Mahabharata

by C. Rajagopalachari

Bhima lifted his iron mace and brought it down on the head of a huge elephant called Aswatthama and it fell dead. After killing the elephant Aswatthama, Bhimasena went near the division commanded by Drona and roared so that all might hear. “I have killed Aswatthama!” Bhimasena who, until then, had never done or even contemplated an ignoble act, was, as he uttered these words, greatly ashamed. They knocked against his very heart-but could they be true? Drona heard these words as he was in the act of discharging a brahmastra. “Yudhishthira, is it true my son has been slain?” Dronacharya asked addressing Dharmaputra. The acharya thought that Yudhishthira would not utter an untruth even for the kingship of the three worlds. When Drona asked thus, Krishna was terribly perturbed. “If Yudhishthira fails us now and shrinks from uttering an untruth, we are lost. Drona’s brahmastra is of unquenchable potency and the Pandavas will be destroyed,” he said. And Yudhishthira himself stood trembling in horror of what he was about to do, but within him also was the desire to win. “Let it be my sin,” he said to himself and hardened his heart and said aloud: “Yes, it is true that Aswatthama has been killed.” But, as he was saying it, he felt again the disgrace of it and added in a low and tremulous voice, “Aswatthama, the elephant”- words which were however drowned in the din and were not heard by Drona.