Another Attempt to Capture Yudhishthira
Drona’s inability to seize Yudhishthira as a prisoner gave Duryodhana a sleepless night. But when he accused him of failure, Drona reacted sharply: ‘Didn’t I tell you plainly that I would be able to capture him only if Arjuna was nowhere around? Why don’t you understand that no man can control his destiny? Just when I was about to pull him out of his chariot, Arjuna and Krishna arrived on the scene to save him. I have told you several times that I cannot vanquish Arjuna. Then, there is his charioteer Krishna, who carries a strange divine power beyond human comprehension.’
As Drona was speaking to Duryodhana, Susarma, the eldest of the Trigartas, was standing close by. He seized this moment to offer his help to Duryodhana: ‘Since I have some old scores to settle with Arjuna, why don’t you let me fight him? I could challenge him to a single combat in the southern sector of the battlefield, and hold him there long enough to let Drona achieve his mission. Also, I am impervious to Krishna’s divinity – and as for Arjuna, I am eager to give him a taste of my archery. I assure you that it would be a fight to the finish. Either I will kill him or I will perish in the duel.’
Susarma’s words cheered Duryodhana, who patted his shoulder. ‘There is a valiant fighter!’ he exclaimed. Then, turning to Drona, he taunted: ‘If only you could also display the same spirit.’
Although Drona was offended by this barb, he let it pass. Maybe he would succeed the next time, he said to himself. He then commenced forthwith to organize his army for the twelfth day. While he planned the eagle formation this time, the Pandavas chose the crescent pattern.
At sunrise, Susarma, together with his brothers, challenged Arjuna to a combat: ‘If you are a true Kshatriya, let me see how you measure up against me.’
Instantly, Arjuna sensed Susarma’s real motive. He had obviously challenged him to a duel at the instance of Duryodhana so that Drona could capture Yudhishthira, unprotected by him. But before leaving Yudhishthira, he assured Yudhishthira that Drupada’s brother Satyajit would be there to guard him.
‘However, promise me,’ Arjuna urged him, ‘that you will not allow yourself to be captured under any circumstances. If driven into a desperate situation, you should consider bolting away. Not that you are a coward, but because we must not let Duryodhana succeed in his nefarious design.’
Although a little afraid of being exposed to danger, Yudhishthira responded, ‘Don’t worry, dear Arjuna, I will take care of myself. But do come back soon as I want you to stand by my side, not Satyajit or anybody else.’
Reluctantly, letting Satyajit drive Yudhishthira away from the southern sector of Kurukshetra, Arjuna started to fight Susarma, who defended himself with amazing vigour and skill.
But soon Arjuna found that Susarma had manoeuvred to have him surrounded by a large force of his soldiers.
‘We seem to have walked into a trap,’ said Krishna to Arjuna. ‘But I know that you are more than a match even for an army.’
‘Since you are with me, O Lord, I should be able to mow down all the Trigartas.’
Then, like an enraged lion, Arjuna began to fight his enemies. So fast and thick fell his arrows that the Trigartas panicked. As one of his arrows smashed Susarma’s bow, he picked up another and continued fighting. Unfazed by Arjuna’s onslaught, the Trigartas unleashed a volley of arrows which caused a haze all around. For a moment, Krishna felt that he could not see Arjuna.
‘Are you there, O Arjuna?’ he called out.
‘Don’t be anxious,’ responded Arjuna, assuring him that he was in full control of the situation. He then shot a special arrow that not only lifted the veil of darkness but also stirred up a gale that swept across the entire battlefield. This forced all his enemies into a hasty retreat.
Turning to Krishna, Arjuna said, ‘It is time to return to Yudhishthira and see how he is faring.’
Instantly, Krishna steered the chariot through a maze of dead bodies towards the spot where they had left Yudhishthira under the protection of Satyajit.
Meanwhile, as Drona kept advancing towards Yudhishthira, he suddenly found his way blocked by Dhrishtadyumna. But this was not the moment, Drona thought, to engage himself in a duel with anyone. He must press on towards his real target. But he had hardly gone a little forward when he was confronted by Drupada’s army. Had destiny again waylaid him, he wondered. But so powerful was the impact of his arrows that his chariot somehow managed to press its way through the enemy ranks.
There now stood in front of him Yudhishthira in his chariot, with Satyajit by his side. To Drona, both of them were soft prey. If he could just eliminate Satyajit, he thought, he would be able to seize Yudhishthira without any difficulty. So he shot at Satyajit an arrow that severed his head.
