When Karna fell,
the rivers stood still. The Sun set with a pale hue. The planet Mercury,
the son of Soma, assuming the hue of fire or the Sun, appeared to course
through the firmament in a slanting direction. The firmament seemed to be
rent in twain; the earth uttered loud roars; violent and awful winds
began to blow. All the points of the horizon, covered with smoke, seemed
to be ablaze. The great oceans were agitated and uttered awful sounds.
The mountains with their forests began to tremble, and all creatures, O
sire, felt pain. The planet Jupiter, afflicting the constellation Rohini
assumed the hue of the moon or the sun. Upon the fall of Karna, the
subsidiary points also of the compass became ablaze. The sky became
enveloped in darkness. The earth trembled. Meteors of blazing splendour
fell. Rakshasas and other wanderers of the night became filled with joy.
When Arjuna, with that razor-faced shaft, struck off Karna's head adorned
with a face beautiful as the moon, then, O king, loud cries of "Oh!" and
"Alas!" were heard of creatures in heaven, in the welkin, and on the
earth. Having in battle slain his foe Karna who was worshipped by the
gods, the gandharvas, and human beings, Pritha's son Arjuna looked
resplendent in his energy like the deity of a 1,000 eyes after the
slaughter of Vritra. Then riding on that car of theirs whose rattle
resembled the roar of the clouds and whose splendour was like that of the
meridian sun of the autumnal sky, which was adorned with banners and
equipped with a standard incessantly producing an awful noise, whose
effulgence resembled that of the snow or the Moon or the conch or the
crystal, and whose steeds were like those of Indra himself, those two
foremost of men, viz.
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