some thrust his weapon
into the body of a living foe. A fierce battle took place there, O
Bharata, in which the combatants struck one another with fists or seized
one another's hair or wrestled with one another with bare arms. In many
instances, combatants, using diverse kinds of weapons, took the lives of
combatants engaged with others and, therefore, unperceived by them.
During the progress of that general engagement when all the combatants
were mangled in battle, hundreds and thousands of headless trunks stood
up on the field. Weapons and coats of mail, drenched with gore, looked
resplendent, like cloths dyed with gorgeous red. Even thus occurred that
fierce battle marked by the awful clash of weapons. Like the mad and
roaring current of the Ganga it seemed to fill the whole universe with
its uproar. Afflicted with shafts, the warriors failed to distinguish
friends from foes. Solicitous of victory, the kings fought on because
they thought that fight they should. The warriors slew both friends and
foes, with whom they came in contact. The combatants of both the armies
were deprived of reason by the heroes of both the armies assailing them
with fury. With broken cars, O monarch, the fallen elephants, and steeds
lying on the ground, and men laid low, the Earth, miry with gore and
flesh, and covered with streams of blood, soon became impassable. Karna
slaughtered the Pancalas while Dhananjaya slaughtered the Trigartas. And
Bhimasena, O king, slaughtered the Kurus and all the elephant divisions
of the latter. Even thus occurred that destruction of troops of both the
Kurus and the Pandavas, both parties having been actuated by the desire
of winning great fame, at that hour when the Sun had passed the
meridian.'"

29

"Dhritarashtra said, 'I have heard from thee, O Sanjaya, of many poignant
and unbearable griefs as also of the losses sustained by my sons. From
what thou hast said unto me, from the manner in which the battle has been
fought, it is my certain conviction, O Suta, that the Kauravas are no
more. Duryodhana was made carless in that dreadful battle. How did
Dharma's son (then) fight, and how did the royal Duryodhana also fight in
return? How also occurred that battle which was fought in the afternoon?
Tell me all this in detail, for thou art skilled in narration, O Sanjaya.'

"Sanjaya said, 'When the troops of both armies were engaged in battle,
according to their respective divisions, thy son Duryodhana, O