Drona's son stop at the gate of the
encampment, what, O Sanjaya, did those two mighty car-warriors, Kripa and
Kritavarma, do? Tell me this!'

"Sanjaya said, 'Inviting Kritavarma, as also the mighty car-warrior Kripa,
Drona's son, filled with rage, approached the gate of the camp. He there
beheld a being of gigantic frame, capable of making the very hair stand
on end, and possessed of the effulgence of the Sun or the Moon, guarding
the entrance. Round his loins was a tiger-skin dripping with blood, and
he had a black deer for his upper garment. He had for his sacred thread a
large snake. His arms were long and massive and held many kinds of
uplifted weapons. He had for his angadas a large snake wound round his
upper arm. His mouth seemed to blaze with flames of fire. His teeth made
his face terrible to behold. His mouth was open and dreadful. His face
was adorned with thousands of beautiful eyes. His body was incapable of
being described, as also his attire. The very mountains, upon beholding
him, would split into a 1,000 fragments. Blazing flames of fire seemed to
issue from his mouth and nose and ears and all those thousands of eyes.
From those blazing flames hundreds and thousands of Hrishikeshas issued,
armed with conchs and discs and maces.

"'Beholding that extraordinary being capable of inspiring the whole world
with terror, Drona's son, without feeling any agitation, covered him with
showers of celestial weapons. That being, however, devoured all those
shafts shot by Drona's son. Like the vadava fire devouring the waters of
the ocean, that being devoured the shafts sped by the son of Drona.
Beholding his arrowy showers prove fruitless, Ashvatthama hurled at him a
long dart blazing like a flame of fire. That dart of blazing point,
striking against that being, broke into pieces like a huge meteor at the
end of the yuga breaking and falling down from the firmament after
striking against the Sun. Ashvatthama then, without losing a moment, drew
from its sheath an excellent scimitar of the colour of the sky and endued
with a golden hilt. The scimitar came out like a blazing snake from its
hole. The intelligent son of Drona then hurled that excellent scimitar at
that being. The weapon, approaching that being, disappeared within his
body like a mongoose disappearing in its hole. Filled with rage, the son
of Drona then hurled a blazing mace of the proportions of a pole set up
in honour of Indra. The being devoured that ma