24

"Sanjaya said, 'While Nakula was employed in destroying and routing the
Kaurava divisions in battle with great force, Vikartana's son Karna,
filled with rage, checked him, O king. Then Nakula smiling the while,
addressed Karna, and said, "After a long time, through the favour of the
gods, I am seen by thee, and thou also, O wretch, dost become the object
of my sight. Thou art the root of all these evils, this hostility, this
quarrel. It is through thy faults that the Kauravas are being thinned,
encountering one another. Slaying thee in battle today, I will regard
myself as one that has achieved his object, and the fever of my heart
will be dispelled." Thus addressed by Nakula, the Suta's son said unto
him the following words befitting a prince and a bowman in particular,
"Strike me, O hero. We desire to witness thy manliness. Having achieved
some feats in battle, O brave warrior, thou shouldst then boast. O sire,
they that are heroes fight in battle to the best of their powers, without
indulging in brag. Fight now with me to the best of thy might. I will
quell thy pride." Having said these words the Suta's son quickly struck
the son of Pandu and pierced him, in that encounter, with three and
seventy shafts. Then Nakula, O Bharata, thus pierced by the Suta's son,
pierced the latter in return with eighty shafts resembling snakes of
virulent poison. Then Karna, that great bowman, cutting off his
antagonist's bow with a number of arrows winged with gold and whetted on
stone, afflicted him with thirty arrows. Those arrows, piercing through
his armour drank his blood in that battle, like the Nagas of virulent
poison drinking water after having pierced through the Earth. Then
Nakula, taking up another formidable bow whose back was decked with gold,
pierced Karna with twenty arrows and his driver with three. Then, O
monarch, that slayer of hostile heroes, viz., Nakula, filled with rage,
cut off Karna's bow with a razor-headed shaft of great keenness. Smiling