Sacred Texts  Hinduism  Mahabharata  Index  Previous  Next 

18

"Sanjaya said, 'Meanwhile towards the northern part of the Pandava army, a loud uproar arose of cars and elephants and steeds and foot-soldiers as those were being massacred by Dandadhara. Turning the course of the car, but without stopping the steeds which were as fleet as Garuda or the wind, Keshava, addressing Arjuna, said, "The chief of the Magadhas, with his (foe-crushing) elephant is unrivalled in prowess. In training and might he is not inferior to Bhagadatta himself. Having slain him first, thou wilt then slay the samsaptakas." At the conclusion of his words, Keshava bore Partha to the presence of Dandadhara. The chief of the Magadhas, peerless in handling the elephant-hook even as the headless planet Ketu (is peerless) among all the planets, was destroying the hostile army like a fierce comet destroying the whole earth. Riding on his foe-slaying and well-equipped elephant which looked like the danava with elephantine face and form, and whose roar resembled that of a congregated mass of clouds, Dandadhara was destroying with his shafts thousands of cars and steeds and elephants and men. The elephants also, treading upon cars with their feet, pressed down into the Earth a large number of men with their steeds and drivers. Many were the elephants, also, which that foremost of elephants, crushed and slew with his two forefeet and trunk. Indeed, the beast moved like the wheel of Death. Slaying men adorned with steel coats of mail, along with their horses and foot-soldiers, the chief of the Magadhas caused these to be pressed down into the earth, like thick reeds pressed down with crackling sounds, by means of that mighty and foremost of elephants belonging to him. Then Arjuna, riding on that foremost of cars, rushed quickly towards that prince of elephants in the midst of that host teeming with thousands of cars and steeds and elephants, and resounding with the beat and blare of innumerable cymbals and drums and conchs and uproarious with the clatter of car-wheels, the twang of bow-strings, and the sound of palms. Even Dandadhara pierced Arjuna with a dozen foremost of shafts and Janardana with sixteen and each of the steeds with three, and then uttered a loud shout and laughed repeatedly. Then Partha, with a number of broad-headed shafts, cut off the bow of his antagonist with its string and arrow fixed thereon, as also his well-decked standard, and then the guides of his beast and the footmen that protected the animal. At this, the lord of Girivraja became filled with rage. Desirous of agitating Janardana with that tusker of his, whose temples had split from excitement, and which resembled a mass of clouds and was endued with the speed of the wind, Dandadhara struck Dhananjaya with many lances. The son of Pandu then, with three razor-headed arrows, cut off, almost at the same instant of time, the two arms each looking like the trunk of an elephant, and then the head, resembling the full Moon, of his foe. Then Arjuna struck the elephant of this antagonist with hundreds of arrows. Covered with the gold-decked arrows of Partha, that elephant equipped with golden armour looked as resplendent as a mountain in the night with its herbs and trees blazing in a conflagration. Afflicted with the pain and roaring like a mass of clouds, and exceedingly weakened, the elephant crying and wandering and running with tottering steps, fell down with the guide on its neck, like a mountain summit riven by thunder. Upon the fall of his brother in battle, Danda advanced against Indra's younger brother and Dhananjaya, desirous of slaying them, on his tusker white as snow and adorned with gold and looking like a Himalayan summit. Danda struck Janardana with three whetted lances bright as the rays of the sun, and Arjuna with five, and uttered a loud shout. The son of Pandu then uttering a loud shout cut off the two arms of Danda. Cut off by means of razor-headed shafts, those two arms, smeared with sandal-paste, adorned with angadas, and with lances in grasp, as they fell from the elephant's back at the same instant of time, looked resplendent like a couple of large snakes of great beauty falling down from a mountain summit. Cut off with a crescent-shaped arrow by the diadem-decked (Partha), the head also of Danda fell down on the Earth from the elephant's back, and covered with blood it looked resplendent as it lay like the sun dropped from the Asta mountain towards the western quarter. Then Partha pierced with many excellent arrows bright as the rays of the sun that elephant of his foe, resembling a mass of white clouds whereupon it fell down with a noise like a Himalayan summit riven with thunder. Then other huge elephants capable of winning victory and resembling the two already slain, were cut off by Savyasaci, in that battle, even as the two (belonging to Danda and Dandadhara) had been cut off. At this the vast hostile force broke. Then elephants and cars and steeds and men, in dense throngs, clashed against one another and fell down on the field. Tottering, they violently struck one another and fell down deprived of life. Then his soldiers, encompassing Arjuna like the celestials encompassing Purandara, began to say, "O hero, that foe of whom we had been frightened like creatures at the sight of Death himself, hath by good luck been slain by thee. If thou hadst not protected from that fear those people that were so deeply afflicted by mighty foes, then by this time our foes would have felt that delight which we now feel at their death, O slayer of enemies." Hearing these and other words uttered by friends and allies, Arjuna, with a cheerful heart, worshipped those men, each according to his deserts, and proceeded once more against the samsaptakas.'"


Next: Section 19