Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Monday, June 17, 2024
Sunday, June 16, 2024
Blood River
All those kings, with cruel intent and eyes red in wrath, inflicted upon Vrikodara their arrowy downpours, moved by the desire of slaying him. Piercing that mighty host with straight shafts, Bhima came out of the press like a fish coming out of a net, having slain ten thousand unretreating elephants, two hundred thousand and two hundred men, O Bharata, and five thousand horses, and a hundred car-warriors. Having slaughtered these, Bhima caused a river of blood to flow there. Blood constituted its water, and cars its eddies; and elephants were the alligators with which it teemed. Men were its fishes, and steeds its sharks, and the hair of animals formed its woods and moss. Arms lopped off from trunks formed its foremost of snakes. Innumerable jewels and gems were carried along by the current. Thighs constituted its gravels, and marrow its mire. And it was covered with heads forming its rocks. And bows and arrows constituted the rafts by which men sought to cross that terrible river, and maces and spiked bludgeons formed its snakes. And umbrellas and standards formed its swans, and head-gears its foam. Necklaces constituted its lotuses, and the earthy dust that arose formed its waves. Those endued with noble qualities could cross it with ease, while those that were timid and affrighted found it exceedingly difficult to cross. Warriors constituting its crocodiles and alligators, it ran towards the region of Yama