Battle of Kurukshetra
The battle of Kurukshetra is an event described in the Indian epic Mahabharata . Of the 18 books of the Mahabharata, the following are the story of the battle of Kurukshetra :
Book VI: Bhismaparvan (The book of the general rule of Bhisma)
The sage Vyasa gave the charioteer of the blind king Dhritarashtra the gift of unearthly vision so that he could tell the king about all the details of the battle. Bhishma is commander in chief of the Kauravas' army . He has determined the rules of battle for both sides: It should be fought with the same weapons against each other; anyone who leaves the battlefield or has lost his weapons must not be killed; one must not attack without warning; fighting can only take place until sunset. Before the battle begins, Yudhishthira goes up to Bhisma with folded hands to receive his blessings. Bhisma is the grandfather of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Bhisma was apparently waiting for this gesture. He blesses Yudhishthira and then gives the signal for the battle to begin. On this first day the Pandavas are hard pressed and have many deaths to mourn.
On the second day, Arjuna tries to attack Bhisma; but this is surrounded and protected by the soldiers of the Kauravas.
Bhisma chooses a new order of battle every day. On the third day he chose the formation of an eagle for the Kauravas with himself at the head and Duryodhana's army at the end. The Pandavas are set up in a crescent shape with Arjuna and Bhima at the respective tips. Bhima hits Duryodhana with the arrow in such a way that he passes out and is brought outside the battlefield by his charioteer. When he returns, he angrily accuses Bhisma of not attacking the Pandava brothers seriously enough.
In the days that followed, Bhisma's attacks caused heavy losses in the Pandava's army. On the ninth day of the fight, Krishna , overwhelmed by the fact that Arjuna does not seriously attack Bhisma, wants to use his weapons against Bhisma himself; but is prevented by Arjuna by reminding him of his promise not to use weapons himself. Since a victory against the Kauravas seems impossible under Bhisma's leadership, Krishna advises to ask Bhisma himself how he can be defeated. It so happens that the Pandavas learn that Bhisma cannot be defeated by a man; but that he would not fight a woman. In the Pandavas armed forces there is a warrior who in his previous life was a woman named Shikhandi . This warrior is recognized by Bhisma as a woman and since he renounces any resistance, he is pierced by his and Arjuna's arrows. Samjaya said: When, O Lord, your father was so torn to pieces by Phalguna (Arjuna) in battle with sharp-pointed arrows, he fell headlong from the wagon in front of your sons - it was just before sunset. And while Bhisma fell from the chariot, there was loud wailing everywhere in heaven with the gods and on earth with the princes. ... It was so completely covered by arrows that it did not touch the earth.
Book VII: Dronaparvan (The Book of the Rule of Dronas)
On the 11th day of the battle, Drona is solemnly elected commander of the Kauravas. Karna now also takes part in the fight. Duryodhana wants Drona to try to catch Yudhishthira alive. He believes that the Pandavas would not continue fighting if their eldest brother and heir to the throne were imprisoned and they had to give up all ownership claims. Drona succeeds in disarming the oldest of the Pandavas, but Arjuna arrives at the last moment and can push Drona away with a hail of arrows.
On the 12th day, Drona will try again to capture Yudhisthira. For this reason, Arjuna is said to be prevented from intervening by the attacks of the King of Trigartadesa, Susharma and his three brothers. After a valiant fight, they are all killed by Arjuna. Drona's attempt to capture fails.
On the 13th day, Drona chose a battle formation called the “Chakra Vyuh”, which is a kind of mobile wagon castle that pushes forward. Arjuna is tied at the opposite end of the battlefield fighting the samsaptakas . The son of Arjuna succeeds in penetrating Abhimanyu into the enemy formation; but King Jayadratha closes the gap with his chariot, so that the Pandavas cannot follow and the 16-year-old son Arjuna is left to his own devices. Abhimanyu fights valiantly; However, in the end - after he is defenseless and has lost all weapons - in the presence of Drona, Kripa , Karna, Ashvatthaman and Kritavarman - contrary to the agreed war ethics - he is killed. When Arjuna returns to camp in the evening and learns of his son's death, he swears to kill Jayadratha the next day before sunset or to sacrifice himself. Krishna criticizes him for this behavior; especially since the Kauravas will also learn of this oath.
