ma on all sides
with an elephant division. And Bhurisravas, and Sala, and Suvala's son, O
monarch, began to check the twin sons of Madri with showers of bright and
sharp arrows. Bhishma, however, in that battle, supported by the sons of
Dhritarashtra with their troops, approaching Yudhishthira, surrounded him
on all sides. Beholding that elephant division coming towards him,
Pritha's son Vrikodara, possessed of great courage, began to lick the
corners of his mouth like a lion in the forest. Then Bhima, that foremost
of car-warriors, taking up his mace in that great battle, quickly jumped
down from his car and struck terror into the hearts of thy warriors.
Beholding him mace in hand, those elephant-warriors in that battle
carefully surrounded Bhimasena on all sides. Stationed in the midst of
those elephants, the son of Pandu looked resplendent like the Sun in the
midst of a mighty mass of clouds. Then that bull among the sons of Pandu
began with his mace to consume that elephant-division like the wind
dispelling a huge mass of clouds covering the welkin. Those tuskers,
while being slaughtered by the mighty Bhimasena, uttered loud cries of
woe like roaring masses of clouds. With diverse scratches (on his person)
inflicted by those huge animals with their tusks, the son of Pritha
looked beautiful on the field of battle like a flowering Kinsuka. Seizing
some of the elephants by their tusks, he deprived them of those weapons.
Wrenching out the tusks of others, with those very tusks he struck them
on their frontal globes and felled them in battle like the Destroyer
himself armed with his rod. Wielding his mace bathed in gore, and himself
bespattered with fat and marrow and smeared with blood, he looked like
Rudra himself. Thus slaughtered by him, the few gigantic elephants that
remained, ran away on all sides, O king, crushing even friendly ranks.
And in consequence of those huge elephants fleeing away on all sides,
Duryodhana's troops once more, O bull of Bharata's race, fled away from
the field."

SECTION CIV

Sanjaya said, "At mid-day, O king, happened a fierce battle, fraught with
great carnage, between Bhishma and the Somakas. That foremost of
car-warriors, viz., Ganga's son began to consume the ranks of the
Pandavas with keen shafts by hundreds and thousands. Thy sire Devavrata
began to grind those troops like a herd of bulls grinding (with their
tread) a heap of paddy sheaves. Then Dhrishtadyumna and Sikhandin and