The slaughter of Nila

Dhritarashtra said What, O Sanjaya, was the state of your mind when my army was routed and crushed by Pandu's son and when you speedily fled away from the field?

The re-assembling of broken and routed troops is every difficult; tell me all about it, O Sanjaya.

Sanjaya said In spite of all these, O ruler of men, many excellent heroes, desirous of doing good to your son and of keeping their reputation unsullied, followed Drona's track.

During that fierce encounter, they dauntlessly followed their commander, achieving numerous feats of valour, with weapons upraised and with Yudhishthira within accessible distance.

Availing themselves of an error of the heroic Bhimasena, of Satyaki of immeasurable prowess and of the mighty Dhrishtadyumna, the Kuru leaders fell upon the Pandava divisions.

The fierce Panchalas urged on their troops saying, “There is Drona, there is Drona," whilst your sons urged on the Kurus, saying, 'Let not Drona be slain'.

Then one side saying "Fall upon Drona, fall upon Drona," and the other side saying, "Let not Drona be slain," a game of dice seemed to be played between the Kurus and the Pandavas, in which Drona was the stake.

Dhrishtadyumna, the Panchala prince, proceeded to those spots where soever Drona sought to assail the car divisions of the Panchalas.

Thus during that sanguinary engagement in which no rule for selection of antagonists was followed, heroes encountered heroes, uttering aloud their respective war-cries.

The Pandavas then became incapable of being shaken by their enemies, whilst they themselves, keeping alive the memory of all the wrongs they had to suffer, made the ranks of their foes tremble with fear before them.

Then in that fierce fight, the naturally modest Pandava warriors, under the influence of animosity and urged on by their energy, rushed to battle reckless of their lives and desirous of slaying Drona.

When those heroes of immeasurable energy played in that battle, as if in a game of dice, staking their very lives, there seemed to be a collision of iron against adamant. the army

Even the oldest men could not recollect, O monarch, of having seen or heard of such a battle before.

In that battle distinguished by the slaughter of heroes, the earth seemed to tremble, being oppressed with the burden of the living oceans that rushed against one another.

The fierce yells uttered by your troops, tossed and agitated as they had been, filling the very heavens, seemed to penetrate even to the heart of the of the Ajatasatru Yudhishthira.

Meanwhile the Pandava hosts' having reached by thousands Drona who had been coursing through the field of battle became shattered and broken with the sharp shafts of the latter.

When those troops were thus being crushed by Drona of marvelous achievements, the generalissimo of the Pandava hosts himself encountered Drona.

Then we beheld the marvelous fight between Drona and the Panchala prince and my firm conviction is that battle had no parallel.

Then like fire burning down houses, Nila resembling a veritable fire, of which the arrows were the scintillation's, the bow the flames, began to consume the Kuru army.

Thereat seeing Nila consume the troops, the highly puissant son of Drona, who had long been desirous of fighting with the former, smilingly addressed these smooth words to him (Nila).

What do you gain, O Nila, by consuming with your arrowy flame so many of my common soldiers? Fight with me single-handed as I am; and waxing worth, do you strike ma as you can.

Then Nila, possessed of a countenance beautiful like full-blown lotus, began to pierce with his arrows him whose body resembled a cluster of lotuses and whose eyes resembled lotus-petals.

Thus pierced deeply by him, Drona's son, with ten whetted and broad-headed arrows, cut-off the bow, the standard and the umbrella of his adversary.

Then jumping down from his car, Nila, armed with an excellent sword and buckler, desired to sever from Ashvatthaman's trunk his head, like a bird (bearing away its prey in its clutches).

There at, O sinless one, Drona's son with a broad-headed shaft smilingly severed from Nila's trunk his head graced with a fine nose and decked with ear-rings and resting on elevated shoulders.

Then Nila, whose countenance resembled in splendour the full moon, whose eyes were like petals of lotuses, whose stature was tall, whose complexion was like that of the lotus, thus slain, fell down on the earth.

After Nila of furious energy had been thus slain by the preceptor's son, the host of the Pandavas, was greatly agitated with grief.

Then, O sire, all the mighty car-warriors of the Pandava host began to think, "How indeed, would the son of Vasava (Arjuna) be able to save us from our foes.

When that heroic and mighty warrior is engaged in the southern part of the field in crushing the enemies' troops and slaughtering the remnant of the Samshaptaka and the Narayana troops. in