Verse 20

²⁰Hearing of it, kings came from all sides to my father's city, in their thousands, knowing everything there is to know of missiles and weapons, with their teachers. ²¹My father honoured them all, each according to his strength and his years, and in that assembly they took up the bow and its arrow to pierce the mark, their minds set on me. ²²Some took it up and put it down again, not able to string it. Others drew the string back as far as the elbow and were thrown down by it and fell. ²³Other heroes did string it, the kings of Magadha and Ambastha and Cedi, and Bhima, Duryodhana and Karna, but they could not tell where the thing stood.

²⁴Partha saw the fish's likeness in the water and knew where it stood, and shot his arrow carefully; but he did not cut it, he only grazed it. ²⁵When the kings had fallen back, proud men with their pride broken, the Bhagavan took up the bow and strung it as though he were playing, ²⁶fitted an arrow to it, looked once at the fish in the water, cut it with that arrow and brought it down, while the sun stood in the hour called Abhijit. ²⁷Drums sounded in the sky and shouts of victory on the earth, and the gods, undone with gladness, let showers of flowers fall.