Seeing Satyajit dead on the ground, the Pandava soldiers protecting Yudhishthira fell into disarray. When Virata’s brother, Satanika, drew close to fight Drona, he too was killed instantly. It seemed that no power could now hold back the Acharya from advancing like a hurricane. In his eyes was the frenzy of a man possessed. When Yudhishthira saw Drona heading menacingly towards him, he recalled Arjuna’s advice to flee. Disengaging the fastest horse from his chariot, he jumped onto it and rode away.
At some distance, Duryodhana and Radheya were watching Drona’s whirlwind advance towards Yudhishthira.
‘Today will be our day of glory,’ said Duryodhana, ‘as I am certain the great Acharya will be able to capture Yudhishthira.’
But Radheya responded with a scowl on his face.
‘That would be a despicable act on your part,’ he said, ‘since as a Kshatriya, you should have fought him in a duel to bring him down to his knees. You know, I believe in open-handedness – not in a devious game of dice, nor in an attempt to capture someone who is unguarded.’
Although Duryodhana saw some truth in his friend’s words, he still waited to see Yudhishthira taken prisoner by Drona. But his hopes were dashed to the ground when he saw Drona driving back empty-handed.
‘The bird has flown,’ said Drona. ‘Just when I thought I had got him, I found only his chariot but not him. Since one of his horses was missing, I guess he must have managed to ride away to safety.’
‘Bad luck!’ exclained Duryodhana. Then he bantered: ‘I imagine you must be inwardly pleased to see him slip through your fingers.’
‘There you go again,’ said Drona, ‘as ungrateful as ever. I wish you had appreciated how hard I tried to seize him. But you are always obsessed with the result. I wonder if you know how this war will end. Remember that a man may plan a beginning, but he cannot foresee the end, which is always in God’s hands.’
In another sector, Bheema had locked horns with Bhagadatta, whose elephant, Suprinika, was as unassailable as ever. In fact, it seemed that this animal played as important a role in this war as any veteran. Endowed with evergreen memory and an insatiable thirst for revenge, its eyes were now focussed on its old adversary, Bheema. If Bhagadatta handled his bow with great dexterity, Suprinika brandished its trunk like a sword. Bheema felt as if he were pitted against two formidable enemies, Bhagadatta and his elephant.
As this fight continued, it became fiercer and bloodier. Several soldiers stood around to watch the spectacle. They were amused to see Suprinika harassing Bheema, like a cat playing with a mouse. The animal would go round Bheema’s chariot, pushing it from one side to the other. Then its trunk struck Bheema’s chariot so hard that it broke into splinters. So Bheema had to fight on the ground. It appeared that he was now engaged in a single combat with Bhagadatta’s elephant, not its master.
Just then, Satyaki appeared on the scene. Sensing another enemy, the elephant now turned towards him and smashed his chariot. Fortunately, Satyaki jumped off just when the savage animal was about to kill him. Getting Satyaki out of its way, Suprinika now swung around to attack Bheema, whom it caught in its trunk, like a python strangling its prey. It would have trampled him under its massive feet if Bheema had not somehow extricated himself. He now crept right under the elephant’s belly and began to hit it with his mace. When some Pandava soldiers tried to intervene, the animal just shoved them away with its feet. All this time, Bhagadatta sat on his elephant, watching it kill his enemies one by one. It was as if one monstrous beast was holding at bay an entire army.
Just then, Arjuna heard the ear-piercing trumpeting of Suprinika and the commotion that followed. Having learnt that Yudhishthira had somehow managed to escape, he now rushed to the spot where Bheema was trapped in a lethal fight with Bhagadatta and his elephant. Bhagadatta’s bow now faltered in his hands as he saw Arjuna’s chariot drawing close to him. Before Arjuna shot his first arrow at his adversary, he greeted him with folded hands – a young archer’s salutation to an old warrior.
As the duel was about to begin, Susarma appeared on the scene with several Trigartas.
‘I am here again, O Arjuna,’ he said, ‘to complete the task we had left unfinished. Only your death or mine will end this game.’
Arjuna now saw himself caught on the horns of a dilemma. On one hand was Bheema fighting a terrible duel with Bhagadatta, and on the other was Susarma’s challenge.
‘What should I do, O Lord?’ he turned to Krishna for advice.
‘You can do anything,’ Krishna responded. ‘Why don’t you first get this Trigarta out of your way and then take on Bhagadatta?’
