ierced the grandsire
in return with twelve shafts. Drona (on the other hand), having pierced
Satyaki, pierced Bhimasena next. And he pierced each of them with five
sharp shafts, each of which resembled the rod of Death. Each of those
two, however, pierced Drona, that bull among Brahmanas, in return, with
three straight shafts. The Sauviras, the Kitavas, the Easterners, the
Westerners, the Northerners, the Malavas, the Abhishahas, the Surasenas,
the Sivis, and the Vasatis, did not avoid Bhishma in battle although they
were incessantly slaughtered by him with sharp shafts. And similarly
kings coming from diverse countries and armed with diverse weapons,
approached the Pandavas (without seeking to avoid them in battle). And
the Pandavas, O king, surrounded the grandsire on all sides. Surrounded
on all sides, yet unvanquished by that large body of cars, Bhishma blazed
up like a fire in the midst of a forest, and consumed his foes. His car
was his fire-chamber; his bow constituted the (flames of that fire);
swords, darts, and maces, constituted the fuel; his shafts were the
sparks (of that fire); and Bhishma was himself the fire that consumed the
foremost of Kshatriyas. Indeed, with shafts furnished with golden wings
and vulturine feathers and endued with great energy, with barbed arrows,
and nalikas, and long shafts, he covered the hostile host. And he felled
elephants and car-warriors also with his sharp shafts. And he made that
large body of cars resemble a forest of palmyras shorn of their leafy
heads. And that mighty armed warrior, that foremost of all wielders of
weapons, O king, deprived cars and elephants and steeds of their riders
in that conflict. And hearing the twang of his bow-string and the noise
of his palms, loud as the roar of the thunder, all the troops trembled, O
Bharata. The shafts of thy sire, O bull of Bharata's race, told on the
foe. Indeed, shot from Bhishma's bow they did not strike the coats of
mail only (but pierced them through). And we beheld, O king, many cars
destitute of their brave riders dragged over the field of battle, O
monarch, by the fleet steeds yoked unto them. Fourteen thousand
car-warriors, belonging to the Chedis, the Kasis, and the Karushas, of
great celebrity and noble parentage, prepared to lay down their lives,
unretreating from the field, and owning excellent standards decked with
gold, having met with Bhishma in battle who resembled the Destroyer
himself with wide-open mouth,