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144
SETUBANDHA
56. The elephants, worn out with their movements in the battle, with the eyes closed, being overpowered by the sun's rays, were refreshed when the face was coated with dust moistened by the spray of their trunks.
57. The masses of dust, with gaps at the bottom, because they rose only in the intervening spaces between the streams of blood, combined with one another in the upper air all at once.
58. The wind trailed a streak of dust here and there in the sky, making it distinct. Grey like the Milky Way, it was thinned by the banners fluttering on account of the snorting of the elephants.
59. Swirled by the wind, the dust obstructed the vision of the elephants as they rushed forth in the forefront of the battle, as if it were a veil drawn over the face.26
60. The dust was thereafter settled by the river of blood, spouting from the chest wounds of the warriors, as if it were a tree on the eroded bank of a river.
61. Dispersed by the wind and thinly scattered, and partly swept away, the remnant of the dust floated in the air, like thin mist, and resembling a pile of lotus stalk fibres.
62. Unable to move straight ahead,27 the troops, with banners swaying, wound their way through the gaps between the heaps of fallen elephants, like unto a stream meandering through the hills.
63. The apes fell in battle: they had endured unbearable blows, and achieved the heavy task of fighting imposed upon them; had trodden an impassable path, and carried out their master's command that was hard to fulfil.
64. The battle raged, bringing joy to the warriors. Hatred was intensified by the killing of one's kinsmen. The headless trunk of the thousandth soldier caused delight (with its dance).28 No
26. A reference to the veil covering the eyes of a war elephant to prevent it charging at the wrong moment. Cf. 2.22; 8.23.
27. Lit. with the straight path barred.
28. This was supposed to take place when a thousand soldiers were killed.
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