padi, he deserved to be slain by the Pandavas!
From regard, however, for Duhshala, they set him free on that occasion.
Why, O Krishna, did they not show some regard for that Duhshala once
more? That daughter of mine, of tender years, is now crying in grief. She
is striking her body with her own hands and censuring the Pandavas. What,
O Krishna, can be a greater grief to me than that my daughter of tender
years should be a widow and all my daughters-in-law should become
lordless. Alas, alas, behold, my daughter Duhshala, having cast off her
grief and fears, is running hither and thither in search of the head of
her husband. He who had checked all the Pandavas desirous of rescuing
their son, after causing the slaughter of a vast force, at last himself
succumbed to death. Alas, those wives of his, with faces as beautiful as
the moon, are crying, sitting around that irresistible hero who resembled
an infuriated elephant!'"

23

"Gandhari said, 'There lies Shalya, the maternal uncle himself of Nakula,
slain in battle, O sire, by the pious and virtuous Yudhishthira! He used
everywhere, O bull among men, to boast of his equality with thee! That
mighty car-warrior, the ruler of the Madras, now lieth, deprived of life.
When he accepted the drivership of Karna's car in battle, he sought to
damp the energy of Karna for giving victory to the sons of Pandu! Alas,
alas, behold the smooth face of Shalya, beautiful as the moon, and
adorned with eyes resembling the petals of the lotus, eaten away by
crows! There, the tongue of that king, of the complexion of heated gold,
rolling out of his mouth, is, O Krishna, being eaten away by carnivorous
birds! The ladies of the royal house of Madra, uttering loud wails of
woe, are sitting around the body of that king, that ornament of
assemblies, deprived of life by Yudhishthira! Those ladies are sitting
around that fallen hero like a herd of she-elephants in their season
around their leader sunk in a slough. Behold the brave Shalya, that giver
of protection, that foremost of car-warriors, stretched on the bed of
heroes, his body mangled with shafts. There, king Bhagadatta of great
prowess, the ruler of a mountainous kingdom, the foremost of all wielders
of the elephant-hook, lieth on the ground, deprived of life. Behold the
garland of gold that he still wears on his head, looketh resplendent.
Though the body is being eaten away by beasts of prey, that garland still
adorns the fair locks on h