Shalya Parva — The battle between the Kurus and Srinjayas

Sanjaya said Then took place the battle between the Kurus and the Srinjayas, O king, that was as fierce and awful as that between the celestials and the Asuras.

Men and cars and elephants and elephantwarriors and horsemen by thousands and horses, all very powerful, encountered one another.

The loud noise of the rushing of dreadful elephants was then heard there, resembling the roars of the clouds in the sky in the rains.

Some car-warriors, struck by elephants, were deprived of their cars. Dispersed by those infuriate animals, other brave heroes ran away.

Well-trained car-warriors, O Bharata, with their arrows, killed a number of cavalry and infantry that urged and protected the elephants.

Well-trained horsemen, king, surrounding great car-warriors, moved about in the field, striking and slaying the latter with spears and draft and swords.

Some bowmen, surrounding great carwarriors, killed them. Encompassing elephant and great warriors of their own class, other great car-warriors killed some mighty one amongst them that fought in the field moving about on all sides.

Similarly, O king, elephants, encircling individual car-warriors worked up with rage and shooting arrows, killed them.

Elephant-warrior rushing against elephantwarrior and car-warrior against car-warrior, in that battle, killed each other with darts and lances and Narachas, O Bharata.

Cars and elephants and horses, crushing foot-soldiers in the midst of battle, mad a confusion all over.

Adorned with yak-tails, horses rushed on all sides, looking like the swans found on the plains at the foot of Himavat. In their speed they seemed as if ready to devour the very earth.

The field, O king, marked with the hoofs of horses, looked beautiful like a beautiful woman bearing the marks of (her lover's) nails on her person.

With the sound caused by the trampling of horses, the wheels of cars, the shouts of footsoldiers, the grunts of clephants, the beating of drums and other musical instruments and the blare of conchs, the earth began to resound as if with deafening peals of thunder.

On account of twanging bows and flashing swords and the glittering armour of the worriors everything was so confused there that nothing could be distinctly seen.

Numerous arms, chooped off from human bodies and looking like the tusks of elephants, jumped up and moved furiously about.

The sound, made, O monarch, by heads falling on the field of battle, resembled that made by the falling fruits of palmyra trees.

Covered with those lifeless heads with upturned eyes, that were exceedingly mangled the field of battle, O king, looked resplendent as if covered with full-blown lotuses.

With the fallen arms of the warriors smeared with sandal and adorned with rich Keyuras, the Earth looked resplendent as if strewn with the rich poles set up in Indra's honours.

The battle-field-was covered with the things of kings, cut off in that battle and looking like the trunk of elephants.

Covered with hundreds of headless trunks and strewn with umbrellas and yakyails, that vast army looked beautiful like a blossoming forest.

Then, on the field of battle, O monarch, warriors moved about fearlessly, their limbs bathed in blood and, therefore, looking like flowering Kinshukas.

Elephants also, wounded with arrows and lances, dropped down here and there like broken clouds dropped from the sky.

O king, killed by great warriors, elephant divisions were dispersed in all directions like clouds scattered by the wind.

Those elephants, resembling clouds dropped on the earth like mountai is clapped by a thunder, O lord, at the time of the universal dissolution.

Horses with their drivers lay in masses on the ground like so many mountains.

A river was formed on the field o, battle, flowing towards the other world. Blood formed its waters and cars its eddies, Standards were its trees, the bones its pebbles.

The arms were its alligators, bows its current, elephants its large rocks and its smaller ones. Fat and marrow constituted its mire, umbrellas its swans and maces its rafts.

Abounding with armour and head-gears, banners formed its beautiful trees. Wheels formed its swarms of Chakravakas and it was covered with Trivenus and Dandas.

Filling the brave with joy and increasing the fears of the timid, that fierce river flowed the shores of which were filled with Kurus and Srinjayas.

Those brave warriors, with arms resembling bludgeons, by the aid of their cars and animals, acting as rafts and boats crossed that dreadful river which flowed towards the region of the deed.

During the course of that battle, O king, in which no consideration was showed by any body for any one and which with awful destruction of the four fold forces, resembled the battle between the celestials and the Asuras in the days of yore.

Some warriors, O scorcher of foes, loudly called upon their kinsmen and friends. Some, called upon by crying kinsmen, returned stricken with fear,

During the course of that fierce and dreadful battle, Arjuna and Bhimasena stupefied their foes.

Your army, O king thus destroyed, swooned away on the field, like a woman under the influence of liquor.

Having stupefied that army, Bhimasena and Dhananjaya blew their conchs and sent forth leonine roars.

On hearing that loud sound Dhristadyumna and Shikhandin, placing king Yudhishthira at their head, rushed against the king of the Madras.

Highly wonderful and terrible, O monarch, was the manner in which those heroes, in a body and separately, fought with Shalya.

The two energetic sons of Madri, masters of weapons and invincible in battle, proceeded quickly against your army worked up with the desire of victory.

Then your army, O best of Bharata's race, wounded greatly with arrows by the Pandavas eager for victory, took to their heels in the battle.

Thus struck and dispersed by strong bowmen, O king, that army fled away on all sides in the presence of your sons.

Exclamations of Oh and Alas, O Bharata, arose from among your warriors while some illustrious Kshatriyas among the dispersed combatants, desirous of victory, cried out, saying-stop, stop.

Despite it, your troops routed by the Pandavas, fled away leaving behind on the field, their dear sons and brothers and maternal uncles and sisters and relatives by marriage and other kinsmen.

Driving their horses and elephants to a great speed, thousands of warriors fled away O foremost of Bharata's race, anxious to secure their personal safety only.