at full tide. The terrified Kauravas had their fears dispelled
by Drona's son. The Pandus and the Panchalas had become fierce in
consequence of Drona's slaughter. Great was the violence of that
collision, on the field of battle, between those warriors, all of whom
were cheerful and filled with rage and inspired with certain hopes of
victory. Like a mountain, striking against a mountain, or an ocean
against an ocean, O monarch, was that collision between the Kurus and the
Pandavas. Filled with joy, the Kuru and the Pandava warriors beat
thousands of drums. The loud and stunning uproar that arose from among
those troops resembled that of the ocean itself while churned (of old by
the gods and the Danavas). Then Drona's son, aiming at the host of the
Pandavas and the Panchalas, invoked the weapon called Narayana. Then
thousands of arrows with blazing mouths appeared in the welkin,
resembling snakes of fiery mouths, that continued to agitate the
Pandavas. In that dreadful battle, those shafts, O king, like the very
rays of the sun in a moment shrouded all the points of the compass, the
welkin, and the troops. Innumerable iron balls also, O king, then
appeared, like resplendent luminaries in the clear firmament. Sataghnis,
some equipped with four and some with two wheels, and innumerable maces,
and discs, with edges sharp as razor and resplendent like the sun, also
appeared there. Beholding the welkin densely shrouded with those weapons,
O bull of Bharata's race, the Pandavas, the Panchalas, and the Srinjayas,
became exceedingly agitated. In all those places, O ruler of men, where
the great car-warriors of the Pandavas contended in battle, that weapon
became exceedingly powerful. Slaughtered by the Narayana weapon, as if
consumed by a conflagration, the Pandava troops were exceedingly
afflicted all over the field in that battle. Indeed, O lord, as fire
consumeth a heap of dry grass in summer, even so did that weapon consume
the army of the Pandus. Beholding that weapon filling every side, seeing
his own troops destroyed in large numbers, king Yudhishthira the just, O
lord, became inspired with great fright. Seeing his army in course of
flight and deprived of its senses, and beholding Parthas standing
indifferent, Dharma's son said these words, "O Dhrishtadyumna, fly away
with your Panchala troops. O Satyaki, you also go away, surrounded by the
Vrishnis and the Andhakas. Of virtuous soul, Vasudeva will himself seek
the means of