In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bheemasena ruling the roost over the Kaurava army as he brutally mutilates Ducchaasana’s body in front of Duryodhana and the others! As he does so, he roars in anger saying that this would be the fate of everyone else in the Kaurava army from now onwards, including Duryodhana and it is only about time that it starts unfolding! As this is being narrated by Sanjaya, King Dhritarashtra fumes with extreme anger and frustration of losing one of his most dearest sons and also by the way he was killed. As he does so, King Dhritarashtra also laments that there’s no “Dharma” left in this world as Bhagawan Krishna Himself supports such a cause! For this, Sanjaya gives a befitting reply to expose King Dhritarashtra’s hypocrisy wherein he was silent all through when the gambling game and Draupati’s molestation happened in open public, and now he’s talking of “Dharma” when his own son is being subjected to brutal treatment. How can this suffice? “Dharma” should be the same for everyone, isn’t it? Saying thus, Sanjaya slams King Dhritarashtra for his “double standards” when it comes to “Dharma”.
Moving on further, as Ducchaasana’s mutilation and subsequent events happen on the Kurukshetra battlefield, Duryodhana faints on his chariot itself upon seeing all this unfold in front of his eyes! As Duryodhana falls thus, his charioteer and all the other brothers surrounding him come to his rescue and bring him back to normalcy. Yet, Duryodhana could not bear the pain of losing his dear brother Ducchaasana. Hence, with intense fury he looks around to check who is around him. He has his ten brothers remaining and orders all of them to launch a scathing attack on Bheemasena and corner him from all directions. Duryodhana instructs his army to back up all his ten brothers and asserts to his brothers that Bheemasena should be finished at any cost! Obeying Duryodhana’s words, all his ten brothers come with swords and other key weapons towards Bheemasena. A huge war breaks out between the two camps once again. Bheemasena is already fuming with extreme anger and with this act from Duryodhana, his anger only increases further and further. Upon seeing ten people coming towards him to launch an attack, Bheemasena decides that he would take on all of them single-handedly. He asks all his army men and other key warriors to stay away. Bheemasena stands like a tall pillar and allows all the ten people to come towards him. They launch a scathing onslaught against Bheemasena, who defends all the ten of them with ease! As the battle progresses thus at a brisk pace, Bheemasena successfully neutralizes all the ten brothers of Duryodhana – Once again in front of his eyes!
As this happens, Duryodhana couldn’t believe his eyes! All his brothers are dead – Ninety-nine of them! Now he’s the only one remaining! Upon seeing this, Bheemasena fumes with extreme anger once again thus, “Oh Duryodhana! This is how “Karma” hits back! On that fateful day you made fun of Yudishtra, insulted and abused him in front of everyone, just because he did not have anybody to come to his rescue, didn’t you? On that day you had all your brothers, your uncle, your father, etc. backing up your “Adharmic” acts. Now where are all of them? You’ve been left stranded like this today and this is how I’ll ensure that you’ll pay for whatever you’ve done to us till now!” Saying thus, Bheemasena dances with joy and on the other hand, the entire Kaurava army is in a great panic! The army group that surrounded Ducchaasana till now, starts to run away in panic, owing to the fear of Bheemasena destroying all of them at once!
As all these unforeseen happenings take place on one side of the battlefield, Karna is still busy, engaging with a one-on-one fierce battle against Arjuna! This is where Karna’s attention turns towards these unfortunate happenings to Duryodhana and his son Vrishasena takes over. Appointing Vrishasena to take care of Arjuna’s onslaught for a while, Karna goes in pursuit of all the army men to make them come back to the battlefield and fight for Duryodhana’s cause. It is during this brief time period of Karna’s absence in the main battle area, Arjuna kills Vrishasena. Thus, if we look at the sequence of events, the Karna-Arjuna battle and the Bheemasena-Ducchaasana battle take place simultaneously. During the past few episodes, we’ve seen the Karna-Arjuna battle progressing briskly with Vrishasena’s demise and now we’ve seen the Ducchaasana-Bheemasena battle wherein Bheemasena has killed the latter, along with ten other Kaurava brothers in front of Duryodhana’s eyes!
So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall once again turn our focus towards the marquee Karna-Arjuna battle and witness what happens next in that! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 