in words? Accomplish in deed what thou
sayest. Thy words seem to be as fruitless as the roar of autumnal clouds.
Hearing, O hero, these roars of thine, I cannot restrain my laughter. Let
that encounter, O thou of Kuru's race, which has been desired by thee so
long, take place today. My heart, O sire, inspired as it is with the
desire of an encounter with thee, cannot brook any delay. Before slaying
thee, I shall not abstain from the fight, O wretch." Rebuking each other
in such words, those two bulls among men, both excited with great wrath,
struck each other in battle, each being desirous of taking the other's
life. Those great bowmen both endued with great might, encountered each
other in battle, each challenging the other, like two wrathful elephants
in rut for the sake of a she-elephant in her season. And those two
chastisers of foes, viz., Bhurisravas and Satyaki, poured upon each other
dense showers of arrows like two masses of clouds. Then Somadatta's son,
having shrouded the grandson of Sini with swift coursing shafts, once
more pierced the latter, O chief of the Bharatas, with many keen shafts,
from desire of slaying him. Having pierced Satyaki with ten shafts,
Somadatta's son sped many other keen shafts at that bull amongst the
Sinis, from a desire of compassing his destruction. Satyaki, however, O
lord, cut off, with the power of his weapons, all those keen shafts of
Bhurisravas, O king, in the welkin, before, in fact, any of them could
reach him. Those two heroes, those two warriors that enhanced the fame of
the Kurus and the Vrishnis respectively, both of noble lineage, thus
poured upon each other their arrowy showers. Like two tigers fighting
with their claws or two huge elephants with their tusks they mangled each
other with shafts and darts, such as car-warriors may use. Mangling each
other's limbs, and with blood issuing out of their wounds, those two
warriors engaged in a gambling match in which their lives were at the
stake, checked and confounded each other. Those heroes of excellent
feats, those enhancers of the fame of the Kurus and the Vrishnis, thus
fought with each other, like two leaders of elephantine herds. Indeed,
those warriors, both coveting the highest region, both cherishing the
desire of very soon attaining the region of Brahman, thus roared at each
other. Indeed, Satyaki and Somadatta's son continued to cover each other
with their arrowy showers in the sight of the Dhartarashtras filled