own on the earth."

8

Janamejaya said, "Having heard of Karna's fall and the slaughter of his
sons, what, O foremost of regenerate ones, did the king say, after he had
been a little comforted? Indeed, poignant was the grief that he
experienced, arising from the calamity that befell his sons! Tell me, I
ask thee, all that the king said on that occasion!"

Vaishampayana said, "Hearing of the slaughter of Karna that was
incredible and astounding, that was dreadful and capable of paralysing
the senses of all creatures, that looked like the downfall of Meru, or a
never-to-be-believed clouding of the intellect of the wise Shukra, or the
defeat of Indra of terrible feats at the hands of his foes, or the
falling down on the Earth of the resplendent Sun from the firmament, or a
scarcely-to-be-comprehended drying up of the ocean, that receptacle of
inexhaustible waters, or the annihilation, perfectly astounding, of the
earth, the firmament, the points of the compass, and the waters, or the
fruitlessness of acts both virtuous and sinful, king Dhritarashtra,
having earnestly reflected for some time on it, thought that his army had
been annihilated. Thinking that other creatures also, as unslayable as
Karna, would meet with a similar fate, king Dhritarashtra the son of
Ambika, scorched with grief and sighing like a snake, with limbs almost
palsied, long breaths, highly cheerless, and filled with melancholy,
began to lament, saying, 'Oh!' and 'Alas!' And the king said, 'O Sanjaya,
the heroic son of Adhiratha was endued with the prowess of the lion or
the elephant! His neck was as thick as that of a bull, and his eyes,
gait, and voice were like the bull's! Of limbs as hard as the
thunderbolt, that young man, like a bull never flying away from a bull,
never desisted from battle even if his foe happened to be the great Indra
himself! At the sound of his bow-string and palms and at the whizz of his
arrowy showers men and steeds and cars and elephants fled away from
battle. Relying upon that mighty-armed one, that slayer of large bands of
foes, that warrior of unfading glory, Duryodhana had provoked hostilities
with those mighty car-warriors, the sons of Pandu! How then could Karna,
that foremost of car-warriors, that tiger among men, that hero of
irresistible onset, be forcibly slain by Partha in battle? Relying on the
might of his own arms, he always disregarded Keshava of unfading glory,
and Dhananjaya, and the Vrishnis, and all