ter, then, jumped down from that car of his, whose steeds and wheels
and Akshas and standard and Kuvara had all been crushed into pieces.
Relying on his illusion, he poured a copious shower of blood. The sky
then seemed to be overspread with a mass of black clouds adorned with
flashes of lightning. A thunder-storm was then heard, accompanied with
loud reports and loud roars of clouds. Loud sounds also of chat, chat,
were heard in that dreadful battle. Beholding that illusion created by
the Rakshasa Alayudha, the Rakshasa Ghatotkacha, soaring aloft, destroyed
it by means of his own illusion. Alayudha, beholding his own illusion
destroyed by that of his foe, began to pour a heavy shower of stones on
Ghatotkacha. That terrible shower of stones, the valiant Ghatotkacha
dispelled by means of a shower of arrows. They then rained on each other
diverse weapons, such as iron Parighas and spears and maces and short
clubs and mallets, and Pinakas and swords and lances and long spears and
Kampanas, and keen shafts, both long and broad-headed, and arrows and
discs and battle-axes, and Ayogudas and short-arrows, and weapons with
heads like those of kine, and Ulukhalas. And they struck each other,
tearing up many kinds of large-branched trees such as Sami and Pilu and
Karira and Champaka, O Bharata, and Inguidi and Vadari and flowering
Kovidara and Arimeda and Plaksha and banian and peepul, and also with
diverse mountain-summits and diverse kinds of metals. The clash of those
trees and mountain-summits became very loud like the roar of driving
thunder. Indeed, the battle that took place between Bhima's son and
Alayudha, was, O king, dreadful in the extreme, like that in days of old,
O monarch, between Vali and Sugriva, those two princes among the monkeys.
They struck each other with shafts and diverse other kinds of fierce
weapons, as also with sharp scimitars. Then the mighty Rakshasas, rushing
against each other, seized each other by the hair. And, O king, those two
gigantic warriors, with many wounds on their bodies and blood and sweat
trickling down, looked like two mighty masses of clouds pouring rain.
Then rushing with speed and whirling the Rakshasas on high and dashing
him down, Hidimva's son cut off his large head. Then taking that head
decked with a pair of ear-rings, the mighty Ghatotkacha uttered a loud
roar. Beholding the gigantic brother of Vaka, that chastiser of foes,
thus slain, the Panchalas and the Pandavas began to ut