Mahabharata Drona Parva Chapter 112

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Mahabharata Drona Parva (Jayadratha-Vadha Parva) Chapter 112


Sanjaya said, 'O king, when Yuyudhana, from desire of battle proceeded against thy troops, king Yudhishthira, surrounded by his forces, followed Yuyudhana for reaching the car of Drona. Then the son of the king of the Panchalas, viz., the invincible warrior Dhrishtadyumna, the king Vasudana, both loudly exclaimed with the Pandava host, "Come, smite quickly, and rush against the foe, so that Satyaki, that warrior invincible in battle, might pass easily (through the Kaurava host). Many mighty car-warriors will struggle for vanquishing him." The great car-warriors (of the Pandava army), saying this, fell impetuously upon their foes. Indeed, they all rushed, saying, "We will vanquish those that will endeavour to vanquish Satyaki."

Then a loud uproar was heard about the car of Satyaki. Thy son's host, however, covered with Satyaki's shafts, fled away. Indeed, O king that host was broken into a hundred struggling bodies by him of the Satwata race. And while that force was breaking, that mighty car-warrior, viz., the (grandson) of Sini, crushed seven heroic and great bowmen in the front rank of the foe. And, O monarch, with his shafts that resembled blazing flames of fire, he despatched many other heroes, kings of diverse realms, unto the region of Yama. He sometimes pierced a hundred warriors with one shaft, and sometimes one warrior with a hundred shafts. Like the great Rudra destroying creatures, he slew elephant-riders and car-warriors with steeds and drivers. None amongst thy troops ventured to advance against Satyaki who was displaying such lightness of hand and who showered such clouds of shafts. Struck with panic and crushed grounded thus by that hero of long arms, those brave warriors all left the field at the sight of that proud hero.

Although alone, they saw him multiplied manifold, and were stupefied by his energy. And the earth looked exceedingly beautiful with crushed cars and broken nidas,[1] O sire, and wheels and fallen umbrellas and standards and anukarshas, and banners, and headgears decked with gold, and human arms smeared with sandal-paste and adorned with Angadas, O king, and human thighs, resembling trunks of elephants or the tapering bodies of snakes, and faces, beautiful as the moon and decked with ear-rings, of large-eyed warriors lying all about the field. And the ground there looked exceedingly beautiful with the huge bodies of fallen elephants, cut off in diverse ways, like a large plain strewn with hills. Crushed by that hero of long arms, steeds, deprived of life and fallen down on the ground, looked beautiful in their traces made of burnished gold and decked with rows of pearls, and in their carcasses of handsome make and design. Having slain diverse kinds of thy troops, he of the Satwata race entered into thy host, agitating and routing thy army. Then Satyaki desired to go by that very track by which Dhananjaya had gone before him. Then Drona came and resisted him. Encountering the son of Bharadwaja, Yuyudhana, filled with rage, stopped not like a vast expanse of water upon encountering on embankment. Drona, however, checking in that battle the mighty car-warrior Yuyudhana, pierced him with five keen shafts, capable of penetrating into the very vitals.

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References

  1. Nidas were niches or drivers boxes.