grandsire.[484]"

SECTION CXIX

Sanjaya said, "When the combatants of both armies, strong in number, were
thus disposed in battle array, all those unretreating heroes, O Bharata,
set their heart upon the region of Brahma.[485] In course of the general
engagement that followed, the same class of combatants did not fight with
the same class of combatants. Car-warriors fought not with car-warriors,
or foot-soldiers with foot-soldiers, or horsemen with horsemen, or
elephant-warriors with elephant-warriors. On the other hand, O monarch,
the combatants fought with one another like mad men. Great and dreadful
was the calamity that overtook both the armies. In that fierce slaughter
when elephants and men spread themselves on the field, all distinctions
between them ceased, for they fought indiscriminately.

"Then Salya and Kripa, and Chitrasena, O Bharata, and Dussasana, and
Vikarna, those heroes mounted on their bright cars, caused the Pandava
host to tremble. Slaughtered in battle by those high-souled warriors, the
Pandava army began to reel in diverse ways, O king, like a boat on the
waters tossed by the wind. As the wintry cold cuts kine to the quick, so
did Bhishma cut the sons of Pandu to the quick. As regards thy army also,
many elephants, looking like newly-risen clouds, were felled by the
illustrious Partha. And many foremost of warriors too were seen to be
crushed by that hero. And struck with arrows and long shafts in
thousands, many huge elephants fell down, uttering frightful shrieks of
pain. And the field of battle looked beautiful, strewn with the bodies,
still decked with ornaments of high-souled warriors deprived of life and
with heads still decked with ear-rings. And in that battle, O king, which
was destructive of great heroes, when Bhishma and Dhananjaya the son of
Pandu put forth their prowess, thy sons, O monarch, beholding the
grandsire exert himself vigorously, approached him, with all their troops
placed ahead. Desirous of laying down their lives in battle and making
heaven itself their goal, they approached the Pandavas in that battle,
which was fraught with great carnage. The brave Pandavas also, O king,
bearing in mind the many injuries of diverse kinds inflicted upon them
before by thee and thy son, O monarch, and casting off all fear, and
eager to win the highest heavens, cheerfully fought with thy son and the
other warriors of thy army.

"Then the generalissimo of the Pandava army, viz., th