Mahabharata -Chakravarti Rajagopalachari
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69.THE SIXTH DAY
The battle raged fiercely, even like the ancient battle between the gods and the asuras. Suddenly, the son of Pandu lost his patience and jumped down from his chariot, mace in band, and made straight on foot for the sons of Dhritarashtra, in hot haste to slay them. When Dhrishtadyumna saw Bhima's chariot disappear in the enemy lines, he was alarmed and rushed to prevent disaster. He reached Bhima's car, but found it was occupied only by the charioteer and Bhima was not in it. With tears in his eyes, he asked the charioteer: "Visoka, where is Bhima dearer to me than life?" Dhrishtadyumna naturally thought Bhima had fallen. Visoka bowed and said to the son of Drupada: "The son of Pandu asked me to stay here and, without waiting for my reply rushed forward on foot, mace in hand, into the enemy ranks." Fearing that Bhima would be overpowered and killed Dhrishtadyumna drove his chariot into the enemy lines in search of Bhimasena, whose path was marked by the bodies of slain elephants. When Dhrishtadyumna found Bhima, he saw him surrounded on all sides by enemies fighting from their chariots. Bhima stood against them all, mace in hand, wounded all over and breathing fire. Dhrishtadyumna embraced him and took him into his chariot and proceeded to pick out the shafts that had stuck in his body. Duryodhana now ordered his warriors to attack Bhimasena and Dhrishtadyumna and not to wait for them to attack or challenge. Accordingly, they made a combined attack even though they were not inclined to engage themselves in further fighting. Dhrishtadyumna had a secret weapon, which he had obtained from Dronacharya and, discharging it, threw the enemy forces into a stupor. But Duryodhana then joined the fray and discharged weapons to counter the stupor weapons of Dhrishtadyumna. |
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