As the eighteenth day dawned, Duryodhana saw Kripa walking up towards his tent.
‘I am glad, Acharya,’ said Duryodhana, ‘to see you here, for I need your blessings for the fight today.’
‘But I have come here to say something different,’ Kripa said. ‘I know that the death of your dearest friend, Radheya, has plunged you into profound grief. Quite understandably, you may now be nursing thoughts of revenge. But look, dear child, Radheya’s death should, in fact, be an eye-opener to you. By now, you should have realized that you don’t stand any chance against Arjuna and Krishna – that after losing Drona and Radheya, you are like an archer without his bow and arrows. Therefore, I counsel you to seek peace with the Pandavas, even at this stage. It is never too late to see reason. You have only a handful of soldiers left to fight for you.’
But Duryodhana responded in a voice that was defiant and resolute. ‘O revered Acharya, you were my mentor before Drona took me under his tutelage. But give me not your counsel of despair. You say that I am now left with only a handful of soldiers, but what about those pillars of my strength – Asvatthama and Salya? And if you let me have your blessings, I could still win this war. No, I would never give in to my enemies who have destroyed all that was precious to me – Drona and Radheya. I will never surrender my honour to the Pandavas. I am a Kshatriya and the battlefield is my temple. All that I need is a new commander-in-chief. I seek your advice in choosing someone worthy of this position.’
Kripa was now convinced that Duryodhana would never run away from the battlefield like a coward. In his eyes, he saw embers of revenge smouldering against the killers of Radheya.
‘In that case,’ Kripa said, ‘you have no alternative except Salya, because Asvatthama is still too young. Salya has already proved his loyalty to you and he can wield his bow as skilfully as any of the Pandava veterans.’
Duryodhana readily accepted his guru’s advice and walked over to Salya’s tent to solicit his support at this hour of crisis. Salya did not need much persuasion as he was only too willing to prove his mettle as Drona’s successor.
Both Salya and Duryodhana decided to avoid individual duels as far as possible. Their strategy now was to launch only coordinated attacks to break down the enemy’s resistance.
When word reached Yudhishthira that Salya had been chosen to lead the Kaurava army, he decided to challenge him to a duel. Turning to both Arjuna and Krishna, he said, ‘I am determind to show you today what I am capable of doing. Why should I be always considered as someone who needs protection? My dharma is not acquiescence but engagement.’
Here was a new Yudhishthira, Arjuna thought, rejuvenated and resolute as a true warrior.
‘Let him do it,’ Krishna whispered into Arjuna’s ears, ‘although we would still be around to help him in any emergency.’
When Yudhishthira challenged Salya to a combat, the Kaurava commander-in-chief took him for an easy prey. As the fight gathered momentum, Bheema noticed that Yudhishthira was gradually losing his stamina. Immediately, he leapt into the fray and killed Salya’s horses with his mace. Jumping off his chariot, Salya engaged Bheema in a spirited fight. But it did not take Bheema too long to overpower Salya, who swooned and had to be carried away.
But before the day reached its zenith, Salya was back for another round. This time, he fought with such fury that Duryodhana thought he might win the combat. But his sense of elation was too brief as Bheema was soon back on the scene.
Yudhishthira, however, wanted to claim the glory of killing Salya himself. He had been told by Krishna that Salya was fated to die at his hands. So how could he miss this opportunity? Now, asking Arjuna to protect him from behind, and Satyaki and Dhrishtadyumna to guard the wheels of his chariot, he charged at Salya with his spear. The weapon hit Salya in the chest and he instantly slumped to the ground, dead.
When Duryodhana saw another stalwart fall to the enemy, a sense of utter desolation overlook him. He felt like someone standing on the edge of a precipice.
Soon he had to face another death in his ranks. As he was standing with his brother, Sudarsana, Bheema closed in on both of them. Knowing that, apart from Duryodhana, Sudarsana was the last son of Dhritarashtra still alive, he decided to eliminate him to complete his sweep. An instant stroke of his sword severed Sudarsana’s head, which rolled away on the ground. When Sakuni intervened with his elephant army, Sahadeva, who was standing close by, challenged the dice player.
‘O Sakuni, let it be my privilege to kill you. You’d find that the art of cheating at dice is redundant in warfare. You have been the evil genius behind the Kauravas. If you had not come to Hastinapur, my brother would not have lost his kingdom to your nephew, Duryodhana. There would have been no war – no exile and no suffering for us. So let it now be my good fortune to remove this scourge from the face of Bharatavarsha. Come, O arch manipulator, and face your death at my hands.’
Although Sakuni tried to put up a brave fight for a while, he knew that death was flapping its wings over his head. In one stroke, Sahadeva’s sword chopped off his head, and his body lay writhing on the ground.
With nobody else except Asvatthama and Kripa now left alive on his side, Duryodhana knew that his end was near.