Karna Parva — The speech of Sanjaya

Sanjaya said When that mighty bowman Drona, was slain, your sons, the great car-warriors, became pale-faced, gloomy and senseless.

And O king, all those who were armed with the weapons, stood speechless; and highly oppressed with grief, they neither beheld nor spoke any words to one another.

descendant of the Bharata race, seeing them changed in countenance, on account of their being oppressed with sorrow, your troops, themselves being highly afflicted with grief and anxiety, looked upwards.

Beholding the death of Drona in battle, O foremost of kings, the weapons of many of them, indeed besmeared with blood, dropped down from their hands.

O great monarch, O descendant of the Bharata race, several of those (weapons), still retained by the troops in the various parts of their bodies, were seen hanging, like the meteors of heaven (pending from above).

O great monarch, seeing your force (his own troops) thus eclipsed (by that of the Pandavas) and standing as if lifeless, king

Depending upon the strength of your arms this war had been entered into and the descendants of Pandu had also been summoned to the battle by me.

But you, however, look very cheerless (dispirited) now in the death of Drona. All the warriors engaged in battle are slain in battle.

Victory or death falls to the lot of one who is engaged in battle. What wonder then there is in this (the fall of Drona)? So do you fight with your faces in all directions.

Do you behold that lofty-minded Karna, the son of Vikartana, that highly powerful and mighty bowman-that wielder of celestial weapons, who is roving about in the (field of) battle.

Through fear, indeed, Dhananjaya-that coward son of Kunti, always flies away from him in battle, even as the small deer (does) froni a lion.

It is by him that Bhimasena of mighty strength, endowed with the force of ten thousand elephants, was brought, through the tactics of warfare that are peculiar to man, into the same circumstance.

It is by him that Ghatotkacha, thai wielder of celestial weapon, that god, that enchanter, that one who made a tremendous roar, was slain in battle through the most indomitable power.

Do you behold today in battle the inexhaustible strength of arms of that intellectual one, who is of unsubdued energy and of fixed purpose.

Do you behold today the prowess of both the son of Drona and the son of Radha who are high-souled, among the troops of the Pandus and the Panchalas.

All of you are, however, capable of slaying in battle the sons of Pandu with their troops even fighting singly. What then, when fighting together? Endowed with immense strength and acquainted with the use of weapons, do you behold today one another (engaged in battle).

Sanjaya said O faultless one, having thus addressed, you son (Duryodhana) of mighty prowess, (after having consulted) with his brothers, afterwards made Karna the generallissimo (of the Kuru troops).

O king, after having obtained the generalship (of the Kuru army) the mighty carwarrior Karna, invincible in battle, engaged himself in battle, making a tremendous roar like a lion.

He caused a great slaughter among the Srinjayas, all the Panchalas, the Kekayas and the Videhas, in the sight of all.

Hundreds of arrows most fearfully issued from his bow, one closely following the wings of another like the lines of bees (flying away from the hive).

Having oppressed the Pandavas and the Panchalas, of immense activity and killed thousands of heroes, he, at last, was slain by Arjuna. Having oppressed the Pandavas and the Panchalas, of immense activity and killed thousands of heroes, he, at last, was slain by Arjuna.