भीष्म-वध पर्व — हिडिम्बा-पुत्र का युद्ध

Dhritarashtra said Describe to me, O Sanjaya, what the highly puissant sons of Pritha did when they heard that Iravat had been slain in battle,

Sanjaya said Beholding Iravat slain in battle, the Rakshasa Ghatotkacha the son of Bhimasena, sent forth a terrible roar.

As he roared, the earth having the oceans for her raiment's, with her mountains and forests, O king, quaked violently with the echo of his roars;

As also the firmament and all the cardinal and subsidiary quarters. As your soldiers heard, O Bharata, that terrible uproar,

Their thighs were petrified and they trembled and perspired; and O foremost of kings, all of them became depressed at heart.

And they fled on all sides like herds of elephants frightened by a lion. Then the Rakshasa, uttering those loud roars that resembled the rumble of the thunder bolt, a

Balancing his resplendent trident and assuming dreadful appearance, and surrounded by foremost of Rakshasas of fearful main and armed with diverse weapons,

Advanced, greatly excited with rage, like the Destroyer at the time of universal annihilation. Beholding that irate hero of dreadful appearance make towards himself.

And seeing also his own troops, one and all, turning their faces away from the field of battle from fear of that Rakshasa, king Duryodhana rushed against Ghatotkacha,

Grasping a bow with arrows fixed on the string and uttering his war cries incessantly and loud. Behind him followed the ruler of the Bangas himself, supported by ten thousand elephants prodigious like the hills and with the temporal juice flowing down. Beholding your son surrounded by the elephant division rush to battle, O mighty monarch, that night-ranger became inflamed with wrath; then regard a combat, dreadful and hair stirring.

Between the Rakshasa, O mighty monarch, and the division of Duryodhana. Beholding that elephant-division like a mass of clouds in the horizon,

The Rakshasas, highly enraged, rushed at it, with weapons in their hands, and uttering various war-cries, like clouds charged with lightning.

With arrows, dares, sabers, shafts, lances, mallets, and battle-axes, they began to slay the warriors fighting from the backs of elephants.

They slew those huge elephants with blocks of stones and large trees. We beheld, O mighty monarch, elephants with temples rent, and bodies bathed in blood and managed with wounds, slain by those rangers of night. When that division of elephant-riders, was shattered and thinned in number,

Duryodhana himself, O mighty monarch, rushed against the Rakshasas, influenced by great animosity and headless of his own life.

That highly powerful hero sped arrows of exceeding sharpness at those Rakshasas, and that fierce bowman slew many of the Rakshasas that were fighting there.

Your irate son Duryodhana, O foremost of the Bharatas, that mighty car-warrior slew with four shafts, the four Rakshasas viz., Vegavana, Maharaudra, Vidyutjivha, and Pramathin. Once more, that one of immeasurable soul shot, O foremost of Bharatas, a shower of arrows incapable being ruffled, at the host of the Rakshasas. Beholding, O sire, that marvelous feat achieved by sour son,

The highly powerful son of Bhimasena blazed forth with rage; then stretching his mighty bow effulgent like the thunder bolt of Indra,

He rushed against the irate Duryodhana with violence. Beholding him rush forward like death incarnate urged on by the Destroyer himself.

Your son Duryodhana, O monarch, did not waver at all. Then Ghatotkacha with his eyes coppery in wrath thus addressed Duryodhana angrily saying

This day will I liquidate the debt I owe to my fathers and mothers who had so bong been exited by your heartless self.

The sons of Pandu, O monarch, were deceitfully defeated by you at a game of dice. The daughter of Drupada by name Krishna, while in her courses and so clad in one garment only,

O perverse-minded wretch, was brought in the midst of the court-hall and was persecuted by you in various ways. While she was dwelling in her hermitage in the woods, out of a desire for compassing your good, the wickedsouled.

Ruler of the Sindhus oppressed her disregarding my sires. O you the disgrace to your family, these and many other such insults.

Will I this avenge, if indeed you do not fly forsaking the field of battle.' Having thus spoken, and stretching his mighty bow Hidimba's son,

Biting his lips with his teeth and licking the corners of his mouth, covered Duryodhana with a mighty shower of arrows, like clouds washing the mountain breast with torrents of rain in the rainy season.