In the previous episode, we witnessed Karna lamenting over his two curses that he had received earlier during his younger days – One from his Guru, Parasurama and the other one from a Brahmana Rishi. Parasurama cursed Karna because Karna had apparently faked himself to be a Brahmana. Subsequently a Brahmana Rishi cursed Karna because he had killed the Rishi’s cow. Thus, as per the first curse, Karna would forget key lessons that he had learnt, during key moments of war. As per the second curse, Karna’s chariot will get stuck inside the ground while fighting, and he would be isolated by everyone, so that he has to fend for himself! Narrating all these, Karna says to King Shalya that he’s not bothered about anything else other than these two curses that he had obtained earlier. With this note, the proceedings of Day Seventeen commence, and the Kurukshetra battlefield is about to see an intense fight for yet another day!
Thus, Karna enters the battlefield like a thunderstorm as King Shalya is driving his chariot. As Karna makes his way to the centre of the battlefield, he meets Yudishtra first. A huge battle ensues between the two of them. On this seventeenth day, it is all about Karna and how he led the Kaurava camp with a lot of grit and determination. Even though he knows that he’s on the losing side, Karna is not ready to give up so easily. He puts up a great show of strength and takes Yudishtra head-on! Even though Yudishtra fights with his full strength and prowess, he could not withstand Karna’s onslaught! Karna is at his fiery best today and he targets Yudishtra with back-to-back “Asthras”, from which Yudishtra could never recover! Finally, Yudishtra accepts defeat and he moves away from that place, in order to prevent himself from getting killed by Karna. Preventing the disaster, Yudishtra quickly leaves the battlefield and goes back to the tent!
Next in Karna’s firing line are Nakula and Sahadeva. It is to be remembered by readers that on the previous day itself, Karna had defeated Nakula and made him run away! Now, Nakula comes once again in front of Karna for a battle. As the defeat and beatings are fresh in Nakula’s mind, he is trembling with fear upon facing a fiery Karna on the other side! With a meak battle, Nakula once again runs away from the battlefield and escapes from Karna’s wrath! However, Sahadeva puts up a brave fight against Karna for a brief period of time, however, as expected, Karna proves to be better on the given day! He brutally thrashes Sahadeva with enormous arrows back-to-back, which makes Sahadeva struggle completely! Karna makes sure that Sahadeva is completely cornered and is unable to give any sort of counter to his arrows! Thus at one point, Sahadeva too rushes away from the battlefield, leaving Bheemasena and Arjuna alone to face an impending danger!
Now, as Karna makes his way towards Arjuna, the battlefield is set for a spectacular showdown! Arjuna realizes quickly that the entire Paandava camp is in grave danger from Karna and he wants to launch a scathing attack on Karna immediately! However, Bhagawan Krishna thinks otherwise! Bhagawan says to Arjuna thus, “Oh Arjuna! Perhaps, this is not the right time to take on Karna. Yudishtra has returned to the hut and we’ve to quickly go and see what happened to him and why he abruptly left the battlefield. This is unprecedented from Yudishtra and before taking on Karna, let us go immediately and check if he’s fine!” As Bhagawan Krishna says thus, Arjuna asks back thus, “Oh Bhagawan! As the war is going on full-fledged, how can we leave the battlefield at this moment? Karna is on a rampage and if we’re not here, how will our army survive his onslaught?” Saying thus, Arjuna turns towards Bheemasena and says thus, “Oh Bheemasena! Maybe you go to Yudishtra’s hut and see what happened to him. Meanwhile, I shall be on the battlefield and defend Karna till you’re back!”
As Arjuna says thus, Bheemasena is not interested to leave. He says thus, “Oh Arjuna! I do not want to leave the battlefield right now. Just like how you have the responsibility to take on Karna, I have it too. Moreover, I do not want to earn a name tomorrow saying that I ran away from the battlefield fearing Karna!” As Bheemasena says thus, Bhagawan Krishna endorses his words and convinces Arjuna to leave the battlefield for a while. Meanwhile, Bhagawan Krishna instructs Bheemasena to go for the kill and continue the fierce battle without any mercy on the opposition camp!
Obeying Bhagawan Krishna’s words, Arjuna returns back to the tent to see what happened to Yudishtra. Meanwhile, Bheemasena takes charge of the proceedings on the battlefield and continues the fight. A huge battle breaks out between the two camps, as Bheemasena leads from the front! Bheemasena first meets Ducchaasana and both of them engage in a huge confrontation. As Ducchaasana comes in front, all the past incidents of the gambling game and Draupati’s molestation runs through Bheemasena’s mind! With a savage resolution, Bheemasena hits Ducchaasana left, right and centre with his arrows, which makes Ducchaasana severely battered and injured! Unable to withstand a rampaging and an angry Bheemasena, Ducchaasana runs away from the battlefield! If he would have been there on the battlefield for a few more minutes, Bheemasena would have thrashed him to death!
Thus, the seventeenth day war is proceeding at a very competitive pace, with Karna emerging extremely powerful on one end and Bheemasena tackling the Kaurava army single handedly from the other side! So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall continue to witness what happened to Yudishtra and Arjuna on the other side! Stay tuned for an interesting accord! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 