son also, that mighty car-warrior, rushed towards
him, shooting his shafts. Indeed, all of them
rained their arrows on him, like the clouds pouring
torrents of rain on a mountain. The son of Pandu,
however, with great activity and speed, cut off with
his own shafts those excellent arrows sped at him with
great care in that dreadful battle by those accomplished
warriors desirous of slaying him, and pierced the
chest of each of his adversaries with three shafts.
Having arrows for his fierce rays, the Arjuna sun,
with gandiva drawn to its fullest stretch constituting
his corona, looked resplendent, as he scorched his
foes, like the Sun himself between the months of Jyeshtha
and Ashadha, within his bright corona. Then Drona’s
son pierced Dhananjaya with ten foremost of shafts,
and Keshava with three, and the four steeds of Dhananjaya
with four, and showered many shafts on the Ape on
Arjuna’s banner. For all that, Dhananjaya
cut off the full drawn bow in his adversary’s
hand with three shafts, the head of his driver with
a razor-faced arrow, and his four steeds with his
four other shafts and his standard with three other
arrows and felled him from his car. The son of
Drona then, filled with wrath, took up another costly
bow, bright as the body of Takshaka, and decked with
gems and diamonds and gold, and resembling a mighty
snake caught from the foot of a mountain. Stringing
that bow as he stood on the earth, and bringing out
one after another shafts and weapons, Drona’s
son, that warrior who excelled in many accomplishments,
began to afflict those two unvanquished and foremost
of men and pierce them from a near point with many
shafts. Then those mighty car-warriors, Kripa
and Bhoja and thy son, standing at the van of battle,
fell upon and shrouded that bull among the Pandavas,
shooting showers of shafts, like clouds shrouding
the dispeller of darkness. Possessed of prowess
equal to that of the thousand-armed (Kartavirya), Partha
then showered his shafts on Kripa’s bow with
arrow fixed on it, his steeds, his standard, and his
driver, like the wielder of the thunder in days of
yore showering his shafts on (the asura) Vali.
His weapons destroyed by Partha’s shafts, and
his standard also having been crushed in that great
battle, Kripa was afflicted with as many thousands
of arrows by Arjuna as Ganga’s son Bhishma before
them (on the day of his fall) by the same diademdecked
warrior. The valiant Partha then, with his shafts,
cut off the standard and the bow of thy roaring son.
Destroying next the handsome steeds of Kritavarma,
he cut off the latter’s standard as well.
He then began to destroy with great speed the elephants
of the hostile force, as also its cars with their
steeds and drivers and bows and standards. Thereupon
that vast host of thine broke into a hundred parts
like an embankment washed off by the waters.
Then Keshava, quickly urging Arjuna’s car, placed
all his afflicted foes on his right side. Then
other warriors, desirous of an encounter, with their