. And it was decked
with many adornments. And mighty car-warriors constituted its hundreds of
little whirlpools. And the dust of the earth constituted its wavelets.
And capable of being easily crossed by those possessed of exceeding
energy, it was incapable of being crossed by the timid. And heaps of dead
bodies constituted the sand-banks obstructing its navigation. And it was
the haunt of Kankas and vultures and other birds of prey. And it carried
away thousands of mighty-car-warriors to the abode of Yama. And long
spears constituted the snakes that infested it in profusion. And the
living combatants constituted the fowls sporting on its waters.[25] Torn
umbrellas constituted its large swans. Diadems formed the (smaller) birds
that adorned it. Wheels constituted its turtles, and maces its
alligators, and arrows its smaller fish. And it was the resort of
frightful swarms of crows and vultures and jackals. And that river, O
best of kings, bore away in hundreds, to the region of the Pitris, the
creatures that were slain by Drona in battle. Obstructed by hundreds of
bodies (floating on it), the hair (of slain warriors and animals)
constituted its moss and weeds. Even such was the river, enhancing the
fears of the timid, that Drona caused to flow there.[26]

"'And when Drona was thus grinding the hostile army hither and thither,
the Pandava warriors headed by Yudhishthira rushed at that mighty
car-warrior from all sides. Then seeing them thus rushing (towards
Drona), brave combatants of thy army, possessed of unyielding prowess,
rushed from every side. And the battle that thereupon ensued made the
hair stand on end. Sakuni, full of a hundred kinds of deceit, rushed
towards Sahadeva, and pierced the latter's charioteer, and standard, and
car, with many keen-pointed shafts. Sahadeva, however, without being much
excited, cutting off Sauvala's standard and bow and car-driver and car,
with sharp arrows, pierced Sauvala himself with sixty shafts. Thereupon,
Suvala's son, taking up mace, jumped down from his excellent car, and
with that mace, O king, he felled Sahadeva's driver from the latter's
car. Then these two heroic and mighty warriors, O monarch, both deprived
of car, and both armed with mace, sported in battle like two crests of
hills. Drona, having pierced the ruler of the Panchalas with ten shafts,
was, in return, pierced by the latter with many shafts. And the latter
was again pierced by Drona with a larger number of sha