, uttering
a leonine shout, began to pierce and slay that elephant-force with his
shafts. And like a Makara penetrating into the vast deep, surging into
mountain waves when agitated by the tempest, the diadem-decked (Arjuna)
penetrated into that elephant-host. Indeed, Partha, that subjugator of
hostile cities, was then seen by all on every side to resemble the
scorching sun that rises, transgressing the rule about direction and
hour, on the day of the universal destruction. And in consequence of the
sound of horses' hoofs, rattle of car-wheels, the shouts of combatants,
the twang of bow-strings, the noise of diverse musical instruments, the
blare of Panchajanya and Devadatta, and roar of Gandiva, men and
elephants were dispirited and deprived of their senses. And men and
elephants were riven by Savyasachin with his shafts whose touch resembled
that of snakes of virulent poison. And those elephants, in that battle,
were pierced all over their bodies with shafts, numbering thousands upon
thousands shot from Gandiva. While thus mangled by the diadem-decked
(Arjuna), they uttered loud noises and incessantly fell down on the earth
like mountains shorn of their wings. Others struck at the jaw, or frontal
globes, or temples with long shafts, uttered cries resembling those of
cranes. The diadem-decked (Arjuna) began to cut off, with his straight
arrows the heads of warriors standing on the necks of elephants. Those
heads decked with ear-rings, constantly falling on the earth, resembled a
multitude of lotuses that Partha was calling for an offer to his gods.
And while the elephants wandered on the field, many warriors were seen to
hang from their bodies, divested of armour, afflicted with wounds,
covered with blood, and looking like painted pictures. In some instances,
two or three warriors, pierced by one arrow winged with beautiful
feathers and well-shot (from Gandiva), fell down on the earth. Many
elephants deeply pierced with long shafts, fell down, vomiting blood from
their mouths, with the riders on their backs, like hills overgrown with
forests tumbling down through some convulsion of nature. Partha, by means
of his straight shafts, cut into fragments the bow-strings, standards,
bows, yokes, and shafts of the car-warriors opposed to him. None could
notice when Arjuna took up his arrows, when he fixed them on the
bow-string, when he drew the string, and when he let them off. All that
could be seen was that Partha seemed to d