hs, he then, with a cheerless heart, said,
"It is as thou, O friend, hast said. Listen, however, to the words that I
would say unto thee. The wicked-hearted Vrikodara, having slain
Duhshasana like a tiger, spoke words that still dwell in my heart. Thou
also heardest the same. How then can there be peace? Arjuna again will
not be able to bear Karna in battle, like a tempest whose force is
weakened when encountering the mighty mountains of Meru. Nor will the
sons of Pritha have the least confidence in me, thinking of the many acts
of forceful hostility (done by me towards them). Nor, O preceptor's son
of unfading glory, doth it behove thee to say unto Karna now 'Abstain
from battle!' Phalguna is exceedingly tired today. Karna will soon slay
him". Having with humility said these words repeatedly unto the
preceptor's son, thy son commanded his own troops, saying, "Armed with
arrows, rush against and slay these foes. Why stand ye inactive?"'"

89

"Sanjaya said, 'Then when the blare of conchs and the peal of drums became
very loud, those two foremost of men, both owning white steeds, the
Suta's son Vikartana and Arjuna, encountered each other in consequence, O
king, of thy son's evil policy. Those two heroes endued with great
impetuosity, Dhananjaya and Adhiratha's son, closed with each other like
two infuriated Himalayan elephants, both of full-grown tusks, fighting
with each other for the sake of a she-elephant in her season. Like a mass
of clouds encountering another mass, or a mountain encountering a
mountain, those two warriors, both pouring showers of arrows, encountered
each other, their bows loudly twanging the while, and the wheels of their
cars producing a deafening clatter, and their bow-strings and palms
emitting loud sounds. Like two mountains, both endued with tall cliffs
and abounding in trees and creepers and herbs and both teeming with the
diverse other denizens that are natural to them, moving towards each
other for an encounter, those two mighty warriors encountered each other,
each striking the other with mighty weapons.

"'The combat between the two heroes became furious like that between the
chief of the celestials and Virocana's son in days of yore. Incapable of
being endured by others and marked by a river whose distasteful water
consisted of blood, the limbs of those two heroes, as also their drivers
and animals, became exceedingly mangled. Like two large lakes, both
teeming with lotuses of div