History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c12.49

c12.49

dust, there was produced by the marching of the countless troops of men, horses and elephants, which was terrible through the thunderlike sound of drums, which teemed with unsheathed swords that resembled flashes of lightning, in which elephants were moving like clouds, and which therefore resembled an unseasonable appearance of the rainy season; in which tall horses looked like billows, in which elephants caused distress on their path, just as sea-monsters produce whirlpools, in which conches were incessantly blown and which therefore resembled the gaping ocean; which was full of swords and shields, just as of rhinoceros, creepers and vāraṇa trees, which was crowded with heroes who possessed bows and mighty elephants, as if it were crowded with Sara (grass) and which was agitated by a violent wind in which the path of the wind was obstructed by arrows, that flew past each other on the bows, while these were bent by the warriors; in which javelins, pikes, darts, clubs, lances, spears, and discuses were flying about; in which troops of furious elephants firmly impaled each other's faces with the piercing thunderbolts of their tusks; in which squadrons of horsemen were connected by their swords, that had struck each other's heads, in which there were soldiers who were noted for their dexterity in fighting with sword against sword, pulling of hair against hair and club against club; in which the ground was thickly smeared with saffron as the blood was mixed with copious rutting juice of the elephants that issued in consequence of their considering each other as equals, or despising each other; in which both large armies had lost and dropped arms, necks, shanks, thigh bones and teeth; in which, owing to the encounter of the armies, both sides were broken, urged on, to put to flight and prostrated on the ground; which was attended by the goddess of fortune sitting on the swing of the doubt about mutual victory or defeat; in which brave warriors were marching on the back of lines of, fallen elephants, that formed a bridge over the flood of blood, in which soldiers stood motionless, if their blows did not hit each other's weak parts; which was covered here and there with shattered banners and parasols with fallen elephants and with dead and half dead soldiers who had done their duty whose strong arms still raised the weapon whose lips were bitten and whose eyes were deep red with fury; in which a multitude of white cāmaras was waving; in which tiaras, armlets, necklaces, ear-rings were broken, crushed and pulverised, in which the kūshmāndas, rākshasas and piśāchas were singing, intoxicated with drinking the liquor of the blood; and which contains hundreds of headless trunks, that were vehemently dancing together in a fearful manner according to the beaten time he, unaided, made Vikramāditya, whose army consisted of several lakshas take to flight, covered only by a rag.' (Kūram plates; Dr. Hultzsch's Translation, S.I.I., vol. i, p. 153 ff.)