Sanjaya said: Then Gangeya took up a shield adorned with pure gold, wishing to seize a sword as well - whether toward death or toward victory. But before he had even stepped down from the chariot, Arjuna shattered that shield into a hundred pieces on the armored Bhishma; it seemed like a marvel. Roaring loudly like a lion, Arjuna urged on his own troops: 'Attack Gangeya! Let there be no fear in you, however slight!' Then from every side they rushed upon him alone with tomaras, prasas, streams of arrows, pattishas, swords, weapons of every kind, vatsadantas, and bhallas. A terrible lion's roar rose among the Pandavas. And your sons too, O king, desiring victory for Bhishma, likewise advanced upon him alone and let out lion's roars. There, on the tenth day, at the meeting of Bhishma and Arjuna, a tumultuous battle broke out between your warriors and the enemy, O lord of kings. Amid the armies slaying one another, for a moment there arose a whirlpool, as if of the Ganga, as if of the ocean. The earth, drenched in blood, became impassable; nothing could be told apart, neither level ground nor uneven. Having slain ten thousand warriors on that tenth day, Bhishma still stood firm in battle, though his vital points were being pierced. Then Dhananjaya, standing at the front of the array, drove the army to rout through the very midst of the Kuru forces. 'We, terrified of the white-horsed son of Kunti, Dhananjaya, and hard-pressed by sharp weapons, fled from the great battle.' The Sauviras, the Kitavas, the eastern, western, and northern peoples, the Malavas, the Abhishahas, the Shurasenas, the Shibis, the Vasatis, the followers of Shalva, the Trigartas, and the Ambashthas together with the Kekayas - these twelve peoples, worn out by arrows and tormented by wounds, did not abandon Bhishma as he fought with Kiritin. Then many, surrounding him from every side and pushing back all the Kurus, showered him alone with rains of arrows. 'Strike him down! Seize him! Pierce him! Drag him!' - such was the tumultuous cry around Bhishma's chariot, O king. Having struck him with streams of arrows by the hundreds and by the thousands, they left no spot on his body unpierced, even the size of a finger. Thus, O lord, your forefather, cut to pieces in battle by Phalguna's sharp-pointed arrows, fell from his chariot with his head to the east, before the eyes of your sons, when little of the day's sun remained.