in battle by thy son, Drona penetrated into the Pandava array in the very sight of Satyaki.  Then O Bharata, Satyaki checked the son of Bharadwaja, (and thereupon) ensued a battle that was fierce in its incidents and awful to behold.  Then Bharadwaja’s son excited with rage and endued with great prowess, as if smiling the while, pierced the grandson of Sini with ten shafts at his shoulder-joint.  And Bhimasena also, excited with rage, pierced Bharadwaja’s son (with many shafts), desirous of protecting Satyaki, O king, from Drona that foremost of all warriors.  Then Drona and Bhishma, and Salya also, O sire, excited with rage, covered Bhimasena, in that battle, with their shafts.  Thereupon Abhimanyu excited with wrath, and the sons of Draupadi, O sire, pierced with their sharp-pointed shafts all those warriors with upraised weapons.  Then in that fierce battle, the great bowman Sikhandin rushed against those two mighty warriors, viz., Bhishma and Drona who, excited with rage, had (thus) fallen upon the Pandavas.  Firmly grasping his bow whose twang resembled the roar of the clouds, that hero, shrouding the very Sun with his arrows, quickly covered his antagonists therewith.  The grandsire of the Bharatas, however, getting Sikhandin before him, avoided him, remembering the femininity of his sex.  Then, O king, urged by thy son, Drona rushed to battle, desirous of protecting Bhishma in that stress.  Sikhandin, however, approaching Drona that foremost of all wielders of weapons, avoided, from fear, that warrior resembling the blazing fire that appears at the end of the Yuga.  Then, O king, thy son with a large force, desirous of winning great glory, proceeded to protect Bhishma.  And the Pandavas also proceeded, O king, firmly setting their hearts upon victory, and the battle then that took place between the combatants of both armies desirous of victory and fame, was fierce and highly wonderful, resembling that (in days of yore) between the gods and Danavas.

SECTION LXX

Sanjaya said, “Then Bhishma the son of Santanu fought fiercely,[394] desirous of protecting the sons from the fear of Bhimasena.  And the battle that then took place between the kings of the Kaurava and the Pandava armies was awful in the extreme and destructive of great heroes.  And in that general engagement, so fierce and terrible, tremendous was the din that arose, touching the very heavens.  And in consequence of the shrieks of huge elephants and the neigh of steeds and the blare of conches and beat of drums, the uproar was deafening.  Fighting for the sake of victory, the mighty combatants endued with great prowess roared at one another like bulls in a cow-pen.  And heads cut off in that battle with keen-edged shafts, incessantly falling, created, O bull of Bharata’s race, the appearance of a stony shower in the welkin.  Indeed, O bull of Bharata’s race, innumerable were the heads lying on the field of battle, decked