"Sanjaya said, 'Then, O king, Dhananjaya, desirous of rescuing Kunti's son Bhima who, assailed by many foremost of warriors of the Kuru army, seemed to sink (under that attack), avoided, O Bharata, the troops of the Suta's son and began, with his shafts, to despatch those hostile heroes (that were opposed to Bhima) to the regions of death. Successive showers of Arjuna's shafts were seen overspread on the sky, while others were seen to slay thy army. Filling the welkin with his shafts that resembled dense flights of feathery creatures, Dhananjaya, O monarch, at that time, became the very Destroyer unto the Kurus. With his broad-headed arrows, and those equipped with heads flat and sharp as razors, and cloth-yard shafts of bright polish, Partha mangled the bodies of his foes and cut off their heads. The field of battle became strewn with falling warriors, some with bodies cut and mangled, some divested of armour and some deprived of heads. Like the great Vaitarani (separating the regions of life from those of the dead), the field of battle, O king, became uneven and impassable and unsightly and terrible, in consequence of steeds and cars and elephants, which struck with Dhananjaya's shafts, were mangled and crushed and cut off in diverse ways. The earth was also covered with broken shafts and wheels and axles, and with cars that were steedless or that had their steeds and others that were driverless or that had their drivers. Then four hundred well-trained and ever-furious elephants, excited with wrath, and ridden by warriors cased in mail of golden hue and adorned with ornaments of gold, and urged by fierce guides with pressure of heels and toes, fell down, struck by the diadem-decked Arjuna with his shafts, like loosened summits, peopled with living creatures, of gigantic mountains. Indeed, the earth became covered with (other) huge elephants struck down by Dhananjaya with his arrows.Mbh 8.80.1a · Mahabharata · Karna-parva
Mbh 8.80.1a
Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
Themes in this passage
WarNatureChildrenDeathLeadershipAngerKarmaWealth
War in other traditions
The same theme, as Christianity, Taoism, Islam and Hellenism address it.
For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.1 Samuel 17:21 · Bible · 1 Samuel
A master of the art of war has said, 'I do not dare to be the host (to commence the war); I prefer to be the guest (to act on the defensive). I do not dare to advance an inch; I prefer to retire a foot.' This is called marshalling the ranks where there are no ranks; baring the arms (to fight) where there are no arms to bare; grasping the weapon where there is no weapon to grasp; advancing against the enemy where there is no enemy.Tao Te Ching 69.1 · Tao Te Ching
Those who believe do battle for the cause of Allah; and those who disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols. So fight the minions of the devil. Lo! the devil's strategy is ever weak.Quran 4:76 · Quran · Women
He spoke, then rush’d amid the warrior crew, And sent his voice before him as he flew, Loud, as the shout encountering armies yield When twice ten thousand shake the labouring field; Such was the voice, and such the thundering sound Of him whose trident rends the solid ground. Each Argive bosom beats to meet the fight, And grisly war appears a pleasing sight.Iliad 14.15 · Iliad · 14
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