The battle that took place between them and Karna, O monarch,
became exceedingly fierce like that which had occurred in days of old
between the gods and the Danavas. Like the Sun dispelling the surrounding
darkness, Karna fearlessly and alone encountered all those great bowmen
united together and pouring upon him repeated showers of arrows. While
the son of Radha was thus engaged with the Pandavas, Bhimasena, filled
with rage, began to slaughter the Kurus with shafts, every one of which
resembled the lord of Yama. That great bowman, fighting single-handed
with the Bahlikas, and the Kaikayas, the Matsyas, the Vasatas, the
Madras, and Saindhavas, looked exceedingly resplendent. There, elephants,
assailed in their vital limbs by Bhima with his cloth-yard shafts fell
down, with their riders slain, making the Earth tremble with the violence
of their fall. Steeds also, with their riders slain, and foot-soldiers
deprived of life, lay down, pierced with arrows and vomiting blood in
large quantities. Car-warriors in thousands fell down, their weapons
loosened from their hands. Inspired with the fear of Bhima, they lay
deprived of life, their bodies mangled with sounds. The Earth became
strewn with car-warriors and horsemen and elephant-men and drivers and
foot-soldiers and steeds and elephants all mangled with the shafts of
Bhimasena. The army of Duryodhana, O king, cheerless and mangled and
afflicted with the fear of Bhimasena, stood as if stupefied. Indeed that
melancholy host stood motionless in that dreadful battle like the Ocean,
O king, during a calm in autumn.
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