sions. All stood still, disposed in array. Variegated
with pearls and corals, decked with gems and gold, adorned with standards
and ornaments, with coats of mail made of gold, with triumphal banners
with rich caparisons of elephants, with fine blankets, with bright and
sharp weapons, with yak-tails, ornamented with gold and silver, on the
heads of steeds, with garlands, round the frontal globes of elephants and
rings round their tusks, O Bharata, the Kuru and the Pandava hosts then
looked like a mass of clouds at the close of summer, decked with rows of
cranes and myriads of fire-flies (under them) and adorned with rainbows
and flashes of lightning. Both our men and those of Yudhishthira, beheld
that battle between Yuyudhana and high-souled Drona; the gods also,
headed by Brahma and Soma, and the Siddhas, and the Charanas, and the
Vidyadharas, and the great Snakes, saw it, stationed on their foremost of
sky-ranging cars. And beholding the diverse motion, forward and backward,
of those lions among men, and their acts of striking each other, the
spectators were filled with wonder. And both endued with great strength,
Drona and Satyaki, displaying their lightness of hand in the use of
weapons, began to pierce each other with shafts. Then he of Dasarha's
race, with his mighty shafts, cut off those of the illustrious Drona in
that battle, and then, within a moment, the latter's bow also. Within,
however, the twinkling of an eye, the son of Bharadwaja took up another
bow and strung it. Even that bow of his was cut off by Satyaki. Drona
then, with utmost quickness waited with another bow in hand. As often,
however, as Drona strung his bow, Satyaki cut it off. And this he did
full nine and seven times. Beholding then that superhuman feat of
Yuyudhana in battle, Drona, O monarch, thought in his mind, "This force
of weapons that I see in this foremost one among the Satwatas exists in
Rama and Dhananjaya and was seen also in Kartavirya and that tiger among
men, viz., Bhishma." The son of Bharadwaja, therefore, mentally applauded
the prowess of Satyaki. Beholding that lightness of hand equal unto that
of Vasava himself, that foremost of regenerate ones, that first of all
persons conversant with weapons, was highly gratified with Madhava. And
the gods also, with Vasava at their head, were gratified with it. The
gods and the Gandharvas, O monarch, had never before witnessed that
lightness of hand of the quickly moving Yuyudhana, althoug