ame filled with delight. Then in this
fierce and terrible battle, O prince, thy friend, breaking the mighty
array (of the foe), hath penetrated into it.' Hearing these words of
Visoka, Prishata's son Dhrishtadyumna, endued with great strength, said
unto the charioteer these words on the field of battle. 'What need have I
today of life itself, if forgetting my affection for the Pandavas, I
forsake Bhima in battle? If I return today without Bhima, what will the
Kshatriyas say of me? What will they say of me when they will learn that
while I was on the field Bhima penetrated alone into the hostile array
making a single opening in it? The gods with Indra at their head visit
him with evil who, forsaking his comrades in battle, returneth home
unhurt! The mighty Bhima again is my friend and kinsman. He is devoted to
me, and I also am devoted to that slayer of foes. Therefore, I will go
thither, whither Bhima hath gone. Behold me slaying the foe like Vasava
slaying the Danavas.' Having said this, the heroic Dhrishtadyumna, O
Bharata, proceeded through the midst of the foe, along the tracks opened
by Bhimasena and marked by elephants crushed with his mace. He then
obtained sight of Bhimasena consuming the hostile ranks or felling
Kshatriya warriors like the tempest devastating rows of trees. And
car-warriors and horsemen and foot-soldiers and tuskers, while thus
slaughtered by him, uttered loud cries of woe. And cries of ah and alas
arose from thy troops, O sire, while they were slaughtered by the
victorious Bhima accomplished in all modes of warfare. Then the Kaurava
warriors all accomplished in arms, surrounding Vrikodara on all sides,
fearlessly poured upon him their arrowy showers at the same time. Then
the mighty son of Prishata, beholding that foremost of all wielders of
weapons, that celebrated hero, viz., the son of Pandu, thus attacked on
all sides by fierce ranks of foes in close array, mangled with shafts,
treading the field on foot, and vomiting the poison of his wrath, mace in
hand and looking like the Destroyer himself at the hour of the universal
dissolution, quickly approached him and comforted him by his presence.
And taking him upon his car, and plucking the arrows off from all his
limbs, and embracing him warmly, the high-souled son of Prishata
comforted Bhimasena in the very midst of the foe. Then thy son, in that
terrible conflict, quickly coming up to his brothers, said unto them,
'This son of Drupada of wick