In the previous episode, we had witnessed the commencement of Day Eighteen at Kurukshetra. Here, King Shalya has been crowned as the next “Senapati” of the Kaurava army after the demise of Karna on the previous evening. Thus, the war begins on the morning of Day Eighteen, with Nakula killing several of Karna’s sons, who had survived the previous day of Arjuna’s onslaught. Now, Nakula is on a rampage as he kills all of them one after the other. Similarly, Krita Varma from the Kaurava side, who hasn’t tasted a defeat till date, gets defeated by Nakula and Co. as he runs away from the battlefield, fearing his life. Meanwhile, as Sanjaya comes to the battlefield to find out what is going on, Saatyaki captures him and imprisons him. It is only after Sage Vyaasa explains to Saatyaki that Sanjaya hasn’t come for fighting, but is here to give updates to King Dhritarashtra back at Hastinapura, Sanjaya is released. As all these events keep happening in parallel one after the other, King Shalya is about to show his prowess in the battlefield.
Moving on further, on the other side of the battlefield, Arjuna is in a huge confrontation with Susharma. Readers might remember that Arjuna is constantly having a fight with the “Trigatthas” or “Samshaktakas” every now and then. Right from the moment Karna came into the battlefield and when Jayatrada was loitering around here and there, Bhagawan Krishna took away Arjuna from Kurukshetra and made him fight with the Trigatthas, headed by this Susharma. Even though Arjuna fights hard, he is not able to eradicate the Trigatthas altogether. On Days Thirteen and Fourteen, for a majority part of the war time, Arjuna was completely absent in the battlefield and this was the time Abhimanyu was also killed. We’ve seen all this earlier. Now, this Susharma is still alive, and he directly comes to the battlefield to fight Arjuna. This Susharma is still alive today because of Yudishtra! During the Paandavas stay at Virata Desha during the “Agnyaata Vaasam” time, Duryodhana, Guru Dhronachaarya, etc. came to fight Yudishtra and Co. upon Susharma’s information that the Paandava brothers are hiding there. During the battle that ensued, Susharma should have been killed by Arjuna. He in fact, captured Susharma alive and was brought in front of Yudishtra. But, Yudishtra thought otherwise – Rather than killing Susharma for allegedly spying on the Paandava brothers’ whereabouts, Yudishtra allowed him to escape. For the heinous crime that Susharma had committed, Yudishtra forgave him and today, this same Susharma is coming once again in front of the Paandava brothers for a war on the Eighteenth Day at Kurukshetra!
Now again – Arjuna should have finished Susharma during his intense fight with the Trigatthas earlier, but somehow, Susharma kept escaping from Arjuna’s visible sight. Now however, Arjuna is in a savage resolution of not letting Susharma escape like this again and again. He wages an intense one-on-one battle with Susharma and the rest of the Trigattha army, and at the end, Arjuna succeeds in destroying all of them! Susharma also falls on the ground, dead, unable to bear Arjuna’s relentless pursuit against him.
Meanwhile, as Arjuna kills Susharma and the Trigatthas single-handedly, Bheemasena on the other side is waging a huge battle against Sudarshana, who is Duryodhana’s last surviving brother. An intense “Gadha-Yuddham” ensues between the two of them, but before that, Sudarshana comes with a huge elephant army, knowing that Bheemasna is extremely high on raw muscle power. As Bheemasena sees this, he is also happy because he has got an apt enemy to fight with! We should understand here that just like how Bheemasena is strong with his muscle power, Sudarshana is also well-known for the same prowess. Along with Sudarshana, there are twenty-five thousand foot soldiers for protection on all sides. A huge war breaks out between Bheemasena and Sudarshana’s army! Bheemasena is as usual on a rampage mode, as he single-handedly pierces through Sudarshana’s elephant-army! Arouna a thousand elephants garland Sudarshana’s army and Bheemasena single-handedly kills almost all these elephants by twisting their trunks with his ultra-strong hands! In the process, Bheemasena kills all the twenty-five thousand soldiers single-handedly as well!
This extreme display of prowess from Bheemasena shocks Sudarshana to bits! He was initially thinking that the huge army would neutralize Bheemasena and he would not have to do anything much! However, the situation now is completely reversed, and Sudarshana is left all alone to defend himself against a rampaging Bheemasena. Finally, Bheemasena brutally kills Sudarshana and with this, all the ninety-nine brothers of Duryodhana are dead! At this time, only a few key warriors are left over on the Kaurava side – King Shalya himself, Sahuni (Duryodhana’s uncle) and Duryodhana himself! So in the next episode, we shall see what happens to the fate of these warriors on the eighteenth day at Kurukshetra! Stay tuned!
The Indian Dharma 