se trunks or tusks had been cut off, with steeds deprived of hoofs or
necks, with cars reduced to pieces, with warriors having their entrails
drawn out and others with legs or other limbs cut off, with bodies lying
in hundreds and thousands that were either perfectly still or moving
unconsciously, we beheld the vast field, on which Partha battled,
resembled the coveted arena of Death, O king, enhancing the terrors of
the timid, or like the sporting ground of Rudra when he destroyed
creatures in days of old. Portions of the field, strewn with the trunks
of elephants cut off with razor-headed arrows, looked as if strewn with
snakes. Portions, again, covered with the cut-off heads of warriors,
looked as if strewn with garlands of lotuses. Variegated with beautiful
head-gear and crowns, Keyuras and Angadas and car-rings with coats of
mail decked with gold, and with the trappings and other ornaments of
elephants and steeds, and scattered over with hundreds of diadems, lying
here and there, and the earth looked exceedingly beautiful like a new
bride. Dhananjaya then caused a fierce and terrible river full of fearful
objects and enhancing the fear of the timid, to flow resembling the
Vaitarani itself. The marrow and fat (of men and animals) formed its
mire. Blood formed its current. Full of limbs and bones, it was
fathomless in depth. The hairs of creatures formed its moss and weeds.
Heads and arms formed the stones on its shores. It was decked with
standards and banners that variegated its aspect. Umbrellas and bows
formed the waves. And it abounded with bodies of huge elephants deprived
of life, and it teemed with cars that formed hundreds of rafts floating
on its surface. And the carcases of countless steeds formed its banks.
And it was difficult to cross in consequence of wheels and yokes and
shafts and Akshas and Kuveras of cars, and spears and swords and darts
and battle-axes and shafts looking like snakes. And ravens and kankas
formed its alligators. And jackals, forming its Makaras, made it
terrible. And fierce vultures formed its sharks. And it became frightful
in consequence of the howls of jackals. And it abounded with capering
ghosts and Pisachas and thousands of other kinds of spirits. And on it
floated countless bodies of warriors destitute of life. Beholding that
prowess of Arjuna whose visage then resembled that of the Destroyer
himself, a panic, such as had never occurred before, possessed the Kurus
on the field