ttle hostile
princes, resembling snakes of virulent poison, the son of Arjuna hath
then given up his life. Having slain ten thousand warriors, viz., the
king of the Kosalas, Abhimanyu, who was even like Krishna or Arjuna
himself, hath assuredly gone to the abode of Indra. Having destroyed cars
and steeds and men and elephants by thousands, he was still not content
with what he did. Performing as he did such meritorious feats, we should
not certainly grieve for him, he hath gone to the bright regions of the
righteous, regions that men acquire by meritorious deeds."'"

SECTION XLVIII

"Sanjaya said, 'Having thus slain one of their foremost warriors, and
having been afflicted with their arrows, we came back to our encampment
in the evening, covered with blood. Steadfastly gazed at by the enemy, we
slowly left, O monarch, the field of battle, having sustained a severe
loss and nearly deprived of our senses. Then came that wonderful hour
intervening between day and night. Inauspicious howls of jackals were
heard. The sun, with the pale-red hue of the filaments of the
lotus, sank low in the horizon, having approached the western hills. And
he took away with him the splendour of our swords and darts, rapiers and
car-fences, and shields and ornaments. Causing the firmament and the
earth to assume the same hue, the sun assumed his favourite form of fire.
The field of battle was strewn with the motionless bodies of innumerable
elephants deprived of life, looking like crests of cloud-capped hills
riven by the thunder, and lying about with their standards and hooks and
riders fallen from their backs. The earth looked beautiful with large
cars crushed to pieces, and with their warriors and charioteers and
ornaments and steeds and standards and banners crushed, broken and torn.
Those huge cars, O king, looked like living creatures deprived of their
lives by the foe with his shafts. The field of battle assumed a fierce
and awful aspect in consequence of large number of steeds and riders all
lying dead, with costly trappings and blankets of diverse kinds scattered
about, and tongues and teeth and entrails and eyes of those creatures
bulging out of their places. Men decked with costly coats of mail and
ornaments and robes and weapons, deprived of life, lay with slain steeds
and elephants and broken cars, on the bare ground, perfectly helpless,
although deserving of costly beds and blankets. Dogs and jackals, and
crown and cranes an