In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhishmachaarya explaining in detail as to how Shikhandi’s gender change happened, and why he will not fight against Shikhandi in the war. As we’ve seen, Shikhandi was originally a female by birth (Amba) and subsequently how she retook another birth to be born as the daughter of King Drupada and how she “converted” herself into a male through an “Yaksha” prince. We’ve also witnessed Kubera getting angry with this “Yaksha” prince by exchanging his male characteristics with Shikhandi for some cheap reasons, and as a result, Kubera curses this “Yaksha” prince of being unable to regain his male form and characteristics forever in his life. Thus with this, Shikhandi had no option to regain her female form from this “Yaksha” prince and as a result of this, Shikhandi had to continue living as a male all through her life! Concluding this accord in this way, Bhishmachaarya clearly spells out his strategy towards Shikhandi and the others in the Paandava army.
Moving on further thus, we now enter into the main “Bhishma Parva” wherein the famed Mahabharata war is all set to begin! Subsequently the next morning, both the army camps swiftly start making their way into the Kurukshetra battlefield. There are huge rumbling sounds from the ground as both the armies are marching towards the battlefield and there is enormous dust that is erupting from the earth surface. A huge herd of elephants, horses, and several batches of soldiers from both sides make their way into the battlefield. Since Bhishmachaarya is the leader of the Kaurava army, this “Parva” is named after Bhishmachaarya. Subsequently, Bhishmachaarya is going to be the leader for the Kaurava army for the first ten days of the war. After he is pushed into the bed of arrows by Arjuna, Guru Dhronachaarya is going to take over the reins from Bhishmachaarya, and the “Parva” which is going to describe the happenings of the war at this time, is called “Dhrona Parva”. Subsequently after Guru Dhronachaarya’s demise, Karna takes over, and the “Parva” which is going to describe the happenings of the war during this time is called “Karna Parva”. After Karna’s demise, King Shalya takes over, and the “Parva” which describes the war happenings at this time is called “Shalya Parva”. Thus, with this, the entire war is going to come to an end. Hence, we’re now going to witness four important “Parvas” back to back, which describe the intricate details of the war. Some of the key details that we’re going to witness are the strategies of warfare that both the armies adopted to attack each other, key people who fought the war on each of the eighteen days, key people who were neutralized at the end of each day of the war, the “Asthras” they employed upon each other, Bhagawan Krishna’s role in the battlefield and how He protected the Paandavas during the war, etc. Hence, we’re going to enter a very critical phase of the entire Mahabharata story and readers’ attention to minute details is required from here on, so as to have a clear understanding of what happened during the eighteen-day war.
Opening the account of the war thus, we’re now entering into the Bhishma Parva, which is the main Parva at this stage. Within the Bhishma Parva, the first Upa-Parva is the “Jambu-Khanda-Vinirmana Parva”. This is a huge Upa-Parva that describes the entire “Jambu-Khandam” (Earth) as a whole, with an enormous accord on the important mountains, oceans, rivers, land masses, countries, territories, etc. that it comprises. We might wonder why this long accord about the earth is coming at a time when both the camps are readying themselves to attack each other! We shouldn’t forget that we’re in the middle of the battlefield. Even though this is the case, with both the camps getting ready with their respective strategies and weapons to fight, where does this discussion come from? We shall wait till the next episode to have a detailed discussion on this! Stay tuned for an important and informative accord for tomorrow! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 