Dhritarashtra said: ‘All those you have named are indeed endowed with great courage, but all of them together are equal only to Bhima, taken singly. My fear, my child, of an enraged Bhima is truly very great — like the fear of a fat deer before a raging tiger. I pass all my nights sleepless, breathing long and burning sighs, fearing Vrikodara, my child, as an animal of any other kind fears a lion. Armed and possessed of energy equal to Shakra himself, I see no one in this entire army who could withstand him in battle. Exceedingly wrathful and resolute in hostility, this son of Kunti and Pandu does not smile even in jest; maddened with fury, he looks askance and speaks in a thundering voice of great impetuosity and great valor, of long arms and great strength — he will not spare a single one of my foolish sons in battle. Truly, Vrikodara, that bull among the Kurus, wielding his mace in battle like a second mace of Yama in hand, will slay all my sons overtaken by dire calamity. Even now I see his terrible eight-sided mace, made of steel and adorned with gold, rising up like the curse of a brahmin. Like a lion of mighty strength among a herd of deer, Bhima will roam among my armies. Among his brothers, he alone has always shown his strength toward my sons without mercy. He ate greedily and was marked by great impetuosity; from his very childhood he behaved with hostility toward my children. My heart trembles to recall that even in their childhood, Duryodhana and my other sons, wrestling with him in play, were always mauled by the elephant-like Bhima through his sheer strength, and it was Bhima of terrible prowess who caused this rift. Even now I see Bhima, maddened with fury, fighting in the very vanguard and devouring my whole army of men, elephants, and horses, matching Drona and Arjuna in weapons, his speed equal to the speed of the wind, and in wrath like Maheshvara himself — who is there, O Sanjaya, who would wish to slay that wrathful and terrible hero in battle? I count it a great achievement that my sons were not killed even then by this destroyer of enemies, endowed with such energy. How can a man withstand the onrush of this warrior in battle, who has already slain terrible yakshas and rakshasas?’