dred arrows, and the former
with a 1,000. And then Drona's son, with good care, stupefying Arjuna in
that battle, shot thousands and tens of thousands and millions of arrows.
From the quivers, the bow, the bow-string, the fingers, the arms, the
hands, the chest, the face, the nose, the eyes, the ears, the heads, the
limbs, the pores of the body, the armour on his person, the car, and the
standard, O sire, of that utterer of Brahma, arrows began to issue.
Piercing Madhava and the son of Pandu with the thick arrowy shower,
Drona's son filled with joy, roared aloud like a vast mass of congregated
clouds. Hearing that roar of his, the son of Pandu said unto Keshava of
unfading glory these words "Behold, O Madhava, this wickedness towards me
of the preceptor's son. He regardeth us to be slain, having shrouded us
with his dense arrowy shower. I will presently, however, by my training
and might, baffle his purpose." Cutting off every one of those arrows
shot by Ashvatthama into three fragments, that foremost one of Bharata's
race destroyed them all like the Sun destroying a thick fog. After this
the son of Pandu once more pierced with his fierce shafts, the
samsaptakas with their steeds, drivers, cars, elephants, standards and
foot-soldiers. Every one of those that stood there as spectators, every
one of those that were stationed there on foot or car or steed or
elephant, regarded himself as shrouded by the arrows of Arjuna. Shot from
Gandiva, those winged arrows of diverse forms slew in that battle
elephants and steeds and men whether stationed in his immediate front or
at the distance of two miles. The trunks, cut off with broad-headed
shafts, of elephants, down whose cheeks and other limbs flowed the juice
indicative of excitement, fell down like tall trees in the forest struck
down with the axe. A little after down fell elephants, huge as hillocks,
with their riders, like mountains crushed by Indra with his thunder. With
his shafts cutting into minute portions well-equipped cars that looked
like dissolving edifices of vapour in the evening sky and unto which were
yoked well-trained steeds of great speed and which were ridden by
warriors invincible in battle, the son of Pandu continued to shower his
arrows on his enemies. And Dhananjaya continued to slay well-decked
horsemen and foot-soldiers of the foe. Indeed, Dhananjaya, resembling the
very Sun as he rises at the end of the Yuga, dried up the samsaptaka
ocean incapable of