he careered in battle, scorching his foes in every direction, his course resembled that of a blazing conflagration.  Alas, deprived of life, he now lieth on the ground, like an extinguished fire.  The handle of the bow is yet in his grasp.  The leathern fences, O Madhava, still encase his fingers.  Though slain, he still looketh as if alive.  The four Vedas, and all kinds of weapons, O Keshava, did not abandon that hero even as these do not abandon the Lord Prajapati himself.  His auspicious feet, deserving of every adoration and adored as a matter of fact by bards and eulogists and worshipped by disciples, are now being dragged by jackals.  Deprived of her senses by grief, Kripi woefully attendeth, O slayer of Madhu, on that Drona who hath been slain Drupadas son.  Behold that afflicted lady, fallen upon the Earth, with dishevelled hair and face hanging down.  Alas, she attendeth in sorrow upon her lifeless lord, that foremost of all wielders of weapons, lying on the ground.  Many brahmacaris, with matted locks on their head, are attending upon the body of Drona that is cased in armour rent through and through, O Keshava, with the shafts of Dhrishtadyumna.  The illustrious and delicate Kripi, cheerless and afflicted, is endeavouring to perform the last rites on the body of her lord slain in battle.  There, those reciters of Samas, having placed the body of Drona on the funeral pyre and having ignited the fire with due rites, are singing the three (well-known) Samas.  Those brahmacaris, with matted locks on their heads, have piled the funeral pyre of that brahmana with bows and darts and car-boxes, O Madhava!  Having collected diverse other kinds of shafts, that hero of great energy is being consumed by them.  Indeed, having placed him on the pyre, they are singing and weeping.  Others are reciting the three (well-known) Samas that are used on such occasions.  Consuming Drona on that fire, like fire in fire, those disciples of his of the regenerate class are proceeding towards the banks of the Ganga, along the left side of the pyre and having placed Kripi at their head!”

24

“Gandhari said, Behold the son of Somadatta, who was slain by Yuyudhana, pecked at and torn by a large number of birds!  Burning with grief at the death of his son, Somadatta, O Janardana, (as he lies there) seems to censure the great bowman Yuyudhana.  There the mother of Bhurishrava, that faultless lady, overcome with grief, is addressing her lord Somadatta, saying, “By good luck, O king, thou seest not this terrible carnage of the Bharatas, this extermination of the Kurus, this sight that resembles the scenes occurring at the end of the yuga.  By good luck, thou seest not thy heroic son, who bore the device of the sacrificial stake on his banner and who performed numerous sacrifices with profuse presents to all, slain on the field of battle.  By good luck, thou hearest not those frightful wails of woe uttered amidst this carnage by thy daughters-in-law like the screams