Immediately, Arjuna pressed Gandiva into action. Within minutes, many of the Trigartas were wiped out. When one of his arrows hit Susarma, he swooned and collapsed on the ground. Leaving him there, Arjuna’s Gandiva resumed its course of devastation. Now panicking, the Kaurava soldiers began to flee.
Krishna then steered Arjuna’s chariot back to the spot where Bheema was fighting desperately with Bhagadatta. On seeing Arjuna, Bhagadatta prodded the elephant into attacking his chariot. But Krishna’s hands skilfully dodged the animal’s attack. Bhagadatta then unleashed his arrows that fell on Arjuna’s chariot like a heavy downpour. But Arjuna’s Gandiva succeeded in snapping Bhagadatta’s bow.
Undeterred, he picked up a bunch of his deadly javelins and began to hurl them at both Arjuna and Krishna. When one of these javelins was about to pierce Arjuna’s chest, Krishna intervened to take it on his own body. But since it was covered with his jewelled armour, kaustubha, the javelin fell away, blunted. Looking angrily at Krishna, Arjuna said, ‘Why did you risk your life for my sake, O Vasudeva?’
‘At that moment, your life was more precious than mine,’ he replied, smiling.
Arjuna then attacked Suprinika’s armour, but it proved to be impregnable. Meanwhile, one of Bhagadatta’s arrows struck Arjuna’s jewelled crown. Adjusting it on his head with one hand, he let his other hand snap Bhagadatta’s bow. But the old archer picked up another bow and continued showering his arrows. Riding the crest of his savage fury, Bhagadatta now darted at Arjuna the ankus with which he directed his elephant’s movements. But since it was not just an ordinary weapon, it made both the rider and his elephant invincible. So when it flew out in mid-air, it made them both vulnerable. It was now possible for Arjuna to confront Bhagadatta and his elephant with great confidence. While one of Arjuna’s arrows severed the animal’s head, another pierced Bhagadatta’s ribs. Both the rider and his elephant now lay dead on the ground in a pool of blood.
This was the second calamity that stunned the Kauravas after the fall of Bheeshma. As Arjuna was on his way to his tent, he was confronted by Sakuni. Seeing his face, Arjuna’s blood began to boil. Here was the man whose machinations had brought untold misery to the Pandavas! As he challenged this despicable man, he saw him raise his bow for a fight.
‘O Sakuni, are you sure you can handle your bow?’ Arjuna taunted. ‘Remember, this is not a game of dice, which you can manipulate. The bow speaks only one language – to kill or get killed.’
Although Sakuni had learnt some tactics as an archer, he could not use any of these at this moment. Frightened to the marrow of his bones, he thought it prudent to drive his chariot away.
But hardly had Sakuni fled the field when Radheya stopped Arjuna’s chariot and challenged him to a combat. It turned out to be a long, bloody duel in which each archer was determined to eliminate the other. As Radheya shot his agneyastra which created a trail of fire in mid-air, Arjuna responded with his varunastra which not only extinguished the fire but also generated a storm that created an upheaval in the atmosphere. As the duel continued, other veterans also joined in. While Bheema, Dhrishtadyumna, Abhimanyu and Satyaki took their positions on one side, Asvatthama, Drona and Duryodhana were poised on the other. This gruesome fight would have assumed an alarming proportion if the sunset had not come to everyone’s rescue. Since it had been a very tiring day, every fighter felt relieved to be able to take a break.
As Drona was walking towards his tent, Duryodhana stopped him.
‘May I have a word with you?’ he asked.
‘Are you going to bicker again?’ Drona asked. ‘I know it has again turned out to be another bad day for us. Yudhishthira gave me the slip, and we have lost Bhagadatta, one of our great stalwarts. It seems some malignant fate is pursuing us everywhere.’
Duryodhana responded with a spurt of anger in his eyes.
‘No, it wasn’t fate but your own deliberate unwillingness to capture Yudhishthira. I had hoped that under your stewardship, we would have a better chance to defeat our enemy. But during the past two days, you have brought me nothing but failure and ruin on all fronts.’
Drona said, ‘You are a man of little patience. Your arrogance, anger and suspicion will be your undoing one day.’ Then, after a pause, he added, ‘Have faith in me, dear child. I have a feeling that tomorrow will be our day of redemption. I am planning to achieve something that would please you enormously. I hope to get one of the Pandava stalwarts – if not a lion, at least its cub. Just wait for the sunrise.’
There was something in Drona’s assurance that helped Duryodhana overcome his despair. Maybe the great warrior was now up to something extraordinary, he thought.