CHAPTER CXII.
Flight of the Foreign Foes.
Argument.—Account of the routed soldiers, and the names of their countries and places of retreat.
Vasishtha continued:—The Chedis of Deccan, who were as thickly crowded as the sandal wood of their country, and girt with girdles resembling the snakes about those trees, were felled by the battle axes, and driven afar to the southern main—the Indian Ocean.
2. The Persians flew as the flying leaves of trees, and striking against one another in their madness, fell like the vanjula leaves in the forest.
3. Then the demon-like Darads, who dwell in the caverns of the distant Dardura mountains, were pierced in their breasts, and fled from the field with their heart rending sorrow. (The Dardui is a people of Afghanistan).
4. The winds blew away the clouds of weapons, which poured down torrents of missile arms, that shattered the armours of the warriors, and glittered like curling lightnings.
5. The elephants falling upon one another, pierced their bodies and gored each other to death with their tusks; and became heaps of flesh, similar to the lumps of food with which they filled their bellies.
6. Another people of the same country, and of the Raivata mountains, who were flying from the field by night; were waylaid by the horrid Pisáchas, that tore their bodies and devoured them with voracity.
7. Those that fled to the tala and tamala forests, and to the old woods on the bank of the dasárná river; were caught by lions and tigers crouching in them; and were throttled to death under their feet.
8. The yovanas living on the coasts of the western ocean, and those in the land of cocoanut trees; were caught and devoured by sharks, in the course of their flight.