In the previous episode, we had witnessed Ulooka (Duryodhana’s messenger) making an attempt to “chase away” Yudishtra and Co. from the Kurukshetra battlefield. Ulooka tries to intimidate Yudishtra by exaggerating the mammoth size of the Kaurava army and to demotivate the Paandava brothers to prevent them from advancing any further. Subsequently, Arjuna and Bheemasena understood the ploy of Duryodhana and warned Ulooka of severe action if such things are repeated. Rather than resorting to playing mind-games like these, Arjuna and Bheemasena express their clear intent that Duryodhana should meet them in the battlefield if he really has the courage. Taking this message thus, Ulooka returns back to the Kaurava camp with failure written all over his face! An important leadership / management lesson here for all of us is that, being a leader, one shouldn’t get intimidated by such cheap behaviours of people. If the road to success is tough, the tough should get going in the leader, rather than succumbing to such cowardly acts of people.
With this incident, we come to the end of this small Parva and now we move into the next one called “Ratha-Adhirata-Sankhyaana Parva”. All these are small Upa-Parvas and we shall move quickly with the details of each of them. Here we’re going to see a very important aspect of ancient warfare and some technical terms associated with it. We’re going to witness who are “Rathis”, “Adhirathis”, “Ardha-Rathis”, “Maha-Rathis”, etc. Now first let us understand the meanings behind these technical terminologies. “Rathis” are those who ride on a chariot and fight with only one opponent who also is in one chariot. In other words, “Rathis” are individuals who are on chariots, fighting with the others who are also individuals on chariots. The term “Adhi-Rathi” signifies a person in a chariot fighting with 2-3 Rathis. Thus, in other words, “Adhi-Rathis” fight simultaneously with two or three people in different chariots. “Maha-Rathis” are the ones who fight simultaneously with 10-15 Rathis at the same time. These “Maha-Rathis” are extremely powerful people and are capable of creating mass destruction. Thus, both the Kaurava and Paandava camps had a good mix of Rathis, Adhirathis, Ardha-Rathis and Maha-Rathis in them. Of course, when it comes to a war, an army needs a sizable combination of all these categories of people coming together.
So now, when we witness this mix in the Kaurava camp, Bhishmachaarya explains to Duryodhana as to who are the Rathis, Adirathis, Maha-Rathis, etc. Similarly, he also explains this mix in the Paandava camp as well. Bhishmachaarya talks about a person by name “Purujith”, who is the uncle of Bheemasena. Bhishmachaarya tells Duryodhana thus, “Oh Duryodhana! Let me tell you about this Purujith. He is the brother of Kunthi Devi and is an extremely powerful Maha-Rathi. He has come to Kurukshetra with a huge army and with this, he is extremely capable of unleashing mass destruction on us. We’ve to be very careful with Purujith and we’ve to devise special strategies to counter him. Also, I’m worried about what Ghatodgaja will play in this war. As you might be knowing, Ghatodgaja is the son born to Bheemasena when he married Hidimbi in the forest. Ghatodgaja has given an assurance to Bheemasena that whenever help is required in the battlefield, he would be present without an invitation! Hence, given all the possibilities, we would have to see Ghatodgaja on the battlefield sooner or later as the war progresses. Ghatodgaja is someone who is a one-man army! He can single-handedly unleash a huge amount of destruction with his enormous powers! No bow and arrow technique would stand in front of Ghatodgaja, because he has the divine capability to wage an illusionary war (“Maaya-Uddham”)! Normal people like you and me are only capable of “Manushya-Yuddha” (War which is fought by normal human beings), but for those who are capable of “Maaya-Uddham”, none of their moves can be predicted in advance to plan strategies! Hence, if Ghatodgaja takes to the battlefield, it is going to be extremely difficult for our entire army to even survive – Forget fighting with him!”
Saying thus, Bhishmachaarya tries to explain the strengths of the opponents to Duryodhana and for today, let us understand up to this point. We shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 