ple of infuriate
and huge-bodied elephants, each sixty years old. And those brave tigers
among men then cheerfully engaged in a wrestling combat, desirous of
vanquishing each other. And terrible was the encounter that took place
between them, like the clash of the thunderbolt against the stony
mountain-breast. And both of them were exceedingly powerful and
extremely delighted at each other's strength. And desirous of
vanquishing each other, each stood eager to take advantage of his
adversary's lapse. And both were greatly delighted and both looked like
infuriate elephants of prodigious size. And various were the modes of
attack and defence that they exhibited with their clenched fists.[12]
And each dashed against the other and flung his adversary to a distance.
And each cast the other down and pressed him close to the ground. And
each got up again and squeezed the other in his arms. And each threw the
other violently off his place by boxing him on the breast. And each
caught the other by the legs and whirling him round threw him down on
the ground. And they slapped each other with their palms that struck as
hard as the thunderbolt. And they also struck each other with their
outstretched fingers, and stretching them out like spears thrust the
nails into each other's body. And they gave each other violent kicks.
And they struck knee and head against head, producing the crash of one
stone against another. And in this manner that furious combat between
those warriors raged on without weapons, sustained mainly by the power
of their arms and their physical and mental energy, to the infinite
delight of the concourse of spectators. And all people, O king, took
deep interest in that encounter of those powerful wrestlers who fought
like Indra and the Asura Vritra. And they cheered both of them with loud
acclamations of applause. And the broad-chested and long-armed experts
in wrestling then pulled and pressed and whirled and hurled down each
other and struck each other with their knees, expressing all the while
their scorn for each other in loud voices. And they began to fight with
their bare arms in this way, which were like spiked maces of iron. And
at last the powerful and mighty-armed Bhima, the slayer of his foes,
shouting aloud seized the vociferous athlete by the arms even as the
lion seizes the elephant, and taking him up from the ground and holding
him aloft, began to whirl him round, to the great astonishment of the
asse