In the previous episode, we had witnessed Karna’s conversation with Bhishmachaarya wherein the latter is advising Karna that he should be on the side of Yudishtra and not on the side of Duryodhana. Bhishmachaarya highlights this point with the startling revelations about Karna’s birth story and he emphasises that he is the elder brother of Yudishtra. Even after Bhishmachaarya’s revelation, we’ve seen how Karna is steadfast to his “Dharma” of being behind Duryodhana. When Karna was publicly insulted in the Ranga-Bhoomi during his early days, Duryodhana was the only one who was his saviour. Preventing Karna from being insulted further by anyone, it was Duryodhana who made Karna the king of “Anga Desha”. So, Karna is today what he is, only because of the timely help and intervention done by Duryodhana. If such is the case, how can Karna desert him at a time when he needs his help badly? Hence, Karna asserts to Bhishmachaarya that he will never leave his friend Duryodhana even if it is sure that he’s going to be killed in this war.
With this, we come to the end of the Bhishma-Vada Parva, which is the Upa-Parva under the bigger “Bhishma Parva”. Now we move into the next Parva, which is the “Dhrona-Parva” wherein, Guru Dhronachaarya is being made the next leader of the Kaurava army. Till the tenth day, we’ve seen that Bhishmachaarya was the leader and now with Bhishmachaarya not available to fight anymore, Guru Dhronachaarya is crowned as the next “Senapati” of the Kaurava army by Duryodhana. During the tenure of Guru Dhronachaarya, two important events unfold – One is the death of Abhimanyu and the other is the death of Ghatodgaja. Finally after all this, Guru Dhronachaarya was killed by Drishtadhyumna, who had taken birth exclusively for this purpose. We’ve seen this in our earlier episodes as well, wherein Drishtadhyumna was the son of King Drupada who was insulted by Guru Dhronachaarya. Unable to satisfy the revenge by himself, King Drupada wanted a son to do it and hence he conducted a huge “Yagnya”. Out of this Yagnya was born Drishtadhyumna and Yaagnyaseni, who is none other than Draupati, wife of the Paandava brothers. Now, in this Dhrona-Parva we’re going to witness all these incidents one after the other and with this introduction, we shall move into the Day Eleven of the Kurukshetra war.
Now as the dawn of the next day arrives, people in the Kaurava camp start talking amongst each other thus, “Oh! Now that Bhishmachaarya is not fit to fight anymore, who is going to save us from the Paandava camp? It should only be Karna and nobody else! The “Pratignya” of Bhishmachaarya was very clear – Either Bhishmachaarya or Karna should be in the battlefield as a saviour. Now that Bhishmachaarya is not there, Karna is our only saviour from here on!” As people start talking thus, Karna gets ready to enter the battlefield for the first time in this war! He takes his first step towards his big chariot and gets into it with a lot of confidence. On his way, Karna decides to seek the “Anugraha” of Bhishmachaarya once again as he proceeds towards the battlefield. Yet again, there is going to be an important conversation between these two! So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode we shall witness a very important question that Karna is going to ask Bhishmachaarya and subsequently an answer for it as well! Stay tuned for an interesting accord! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 