Bits of life

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undue and unjust advantage of his aloneness, Duryodhana, Dushasana, Karna and Jayadradh and Ashwathama surrounded the single young warrior and ruthlessly drove their swords into his chest. And there he lay dead in a pool of blood. War had no pity.

Arjuna was overcome with anguish and heart tearing sorrow for his son. He came to know of the role played by Jayadradh and took the vow that he would avenge the death of his son, Abhimanyu before sunset on the next day. The day dawned and Arjuna was attacked by not only Jayadradh but also by other warriors of the Kaurava army. This day belonged to Jayadradh and he could not be killed before sunset.

So how to kill him? There was divine intervention at this particular moment of time. Krishna made the sun disappear and everyone thought the sun had set. After the sunset Jayadradh thought he was safe and Arjuna’s vow was broken. He started celebrating it. And lo! Once again the sun had started shining again. Jayadradh’s happiness was short lived. Arjuna took up his bow and arrow and beheaded the evil minded Jayadradh. Jayadradh’s father who was a powerful rishi had given him the boon that his head when it got separated from the body should not fall on the ground. If it did, the responsible for his death will be burnt alive. The force of Arjuna’s arrow was such that head of Jayadradh flew all the way and fell into the lap of his father. That was all. The old rishi was burnt in the fire and was reduced to ashes within seconds. Thus Arjuna was able to avenge the death of Jayadradh.

On that night Karna went to meet and paid his last respects to Bhishma. The old warrior asked him to go on the righteous path and not support the evil path.

On the next day of the war, Drona was the hero of the battle. When a war of this had started it was definite that friends become combatants and relatives would kill each other. Dronacharya had many powerful arrows and astras at his disposal. He started making use of them and the Pandava army was fast decreasing in number. He killed the mighty son of Bhima, the asura warrior Ghatothkacha with a powerful astra. The next hero to die at the hands of Drona was Ghatothkacha, the strong son of Bhima and Hidimba. When he entered the warfront, Ghatothkacha spread fear in the hearts of the Kaurava army.

Waves of terror swept them aside and made them dead. He left thousands of Kaurava soldiers dead and heaps of dead bodies were seen on the Kaurava side. The sight of the dead soldiers filled Drona with a sense of remorse and immediately he took up a very powerful astra and used it on Ghatothkacha. The strong son of Bhima died and lay on the ground. The Kaurava army sighed in relief. Now killed Matsya king, Virata and was fighting with Drupada, his childhood friend and classmate. Finally, both of them got down from their respective chariots and started a sword fight. Dronacharya, an excellent warrior defeated Drupada in no time and drove his sword into his chest and Drupada was dead. Then Duryodhana came near Dronacharya and asked him to make use of divine weapons but Dronacharya turned his suggestion down and said that he would never fight an unjust war. He would fight with the same weapons as used by the opponents.

Krishna told Arjuna that no one can defeat Drona in straight combat. He needed to use some unfair means to bring him down. When Arjuna was wondering if it would be justified to use unjust means to defeat Drona, Krishna said that Drona was fighting on the side of adharma so it was not unfair to be tricky with him. There was only one option. That was to make Drona believe that his son Ashwathama was dead. This grief would never be borne by Drona. Krishna, Dharmaraja, Arjuna and Bhima talked about it. There was an elephant named Ashwathama in the enemy army. Bhima killed it and shouted within the hearing of Drona.

“I killed Ashwathama.” But Drona did not believe it. So Krishna suggested that let it be announced by Yudhishtar. As expected Drona drove straight to Yudhishtar and asked him if it was true that his Ashwathama was killed. He believed that Yudhishtar known as the king of dharma or Dharmaraja would not lie.

Yudhishtar said,
“Ashwathama was killed, an elephant.”
He said the part of “an elephant” softly enough so that Drona did not hear the complete sentence. He could hear only that his son Ashwathama was killed. Immediately on hearing the sad news of his son’s death he was overcome with grief and laid down his arms and stopped fighting. During this time Drishtadyumna, the son of Drupada took up his sword and killed Drona.

Drishtadyumna thus avenged his father’s death at the hands of Drona. That night once again all the warriors on both sides went to pay homage to Drona. When Ashwathama, the son of Drona saw the Pandavas, he was overcome with anger and told them not to touch his father’s feet because they were all cowards.

They saw Karna present at the scene and Arjuna said,
“What is this son of charioteer doing here?”
Krishna replied,

“Don’t use such unparliamentary language about Karna. It is not the style of a great warrior. I know Karna’s mother. She is a gentle soul and very respectable.”

By eleventh day of the war among the Kauravas only Duryodhana and Dushasana were left and even his army had dwindled in numbers and strength. Ashwathama advised Duryodhana to make peace with the Pandavas and stop the war. Duryodhana became angry and excited at the suggestion made by the son of Dronacharya.
This day became famous because Bhima had his revenge on Dushasana, who had the audacity to drag Draupadi by hair to the court and insulted her by trying to disrobe her.

