सैन्यनिर्याण पर्व — दुर्योधनको सेनाको सज्जा

Janamejaya said Hearing that Yudhishthira with his army was advancing with the desire of fighting and has already reached Kurukshetra and was protected by Vasudeva,

And by Virata and Drupada along with their sons, and by the Kaikeyas and Vrishnis and surrounded by the rulers of the earth by hundreds,

Protected by mighty car-warriors as the great Indra by the Adityas-what did the king Duryodhana do?

I desire to hear this in detail, O you of great wisdom-what happened at Kurujangala on that terrible occasion,

These assembled together would strike terror into the hearts of the gods even with Indra-namely the son of Pandu Vasudeva, Virata and Drupada,

Dhrishtadyumna, the princess of Panchala and the great car-warriors Shikhandi and the powerful Yudhamanyu hard to withstand even by the gods.

This I desire to hear in detail, O you whose only wealth is devotion, namely the movements respectively of the Kurus and the Pandavas.

Vaishampayana said The scion of the Dasharha race having gone away, the king Duryodhana then said thus to Karna, Dushasana and Shakuni.

“With his object unsuccessful has the one whom the senses cannot know (Krishna) gone back to the son of Pritha and being filled with malice he will surely excite them (against us). there is no doubt of it.

It is the desire of Vasudeva that there should be war between the sons of Pandu and myself; and Bhimasena and Arjuna ever follow the opinions of that scion of the Dasharha race.

Yudhishthira who has no enemies, too is greatly under the influence of Bhimasena-besides he had been persecuted by me before along with all his brothers.

Virata and Drupada too entertain feelings of enmity towards me; and those two leaders of armies too are under the influence of Vasudeva.

Therefore will there be a fierce war which will make one's hair stand on end; therefore do you make all preparations of war very carefully.

Let the rulers of the earth fix their tents in Kurukshetra-tents which are spacious and large, and incapable being captured by enemies.

Let them be fixed by hundreds and thousands near a place abounding in water and fuel and in such a place that the way leading to it for supplying rations may not be cut off at the sweet will of the foe.

Let them be full of diverse kinds of weapons, flags and banners and let the roads leading to it out of the town be made level and cleared.

Proclaim without delay that we march forth tomorrow and they too saying "very well” obeyed these instructions on the day after.

Then did those rulers of the earth hearing those commands of the king become cheerful and made the necessary arrangements for the residence of the allies.

Being excited with wrath (towards the Pandavas) they rose up from their seats of great value and began slowly to rub their arms which had the circumference, of maces.

And which were blazing with golden ornaments and ornamented with sandal paste; and they began to put on their head gears by the help of their lotus like hands as also their lower and upper garments in all parts body.

The foremost among the car-warriors looked to the equipment of the cars, while those who were experts about horses looked to the harnessing of the steeds, and those who knew all about elephants began to get ready the elephants for war.

All those warriors then began to take up diverse sorts of coats of mail, many amours which were made of gold and all sorts of weapon in all directions.

The soldiers of the infantry began to take up different sorts of weapons and to protect their bodies by various sorts of amours made of gold.

Then did that army, of the son of Dhritarashtra made up of cheerful men, look like a festive city, O Bharata.

The crowd of human beings looked like the water of the sea, the cars, horses, and elephants like the fishes, the sound of conches and the beat of drums were its roar and the collection of treasures was the gems.

The diverse sorts of ornaments were the lesser waves, the bright and spotless weapons the foam, the clusters, of houses in the city were like the mountains on the sea shore and the groups of chariots were the large lakes on the bed of the sea.

In short, O king, was that great sea of the Kuru king brightened by the moon of warriors and it really then looked like the great sea at the rise of the moon.

Thus ends the one hundred and fifty third chapter, the in Sainya Niryana of the Udyoga Parva.