The Start of the War

The Pandavas and Kauravas were fully energized in the war. Both sides had a great number of allies.

The side of the Pandavas consisted of Lord Krsna, the five Pandava brothers, the army of King Dhrupada, and the army of King Matsya. Only one Kaurava, Yuyutsu, joined the forces of the Pandavas. In addition, Arjuna’s son, Abhimanyu (son of Subhadra and nephew and disciple of Lord Krsna), Ghatotkaca (the son of Bhima and Hidimba, born of the demon race), and the sons of Draupadi took part in this war. Hanuman was the blessing of the war, as he was serving Lord Krsna in the image of Lord Rama. The brother of Draupadi, Drstadyumna, was the commander-in-chief.

The side of the Kauravas consisted of the one-hundred Kaurava brothers, their sister-in-law (Dusala’s husband) Jayadratha (the king of Sindhu [presently known as Pakistan]), the divine army of Lord Krsna, the army of Gandhara (Sakuni’s land), Karna and his army (the land of Anga), and the army of Trigarta. The most unfortunate result was pious people and well-wishers of Hastinapura and dharma, Bhisma, Dronacarya, and Krpacarya, ended up joining the forces of evil, due to their duty. The king of Madra (uncle of Nakula and Sahadeva) was conned into joining forced with the Kauravas. Bhisma was nominated as the commander-in-chief. During his reign, he ordered that Karna would not fight under his banner.

Just before the start of war, Arjuna saw his relatives and family friends on the opposite army and he began to feel fear and compassion for them. He lost the ability to fight. Lord Krsna advised him to give up these feelings of compassion and follow his duty as a warrior of dharma. The conversation between Lord Krsna and Arjuna became what is known as the Bhagavad-Gita. (Bhagavad-Gita can be read here on KKSongs.org).

The war started and from the start, the Pandavas made a powerful blow to the Kaurava army. For the first nine days of war, the Kauravas kept loosing many of the one-hundred brothers, but the war headed in no real direction. The Pandavas were powerful, however, Bhisma could not die, unless he wanted it; Bhisma had the boon of wishful death. In addition, Dronacarya, Krpacarya, and Bhisma, who were the real well-wishers of the Pandavas, did not kill them or make any attempt to kill them. This compassionate attitude made Duryodhana and the other Kaurava brothers very angry. On a secret meeting with the Pandavas, Bhisma gave the powerful hint that he will lay down his arms if a woman joins the battlefield. There was one solution to this problem: inviting Sikhandi. Sikhandi is the half-brother of Draupadi. Sikhandi is a male who took a female body, for this very moment. He was actually Amba, the princess who Bhisma refused to marry many generations ago. She cursed Bhisma that she would be the cause of his death. Bhisma realized who Sikhandi was and immediately, Bhisma threw his weapons on the ground. Arjuna, by the order of Krsna and Bhisma, shot Bhisma repeatedly until his body, full of arrows, collapsed on the ground. Bhisma was still alive despite this pain and weakness. He retired from fighting the war, but he laid there on this bed of arrows, and he will not leave his unsuitable bodily condition until Hastinapura is safe.

Immediately, Dronacarya was the new commander-in-chief of the war. Karna was allowed to join in and the consequences of the war became very powerful. King Dhrupada, King of Matsya, and his son, Uttar-kumara, were killed by Dronacarya and the Pandava army was taking a powerful blow. The Kauravas designed a special plan to capture Yudhisthira, by sending Krsna and Arjuna off to the other end of the battlefield. Abhimanyu, finding his duty to protect his uncle Yudhisthira, decided to take on the Kauravas and try to break this powerful trap. He was successful getting into this obscure formation. Getting out was the problem. Sakuni, Dronacarya, Krpacarya, Duryodhana, Duhsasana, Karna, and Krtavarma surrounded Abhimanyu and removed him of any weapons. When Abhimanyu was severly wounded and unarmed, all seven warriors attacked him at once and killed him using unethical means. This became the point in war where unethical tactics took place.

When war was traditionally stopped at sunset, war would still go on in the night causing more casualties. Ghatotkaca, Bhima’s demon son, destroyed a significant part of the Kaurava army. Karna killed Ghatotkaca the next day using the Sakti spear, the invincible spear Karna saved for killing Arjuna.

Lord Krsna encouraged Yudhisthira to tell a lie to Dronacarya that Asvatthama is dead. Asvatthama is the name of Dronacarya’s son, as well as another elephant in the war. The elephant was dead, but Yudhisthira reluctantly lied that his son was dead. Dronacarya, immersed in grief, disarmed himself and sat in the battlefield with his eyes closed. Drstadyumna took a sword and killed him. Karna was named the new commander-in-chief.

Karna, unlike Dronacarya and Bhisma, was not a well-wisher of the Pandavas, although known to Krsna, Kunti, the Suryadeva, he will spare the lives of Yudhisthira, Bhima, Nakula, and Sahadeva. However, Arjuna is his prime target. Karna was indeed, a powerful match for Arjuna. On this day, the Pandava’s casualties were their allies, except for Drstadyumna and Krsna, Abhimanyu, and Ghatotkaca. The Kaurava’s causalties were Bhisma retiring from the war, Dronacarya, the Trigarta army, Jayadratha, and the ninety-eight brothers of Duryodhana. Bhima and Duhsasana wear having their fierce duel. This resulted in Bhima ripping off Duhsasana’s left army, ripping his chest, and drinking his blood. He also took some blood of Duhsasana and smeared it on Draupadi’s open hair to pacify her insult.

The duel for Arjuna and Karna lasted for two days. When Karna was on the verge of defeating Arjuna, Karna’s charioteer’s got stuck within the earth. Arjuna, being an ethical warrior, waited until Karna fixed his chariot. Krsna suggested Arjuna shoot Karna in that position, as Karna never obeyed any ethics of war and dharma throughout his life. Even though he was loyal as a friend to Duryodhana, he was unloyal to the side of dharma and used unethical means of killing Abhimanyu. While Karna realizes his death was coming, he tried to invoke a missle to kill Arjuna, but his memory deceived him. Parasurama’s curse did not go in vain. Arjuna sent a powerful arrow which killed Karna. The loss of Duhsasana and Karna made a powerful blow to Duryodhana. It was at this night, Kunti revealed the truth of Karna. Yudhisthira was very upset at this that he cursed womanhood of being incapable of keeping such secrets.