Reading Notes, Mahabharata, Part D: The Death of Drona

Death of Drona

(Source: Wikipedia Commons)

Ashwatthaman was the light of his father Drona's life. All of Drona's loved knew that Drona had no reason to live if it was not for Ashwatthaman and so did Drona's enemies, and because of his, Bhima knew that he should target Ashwatthaman, as he was not as skilled in battle and he wanted Bhima to have to go through the pain of losing someone that he loves so much. To let out his pent up anger and resentment against Drona, Bhima asked one of his soldiers to go get an elephant and so he did and brought it back to Bhima who named the elephant Ashwatthaman. Bhima started petting the elephant's trunk and then out of nowhere, he killed the elephant with his two hands. He then ordered his men to go dump the body of the dead elephant in Drona's neighborhood, yelling "Ashwatthaman is dead! Ashwatthaman is dead!", as he watched them. Word of Ashwatthaman being dead got back to Drona, but Drona would not believe what he had heard unless he could find some proof so he went to go see Yudhishthira. "Yudhishthira, is it true? Is my son really dead?", Drona asked. "Oh yes!", Yudhisthira said and then exclaimed," Ashwatthaman is dead!", three times. He followed each exclamation with "the elephant" but Drona did not hear this. Drona fell to his knees, feeling an unbearable ache in his chest, as he could not emotionally handle the loss of his son. He couldn't think straight, let alone use his powerful divine weapons. He heard a rumble and saw that a crowd of Pandaca soldiers were charging at him to attack and Drona sprinted towards them and he sat down in the front of his chariot to prepare for battle. Dhrishtadyumna, the Pandava general, drove up to him in his chariot, leaping out onto the ground, wielding his sword, swinging it at Drona, and cutting of his head.