loosened from their grasp. Bearded darts and
axes and swords and javelins, all decked with gold,
beautiful coats of mail, and heavy and short bludgeons,
and spiked clubs, and battle-axes, and short arrows,
O sire, and elephants’ housings of diverse shapes,
and yak tails, and fans, lay scattered on the field.
And mighty car-warriors lay on the field with diverse
kinds of weapons in their hands or beside them, and
looking alive, though the breath of life had gone.[460]
And men lay on the field with limbs shattered with
maces and heads smashed with clubs, or crushed by
elephants, steeds, and cars. And the earth, strewn
in many places with the bodies of slain steeds, men,
and elephants, looked beautiful, O king, as if strewn
with hills. And the field of battle lay covered
with fallen darts and swords and arrows and lances
and scimitars and axes and bearded darts and iron crows
and battle-axes, and spiked clubs and short arrows
and Sataghnis[461] and bodies mangled with weapons.
And, O slayer of foes, covered with blood, warriors
lay prostrate on the field, some deprived of life and
therefore, in the silence of death, and others uttering
low moans. And the earth, strewn with those bodies,
presented a variegated sight. And strewn with
the arms of strong warriors smeared with sandal paste
and decked with leathern fences and bracelets, with
tapering thighs resembling the trunks of elephants,
and with fallen heads, graced with gems attached to
turbans and with earrings of large-eyed combatants,
O Bharata, the earth assumed a beautiful sight.
And the field of battle, overspread with blood, dyed
coats of mail and golden ornaments of many kinds, looked
exceedingly beautiful as if with (scattered) fires
of mild flames. And with ornaments of diverse
kinds fallen off from their places, with bows lying
about, with arrows of golden wings scattered around,
with many broken cars adorned with rows of bells,
with many slain steeds scattered about covered with
blood and with their tongues protruding, with bottoms
of cars, standards, quivers, and banners, with gigantic
conches, belonging to great heroes, of milky whiteness
lying about, and with trunkless elephants lying prostrate,
the earth looked beautiful like a damsel adorned with
diverse kinds of ornaments. And there, with other
elephants pierced with lances and in great agony,
and frequently uttering low moans with their trunks,
the field of battle looked beautiful as if with moving
hills. With blankets of diverse hue, and housings
of elephants, with beautiful hooks falling about having
handles decked with stones of lapis lazuli, with bells
lying about that had adorned gigantic elephants, with
clean and variegated cloths as also skins of the Ranku
deer, with beautiful neck-chains of elephants, with
gold-decked girths, with broken engines of diverse
kinds, with bearded darts decked with gold, with embroidered
housings of steeds, embrowned with dust, with the lopped
off arms of cavalry soldiers, decked with bracelets