made up of the staminodes and pistillodes. To understand the description that follows, we must imagine the flower collapsed into two dimensions as an army is spread across a plain. The men in Drona’s array can thus be pictured in two formations, the broader droplike perimeter of the spathe coming to a point with the army’s commander at its tip, and a narrower, needlelike formation of the spadix contained within that, densely folded at its base and at the rear of the army, where we can imagine Jayad·ratha is stationed to ensure a maximal distance from the enemy frontline.

88.26A gruesome hoot from the monkey’s muzzle: this is a rather unusual reference to one of the deities that inhabit the battle standards of the warriors. These effigies and ensigns were not simply there to scare off the opposition: they were invested with totemic spirits who rode with the fighters, and now we actually hear the living sounds from one of them. For more on this see ‘Drona,’ volume I, note to 23.48.

93.61Shrutayus of Ambashtha: the text presents us with a puzzle at this point. Either there has been some sort of corruption of an event that has spawned a doppelganger of the Shrutayus who fell at 93.24, or we can simply assume that it was a more common name than might be expected. Duryodhana’s words at 94.30 seem to support the latter conclusion.

94.14Thorns in the jar: this is Duryodhana’s repeated refrain to Drona: that he is partial to the Pandavas, and secretly plots their victory. See ‘Drona,’ volume I, canto 33.

96.13Rained down upon him: a rather eccentric metaphor to say the least. Bahlika is compared to the atman, the organising principle of the human soul, and the Draupadeyas to the five sense organs that it normally is thought to control.

98.9He has left his grimoires at home: Literally “he has defaulted on his own duties:” Yuyudhana mocks Drona’s warrior credentials, giving voice to the widespread grievance that ksatriya characters often bear towards their brahmin peers. The caste divi- ________