भीष्म-वध पर्व

Dhritarashtra said When the troops of my side and those of the foe were thus placed in battle-army, who struck first, the Kurus or the Pandavas?

Sanjaya said Having heard the word of his brother, your son Dushasana advanced with his force with Bhishma at their head.

Desiring to fight with Bhishma, the Pandavas cheerfully advanced with Bhimasena at their head.

Thereupon lion-like roars, clamorous shouts, the noise of Krakachas, the blare of cow-horns and the sounds of drum, cymbals and taboos arose in both the armies. The soldiers of the enemy rushed upon us and we also rushed upon them with loud shouts.

The vast arinies of the Kurus and the Pandavas shook in that fearful and body battle by the sounds of conchs and cymbals, as a forest is shaken by the wind.

The great nose, made by those troops consisting of kings, elephants and horses, rushing upon one another in an evil hour, was like that of the ocean in a tempest.

When that loud and hair-stirring noise rose, the mighty Bhimasena roared like a bull.

Bhimasena's roars rose above the sounds of conchs, and drums, the roaring of elephants and the lion-like shouts of the warriors.

The shouts of Bhimasena drowned the neighing of thousands of horses in both the armies.

Hearing those shouts of Bhimnasena whose roaring resembled that of the clouds and the report of the thunder, your soldiers were filled with fear.

Hearing those roars of that hero (Bhima), the horses and the elephants (of both the armies) ejected urine and excrete, as other animals do at the roars of the lion.

Roaring like a deep mass of clouds and assuming a fearful appearance, that hero filled your sons with great alarm and then rushed upon them. Sons

Then all the brothers, your Duryodhana, Durmukha, Dushala, that great car-warrior Dushasana, Durmarshana, Vivingshati, Chitrasena, the great car-warrior Vikarna and also Purumitra, Jaya, Bhoja, the brave son of Somadatta, all these heroes, shaking their bows which looked like so many masses of clouds charged with flashes of lightning, and taking out long arrows loO king like so many snakes that have cast off their sloughs, surrounded that great bowman (Bhima) and covered him with a shower of arrows, as clouds cover the sun.

The sons of Draupadi, the great car-warrior (Abhimanyu) son of Subhadra, Nakula and Sahadeva, Dhrishtadyumna, the of Prishata, all rushed against the warriors of Dhritarashtra's son and tore them asunder with sharp arrows as the summits of mountains are broken down by the thunder-bolt.

son In the first encounter that resounded with the terrible twang of the bow and flapping of the leather fences, none of your party or of that of the enemy turned them back.

0 best of the Bharata race, O king, I saw the lightness of hands of the disciples of Drona who shot countless arrows and always succeeded in hitting the marks.

The twang of the bows did not stop for a movement and the blazing arrows flashed through the air like meteor falling from the sky.

O descendant of Bharata, all the kings stood like spectators and saw the interesting and awful battle between kinsmen.

O king, then those great car-warriors remembering the great injuries they had suffered, challenged one another in anger and tried their utmost (to win victory).

The two armies of the Kurus and the Pandavas, full of elephants, horses and cars, looked exceedingly beautiful on the field of battle, like painted figures on canvas. Then all the kings took up their bows. The sun was covered by the dust raised by the combatants.

Under the command of your son, they rushed upon the enemy at the head of their respective troops. Fearful was the uproar made by the elephants and horses of the kings rushing to the charge, mingled with the lionlike shouts of the warriors and the din made by the sounds of conchs and drums. The uproar of that ocean (the battle field), which had arrows for its crocodiles, bows for its snakes, swords for its tortoises and the toward leaps of the warriors for its tempest, looked like a real ocean agitated by a tempest. Thousands of kings commanded by Yudhishthira attacked the ranks of your son with their respective troops.

While fighting, or retreating, or rallying again, neither the men of our side nor those of the enemy's could be distinguished. But your father (Bhishma) shone transcending all that countless host in that fearful and terrible battle.