engaged in sport, O Sanjaya, having seized a bird and cut off its wings,
merrily release it, but the creature cannot achieve locomotion in
consequence of its winglessness; even so have I become, like a bird shorn
of its wings! Weak, destitute of every resource, without kinsmen and
deprived of relatives and friends, cheerless and overpowered by enemies,
to which point of the compass shall I go? He who vanquished all the
Kambojas and the Amvashthas with the Kaikeyas, that puissant one, who,
having for the accomplishment of his purpose vanquished the Gandharas and
the Videhas in battle, subjugated the whole Earth for the sake of
Duryodhana's aggrandisement, alas, he hath been vanquished by the heroic
and strong Pandavas endued with mighty arms! Upon the slaughter, in
battle, of that mighty bowman, Karna, by the diadem-decked (Arjuna), tell
me, O Sanjaya, who were these heroes that stayed (on the field)! I hope
he was not alone and abandoned (by friends) when slain in battle by the
Pandavas? Thou hast, O sire, told me, before this, how our brave warriors
have fallen. With his powerful shafts Shikhandi felled in battle that
foremost of all wielders of weapons, viz., Bhishma, who did nothing to
repel the attack. Similarly, Sanjaya, Drupada's son Dhrishtadyumna,
uplifting his scimitar, slew the mighty bowman Drona who, already pierced
with many arrows, had laid aside his weapons in battle and devoted
himself to Yoga. These two were both slain at a disadvantage and
especially by deceit. Even this is what I have heard about the slaughter
of Bhishma and Drona! Indeed, Bhishma and Drona, while contending in
fight, were incapable of being slain in battle by the wielder of the
thunderbolt himself by fair means. This that I tell thee is the truth! As
regards Karna, how, indeed, could Death touch him, that hero equal unto
Indra himself, while he was engaged in shooting his manifold celestial
weapons? He unto whom in exchange for his earrings, Purandara had given
that foe slaying, gold-decked, and celestial dart of the splendour of
lightning,--he who had, lying (within his quiver) amid sandal-dust, that