Mahabharata Drona Parva Chapter 131

Mahabharata Drona Parva (Jayadratha-Vadha Parva) Chapter 131 Dhritarashtra said, 'What, indeed, O Sanjaya, did Duryodhana say when he saw that Karna turning away from the field upon whom my sons had reposed all their hopes of victory? How, indeed, did the mighty Bhima, proud of his energy, fight? What also, O son, did Karna do after this, beholding Bhimasena in that battle resemble a blazing fire? Sanjaya said, 'Mounting upon another car that was duly equipped Karna once more proceeded against the son of Pandu, with the fury of the Ocean tossed by the tempest. Beholding Adhiratha's son excited with rage, thy sons, O king, regarded Bhimasena to be already poured as a libation on the (Karna) fire. With furious twang of bowstring and terrible sounds of his palms, the son of Radha shot dense showers of shafts towards Bhimasena's car. And once more, O monarch, a terrible encounter took place between the heroic Karna and the high-souled Bhima. Both excited with wrath, both endued with mighty arms, each desirous of slaying the other, those two warriors looked at each other, as if resolved to burn each other with their (wrathful) glances. The eyes of both were red in rage, and both breathed fiercely, like a couple of snakes. Endued with great heroism, those two chastisers of foes approached and mangled each other. Indeed, they fought with each other like two hawks endued with great activity, or like two Sarabhas excited with wrath. Then that chastiser of foes, viz., Bhima recollecting all the woes suffered by him on the occasion of the match at dice, and during his exile in the woods and residence in Virata's city, and bearing in mind the robbing of their kingdom swelling with prosperity and gems, by thy sons, and the numerous other wrongs inflicted on the Pandavas by thee and the Suta's son and remembering also the fact that thou hadst conspired to burn innocent Kunti with her sons, and calling to his memory the sufferings of Krishna in the midst of the assembly at the hands of those wretches, as also the seizure of her tresses by Duhsasana, and the harsh speeches uttered, O Bharata, by Karna, to the effect, "Take thou another husband, for all thy husbands are dead: the sons of Pritha have sunk into hell and are like sesamum seeds without kernel,"—remembering also those other words, O son of Kuru, that the Kauravas uttered in thy presence, add the fact also that thy sons had been desirous of enjoying Krishna as a slave, and those harsh words that Karna spoke to the sons of Pandu when the latter, attired in deer-skins were about to be banished to the woods, and the joy in which thy wrathful and foolish son, himself in prosperity, indulged, thinking the distressed sons of Pritha as veritable straw, the virtuous Bhima that slayer of foes, remembering these and all the woes he had suffered since his childhood, became reckless of his very life. Stretching his invincible and formidable bow, the back of whose staff was decked with gold, Vrikodara, that tiger of Bharata's race, utterly reckless of his life, rushed against Karna.