tituted by blood, and whose fierce billows and eddies were
constituted by shafts, and having slain the Samsaptakas, Phalguni showed
himself there. Possessed of great fame and endued as he was with the
energy of the Sun himself, Arjuna's emblem, viz., his banner bearing the
ape, was beheld by us to blaze with splendour. Having dried up the
Samsaptaka ocean by means of weapons that constituted his rays, the son
of Pandu then blasted the Kurus also, as if he were the very Sun that
arises at the end of the Yuga. Indeed, Arjuna scorched all the Kurus by
the heat of his weapons, like the fire[61] that appears at the end of the
Yuga, burning down all creatures. Struck by him with thousands of shafts,
elephant warriors and horsemen and car-warriors fell down on the earth,
with dishevelled hair, and exceedingly afflicted with those arrowy
showers, some uttered cries of distress. Others set up loud shouts. And
some struck with the shafts of Partha, fell down deprived of life.
Recollecting the practices of (good) warriors, Arjuna struck not those
combatants among the foe that had fallen down, or those that were
retreating, or those that were unwilling to fight. Deprived of their cars
and filled with wonder, almost all the Kauravas, turning away from the
field, uttered cries of Oh and Alas and called upon Karna (for
protection). Hearing that din made by the Kurus, desirous of protection,
Adhiratha's son (Karna), loudly assuring the troops with the words "Do
not fear" proceeded to face Arjuna. Then (Karna) that foremost of Bharata
car-warriors, that delighter of all the Bharatas, that first of all
persons acquainted with weapons, invoked into existence the Agneya
weapon. Dhananjaya, however, baffled by means of his own arrowy downpours
the flights of arrows shot by Radha's son, that warrior of the blazing
bow, that hero of bright shafts. And similarly, Adhiratha's son also
baffled the shafts of Arjuna of supreme energy. Resisting Arjuna's
weapons thus by his own, Karna uttered loud shouts and shot many shafts
at his antagonist. Then Dhristadyumna and Bhima and the mighty
car-warrior Satyaki, all approached Karna, and each of them pierced in
with three straight shafts. The son of Radha, however, checking Arjuna's
weapons by his own arrowy showers, cut off with three sharp shafts the
bows of those three warriors. Their bows cut off, they looked like snakes
without poison. Hurling darts at their foe from their respective cars,
they utter