O Bharata, and 5,000 horses, and a hundred car-warriors.
Having slaughtered these, Bhima caused a river of
blood to flow there. Blood constituted its water,
and cars its eddies; and elephants were the alligators
with which it teemed. Men were its fishes, and
steeds its sharks, and the hair of animals formed
its woods and moss. Arms lopped off from trunks
formed its foremost of snakes. Innumerable jewels
and gems were carried along by the current. Thighs
constituted its gravels, and marrow its mire.
And it was covered with heads forming its rocks.
And bows and arrows constituted the rafts by which
men sought to cross that terrible river, and maces
and spiked bludgeons formed its snakes. And umbrellas
and standards formed its swans, and head-gears its
foam. Necklaces constituted its lotuses, and
the earthy dust that arose formed its waves.
Those endued with noble qualities could cross it with
ease, while those that were timid and affrighted found
it exceedingly difficult to cross. Warriors constituting
its crocodiles and alligators, it ran towards the
region of Yama. Very soon, indeed, did that tiger
among men cause that river to flow. Even as the
terrible Vaitarani is difficult of being crossed by
persons of unrefined souls, that bloody river, terrible
and enhancing the fears of the timid, was difficult
to cross. Thither where that best of car-warriors,
the son of Pandu, penetrated, thither he felled hostile
warriors in hundreds and thousands. Seeing those
feats achieved in battle by Bhimasena, Duryodhana,
O monarch, addressing Shakuni, said, “Vanquish,
O uncle, the mighty Bhimasena in battle. Upon
his defeat the mighty host of the Pandavas may be regarded
as defeated.” Thus addressed, O monarch,
the valiant son of Subala, competent to wage dreadful
battle, proceeded, surrounded by his brothers.
Approaching in that battle Bhima of terrible prowess,
the heroic Shakuni checked him like the continent
resisting the ocean. Though resisted with keen
shafts, Bhima, disregarding them all, proceeded against
the sons of Subala. Then Shakuni, O monarch,
sped a number of cloth-yard shafts equipped with wings
of gold and whetted on stone, at the left side of Bhima’s
chest. Piercing through the armour of the high-souled
son of Pandu, those fierce shafts, O monarch, equipped
with feathers of Kankas and peacocks, sunk deep into
his body. Deeply pierced in that battle, Bhima,
O Bharata, suddenly shot at Subala’s son a shaft
decked with gold. The mighty Shakuni however,
that scorcher of foes, O king, endued with great lightness
of hands, cut off into seven fragments that terrible
arrow as it coursed towards him. When his shaft
fell down on the earth, Bhima, O king, became highly
enraged, and cut off with a broad-headed arrow the
bow of Subala’s son with the greatest ease.
The valiant son of Subala then, casting aside that
broken bow, quickly took up another and six and ten
broad-headed arrows. With two of those straight
and broad-headed arrows, O monarch, he struck Bhima