e Pandava ranks. Kripa and Bhurisravas and Salya,
and Drona's son and Vivinsati, and Chitrasena and Vikarna, and the ruler
of the Sindhus, and Vrihadvala, and those two mighty bowmen, viz., the
two princes of Avanti, surrounded the Kuru king. Advancing only twenty
steps, the Pandavas and the Dhartarashtras began to strike, desirous of
slaughtering each other. The mighty-armed son of Bharadwaja also, having
said those words (unto the Dhartarashtra warriors), stretched his own
large bow and pierced Bhima with six and twenty arrows. And once again
that mighty car-warrior speedily covered Bhimasena with a shower of
arrows like a mass of clouds dropping torrents of rain on the
mountain-breasts in the rainy season. That mighty bowman Bhimasena,
however, of great strength, speedily pierced him in return with ten
shafts on the left side. Deeply pierced with those arrows and exceedingly
pained, O Bharata, the preceptor, enfeebled as he is with age, suddenly
sat down on the terrace of his car, deprived of consciousness. Beholding
him thus pained, king Duryodhana himself, and Aswatthaman also, excited
with wrath, both rushed towards Bhimasena. Beholding those two warriors
advance, each like Yama as he shows himself at the end of the Yuga, the
mighty-armed Bhimasena, quickly taking up a mace, and jumping down from
his car without loss of time, stood immovable like a hill, with that
heavy mace resembling the very club of Yama, upraised in battle.
Beholding him with mace (thus) upraised and looking (on that account)
like the crested Kailasa, both the Kuru king and Drona's son rushed
towards him. Then the mighty Bhimasena himself rushed impetuously at
those two foremost of men thus rushing together towards him with great
speed. Beholding him thus rushing in fury and with terrible expression of
face, many mighty car-warriors of the Kaurava army speedily proceeded
towards him. Those car-warriors headed by Bharadwaja's son, impelled by
the desire of slaughtering Bhimasena, hurled at his breast diverse kinds
of weapons, and thus all of them together afflicted Bhima from all sides.
Beholding that mighty car-warrior thus afflicted and placed in a
situation of great peril, many mighty car-warriors of the Pandava army,
headed by Abhimanyu, and prepared to lay down dear life itself, rushed to
the spot, desirous of rescuing him. The heroic ruler of the low country,
the dear friend of Bhima, viz., Nila, looking like a mass of blue clouds,
rushed a