of all creatures are Nara and Narayana.”  Hearing and beholding these wonderful things, O Bharata, Ashvatthama, with great care and resolution, rushed against Krishna and Arjuna in that battle.  With his arm that held an arrow in its grasp, the son of Drona hailed the Pandava, shooting shafts equipped with foe-slaying heads, and smilingly told him these words, “If, O hero, thou regardest me a worthy guest arrived (before thee), then give me today, with the whole heart, the hospitality of battle.”  Thus summoned by the preceptor’s son from desire of battle, Arjuna regarded himself highly honoured, and addressing Janardana said, “The samsaptakas should be slain by me, but Drona’s son again is summoning me.  Tell me, O Madhava, to which of these duties should I first turn?  First let the services of hospitality be offered, if thou thinkest that to be proper.”  Thus addressed, Krishna bore Partha who had been summoned according to the rules of triumphant challenge to the vicinity of Drona’s son, like Vayu bearing Indra to the sacrifice.  Saluting Drona’s son whose mind was fixed upon one thing, Keshava, said unto him, “O Ashvatthama, be cool, and without losing a moment strike and bear.  The time has come for those that are dependent on others to repay their obligation to their masters.  The disputes between brahmanas are subtle.  The consequences, however, of the disputes of kshatriyas are palpable, being either victory or defeat.  For obtaining those excellent rites of hospitality that from folly thou solicitest at the hands of Partha, fight coolly now with the son of Pandu.”  Thus addressed by Vasudeva, that foremost of regenerate ones, replied saying, “So be it!” pierced Keshava with sixty shafts and Arjuna with three.  Arjuna then, filled with rage, cut off Ashvatthama’s bow with three shafts.  Drona’s son took up another bow that was still more formidable.  Stringing it within the twinkling of an eye, he pierced Arjuna and Keshava, the latter with three hundred arrows, and the former with a 1,000.  And then Drona’s son, with good care, stupefying Arjuna in that battle, shot thousands and tens of thousands and millions of arrows.  From the quivers, the bow, the bow-string, the fingers, the arms, the hands, the chest, the face, the nose, the eyes, the ears, the heads, the limbs, the pores of the body, the armour on his person, the car, and the standard, O sire, of that utterer of Brahma, arrows began to issue.  Piercing Madhava and the son of Pandu with the thick arrowy shower, Drona’s son filled with joy, roared aloud like a vast mass of congregated clouds.  Hearing that roar of his, the son of Pandu said unto Keshava of unfading glory these words “Behold, O Madhava, this wickedness towards me of the preceptor’s son.  He regardeth us to be slain, having shrouded us with his dense arrowy shower.  I will presently, however, by my training and might, baffle his purpose.”  Cutting off every one of those arrows shot by Ashvatthama into three fragments, that foremost one of Bharata’s