Vasatiya fell down on the earth, deprived of life.  Beholding Vasatiya slain, many bulls among Kshatriyas became filled with wrath, and surrounded thy grandson, O king, from a desire of slaying him.  They approached him, stretching their countless bows of diverse kinds, and the battle then that took place between the son of Subhadra and his foes was exceedingly fierce.  Then the son of Phalguni, filled with wrath, cut off their arrows and bows, and diverse limbs of their bodies, and their heads decked with ear-rings and floral garlands.  And arms were seen lopped off, that were adorned with various ornaments of gold, and that Still held scimitars and spiked maces and battle-axes and the fingers of which were still cased in leathern gloves. [And the earth became strewn][71] with floral wreaths and ornaments and cloths, with fallen standards, with coats of mail and shields and golden chains and diadems and umbrellas and yak-tails; with Upashkaras and Adhishthanas, and Dandakas, and Vandhuras with crushed Akshas, broken wheels, and yokes, numbering thousands,[72] with Anukarashas, and banners, and charioteers, and steeds; as also with broken cars, and elephants, and steeds.  The field of battle, strewn with slain Kshatriyas endued (while living) with great heroism,—­rulers of diverse realms, inspired with desire of victory,—­presented a fearful sight.  When Abhimanyu angrily careered over the field of battle in all directions, his very form became invisible.  Only his coat of mail, decked with gold, his ornaments, and bow and shafts, could be seen.  Indeed, while he slew the hostile warriors by means of his shafts, staying in their midst like the sun himself in his blazing effulgence, none could gaze at him with his eyes.’”

SECTION XLIII

“Sanjaya said, ’Engaged in taking the lives of brave warriors, Arjuna’s son then resembled the Destroyer himself, when the latter takes the lives of all creatures on the arrival of the Universal Dissolution.  Possessed of prowess resembling that of Sakra himself, the mighty son of Sakra’s son, viz., Abhimanyu, agitating the Katirava army looked exceedingly resplendent.  Penetrating into the Katirava host, O king, that destroyer of foremost Kshatriyas resembling Yama himself, seized Satvasravas, like an infuriated tiger seizing a deer.  Beholding Satyasrayas, seized by him, many mighty car-warriors, taking up diverse kinds of weapons, rushed upon him.  Indeed, those bulls among Kshatriyas, from a spirit of rivalry, rushed at the son of Arjuna from desire of slaying him, all exclaiming, ‘I shall go first, I shall go first!’ As a whale in the sea obtaining a shoal of small fish seizes them with the greatest ease, even so did Abhimanyu receive that whole division of the rushing Kshatriyas.  Like rivers that never go back when they approach the sea, none amongst those unretreating Kshatriyas turned back when they approached Abhimanyu.  That army then reeled like a boat tossed on the ocean when