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SETUBANDHA
145
heed was paid to the death of brave warriors because of confidence in one's arms.29
65. A jackal could not carry off the arm of a demon, torn off at the root (by an ape), because it was heavy, being encased in the severed piece of armour that had stuck fast on the wrist.
66. Heaps of Câmara whisks fell into the pools of blood. Fringed with foam, and heavy with the hair soaked in blood, they sank as they moved round and round in the eddies.
67. The elephants shook their heads, with the erect goad thrust into them by the stones hurled by the apes, and bellowed, face upwards, the hind quarters sinking under the weight of the forepart of the body.31
68. Thrown into confusion by the heavy onslaught of the apes, the Rākşasa warriors, strong enough to vanquish the gods, ever ready for war, took to flight, a thing hard for them to do, because it was the first time that they had ever fled.
69. The army of the demons turned round: the elephants, dispersed in flight, were turned back; the broken chariots were moved out of position; the troops broke ranks all at once; and the horses moved in a circle,
70. The demons who stood their ground in anger, but were repulsed when they returned to fight for a while, turned and fled, with all wrath gone, pursued by the intrepid apes.
71. The troops scattered, with the tangled mass of chariots broken by the elephants, and the horses trapped in the chariots, and the foot-soldiers stumbling over the horses, and the elephants tumbling over the former..
72. Having routed the dispirited demons, the host of apes whose adversaries fled in confusion gasped for breath, swaying the upper part of the body, with the broken trees32 dangling from their weary hands.
29. The readings of Krsna and Madhava are followed
30. Used to decorate chariots, horses and elephants. Cf. 1.33; 9.74, 81; 15.49.
31. i.e., the animals reared themselves up and cried with pain when they were hit by the stones.
32. Those used as weapons. S. 19
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