O bull among men, mounting upon Satyaki’s car, proceeded in that battle in the wake of his brother Savyasachin, the son of Pandu.  Then Dhananjaya, with eyes red in wrath, aiming at Karna, quickly sped a shaft like the Destroyer urging forward Death’s self.  That shaft shot from Gandiva, like Garuda in the welkin in quest of a mighty snake, quickly coursed towards Karna.  The son of Drona, however, that mighty car-warrior, with a winged arrow of his, cut it off in mid-air, desirous of rescuing Karna from fear of Dhananjaya.  Then Arjuna, excited with wrath, pierced the son of Drona with four and sixty arrows, O king, and addressing him, said, ’Do not fly away, O Aswathaman, but wait a moment.’  Drona’s son, however, afflicted with the shafts of Dhananjaya, quickly entered a division of the Kaurava army that abounded with infuriated elephants and teemed with cars.  The mighty son of Kunti, then, with the twang of Gandiva, drowned the noise made in that battle by all other twangings of bows, of shafts decked with gold.  Then, the mighty Dhananjaya followed from behind the son of Drona who had not retreated to a great distance, frightening him all the way with his shafts.  Piercing with his shafts, winged with the feathers of Kankas and peacocks, the bodies of men and elephants and steeds, Arjuna began to grind that force.  Indeed, O chief of the Bharatas, Partha, the son of Indra, began to exterminate that host teeming with steeds and elephants and men.’”

SECTION CXXXIX