Day Fourteen.

Ablaze with anger, Arjuna blasted through rank after rank of the Kaurava defence. The indefensible slaughter of his son, brave young Abhimanyu would be avenged. 

Today was the day of reckoning. Today Jayadratha must die, before the end of the fourteenth day of battle. 

Krishna with dexterity drove their chariot with deadly intent. Smoke blinding the sight, stench of sweat and blood assaulting the air, shouts and screams and the slicing of skin and bone - all senses made senseless in the carnage and strife of Kurukshetra.

Ensconced in his palace, the sightless scion of the Kauravas, Dhritarashtra, still blind to his sins of omission and commission, wished through Sanjaya to be a voyeur of the vistas of that vile violence. 

The weak-minded king asked Sanjaya to describe the flags of his warriors and that of Arjuna.

Obliging, Sanjaya detailed the standards as follows:

'Listen O king, to the description! Dancing aloft in the wind, the flags are like pretty damsels in a sporting arena!

The  roaring ape with a leonine tail adorns the flag of Arjuna, striking the enemy with terror.

The lion-tail emblem, effulgent like the sun is  Ashwattama's, inspiring the Kurus with joy.

An elephant-rope spun of gold adorns the flag of Karna, filling the very sky above.

That of Kripa the austere ascetic is a resplendent bull, matching that of Siva himself.

At the vanguard, Vrishasena's  gold gem-studded peacock, truimphant like that of Skanda.

The golden plough, luminous amid a field of fertility - that belongs to Shalya.

A silver boar sparkling like a sunlit crystal is that of Jayadratha

The standard of Bhurisrava is a sacrificial stake, golden and high like that of a rajasuya.

On Shala's flag stands an elephant of silver, surrounded by peacock motifs.

A jewelled elephant, tinkling with the sound of a hundred bells, is Duryodhana's emblem.

These were the nine blazing standards of your mighty division. 

The tenth was the ferocious ape of Arjuna in a white-heat blazed like a fire on the Himalayas.

Kounteya had Krishna for his charioteer - valour by virtue led.

Viciously, your nine warriors attacked the single-minded Arjuna. 

Fearlessly the sole one advanced against the many.

All this happened because of your evil counsel, O king - many many so many died because of your crimes!

-based/adapted from MB BORI CE [VOL.6/Section 69/Jayadrathavada Parva]-