certainly slay all of us. For this, it is better that we should die in
battle. Death in battle is fraught with happiness. Fight, observant of
the Kshatriya's duty. He that is dead knows no misery. On the other hand,
such a one enjoys eternal bliss hereafter. Listen, ye Kshatriyas, ay, all
of you, that are assembled here! When the destroyer Yama spareth neither
the hero nor the coward, who is there so foolish of understanding,
although observant of a Kshatriya's vow like us, that would not fight.
Would ye place yourselves under the power of the angry foe Bhimasena? It
behoveth you not to abandon the duty observed by your sires and
grandsires. There is no greater sin for a Kshatriya than flight from
battle. There is no more blessed path for heaven, ye Kauravas, than the
duty of battle. Slain in battle, ye warriors, enjoy heaven without
delay."'"

"Sanjaya continued, 'While even these words were being uttered by thy
son, the (Kaurava) warriors, exceedingly mangled, fled away on all sides,
regardless of that speech.'"

94

"Sanjaya said, 'The ruler of the Madras then, beholding thy son employed
in rallying the troops, with fear depicted on his countenance and with
heart stupefied with grief, said these words unto Duryodhana.

"'Shalya said, "Behold this awful field of battle, O hero, covered with
heaps of slain men and steeds and elephants. Some tracts are covered with
fallen elephants huge as mountains, exceedingly mangled, their vital
limbs pierced with shafts, lying helplessly, deprived of life, their
armour displaced and the weapons, the shields and the swords with which
they were equipped lying scattered about. These fallen animals resemble
huge mountains riven with thunder, with their rocks and lofty trees and
herbs loosened from them and lying all around. The bells and iron hooks
and lances and standards with which those huge creatures had been
equipped are lying on the ground. Adorned with housings of gold, their
bodies are now bathed in blood. Some tracts, again, are covered with
fallen steeds, mangled with shafts, breathing hard in pain and vomitting
blood. Some of them are sending forth soft wails of pain, some are biting
the earth with rolling eyes and some are uttering piteous neighs.
Portions of the field are covered with horsemen and elephant-warriors
fallen off from their animals, and with bands of car-warriors forcibly
thrown down from their cars. Some of them are already dead and some are
at the