In consequence of
well-equipped royal cars deprived of riders and dragged by fleet steeds,
as also of men and elephants and cars and horses that fled very quickly,
the army has been broken in diverse ways. Spiked maces with golden bells,
battle-axes, sharp lances, heavy clubs, mallets, bright unsheathed
swords, and maces covered with cloth of gold, have fallen on the field.
Bows decked with ornaments of gold, and shafts equipped with beautiful
wings of pure gold, and bright unsheathed rapiers of excellent temper,
and lances, and scimitars bright as gold, and umbrellas, and fans, and
conchs, and arms decked with excellent flowers and gold, and caparisons
of elephants, and standards, and car fences and diadems, and necklaces,
and brilliant crowns, and yak-tails lying about, O king, and garlands
luminous with corals and pearls, and chaplets for the head, and bracelets
for both the wrist and the upper arms, and collars for the neck with
strings of gold, and diverse kinds of costly diamonds and gems and
pearls, and bodies brought up in a great luxury, and heads beautiful as
the moon, are lying scattered about. Abandoning their bodies and
enjoyments and robes and diverse kinds of agreeable pleasures, and
acquiring great merit for the devotion they showed to the virtuous of
their order, they have speedily gone in a blaze of flame to regions of
bliss. Turn back, O Duryodhana! Let the troops retire! O king, O giver of
honours, proceed towards thy camp! There, the Sun is hanging low in the
welkin, O lord! Remember, O ruler of men, that thou art the cause of all
this!"
"'Having said these words unto Duryodhana, Shalya, with heart filled with
grief, stopped.
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