Bhima came at Dushasana with his mace drawn and fought relentlessly till he had him on the ground. Then he sliced open the chest of Dushasana, and drank his blood and took some of it to the camp of Draupadi. She smeared it on her hair. Draupadi was satisfied with her revenge being materialized. Thus Bhishma had fulfilled the vow he took in the assembly of the Kauravas when they were insulted by Duryodhana and others.

The next day saw Karna as the commander in chief of the Kaurava army. His charioteer, Shalya, the king of Madh constantly discouraged him by saying that he was nothing before Arjuna, the great archer. Karna asked him why he was insulting him again and again by comparing him with Arjuna and establishing that Arjuna was a better fighter than him. Then he said that he did not trick him to fight on the Kaurava side. It was Duryodhana who tricked him.

Then Karna drove straight to Arjuna started a dual with arrows. Truly, he proved to be a better archer than Arjuna. He would have killed him had not been the fact that the sun was setting and according to the rules of the war, all fight must stop by the sunset.

Arjuna was beside himself with self pity and doubt. When Vasudeva Krishna came to him and asked him what bothered him, he replied and asked,
“Why did he spare my life? Why did not kill me when he had a chance?”

Krishna replied,

“It was sunset and Karna followed the rules of war laid down by your grandsire Bhishma. After the sunset, all weapons need to rest. So far no one followed it. But Karna is a man to follow the rules. So he could not kill you. That apart, whatever happened to your sharp vision? You need to look at your target.”

Both Karna and Arjuna were impatient to face each other and aim at each other’s chest, the sharpest of arrow available in their respective quivers. The day came when Duryodhana wanted Karna to win the war.
Both were face to face and started showering arrows at one another. Arjuna fought like a fierce tiger and soon had Karna to be on the defensive. Karna tried to recall the powerful astras he learnt from sage Parashurama while he was his disciple. But he couldn’t recall any of the astras due to the curse he had from Parashurama. The story behind Karna’s curse from Parashurama is as follows.

Parashurama was the son of rishi Jamadagni. A king insulted Jamadagni while he was meditating. The king had put a snake around the neck of the meditating sage and Parashurama had seen it when he returned to ashram. Then he vowed to take revenge on the community of the Kshatriyas in the land. For twenty one times, Parashurama invaded the kings of the whole country, and killed them.

When Karna joined Parashurama as his disciple, he did not tell him of his true identity. He told him that he was a Brahmin. Karna excelled in his training under the guidance of Parashurama. The teacher was much pleased at the devotion and dedication showed by Karna.

One day in the afternoon when it was hot and silent, Parashurama slept stretched out with his head resting on the lap of Karna. He fell into a deep sleep. Karna sat without movement for fear of disturbing the guru. A wasp flew at Karna and had bitten him on the arm. Karna could not swap at it nor do something to drive it off. It went on biting him and soon Karna started bleeding from the wound made by the wasp. The drops blood fell on the face of Parashurama and soon he woke up. He saw the blood smearing the arm of Karna. Then he guessed that Karna was not a Brahmin, for a Brahmin would never be able to bear the pain of a wasp bite. It could only be a Kshatriya who had that kind of forbearance and ability to bear with the extreme pain.

Parashurama was angry that Karna had cheated him about his true heritage and learnt the skill of using astras and other powerful arrows. He cursed him saying that none of the astras he learnt from him, would not be of any use to Karna, when he direly needed them. He would forget the mantras that would invoke these powerful astras.

This was what exactly happened when Karna needed them during his dual with Arjuna. He could not invoke a single astra he had learnt from Parashurama. At the same moment, one of the wheels of his chariot got stuck in the sand below. He got down to get the wheel out of the mud and Krishna asked Arjuna to go ahead with his arrows. Arjuna hesitated because his opponent was not ready and it was not the rule to attack an enemy when he was not ready. Vasudeva Krishna said that Karna supported a man like Duryodhana while he was insulting Draupadi in the Hastinapur court. He had no rules to follow in supporting the evil minded Duryodhana when he ordered his brother to drag Draupadi to the full court and his equally villainous brother Dushasana who dared to disrobe Draupadi. So, Krishna asked Partha not to hesitate in punishing the unrighteous.

Arjuna did not hesitate now. He took up his bow and arrow and aimed the powerful astra at Karna who was still attending to his chariot wheel. The arrow knocked off his headgear and another arrow from Arjuna beheaded Karna. The whole battlefield fell silent and Duryodhana and Shakuni lamented for Karna.

After the death of Karna, his real mother Kunti went to the battlefield where the body of Karna lay still and lifeless. She cried tears of remorse and repentance and out of the helplessness in her inability to announce to the world that Karna, the great warrior