Behold this very day that invincible and mighty car-warrior in the act of being thrown down by me, with the greatest ease, like the crescent moon at the end of the Yuga (when the destruction of the universe comes).  Madhava, however, hearing these words of the high-souled Phalguni, spoke not a word, but in anger once more mounted upon the car.  And then upon those two tigers among men, when stationed on their car, Bhishma the son of Santanu, once more poured his arrowy showers like the clouds pouring rain upon the mountain-breast.  Thy sire Devavrata took the lives of the (hostile) warriors like the Sun sucking with his rays the energies of all things during summer.  As the Pandavas had been breaking the ranks of the Kurus in battle, so thy sire broke the Pandava ranks in battle.  And the routed soldiers, helpless and heartless, slaughtered in hundreds and thousands by Bhishma, were unable to even look at him in that battle,—­him who resembled the mid-day Sun blazing in his own splendour.  Indeed, the Pandavas afflicted with fear, timidly gazed at Bhishma who was then achieving super-human feats in that battle.  And the Pandava troops, thus fleeing away, O Bharata, failed to find a protector, like a herd of kine sunk in a shoal of ants while being trod down by a strong person.  Indeed, the Pandavas could not, O Bharata, look at that mighty car-warrior incapable of being shaken, who, furnished with a profusion of shafts, was scorching the kings (in the Pandava army), and who in consequence of those shafts looked like the blazing Sun shedding his fiery rays.  And while he was thus grinding the Pandava army, the thousand-rayed maker of day repaired to the setting hills, and the troops, worn with fatigue, set their hearts on withdrawal (from the field).”

SECTION CVIII

Sanjaya said, “While they were battling, the Sun set, O Bharata, aid there came the dreadful hour of twilight and the battle could no longer be seen.  Then king Yudhishthira, seeing that twilight had come and that his own troops, slaughtered by Bhishma, had thrown aside their weapons, and that stricken with fear, and turned off the field, they were seeking to flee away, and beholding Bhishma also, that mighty car-warrior, excited with wrath and afflicting everybody in fight, and noticing that the mighty car-warriors of the Somakas, having been vanquished, had all become cheerless, reflected a little, and then ordered the troops to be withdrawn.  Then king Yudhishthira withdrew his forces.  And similarly, the withdrawal of thy forces also took place at the same time.  Then those mighty car-warriors, O chief of the Kurus, having withdrawn their forces, entered their tents, themselves mangled in battle.  Afflicted by the shafts of Bhishma and reflecting upon that hero’s feats in battle, the Pandavas obtained no peace of mind.  Bhishma also, having vanquished the Pandavas and the Srinjayas in battle, was worshipped by thy