Vaishampayana continued, “While saying this, Dhritarashtra the son of Ambika, having learnt that only a small portion of his army was alive, for all his foremost of warriors had died, felt his heart to be exceedingly agitated by grief.  The king swooned away.  Partially restored to his senses, he addressed Sanjaya, saying, ‘Wait for a moment!’ And the king said, ’O son, having heard of this dire calamity, my heart is greatly agitated.  My senses are being stupefied, and my limbs are about to be paralysed!’ Having said these words, Dhritarashtra the son of Ambika, that lord of earth, lost his senses and fell down on the earth.”

8

Janamejaya said, “Having heard of Karna’s fall and the slaughter of his sons, what, O foremost of regenerate ones, did the king say, after he had been a little comforted?  Indeed, poignant was the grief that he experienced, arising from the calamity that befell his sons!  Tell me, I ask thee, all that the king said on that occasion!”

Vaishampayana said, “Hearing of the slaughter of Karna that was incredible and astounding, that was dreadful and capable of paralysing the senses of all creatures, that looked like the downfall of Meru, or a never-to-be-believed clouding of the intellect of the wise Shukra, or the defeat of Indra of terrible feats at the hands of his foes, or the falling down on the Earth of the resplendent Sun from the firmament, or a scarcely-to-be-comprehended drying up of the ocean, that receptacle of inexhaustible waters, or the annihilation, perfectly astounding, of the earth, the firmament, the points of the compass, and the waters, or the fruitlessness of acts both virtuous and sinful, king Dhritarashtra, having earnestly reflected for some time on it, thought that his army had been annihilated.  Thinking that other creatures also, as unslayable as Karna, would meet with a similar fate, king Dhritarashtra the son of Ambika, scorched with grief and sighing like a snake, with limbs almost palsied, long breaths, highly cheerless, and filled with melancholy, began to lament, saying, ‘Oh!’ and ‘Alas!’ And the king said, ’O Sanjaya, the heroic son of Adhiratha was endued with the prowess of the lion or the elephant!  His neck was as thick as that of a bull, and his eyes, gait, and voice were like the bull’s!  Of limbs as hard as the thunderbolt, that young man, like a bull never flying away from a bull, never desisted from battle even if his foe happened to be the great Indra himself!  At the sound of his bow-string and palms and at the whizz of his arrowy showers men and steeds and cars and elephants fled away from battle.  Relying upon that mighty-armed one, that slayer of large bands of foes, that warrior of unfading glory, Duryodhana had provoked hostilities with those mighty car-warriors, the sons of Pandu!  How then could Karna, that foremost of car-warriors, that tiger among men, that hero of irresistible onset, be forcibly slain by Partha in battle?  Relying on the might of his own arms,