On the 14th day of the battle, Arjuna penetrated further and further into the enemy army, which Jayadratha tried to protect. At the same time, Drona tries to disarm Yudhishthira; However, with the help of his brothers, he managed to defend himself against the attacks. In the late afternoon the hero of the Pandavas finally spots Jayadratha and succeeds in killing him shortly before sunset after a hard fight. Ghatotkacha, the son of Bhima and the demoness (Rakshasa) Hidimbi, attacks the Kauravas so violently that Duryodhana asks Karna to use his weapon Vasavi Shakti , which he received from the god Indra . This could only be used once and was intended by Karna to attack Arjuna. But in view of the threat from Ghatotkacha, he has no choice but to kill the powerful demon equipped with magical powers. Fatally hit, Ghatotkacha falls in gigantic form on the army of the Kauravas and destroys more than 200,000 warriors and fighting elephants of the Kauravas. With the loss of the ultimate weapon by the Kauravas, the luck of the battle turns decisively in favor of the Pandavas.
On the 15th day, Drona kills the kings Drupada and Virata in a duel. Krishna advises to persuade the apparently invincible general Drona to comply with a trick. Bhima kills an opposing elephant named Ashwatthama. This is also the name of Drona's son . Bhima loudly calls out to the opposing general that he has killed Ashwathama. When Yudhisthira confirmed this to the brahmin and warrior Drona, he laid down his weapons with the words: “Karna, Karna, you great archer! Kripa! Duryodhana! I keep saying it: Make an effort in battle so that the Pandavas do not harm you! I'm dropping the sword in front of them now. ”And then he shouted loudly for his son and dropped the weapon. He sat down in the wagon basket , immersed himself in yoga meditation and granted peace to all beings. When Dhristadyumna saw his nakedness, he got up with sword in hand, jumped from the chariot, attacked Drona with force, and severed his head with the sword.
Book VIII: Karnaparvan (The Book of Karna's General Command)
On the 16th day of the battle, Karna was consecrated as the general of the Kauravas. He defeated Nakula , the younger of the Pandava brothers , in a duel . But remembering a promise he made to Kunti , mother of the Pandavas, he does not kill him. On the same day, Bhima throws his club in such a way that Prince Dushasan's car is destroyed. Bhima defeats Dushasan, the last remaining brother of Duryodhana, in a duel, kills him and drinks his blood. He brings some of it to Draupadi , the wife of the Pandava princes. In this way he fulfills the oath he had sworn when Draupadi was dragged into the hall by Dushasan while playing dice at his brother's behest, where she was to be undressed in front of everyone.
At Karna's request, Salya , King of Madras, is his charioteer on the 17th day of the battle. It comes to a decisive battle between victory and defeat between the two battle-hardened men Arjuna and Karna. The fight is initially even. When one of the wheels of Karna's chariot sank in the mud, he asks the rules to stop the fight; but Krishna rejects this with reference to past misdeeds - Karna was also involved in the unlawful killing of Arjuna's son during the rule of Drona - and calls on Arjuna to continue fighting. He hits and beheads Karna with a special arrow. There is jubilation among the Pandavas, sadness and horror among the Kauravas.
Book IX: Salyaparvan (The book of the general rule of Salya)
Salya, the king of Madras, is ordained a general. On the morning of the 18th day of the battle, the Pandavas cannot overcome the army of the Kauravas; in the afternoon, however, Yudhishthira succeeds in killing King Salya with a huge throwing spear. Towards evening the army of the Kauravas is completely worn out; only three heroes are still alive: Asvatthaman , Kritavarman and Kripacharya . Duryodhana flees and hides in a nearby lake. After learning of his whereabouts from a hunter, the Pandavas go there. They ask him to face the fight. Yudhishthira is even willing to give him the choice of weapons. Then Duryodhana chooses the metal club. He wants to fight each opponent individually with the club. Bhima is ready to do this first. After an even fight, he defeats Duryodhana by ignoring the rules of combat and hitting his opponent below the waist. The elder of the Kauravas is fatally injured by this blow.
Book X: Sauptikaparvan (The Book of the Night Raid)
Asvatthama swears vengeance on his king's death bed. Together with Kripacharya and Kritavarma, they invade the unguarded camp of the Pandavas during the night and kill many of the sleeping people.
Book XI: Striparvan (The Book of the Lamentation of Women)
Dhritarashtra goes with Gandhari and thousands of plaintive women to the battlefield, where the dead are weeping. The battlefield is littered with corpses of people and animals, which jackals and scavenging birds attack.
filming
- 1988–1990: Mahabharat (directors: BR Chopra and Ravi Chopra ) - 94-part television series of 45 minutes each. The series was broadcast on Indian National Television ( Doordarshan ) and was the most popular Indian TV series of all time (the series is commercially available on 16 DVDs; the 94 episodes are subtitled in Hindi with English, French and Spanish).
literature
- Georg von Simson (ed.): Mahabharata. The Great Tale of the Bharatas. Translated, summarized and commented in excerpts from Sanskrit. Verlag der Welteligionen, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-458-70031-9 .
