uding, with bottoms of
cars, standards, quivers, and banners, with gigantic conches, belonging
to great heroes, of milky whiteness lying about, and with trunkless
elephants lying prostrate, the earth looked beautiful like a damsel
adorned with diverse kinds of ornaments. And there, with other elephants
pierced with lances and in great agony, and frequently uttering low moans
with their trunks, the field of battle looked beautiful as if with moving
hills. With blankets of diverse hue, and housings of elephants, with
beautiful hooks falling about having handles decked with stones of lapis
lazuli, with bells lying about that had adorned gigantic elephants, with
clean and variegated cloths as also skins of the Ranku deer, with
beautiful neck-chains of elephants, with gold-decked girths, with broken
engines of diverse kinds, with bearded darts decked with gold, with
embroidered housings of steeds, embrowned with dust, with the lopped off
arms of cavalry soldiers, decked with bracelets and lying about, with
polished and sharp lances and bright swords, with variegated head-gears
fallen off (from heads) and scattered about, with beautiful
crescent-shaped arrows decked with gold, with housings of steeds, with
skins of the Ranku deer, torn and crushed, with beautiful and costly gems
that decked the head-gears of kings, with their umbrellas lying about and
yak tails and fans, with faces, bright as the lotus or the moon, of
heroic warriors, decked with beautiful ear-rings and graced with well-cut
beards, lying about and radiant with other ornaments of gold, the earth
looked like the firmament bespangled with planets and stars. Thus, O
Bharata, the two armies, viz., thine and theirs, encountering each other
in battle, crushed each other. And after the combatants had been
fatigued, routed, and crushed, O Bharata, dark night set in and the
battle could no longer be seen. Thereupon both the Kurus and the Pandavas
withdrew their armies, when that awful night of pitchy darkness came. And
having withdrawn their troops, both the Kurus and the Pandavas took rest
for the night, retiring to their respective tents."

SECTION XCVIII

Sanjaya said, "Then king Duryodhana, and Sakuni the son of Suvala, and
thy son Dussasana, and the invincible Suta's son (Karna) meeting
together, consulted in the following way. How could the sons of Pandu,
with their followers, be vanquished in battle? Even this was the subject
of their consultation. Then kin