In the previous episode, we had witnessed a very important conversation going on amidst the battlefield between Duryodhana and Sage Kripachaarya. We’ve of course seen this conversation in a brief as of now as this happens after King Shalya’s demise. This brief summary is first given by Sanjaya to King Dhritarashtra, to apprise him as to what has happened on the eighteenth day at Kurukshetra. Now as Sanjaya says thus, King Dhritarashtra, as usual, wants him to detail the events one by one. King Dhritarashtra wants to know how his son Duryodhana was killed, who killed him, what was Bhagawan Krishna’s role in it, etc. in detail. Hence, with this note, Sanjaya begins his lengthy accord of the minute-by-minute description of the eighteenth day at Kurukshetra.
Sanjaya says thus, “Oh King Dhritarashtra! Even after Karna’s demise, your son Duryodhana did not relent from his unwanted stance. He still wants to somehow see the back of Yudishtra and Bhagawan Krishna, which he doesn’t realize that this is never going to happen. His ego has no bounds! He doesn’t understand the reality. Oh King Dhritarashtra! Sage Kripachaarya advises Duryodhana to relent atleast now. However, Duryodhana is in no mood to listen. He is now making King Shalya the next “Senapati” of the depleted Kaurava army. Now, all of them start the eighteenth day war!” As Sanjaya commences his accord thus, on the other side at Kurukshetra, Ashwatthama gives a suggestion to Duryodhana to make King Shalya as the next “Senapati”. As Duryodhana looks around in search of an able personnel to lead the army forward, Ashwatthama advises Duryodhana thus, “Oh Duryodhana! Now that Bhishmachaarya, Guru Dhronachaarya, Karna, etc. are not there with us anymore, the next senior-most person in our ranks is King Shalya. He is very experienced and shrewd on the battlefield and I’ve seen that with my own eyes as well. Hence, I feel that King Shalya would be the apt person to take the lead in a crunch situation like this! He has the full potential to turn things around for all of us. Hence, Duryodhana! Please make King Shalya the next “Senapati” of our army!”
As Ashwatthama says thus, Duryodhana obeys his words. He calls for King Shalya and expresses his interest in making him the next “Senapati”. King Shalya initially is not very keen to take it up, as he already knows the end result of this pointless war. Even then, just because Duryodhana is requesting him to take it up, King Shalya reluctantly accepts Duryodhana’s request and takes over as the “Senapati” of the Kaurava army. Thus, the entire army, under the leadership of King Shalya starts for the war on Day Eighteen at Kurukshetra. Equally on the other side, the Paandava camp is also ready for perhaps, the final assault on the battlefield! As the two rival camps meet each other, the war begins immediately without wasting much time. The battle that King Shalya wages on Day Eighteen is something that is extremely intense in nature. Firstly, the war begins with a direct clash between Nakula (From the Paandava camp) and Karna’s several sons (From the Kaurava side). We know that Karna is no more now, but Karna’s sons are alive. Only one son of Karna was killed by Arjuna on the previous day. But now, there is a huge confrontation between Karna’s sons and Nakula. As the war progresses further, Nakula manages to kill several of Karna’s sons, while the remaining leftover sons run away from the battlefield!
Meanwhile, as this happens, Krita Varma also loses the battle on the Kaurava side, and he tries to run away from Kurukshetra. Krita Varma has been extremely victorious on the Kaurava side till date, which is quite rare in occurrence. However, Krita Varma too had to flee the battlefield as he loses his elephant too. On the other hand, as a very important event, Sanjaya is getting caught by Saatyaki (From the Paandava side)! We might wonder where Sanjaya came from all of a sudden! Sanjaya had gone to the Kurukshetra battlefield as a reporter to gauge the war situation on Day Eighteen. As Saatyaki spots Sanjaya roaming around in the battlefield, he catches Sanjaya and holds him captive. As Sanjaya is now held captive, the story is not moving forward for King Dhritarashtra for some time. This is because Sanjaya is the one who goes back to King Dhritarashtra to give live updates, isn’t it? In order to clear this deadlock, Sage Vyaasa immediately comes to the Kurukshetra battlefield. He goes straight to Saatyaki and requests him to free Sanjaya from the captive. Upon Sage Vyaasa’s request, Sanjaya is released and he rushes to Hastinapura straightaway without wasting even a single minute of time!
Thus, with all these important events, the war on Day Eighteen proceeds at a brisk pace, and with this, we shall wait till tomorrow’s episode to continue this further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 