In the previous episode, we had witnessed Ashwatthama on a rampage mode, killing anyone and everyone who was in his sight. It all started with Drishtadhyumna, followed by Shikhandi and all the five Upa-Pandava brothers! As the Upa-Pandava brothers started waking up to the horror unleashed by Ashwatthama, they tried to escape out of their tents, only to be stopped by Sage Kripachaarya and Krita-Verma who were guarding outside! Ashwatthama brutally murders all the five of them and now tries to escape out of the tent area! All the three – Ashwatthama, along with Sage Kripachaarya and Krita-Verma manage to drive their way outside in the chariot, leaving a whole trail of sorrow amidst the Pandava camp! By the time the others wake up to see what has happened, the tragedy has already unfolded! As all of them are fast asleep during the middle of the night, it takes time for people to come back to their senses to realize the extent to which the tragedy has struck them!
Meanwhile, as people come to terms with what has happened, all the ladies in the nearby tents come out and start mourning the loss of all their loved ones! Around 10-15 people have been brutally murdered by Ashwatthama, and all the wives and mothers of these people cry out loud! Upon hearing this in the middle of the night, Yudishtra & Co. suddenly wake up and rush to see what has happened! They are in shock and disbelief! All of them mourn over what has happened, and since everything happened within a split of a moment, nobody realizes who has done this! The women in the camp mourn out loud thus, “Oh! What a tragedy! This heinous act of killing people during their sleep is totally against the “Yuddha-Neethi” and who has committed this crime? Had Arjuna or Bheemasena been in the vicinity, such a tragedy wouldn’t have unfolded, isn’t it? We’ve lost all our sons and husbands to this brutal crime! This should not go unchecked!”
As this happens on the Kurukshetra battlefield, Sanjaya on the other side (At Hastinapura), is narrating all these instances to King Dhritarashtra. Sanjaya says thus, “Oh King Dhritarashtra! Look at Ashwatthama’s cowardliness! He doesn’t have the guts to fight Yudishtra or Bheemasena or Arjuna on the battlefield, but he has this criminal attitude of going against the “Yuddha-Neeti” to unleash horror on the other side! He has killed several people during sleep, and has happily escaped from that place as if nothing has happened!” As Sanjaya says thus, ideally as an administrator / leader, King Dhritarashtra should have been raging with anger because such heinous crimes are happening in his kingdom, isn’t it? However, on the contrary, King Dhritarashtra asks a very unique question to Sanjaya thus, “Oh Sanjaya! I understand that Ashwatthama has killed several people during the middle of the night as everyone were fast asleep! He did it on the eighteenth day, didn’t he? What was stopping Ashwatthama to do this on the very first day before the war began at Kurukshetra? Had Ashwatthama killed everyone like this in their sleep, this war wouldn’t have taken place at all, isn’t it? My son Duryodhana would have been alive, fit and fine by this time, isn’t it? Why didn’t Ashwatthama think of this earlier?”
From this question, we can clearly see King Dhritarashtra’s intent – Maybe from the outside, he might be blind by nature and might appear as if he is all at sea, unable to make decisions! However, if we analyze King Dhritarashtra and his attitude through this question, we can clearly understand that he is completely biassed towards his son Duryodhana – In a way that King Dhritarashtra would go to any extent to defend Duryodhana and his actions! Here, we can clearly see that King Dhritarashtra wanted Yudishtra & Co. to have a painful death, at the expense of Duryodhana’s ego and wish, which is completely against the “Raaja-Dharma”! We’ve witnessed in our earlier episodes of this Mahabharata project that the Hastinapura kingdom originally remained with King Paandu (Yudishtra’s father) and should have rightly gone to Yudishtra only. However, because King Paandu was sick and had a premature death, the kingdom came to Dhritarashtra, who is his younger brother. At that time, the Paandava brothers were children and because of this sole reason, King Dhritarashtra had to succeed to the throne! Thus, the Hastinapura kingdom itself is not duly King Dhritarashtra’s! It should be Yudishtra’s by every means! However, what is happening here is just the opposite – King Dhritarashtra wants to go hook or crook to kill Yudishtra and give the throne to Duryodhana!
So for today, let us understand up to this point, and in the next episode, we shall witness what Sanjaya has to reply to this crooked question of King Dhritarashtra! Stay tuned!
The Indian Dharma 