he stayed amid the trappings of the yoke or behind those
red steeds, Drona found no opportunity to strike him. All this seemed
exceedingly wonderful. The movements of both Drona and Prishata's son in
that battle resembled the fight of hawk careering through the welkin for
a piece of meat. Then Drona, by means of a dart pierced the white steeds
of his antagonist, one after another, not striking, however, the red ones
amongst them (that belonged to himself)[254]. Deprived of life, those
steeds of Dhrishtadyumna fell down upon the earth. Thereupon, the red
steeds of Drona himself, O king, were freed from the entanglements of
Dhrishtadyumna's car. Beholding his steeds slain by that foremost of
Brahmanas, Prishata's son, that mighty car-warrior, that foremost of
fighters, could not brook it. Though deprived of his car, still that
foremost of all swordsmen, armed with his sword, sprang towards Drona, O
monarch, like Vinata's son (Garuda) making a swoop at a snake. The form,
O king, of Dhrishtadyumna at that time, when he sought to slay the son of
Bharadwaja, resembled the form of Vishnu himself in days of yore when at
the point of slaying Hiranyakasipu. He performed diverse evolutions, in
fact. O Kauravya, the son of Prishata, careering in that battle,
exhibited the well-known one and twenty different kinds of motion. Armed
with the sword, and shield in hand, Prishata's son wheeled about and
whirled his sword on high, and made side thrusts, and rushed forward, and
ran sideways, and leapt high, and assailed the flanks of his antagonists
and receded backwards, and closed with his foes, and pressed them hard.
Having practised them well, he also showed the evolutions called Bharata,
Kausika Satwata, as he careened in that battle for compassing the
destruction of Drona. Beholding those beautiful evolutions of
Dhrishtadyumna, as he careered on the field, sword and shield in hand,
all the warriors, as also the celestials assembled there, were filled
with wonder. The regenerate Drona then, shooting a thousand arrows in the
thick of fight, cut off the sword of Dhrishtadyumna as also his shield,
decked with a hundred moons. Those arrows that Drona shot, while fighting
from such a near point, were of the length of a span. Such arrows are
used only in close fight. None else have arrows of that kind, except
Kripa, and Partha, and Aswatthaman and Karna, Pradyumna and Yuyudhana;
Abhimanyu also had such arrows. Then the preceptor, desirous of