We’re in the midst of a very important day of the Kurukshetra war – Day Twelve, wherein a huge ploy is being executed by Duryodhana and Co. to somehow capture Yudishtra alive. Guru Dhronachaarya is entrusted with the task of isolating Yudishtra from the others on Day Eleven, but somehow Bheemasena and Arjuna understood this ploy very well and they protected Yudishtra from all sides. Guru Dhronachaarya, as a result, could not breach the fortress built by the Paandava duo. However on the twelfth day, the plan is slightly modified – Susharma, the leader of Trigatthas comes into the scene. The plan is very simple – Arjuna is the spearhead of the fortress around Yudishtra, isn’t it? Hence, Susharma is trying to drive Arjuna away from the battlefield to a long distance, so that he virtually loses connection from what’s happening in the main Kurukshetra battlefield. Accordingly, Susharma tempts Arjuna to follow him and Arjuna too starts doing the same. Susharma takes Arjuna to an entirely different place and a huge war breaks out between Arjuna and the Trigatthas.
Meanwhile before Arjuna leaves, he entrusts the responsibility of protecting Yudishtra to Bheemasena, Satyaki and King Drupada. There are some sound languages being set for effective identification of danger – If Bhagawan Krishna’s “Paanchajanya” sound is constantly in the air, along with Arjuna’s Gaandeepa sound, it means to Yudishtra that Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna are safe. On the other side, when Yudishtra’s Shankam keeps emitting the sound, Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna would infer that Yudishtra is safe. In this way, the code languages were set up between them. Thus, the war between Susharma and Arjuna is of an entirely different level altogether! The Trigatthas are extremely powerful in nature and even then, Arjuna is able to single-handedly neutralize several Trigatthas in Susharma’s army. The constant sound of Bhagawan Krishna’s “Paanchajanya” indicates that Arjuna is extremely successful in his pursuit so far.
As this is happening on one side, Guru Dhronachaarya and Duryodhana get together to discuss a new strategy to isolate Yudishtra. Thus, both of them try to attack Yudishtra from either sides together, which alerts Bheemasena and Saatyaki immediately. Both of them rush near Yudishtra in super-quick time and a fierce battle ensues between the four of them. Bheemasena once again trains his guns towards Duryodhana, and at the same time there’s a huge fight between Saatyaki and Guru Dhronachaarya. All four of them are equally powerful, however, Bheemasena and Saatyaki emerge successful in somehow thwarting the isolation plan of Duryodhana and Guru Dhronachaarya once again. This is the second time that the duo’s ploy is ending up in failure. Meanwhile, Yudishtra’s “Shankam” is also making a huge sound and as mentioned before, this sound communicates the message to Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna that Yudishtra is not in any kind of problem on the other side.
Meanwhile, as Duryodhana realizes that his ploy has failed, he immediately thinks of the next alterntive. Bhagadatta comes near Duryodhana. We’ve already seen a short note about Bhagadatta earlier. He comes on his elephant called “Supra-Deepakam”. This elephant is extremely powerful and its power equals the power of around 10,000 elephants put together! Thus, as Bhagadatta arrives near Duryodhana on his huge elephant, the entire Paandava army starts shaking with fear. It should also be noted that Bhagadatta has a very important weapon, which he had obtained from Raakshasa Narakaasura earlier. It is called as “Vaishnava-Asthram”. This “Asthra” is extremely powerful and nobody in this earth could actually neutralize it. Thus, upon Duryodhana’s motivation, Bhagadatta commences his fight. A huge battle ensues and all the four Paandava brothers (Sans Arjuna) unite together and try to give resistance to him. However, the Paandavas are not able to stop Bhagadatta’s advancement. Thus, Bhagadatta breaches the fortress successfully within no time and with his “Vaishnava-Asthram”, Bhagadatta is casually killing tens of thousands of soldiers on the Paandava side. The entire Paandava army runs into chaos and in the process, a great sound erupts. This alerts Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna! Bhagawan immediately informs Arjuna about Bhagadatta’s arrival on the battlefield and tells him that they’ve to now hurry towards the main Kurukshetra battlefield. Meanwhile, Arjuna had finished almost three-fourth of Susharma’s army single-handedly and with this, Bhagawan Krishna quickly drives the chariot away from Susharma. Now as Arjuna is reaching the main battlefield, Bhagadatta is in full fiery mode, going on a rampage from one point to the other. His “Vaishnava-Asthram” is doing all the talking! So for today, let us understand up to this point and we shall continue this interesting segment of the discussion in the next episode as well! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 