The Night Massacre
The Pandavas had recently moved away from the scene of the duel between Bhima and Duryodhana and were in full celebration when Sanjaya, returning to the lake, found the king on the ground, in agony, trying to defend himself from the ferocious beasts who wanted to eat his flesh. Seeing him in that condition, in the dust, bleeding from multiple places, and with his hips broken by Bhima’s giant club, Sanjaya wept for him.
“Don’t feel sorry for me,” the dying Kaurava told him in a faint voice, “Because my death is glorious, while their victory is infamous.”
Then he passed out from the intense pain.
Despite everything, Duryodhana’s heart was still filled with a deep hatred for Pandu’s children.
Sanjaya remained with Duryodhana, while the news of his fall reached as far as Hastinapura. The citizens, who, apart from the question concerning the Pandavas, had never had to complain about his government, came to pay their last respects to the son of Dhritarastra.
Meanwhile, Asvatthama, Kripa and Kritavarma also arrived at the place and sat down next to him.
Duryodhana suffered intensely, the wounds were very deep. The people present there were seized with uncontrollable anger. Especially Asvatthama, whose fury ignited like the fire of sacrifice when the purohita throws the clarified butter into it. Driven by emotion, he made a vow that seemed to everyone a real suicide.
“Tonight, I swear, even if Krishna Himself were to be present, I will exterminate the Panchala and Pandavas. Duryodhana, give me permission to avenge you.”
On hearing those words, he smiled.
“Asvatthama, thank you. You do not know how happy your purpose makes me. I appoint you commander of my army, even if there are only three of you left. You triumph where the greatest warriors in the world have not succeeded. In this way you will transform these pains into perpetual delights.”
Having added that he would not die until Drona’s son fulfilled his vow, the Kaurava fell into a severe state of exhaustion. They left him to head south.
None of the three could think of anything else: how to destroy their enemies? It seemed like a desperate undertaking. Arjuna, Satyaki, the other Pandava brothers, Dhristadyumna, Shikhandi, the remaining Panchala, many other heroes who were still alive, and had troops to help them; while they were alone, tired, hurt, discouraged; how could they ever hope for a victory?
They hadn’t come very far when they decided to camp and rest. They really needed it. Kripa and Kritavarma fell asleep immediately, but Asvatthama could not. His mind was obsessed with the same thought, he had no peace: how to avenge Duryodhana, his father, and all the others who had fallen at the hands of the Pandavas? It was true that Duryodhana had acted like a wicked one, but had they done well? And since he was paying for his sins with death, wasn’t it right that the same happened to them?
While he was mulling over these thoughts, his gaze had rested on a flock of crows sleeping on the branches of a tree. Suddenly a large owl, taking advantage of their sleep, attacked them and, without giving them a chance to escape, killed them all. Like a flash, that scene gave Asvatthama an idea. Excited, he woke the other two.
“Wake up, wake up, I understand what we must do against our enemies,” he said in an excited voice.
And he told them about the owl’s onslaught.
“There are only three of us left, and against the Pandavas we have no hope of victory. But if we attack them while they sleep, they will not have time to defend themselves or to flee, and we will be able to kill them.”
Kripa and Kritavarma were not at all thrilled with the idea.
“Such an act has never even been considered by a Kshatriya who wishes to consider himself worthy of the name,” said the elderly master. “This is not an action of war: it is a horrendous crime, among the worst ever devised. Our names would remain forever stained: we would be remembered as those who have eliminated their enemies in their sleep. Acts of this type contribute to spread the carelessness of God’s laws in society, which we should instead protect. Frankly, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to us.”
“The carelessness of the laws of God?” Asvatthama retorted. “But what are you saying? Who in this war has observed them? Nobody, neither we nor them. So why should we have scruples now? When Dhristadyumna hit my father while he was meditating, did he think about Kshatriya-dharma? The vilest of the Yavanas? And what did Satyaki do to Bhurishrava? Yet he is a Vrishni, Krishna’s cousin, and belongs to one of the noblest bloodlines. He too has committed one of the most deplorable crimes. And Arjuna, has perhaps defeated Karna in the most chivalrous way? No, he hit him while he was on the ground, without chariot and without weapons, as he tried to lift the wheels from the quagmire. And then Bhima, how did Bhima manage to defeat Duryodhana? Would he have been able to beat him to death in a fair duel? And was it not an act of cowardice on the part of the Pandavas to be preceded by Shikhandi when they attacked Bhishma? Were they loyal, then? And then Krishna, who had promised not to participate in hostilities, was it not He who obscured the sun, thus saving Arjuna? And wasn’t it always He who sent Ghatotkacha at night against Karna, forcing him to use the shakti? No, friends, the victory of the Pandavas was not at all obtained loyally nor is it blessed by God, and we incur no sin if we punish them in the only way we are capable of.”
Seeing them still hesitant, Asvatthama added:
“Anyway, if you don’t want to help me, know that I will do it anyway, with or without you.”
At that point, while deeply embittered, Kripa and Kritavarma capitulated and associated themselves with the vilest slaughter contemplated by the history of the Aryan people. Drawing the sword Shiva had given him, Asvatthama mounted the war chariot, followed by the other two.
In a short time they arrived at the Pandavas’ camps. They did not know that the five brothers with Krishna and Satyaki were not there, and that they had stopped to rest in the deserted camps that belonged to the defeated.
Leaving the other two to guard the exits so that no one could escape, Asvatthama cautiously entered the enclosure. The war was over, the allies did not think that there could be other dangers, so they had not organized a very close surveillance. Then the Brahmana was able to enter the tent where Dhristadyumna, the murderer of his father, slept with derisory ease. Surprised in his sleep, he was unable to offer any resistance and Asvatthama killed him by strangling him with his bowstring.
Hearing the noise of the struggle and thinking about the attack of some Rakshasas, the Panchala woke up with a start and all ran out of the tents with weapons in hand, but did not have time to defend themselves: catching them by surprise, Asvatthama raged like Shiva in the day of the dissolution of the universe. Running and roaring like a maniac and setting fire to all the tents, he killed the five sons of Draupadi while they were still asleep and the same fate befell the brothers Yudhamanyu and Uttamaujas, the two good assistants of Arjuna. Then Shikhandi also died.
There was a desperate escape; but all those who had managed to escape from Asvatthama’s fury found Kripa and Kritavarma waiting for them, striking anyone to death without mercy. In a few minutes an almost unreal silence enveloped the camp: they were all dead.
So in no time at all those great heroes who had managed to survive incredible days of superhuman struggles, in the span of very short moments were decimated by the vile ferocity of the son of Drona.
Undeterred by what they had done, the three went to bring the news to the dying king. By now the nobility and righteousness that arise from observing the laws of the dharma had disappeared in their hearts, so they were truly convinced that they had not done wrong.
On arriving at Samanta-panchaka, Asvatthama leaned over Duryodhana and called him.
“O king, are you still alive? Know that I have kept my promise. The Panchala are all dead, and the sons of the Pandavas have also followed their fate. Only the five brothers, Krishna and Satyaki are left alive. We have had our revenge.”
Duryodhana opened his eyes and with a beaming smile said:
“What you did is incredible. I didn’t think it could happen anymore. Tell me how you did it.”
And the son of Drona told the story of the night attack.
Hearing those words, Duryodhana shook his head and said:
“Oh Brahmana, how could you have done such a thing? Even I would not have been able to perform such a diabolical act, and having learned of it does not make me die happy.”
Having said that, Duryodhana took his last breath.
This is a section of the book “Maha-bharata, Vol. 2”.
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