And
seeing that the conch did not break into a hundred fragments when blown
by Arjuna, the Kurus with all their warriors began to applaud it highly.
And having reached the very heavens, that sound coming back was heard
even like the crash of the thunderbolt hurled by Maghavat on the
mountain breast. Thereupon that heroic and intrepid and mighty
car-warrior, Saradwat's son Kripa, endued with strength and prowess,
waxing wroth at Arjuna, and unable to bear that sound and eager for
fight, took up his own sea-begotten conch and blew it vehemently. And
filling the three worlds with that sound, that foremost of car-warriors
took up a large bow and twanged the bow-string powerfully. And those
mighty car-warriors, equal unto two suns, standing opposed to each
other, shone like two masses of autumnal clouds. Then Saradwat's son
quickly pierced Partha, that slayer of hostile heroes, with ten swift
and whetted arrows capable of entering into the very vitals. And
Pritha's son also, on his part, drawing that foremost of weapons, the
_Gandiva_, celebrated over the world, shot innumerable iron-arrows, all
capable of penetrating into the very core of the body. Thereupon Kripa,
by means of whetted shafts, cut into hundreds and thousands of
fragments, those blood-drinking arrows of Partha before they could come
up. Then that mighty car-warrior, Partha also, in wrath displaying
various manoeuvres, covered all sides with a shower of arrows.
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