shasa with a hundred
shafts. And Nakula pierced him with three shafts. The son of Hidimva
having pierced him with five hundred shafts, Alamvusha once more pierced
him with seventy, and that mighty warrior uttered a loud roar. With that
loud roar of Ghatotkacha the earth shook, O king, with her mountains and
forests and with her trees and waters. Deeply pierced on all sides by
those great bowmen and mighty car-warriors, Alamvusha pierced each of
them in return with five arrows. Then that Rakshasa, O chief of the
Bharatas, viz., the son of Hidimva, filled with rage, pierced that other
angry Rakshasa in battle with many shafts. Then that mighty prince of
Rakshasas, viz., Alamvusha, deeply pierced, quickly shot countless shafts
equipped with wings of gold and whetted on stone. Those shafts, perfectly
straight, all entered the body of Ghatotkacha, like angry snakes of great
strength entering a mountain summit. Then the Pandavas, O king, filled
with anxiety, and Hidimva's son Ghatotkacha, also sped at their foe from
every side clouds of keen shafts. Thus struck in battle by the Pandavas,
desirous of victory, Alamvusha mortal as he was, did not know what to do.
Then that delighter in battle, viz., the mighty son of Bhimasena,
beholding that state of Alamvusha, set his heart upon his destruction. He
rushed with great impetuosity towards the car of the prince of Rakshasas,
that car which resembled a burnt mountain summit or a broken heap of
antimony. The son of Hidimva, inflamed with wrath, flew from his own car
to that of Alamvusha, and seized the latter. He then took him up from the
car, like Garuda taking up a snake. Thus dragging him up with his arms,
he began to whirl him repeatedly, and then crushed him into pieces,
hurling him down on the earth, like a man crushing an earthen pot into
fragments by hurling it against a rock. Endued with strength and
activity, possessed of great prowess, the son of Bhimasena, inflamed with
wrath in battle, inspired all the troops with fear. All the limbs broken
and bones reduced to fragments, the frightful Rakshasa Alamvusha, thus
slain by the heroic Ghatotkacha, resembled a tall Sala uprooted and
broken by the wind. Upon the slaughter of that wanderer of the night, the
Parthas became very cheerful. And they uttered leonine roars and waved
their garments. Thy brave warriors, however, beholding that mighty prince
or Rakshasas, viz., Alamvusha, slain and lying like a crushed mountain,
uttered c