06.101
Sanjaya said:
O great king, having seen Bhishma angry and surrounded by the Pandavas in battle, it was like the sun being enveloped by clouds in the sky at the end of summer.
King Duryodhana addressed Duḥśāsana, pointing out that Bhīṣma, the valiant and mighty archer, is their formidable enemy destroyer.
O best of the Bharatas, surrounded on all sides by the heroic Pāṇḍavas, it is your duty, O hero, to protect the great soul.
Our grandfather Bhishma, being protected in battle, would indeed slay the striving Panchalas along with the Pandavas.
I believe that our primary duty there is to protect Bhishma, as he is our grandfather and a great archer.
You, along with all the army, should surround and protect the grandfather as he performs the difficult task in battle.
Thus addressed in the battle, your son Duḥśāsana, surrounded by a great army, stood covering Bhīṣma.
Then, the son of Subala, accompanied by a hundred thousand horses, all equipped with spotless spears and polished javelins, advanced.
The arrogant and swift warriors, stationed at strongholds and bearing flags, were accompanied by the best of men, trained and skilled in warfare.
Nakula, Sahadeva, and Dharmaraja, the Pandava, surrounded and restrained the best of men from all sides.
Then King Duryodhana dispatched ten thousand skilled horse riders to obstruct the Pandavas.
As they entered the battlefield with great speed, like Garuda, the earth, struck by their hooves, trembled and roared, O king.
The sound of the horses' hooves was heard then, resembling the sound of a great bamboo forest burning on the mountain.
A great dust was raised by those flying there, and it covered the sun as it reached the sun's path.
The Pandava army was thrown into disarray by the swift horses, resembling swans descending rapidly onto a vast lake. The sound of neighing was so overwhelming that nothing else could be perceived.
Then King Yudhishthira and the sons of Madri, the Pandavas, fiercely countered the speed of the horse riders in battle.
O great king, during the rainy season, the shore of the great ocean is filled by the force of water, especially on the full moon day.
Then, O king, the charioteers used their arrows to skillfully decapitate the horsemen.
O great king, they fell, struck down by the strong archers, just as great elephants might fall in a mountain cave.
They too moved around in all ten directions, cutting off heads with their well-sharpened spears and arrows with bent joints.
The horse riders, being very close, O esteemed Bharata, cut off the heads with their spears as if they were plucking fruits from a great tree.
O king, horses with riders were slain everywhere, falling and being struck down in hundreds and thousands.
The horses, being attacked, fled in fear, just like deer who, upon encountering lions, are solely focused on preserving their lives.
The Pandavas, having emerged victorious in the great battle, celebrated by blowing conches and beating drums, O great king.
Then Duryodhana, observing the distressed state of the army, addressed the king of Madra with these words, O esteemed descendant of Bharata.
The eldest son of Pandu, having defeated my maternal uncle and my people, is now driving away our army in full view, O mighty-armed one.
O mighty-armed one, restrain him like the shore restrains the abode of crocodiles. You are renowned for your immense and unparalleled strength and valor.
Upon hearing the words of your son, the mighty Shalya set off with his chariot entourage to the place where King Yudhishthira was.
Suddenly, the mighty force of Śalya attacked, but the Pāṇḍava managed to check it in the battle, like holding back a great flood.
In the battle, Dharmaraja, the great chariot warrior, swiftly struck the Madra king in the chest with ten arrows. Nakula and Sahadeva also attacked with three straight-shooting arrows each.
The king of Madra attacked all of them with three arrows each. He then targeted Yudhishthira with sixty sharp arrows. Additionally, he struck the eager sons of Madri with two arrows each.
Then Bhima, the mighty-armed, saw the king in battle, who was under the control of the king of Madra and seemed as if he was in the jaws of death, and rushed towards Yudhishthira, the conqueror of foes, in the battle.
Then, a very terrible and extremely fierce battle began in another direction as the sun was shining.
