him.  Seeing the prince who had been ordained as his slayer, Drona, verse in all truths about men and things, abandoned all his celestial weapons and sat in Praya on the field of battle.  Then Prishata’s son, seizing Drona’s head with his left hand and disregarding the loud admonitions of all the heroes, cut off that head.’  Drona should not be slain, even these were the words uttered from every side.  Similarly, Arjuna also, jumping down from his car, quickly ran towards Prishata’s son, with arms upraised and repeatedly saying, ’O thou that art acquainted with the ways of morality, do not slay the preceptor but bring him alive.’  Though thus forbidden by the Kauravas as also by Arjuna, Dhrishtadyumna killed thy father.  For this, afflicted with fear, the troops are all flying away.  Ourselves also, for the same reason, in great cheerlessness, O sinless one, are doing the same.’

“Sanjaya continued, ’Hearing of the slaughter of his sire in battle, Drona’s son, like a snake struck with the foot, became filled with fierce wrath.  And filled with rage, O sire, Aswatthaman blazed up in that battle like a fire fed with a large quantity of fuel.  As he squeezed his hands and ground his teeth, and breathed like a snake, his eyes became red as blood.’”

SECTION CXCV

“Dhritarashtra said, ’Hearing, O Sanjaya, of the slaughter, by unrighteous means, of his aged sire, by Dhrishtadyumna, what, did the valiant Aswatthaman say, he, that is, in whom human and Varuna and Agneya and Brahma and Aindra and Narayana weapons are always present?  Indeed, learning that the preceptor, that foremost of virtuous men, had been unrighteously slain by Dhrishtadyumna in battle, what did Aswatthaman say?  The high-souled Drona, having obtained the science of weapons from Rama have imparted (a knowledge of) all the celestial weapons unto his son desirous of seeing the latter adorned with all the accomplishments (of a warrior).  There is only one person in this world, viz., the son, and none else, whom people desire to become superior to themselves.  All high-souled preceptors have this characteristic, viz., that they impart all the mysteries of their science unto either sons or devoted disciples.  Becoming his sire’s pupil.  O Sanjaya, and obtaining all those mysteries with every detail, the son of Saradwat’s daughter has become a second Drona, and a great hero.  Aswatthaman is equal to Karna in knowledge of weapons, to Purandara in battle, to Kartavirya in energy, and Vrihaspati in wisdom.  In fortitude, that youth is equal to a mountain, and in energy to fire.  In gravity, he is equal to an ocean, and in wrath, to the poison of the snake.  He is the foremost of all car-warriors in battle, a firm bowman, and above all fatigue.  In speed he is equal to the wind itself and he careens in the thick of fight like Yama in rage.  While his engaged in shooting arrows in battle, the very earth becomes