Then, when the
battle began to rage furiously, the Kuru hero, Vikarna, mounted on his
car, approached that foremost of car-warriors, Partha, the younger
brother of Bhima,--showering upon him terrible shafts thick and long.
Then cutting Vikarna's bow furnished with a tough string and horns
overlaid with gold, Arjuna cut off his flagstaff. And Vikarna, beholding
his flagstaff cut off, speedily took to flight. And after Vikarna's
flight, Satruntapa, unable to repress his ire, began to afflict Partha,
that obstructer of foes and achiever of super-human feats, by means of a
perfect shower of arrows. And drowned, as it were, in the midst of the
Kuru-array, Arjuna, pierced by that mighty car-warrior,--king
Satruntapa--pierced the latter in return with five and then slew his
car-driver with ten shafts, and pierced by that bull of the Bharata race
with an arrow capable of cleaving the thickest coat of mail, Satruntapa
fell dead on the field of battle, like a tree from a mountain-top torn
up by the wind. And those brave bulls among men, mangled in battle by
that braver bull among men, began to waver and tremble like mighty
forests shaken by the violence of the wind that blows at the time of the
universal dissolution. And struck in battle by Partha, the son of
Vasava, those well-dressed heroes among men--those givers of wealth
endued with the energy of Vasava--defeated and deprived of life, began
to measure their lengths on the ground, like full-grown Himalayan
elephants clad in mails of black steel decked with gold.
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