Arjuna was overcome with compassion and so were all the kings. But disregarding them, Dhrishtadyumna killed Drona, bull among men, on the floor of his chariot. Covered with blood, that scorcher of enemies then jumped down from the chariot. His limbs were red, he was as difficult to look at as the sun, and the soldiers and others saw that he had been killed in the battle. O king! Before those on your side, Dhrishtadyumna, the great archer, flung down Bharadvaja’s son’s large head. O king! On seeing the head of Bharadvaja’s son, those on your side lost all enterprise. Making up their minds to run away, they fled in all the directions.
-Mahabharata, Drona-Vadha Parva, Chapter 1142(165)
This is the most terrible thing one could do. Dronacharya already left his body and Dhristadyumna literally desecrated his corpse without even considering that Dronacharya was his very own guru. And after doing so he shamelessly defended himself and said that he wasn’t satisfied even after cutting off the head and wished to throw the head far away into the land of Nishadas
In the battle, he slew my relatives and not those of anyone else. Having only severed his head, my fever has not been assuaged. My heart is still suffering, because I did not hurl his head, like Jayadratha’s head, into the land of the nishadas. O Arjuna! It has been instructed that not killing one’s enemy is tantamount to adharma. Yet again, the dharma of kshatriyas is to kill, or be killed. O Pandava! In accordance with dharma, I have killed my enemy in the battle.
-Mahabharata, Narayanastra-Moksha Parva, Chapter 1145(168)
Satyaki rebukes him and also Shikandi for bringing down Drona and Bhishma respectively through unusual means and tactics.
You have spoken to Partha, bull among men, about Bhishma, but that great-souled one himself decided the means of his death. It was your evil-acting brother who killed him. There is no one on earth who is as wicked as these two sons of Panchala. Your father truly created Shikhandi for Bhishma’s destruction and the great-souled one only protected him from his death. The Panchalas are inferior and have deviated from dharma. They hate their friends and their preceptors. You and your brother have only obtained censure from virtuous people. If you again speak such words in my presence, I will bring down your head with this club, which is like the vajra.
-Mahabharata, Narayanastra-Moksha Parva, Chapter 1146(169)
Dhristadyumna defends himself by bringing the topic of Bhurishravas shamelessly and Satyaki angered takes his mace and tries to kill Dhristadyumna but was stopped by Bhima and Dhristadyumna says that he shall kill Satyaki despite Sahadeva pacifying Satyaki and Satyaki calming down
O Bhima! Release Shini’s grandson. Free him. He prides himself in fighting. Let him advance against me, like the wind against mountains. I will destroy his pride with my sharp arrows. O Kounteya! In the encounter, I will rob him of his love for fighting and of his life. The Kouravas are advancing. I am alone capable of performing the grave task that has arisen, one that the sons of Pandu have taken up. Else, let Phalguna counter all of them in battle and I use my arrows to bring down his head. He thinks that I am like the armless Bhurishrava in the battle. Release him. Let him kill me, or let me kill him.’ On hearing Panchala’s words, the powerful Satyaki sighed like a serpent and trembled, seized by Bhima’s arms. O venerable one! Vasudeva and Dharmaraja swiftly made great efforts to restrain those two brave ones. Though their eyes were red with rage, they were restrained by those two great archers.
Now what Satyaki told about Dhristadyumna is 100% right (despite shamelessly justifying his act of killing Bhurishravas after killing him). The Panchalas were products of hatred. Drupada obtained both Shikandi and Dhristadyumna for killing Bhishma and Drona respectively. And both of them became censurable in the deaths of Bhishma and Drona. And Dhristadyumna shamelessly showing his sadism after cutting off Drona’s head and wishing to throw it away and not being satisfied with it and even disregarding him as his guru are the things due to which the Panchalas are the characters I hate the most in the entire Mahabharata and even declaring to kill one of the most prominent warriors on his side despite Sahadeva calming Satyaki down show’s the amount of hatred he has.
Now this is the exact reason why I like the Sauptika Parva the most. Ashwathama deciding to kill him like an animal for what he has done with Dronacharya and executing the same is one of the reasons why Sauptika Parva is my favourite.
He awoke the sleeping one with a kick of his foot. With the touch of the foot, the one who was indomitable in battle awoke. The one with an immeasurable soul recognized Drona’s maharatha son. As he was rising from his bed, the immensely strong Ashvatthama seized him by his hair and pressed him down on the ground with his hands. O descendant of the Bharata lineage! He was crushed down with great force. Because of consternation and sleep, Panchala was unable to resist then. O king! He pressed him down on his throat and his chest with both his feet. Though he roared and writhed, he was about to kill him like an animal. He tore at Drona’s son with his nails and gently said, ‘O son of the preceptor! Slay me with your weapon. Do not delay. O best among men! By doing this, let me go the worlds of the virtuous.’ Having heard the words that he had spoken, Drona’s son replied, ‘O worst of your lineage! There is no world for those who slay their preceptor. O evil-minded one! You do not deserve to be killed by any weapon.’ Having spoken thus, like a lion against an elephant, he angrily struck the brave one in his inner organs with extremely fierce kicks of his feet. O great king! As he was being killed in that abode, the brave one’s cries woke up the women and the guards. They saw that his body was being crushed by someone with superhuman valour and took that being to be a demon.
-Mahabharata, Sauptika Parva, Chapter 1291(8)
The way he kills him without a weapon and just by kicking him and thrashing him badly is what I felt happy about since he got what he deserved. Also along with this Ashwathama’s slaughtering of the ones in the camp and his description of being all red due to the bloodshed gave me immense satisfaction (pardon me since I am a lover of graphic violence and the Sauptika Parva explains every minute detail of it😅) and after that he killed Shikandi by splitting him into half with his sword which again made me happy that the Panchalas were finally killed.
The slayer of Bhishma, together with all the Prabhadrakas, armed themselves with many weapons and attacked the brave and powerful one from all sides. He used his bow to strike him between the eyebrows with an arrow with a stone head. At this, Drona’s extremely powerful son was filled with great rage. He attacked Shikhandi and cut him down into two pieces with his sword. Having killed Shikhandi, the scorcher of enemies was enraged and powerfully attacked all the large numbers of Prabhadrakas.
So due to these reasons, Sauptika Parva remains my favorite Parva followed by Drona Parva, Karna Parva, Vana Parva and the Adi Parva
|| Namō Veṅkaṭeśāya || 🛞 U 🐚