Bhishma-Vadha Parva — Fight of Hidimba's son

Sanjaya said Having made all your warriors turn their faces away from field of battle, the Rakshasa, 0 foremost of the Bharatas, assaulted Duryodhana out of a desire for slaying him.

Beholding him make towards the king with impetuosity, your warriors, all invincible in battle, rushed at him, desirous of doing away with him.

Those mighty car-warriors, stretching their bows that looked like large palmyar trees, and uttering their war-cries loud as the roars of the lions, rushed at him shooting weapons at him.

Then they covered him with an arrow downpour, like clouds covering the mountains with a downpour of rain in the rainy season.

Thus pierced sore, and greatly afflicted like an elephant smitten with the hook, the Rakshasa then at once rose to the sky like the son of Vainatay Garuda,

Then he uttered a loud roar that resembled the rumble of autumnal clouds; and that dreadful reverberated through the subsidiary and cardinal points of the compass.

King Yudhishthira hearing those war-cries of the Rakshasa, thus spoke, O foremost of the Bharatas, to Bhimasena the subduer of foes.

"Surely the Rakshasa is fighting with mighty car-warriors of the host of Dhritarashtra's son, in as much as we can hear, (even at this distance), the noise created by his fierce cries.

I also perceive that foremost of Rakshasas has now to bear a burden unequal to his strength; on the other hand, the grandsire inflamed with rage is exerting for slaughtering the Panchalas.

For the protection of these latter, Falguna is engaged with the foe. Having heard, O mighty armed hero, of these two tasks both of which demand prompt attention,

He yourself for rescuing the son of Hidimba involved in a great predicament.” Accepting the words of his brother, without the least delay, Vrikodara.

Proceeded to the battle, terrifying all the kings with his fierce war-cries, an, O king, with an impetuosity like that of the ocean in the days of the full moon or the new moon.

Him followed Satyadhriti and Sauchitti ever invincible in battle, and Shrenimat and Vasudhara and the puissant son of the king of the Kashis,

The sons of Draupadi, all mighty carwarriors headed by Abhimanyu, and Kshatradeva, the powerful Kshatradharman,

And Nila the sovereign of the low countries accompanied by his own divisions. They surrounded the son of Hidimba with a mighty division of cars.

With six thousand highly infuriated elephants, all potent smiters, those heroes began to protect Ghatotkacha that foremost of the Rakshasas.

These warriors made the very earth quake with their fierce war-cries, the clatter of their car-wheels, the sound produced by the hoofs of their galloping horses.

Hearing that noise of the assaulting army, the warriors of the army of your sons, wore a pallid countenance being agitated with the fear of Bhimasena;

And leaving Ghatotkacha alone, they turned back from the field of battle. But the combatants of your army and those of the enemy's host were both entreating; so there once more ensured, O mighty monarch, a terrible battle, between these high-souled warriors. Mighty car-warriors hurling weapons of various shapes,

Rushed at one another and then smote down one another. Thus raged the most dreadful combat capable of inspiring terror into the hearts of the cowards.

Horse-soldiers encountered elephant-riders and foot-soldiers fought with the car-warriors; challenging one another in battle they rushed against one another, O king.

In consequence of this on sleight of cars, horses, elephants, and infantry, a thick and impenetrable cloud of dust appeared being raised by the car-wheels and tread of the footsoldier.

Then the field of battle, O king, was shrouded by a thick cloud of dust of the reddish hue of smoke; and none was able to distinguish between his friend and his foe.

Father could not distinguish his son nor the son his father, in that horripilating, carnage where no consideration was of any evil.

The clashing of weapons and the yells of men, O foremost of the Bharatas, created a fierce din, that resembled the roar of demons themselves.

On the field of battle a river started up into existence, of which the currents, were constituted by the gore of elephants, horses, and men, and the weeds and moss by the hair (of the warriors).

A defending noise, like that produced by a shower of stones, was heard there, as the heads of the combatants fell on the field severed from their trunks.

The earth was covered with headless trucks with mutilated elephants and with horses with limbs mangled and hacked to pieces.

Mighty car-warriors, putting forth all their energies rushed to smite down one another, hurling at the same time weapons of various kinds.

Urged on by their riders, encountering one another, horses dashed against one another, and fell down on the field deprived of life.

Combatants, with eyes crimsoned in rage, meeting one another, struck one another with their breasts, and thus killed one another.

Goaded on by their riders, elephants slew their hostile compeers with the ends of their tusks, in that battle.

These elephants decked with fluttering pennons and shedding blood in copious quantities and bespattered with it, appeared like clouds adorned by forks of lightening.

Some of these with bodies mangled with tusk wounds, others with their temples rent by broad-headed shafts, careered all over the field roaring like roaring clouds.

Some with their trunks cut in twin, others with their bodies mutilated, fell down in that sanguinary battle, like mountains having their wings cut off.

Other huge elephants having their sides opened by their hostile compeers, copiously shed blood like mountains discharging liquefied red chalk.

Others, slain with lances and pierced with Tomaras, with their riders killed, looked like mountains deprived of their crests.

Others, possessed with fury, and inflamed with shedding the temporal juice, and having none to restrain them, began to crush in that battle, horses and cars and soldiers by hundreds.

So also horses pierced with lances and dares by cavalry-soldiers, dashed against their assailants, as if agitating all the points of the compass.

Car-warriors born in noble families, and reckless of their lives, meeting their hostile compeers, fought on dauntlessly depending on their own excellent strength.

Those horses accomplished in battle, O king, desirous of securing either fame or paradise, smote down one another in that fierce carnage, as if in a Svayamvara.

When that hair-string comb was thus raging, the troops belonging to Dhritarashtra's army were generally made to turn back their faces from the field of battle.