ta, 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 Duryodhana, all of them sat on the earth
around him. Then Drona's son, O monarch, with tearful eyes and breathing
like a snake, said these words unto that chief of Bharata's race, that
foremost of all the kings on earth, "Truly, there is nothing stable in
the world of men, since thou, O tiger among men, liest on the bare earth,
stained with dust! Thou wert a king who had laid thy commands on the
whole Earth! Why then, O foremost of monarchs, dost thou lie alone on the
bare ground in such a lonely wilderness? I do not see Duhshasana beside
thee, nor the great car-warrior Karna, nor those friends of thine
numbering in hundreds! What is this, O bull among men? Without doubt, it
is difficult to learn the ways of Yama, since thou, O lord of all the
worlds, thus liest on the bare ground, stained with dust! Alas, this
scorcher of foes used to walk at the head of all Kshat