founded. Adorned with yak-tails, steeds rushed on all
sides, looking like the swans found on the plains at the foot of Himavat.
They rushed with such speed that they seemed ready to devour the very
Earth. The field, O monarch, indented with the hoofs of those steeds,
looked beautiful like a beautiful woman bearing the marks of (her
lover's) nails on her person. With the noise made by the tread of heroes,
the wheels of cars, the shouts of foot-soldiers, the grunts of elephants,
the peal of drums and other musical instruments, and the blare of conchs,
the Earth began to resound as if with deafening peals of thunder. In
consequence of twanging bows and flashing sabres and the glaring armour
of the combatants, all became so confused there, that nothing could be
distinctly marked. Invulnerable arms, lopped off from human bodies, and
looking like the tusks of elephants, jumped up and writhed and moved
furiously about. The sound made, O monarch, by heads falling on the field
of battle, resembled that made by the falling fruits of palmyra trees.
Strewn with those fallen heads that were crimson with blood, the Earth
looked resplendent as if adorned with gold-coloured lotuses in their
season. Indeed, with those lifeless heads with upturned eyes, that were
exceedingly mangled (with shafts and other weapons), the field of battle,
O king, looked resplendent as if strewn with full blown lotuses. With the
fallen arms of the combatants, smeared with sandal and adorned with
costly Keyuras, the earth looked bright as if strewn with the gorgeous
poles set up in Indra's honour. The field of battle became covered with
the thighs of kings, cut off in that battle and looking like the tapering
trunks of elephants. Teeming with hundreds of headless trunks and strewn
with umbrellas and yak-tails, that vast army looked beautiful like a
flowering forest. Then, on the field of battle, O monarch, warriors
careered fearlessly, their limbs bathed in blood and therefore looking
like flowering Kinsukas. Elephants also, afflicted with arrows and
lances, fell down here and there like broken clouds dropped from the
skies. Elephant divisions, O monarch, slaughtered by high-souled
warriors, dispersed in all directions like wind-tossed clouds. Those
elephants, looking like clouds, fell down on the Earth, like mountains
riven with thunder, O lord, on the occasion of the dissolution of the
world at the end of the Yuga. Heaps upon heaps, looking like mountains,
we