e fifth he
cut off from his trunk the head of Duryodhana's driver. With the sixth
arrow he felled the (Kuru) king's standard on the Earth, with the seventh
his bow, and with the eighth his scimitar. And then with five more shafts
king Yudhishthira the just deeply afflicted the Kuru monarch. Thy son,
then, alighting from that steedless car, stood on the Earth in imminent
danger. Beholding him in that situation of great peril, Karna and Drona's
son and Kripa and others rushed suddenly towards the spot, desirous of
rescuing the king. Then the (other) sons of Pandu, surrounding
Yudhishthira, all proceeded to the encounter, upon which, O king, a
fierce battle was fought. Thousands of trumpets then were blown in that
great engagement, and a confused din of myriad voices arose there, O
king. There where the Pancalas engaged the Kauravas, in battle, men
closed with men, and elephants with foremost of elephants. And
car-warriors closed with car-warriors, and horse with horse. And the
various couples of battling men and animals, of great prowess and armed
with diverse kinds of weapons and possessed of great skill presented a
beautiful sight, O king, over the field. All those heroes endued with
great impetuosity and desirous of compassing the destruction of one
another, fought beautifully and with great activity and skill. Observing
the (sanctioned) practices of warriors, they slew one another in battle.
None of them fought from behind others. For only a very short time that
battle presented a beautiful aspect. Soon it became an encounter of mad
men, in which the combatants showed no regard for one another. The
car-warrior, approaching the elephant, pierced the latter with keen
shafts and despatched it to Yama's presence by means of straight arrows.
Elephants, approaching steeds, dragged down many of them in that battle,
and tore them (with their tusks) most fiercely in diverse places. Large
numbers of horsemen also, encompassing many foremost of steeds, made a
loud noise with their palms, and closed with them. And those horsemen
slew those steeds as they ran hither and thither, as also many huge
elephants as these wandered over the field, from behind and the flanks.
Infuriate elephants, O king, routing large numbers of steeds, slew them
with their tusks or crushed them with great force. Some elephants, filled
with wrath pierced with their tusks horses with horsemen. Others seizing
such with great force hurled them to the ground wit