Afflicted before by Destiny, they were now smitten by Drona's
son who terrified them all with the frightful roars uttered by him.
Afflicted by Destiny, the brave warriors of the Pandava camp,
recollecting the sight they had seen in their dreams, identified it with
what they now witnessed.
At the noise made, hundreds and thousands of Pandava bowmen in the camp
awoke from their slumbers. Ashvatthama cut off the legs of some, and the
hips of others, and pierced some in their flanks, careering like the
Destroyer himself let loose by Time. The Earth, O lord, was soon covered
with human beings that were crushed into shapelessness or trodden down by
elephants and steeds and with others that roared in great affliction.
Many of them loudly exclaimed, "What is this?" "Who is this one?" "What
is this noise?" "Who is doing what?" While uttering such shrieks, Drona's
son became their Destroyer. That foremost of smiters, the son of Drona,
despatched to regions of Yama all those Pandus and Srinjayas who were
without armour and weapons. Terrified at that noise, many awoke from
sleep. Possessed with fear, blinded by sleep, and deprived of their
senses, those warriors seemed to vanish (before the fury of Ashvatthama).
The thighs of many were paralysed and many were so stupefied that they
lost all their energy. Shrieking and possessed with fear, they began to
slay one another. Drona's son once more got upon his car of terrible
clatter and taking up his bow despatched many with his shafts to Yama's
abode.
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