f warriors, falling upon one another, impatiently
struck one another in that battle. Hundreds and thousands of combatants,
killed by the weight of slain horsemen while falling down from their
steeds, fell down on the field. Loud became the noise of neighing steeds
of great fleetness, and of shouting men clad in mail, and of the falling
darts and swords, O king, of combatants desirous of piercing the vitals
of one another in consequence, O monarch, of thy evil policy. At that
time, thy soldiers, overcome with toil, spent with rage, their animals
fatigued, themselves parched with thirst mangled with keen weapons, began
to turn away from the battle. Maddened with the scent of blood, many
became so insensate that they slew friends and foes alike, in fact, every
one they got at. Large numbers of Kshatriyas, inspired with desire of
victory, were struck down with arrows, O king, and fell prostrate on the
Earth. Wolves and vultures and jackals began to howl and scream in glee
and make a loud noise. In the very sight of thy son, thy army suffered a
great loss. The Earth, O monarch, became strewn with the bodies of men
and steeds, and covered with streams of blood that inspired the timid
with terror. Struck and mangled repeatedly with swords and battle axes
and lances, thy warriors, as also the Pandavas, O Bharata, ceased to
approach one another. Striking one another according to the measure of
their strength, and fighting to the last drop of their blood, the
combatants fell down vomiting blood from their wounds. Headless forms
were seen, seizing the hair of their heads (with one hand) and with
uplifted swords dyed with blood (in the other). When many headless forms,
O king, had thus risen up, when the scent of blood had made the
combatants nearly senseless, and when the loud noise had somewhat
subsided, Subala's son (once more) approached the large host of the
Pandavas, with the small remnant of his horse. At this, the Pandavas,
inspired with desires of victory and endued with foot-soldiers and
elephants and cavalry, all with uplifted weapons, desirous of reaching
the end of the hostilities, the Pandavas, forming a wall, encompassed
Shakuni on all sides, and began to strike him with diverse kinds of
weapons. Beholding those troops of thine assailed from every side, the
Kauravas, with horsemen, foot-soldiers, elephants, and cars, rushed
towards the Pandavas. Some foot-soldiers of great courage, destitute of
weapons, attacked their