l. Heroes encountered heroes, uttering loud shouts. Their foes
could not make the Pandavas tremble. On the other hand, recollecting all
their woes, the latter made the ranks of their enemies tremble. Though
possessed of modesty, yet excited with rage and vindictiveness, and urged
by energy and might, they approached that dreadful battle, reckless of
their very lives for slaying Drona. That encounter of heroes of
immeasurable energy, sporting in fierce battle making life itself the
stake, resembled the collision of iron against adamant. The oldest men
even could not recollect whether they had seen or heard of a battle as
fierce as that which took place on this occasion. The earth in that
encounter, marked with great carnage and afflicted with the weight of
that vast host, began to tremble. The awful noise made by the Kuru army
agitated and tossed by the foe, paralysing the very welkin, penetrated
into the midst of even the Pandava host. Then Drona, coming upon the
Pandava divisions by thousands, and careering over the field, broke them
by means of his whetted shafts. When these were being thus crushed by
Drona of wonderful achievements, Dhrishtadyumna, the generalissimo of the
Pandava host, filled with rage himself checked Drona. The encounter that
we beheld between Drona and the prince of the Panchalas was highly
wonderful. It is my firm conviction that it has no parallel.

"'Then Nila, resembling a veritable fire, his arrows constituting its
sparks and his bow its flame, began to consume the Kuru ranks, like a
conflagration consuming heaps of dry grass. The valiant son of Drona, who
from before had been desirous of an encounter with him, smilingly
addressed Nila as the latter came consuming the troops, and said unto him
these polite words,[60] "O Nila, what dost thou gain by consuming so many
common soldiers with thy arrowy flames? Fight with my unaided self, and
filled with rage, strike me." Thus addressed, Nila, the brightness of
whose face resembled the splendour of a full-blown lotus, pierced
Aswatthaman, whose body resembled an assemblage of lotuses and whose eyes
were like lotus-petals with his shafts. Deeply and suddenly pierced by
Nila, Drona's son with three broad-headed arrows, cut off his
antagonist's bow and standard and umbrella. Quickly jumping down from his
car, Nila, then, with a shield and an excellent sword, desired to sever
from Aswatthaman's trunk his head like a bird (bearing away its prey in
its ta