uded Ghatotkacha's
car in a moment with winged arrows. Then Ghatotkacha, whirling a
gold-decked mace, hurled it at Karna. Karna, however, with his shafts,
cutting it off, caused it to fall down. Then soaring into the sky and
roaring deep like a mass of clouds, the gigantic Rakshasa poured from the
welkin a perfect shower of trees. Then Karna pierced with his shafts
Bhima's son in the sky, that Rakshasa acquainted with illusions, like the
sun piercing with his rays a mass of clouds. Slaying then all the steeds
of Ghatotkacha, and cutting also his car into a hundred pieces, Karna
began to pour upon him his arrows like a cloud pouring torrents of rain.
On Ghatotkacha's body there was not even two finger's breadth of space
that was not pierced with Karna's shafts. Soon the Rakshasa seemed to be
like a porcupine with quills erect on his body. So completely was he
shrouded with shafts that we could not in that battle, any longer see
either the steeds or the car or the standard of Ghatotkacha or
Ghatotkacha himself. Destroying then by his own weapon, the celestial
weapon of Karna, Ghatotkacha, endued with the power of illusion, began to
fight with the Suta's son, aided by his powers of illusion. Indeed, he
began to fight with Karna, aided by his illusion and displaying the
greatest activity. Showers of shafts fell from an invisible source from
the welkin. Then Bhimasena's son, endued with great prowess of illusion,
O foremost of the Kurus, assumed a fierce form, aided by those powers,
began to stupefy the Kauravas, O Bharata! The valiant Rakshasa, assuming
many fierce and grim heads, began to devour the celestial weapons of the
Suta's son. Soon again, the gigantic Rakshasa, with a hundred wounds on
his body seemed to lie cheerlessly, as if dead, on the field. The Kaurava
bulls then, regarding Ghatotkacha deed, uttered loud shouts (of joy).
Soon, however, he was seen on all sides, careering in new forms. Once
more, he was seen to assume a prodigious form, with a hundred heads and a
hundred stomachs, and looking like the Mainaka mountain.[235] Once again,
becoming small about the measure of the thumb, he moved about
transversely or soared aloft like the swelling surges of the sea. Tearing
through the earth and rising on the surface, he dived again into the
waters. Once seen here, he was next seen at a different place. Descending
then from the welkin, he was seen standing, clad in mail, on a car decked
with gold, having wandered th