that mighty bowman, of Jayadratha, the king of the Sindhus, of all my brothers headed by Duhshasana and equal unto myself, of Duhshasana’s son of great prowess, and of Lakshmana, my son, and thousands of others that fought for me.  Alas how shall my sister, stricken with woe, live sorrowfully, after hearing of the slaughter of her brothers and her husband!  Alas, what shall be the plight of the old king, my sire, with Gandhari, and his daughters-in-law and grand-daughters-in-law!  Without doubt, the beautiful and large-eyed mother of Lakshmana, made sonless and husbandless, will soon meet with her death!  If Charvaka, the mendicant devotee who is a master of speech, learns everything, that blessed man will certainly avenge himself of my death!  By dying upon the sacred field of Samantapanchaka, celebrated over the three worlds, I shall certainly obtain many eternal regions!” Then, O sire, thousands of men, with eyes full of tears, fled away in all directions, having heard these lamentations of the king.  The whole Earth, with her forests and seas, with all her mobile and immobile creatures, began to tremble violently, and produce a loud noise.  All the points of the compass became murky.  The messengers, repairing to Drona’s son, represented to him all that had happened regarding the conduct of the mace-encounter and the fall of the king.  Having represented everything unto Drona’s son, O Bharata, all of them remained in a thoughtful mood for a long while and then went away, grief-stricken, to the place they came from.’”

65

“Sanjaya said, ’Having heard of Duryodhana’s fall from the messengers, those mighty car-warriors, the unslain remnant of the Kaurava army, exceedingly wounded with keen shafts, and maces and lances and darts, those three, Ashvatthama and Kripa and Kritavarma of the Satwata race, came quickly on their fleet steeds to the field of battle.  They beheld there the high-souled son of Dhritarashtra prostrate on the ground like a gigantic Sala tree laid low in the forest by a tempest.  They beheld him writhing on the bare ground and covered with blood even like a mighty elephant in the forest laid low by a hunter.  They saw him weltering in agony and bathed in profuse streams of blood.  Indeed, they saw him lying on the ground like the sun dropped on the earth or like the ocean dried by a mighty wind, or like the full Moon in the firmament with his disc shrouded by a fog.  Equal to an elephant in prowess and possessed of long arms, the king lay on the earth, covered with dust.  Around him were many terrible creatures and carnivorous animals like wealth-coveting dependants around a monarch in state.  His forehead was contracted into furrows of rage and his eyes were rolling in wrath.  They beheld the king, that tiger among men, full of rage, like a tiger struck down (by hunters).  Those great archers Kripa and others, beholding the monarch laid low on the Earth, became stupefied.  Alighting from their cars, they ran towards the king.  Seeing