in all directions, guided by the cries of those behind them.  And hither and thither some pierced by javelins, and some cut asunder by battle-axes, and some crushed by elephants and others trod down by horses, and some cut by car-wheels, and some by axes, loudly called upon their kinsmen, O king.  And some called upon their sons, and some upon their sires, and some upon brother and kinsmen.  And some called upon their maternal uncles, and some upon their sister’s sons.  And some called upon others, on the field of battle.  And a very large number of combatants, O Bharata, lost their weapons, or had their thighs broken.  And other with arms torn off or sides pierced or cut open, were seen to wail aloud, from desire of life.  And some, endued with little strength, tortured by thirst, O king, and lying on the field of battle on the bare ground, asked for water.  And some, weltering in pools of blood and excessively weakened, O Bharata, greatly censured themselves and thy sons assembled together for battle.  And there were brave Kshatriyas, who having injured one another, did not abandon their weapons or set up any wails, O sire, On the other hand, lying in those places where they lay, roared with joyful hearts, and biting from wrath with their teeth their own lips, looked at one another with faces rendered fierce in consequence of the contraction of their eyebrows.  And others endued with great strength and tenacity in great pain, afflicted by arrows and smarting under their wounds, remained perfectly silent.  And other heroic car-warriors, deprived, in the encounter, of their own cars and thrown down and wounded by huge elephants, asked to be taken up on the cars of others.  And many, O king, looked beautiful in their wounds like blossoming Kinsukas.  And in all the divisions were heard terrific cries, countless in number.  And in that awful combat destructive of heroes, the sire slew the son, the son slew the sire, the sister’s son slew the maternal uncle, the maternal uncle slew the sister’s son, friend slew friend, and relatives slew kinsmen.  Even thus the slaughter took place in that encounter of the Kurus with the Pandavas.  And in that frightful and terrible battle in which no consideration was shown (by anybody for anybody), the divisions of the Pandavas, approaching Bhishma, began to waver.  And, O bull of Bharata’s race, the mighty-armed Bhishma, O king, with his standard which was made of silver and graced with the device of the palmyra with five stars, setting upon his great car, shone like the lunar orb under the peak of Meru.”

SECTION XLVII