05.182
Pancharatra-Ext: Third dayThird day war comes to end, with sage Bharagava becoming substantially weak.
Bhishma spoke:
After meeting with Rama again, there was a very terrible and tumultuous battle the next day, O best of the Bharatas.
Then, the heroic master of divine weapons, the righteous soul, employed various divine weapons day after day.
O Bhārata, I countered those weapons with my own in the fierce battle, sacrificing lives that were very hard to forsake.
Then Bhargava, filled with great energy and ready to sacrifice his life, became angry in the battle when many were killed with weapons among weapons.
Then the great sage, son of Jamadagni, restrained by weapons, sent forth a terrible weapon, blazing like a meteor, with a blazing tip, covering the worlds with its brilliance, as if released by time.
Then I approached her with shining arrows, blazing like the sun at the end of time, and cut her into three pieces, causing her to fall to the ground. Then, a fragrant wind blew.
In that shattered state, Rama, blazing with anger, dispatched twelve other dreadful arrows. O Bharata, it is impossible to describe their form due to their brilliance and swiftness.
Why am I so bewildered after witnessing this? From all directions, these great meteors, like fire, appear in various forms, blazing with fierce energy, like twelve suns at the end of the world.
Then, O king, I opened a net made of arrows and, having seen and pierced with it, I sent twelve arrows in battle; then I hurled spears of terrible forms.
Then another great soul, a descendant of Jamadagni, hurled terrible powers in the form of golden rods, adorned and bound with golden plates, resembling blazing meteors.
O king, those fierce ones, having been repelled with armor, were struck down by me with a sword in battle. With the divine arrows of Jamadagni's son, I showered divine horses along with their charioteers in the battle.
Upon seeing the golden-colored powers of the liberated serpents being cut off, the great soul, filled with anger, manifested a divine weapon to subdue the Haihaya king.
Then rows of fierce blazing arrows, like locusts, approached and completely covered my body, horses, charioteer, and chariot.
The chariot was completely covered with arrows on all sides, as were the horses and the charioteer, O king. The yoke, the pole of the chariot, and the wheels were similarly affected; the axle was cut by arrows and then broken.
Then, when that rain of arrows had passed, the multitude of arrows countered the teacher. He, wounded by arrows, continuously released much blood from his body, being a portion of Brahma.
Just as Rama was struck by a barrage of arrows, I too am severely wounded. Then the battle came to a halt in the afternoon, as the sun was setting behind the mountain.
