Day eight: Ghaṭotkaca's rampage

Classical

The eighth day began with grief for Irāvān, Arjuna's son by the Nāga princess Ulūpī, who had been killed by the Rākṣasa Alambuṣa. When Ghaṭotkaca saw his cousin Irāvān fall, he roared so loudly that the earth shook and the thighs of the soldiers trembled. He advanced with a blazing spear raised, surrounded by Rākṣasas of fearful forms, looking like the Destroyer at the end of an age. The Kaurava troops almost all began to run. Duryodhana, with the king of the Vaṅgas and ten thousand elephants as large as hills behind him, rushed at the Rākṣasa himself, roaring like a lion.

The battle between the Rākṣasas and the elephant division was fierce. Ghaṭotkaca shot arrow after arrow, killed elephants and their riders, and then rose into the sky and roared like an autumn cloud. Bhīṣma saw that Duryodhana was in trouble and told Droṇa and the other warriors to go to him at once. Duryodhana, Somadatta, Bāhlīka, Jayadratha, Kṛpa, Bhūriśravas, Śalya and Aśvatthāman gathered round the king, and Ghaṭotkaca stood firm, like the Mainaka mountain, among his kinsmen with clubs and mallets. Yudhiṣṭhira sent Bhīma to help his son, and many Pāṇḍava chariot-warriors followed, led by Abhimanyu, with six thousand elephants.

Duryodhana shot an arrow into Bhīma's chest, and Bhīma gripped his flagstaff, pained and furious. Then Ghaṭotkaca burned with anger and launched a fierce illusion. Droṇa saw the Pāṇḍava heroes rushing towards the king and told the Kaurava warriors to protect him. Aśvatthāman shot many Rākṣasas, which only made Ghaṭotkaca angrier. He created the illusion that the Kaurava army was cut to pieces: warriors lay bleeding on the earth, horses and riders were mangled, and even Droṇa, Duryodhana, Śalya and Aśvatthāman seemed to run away.

Sañjaya says that he and Bhīṣma cried out at the top of their voices that it was all Rākṣasa illusion and told the soldiers to stand and fight, but panic had taken over and nobody listened. The army fled towards its tents, and the Pāṇḍavas, seeing the rout, took the victory to be theirs. They shouted, blew conches and beat drums, with Ghaṭotkaca among them. At sunset the whole Kaurava army was running in every direction, routed by a single Rākṣasa and his borrowed phantoms.

Duryodhana was ashamed and furious. That evening he went to Bhīṣma, saluted him, and told him what had happened. He had begun this war relying on Bhīṣma as the Pāṇḍavas relied on Kṛṣṇa, and he had eleven akṣauhiṇīs ready to obey him, yet Bhīma's son had humiliated him. He wanted to kill Ghaṭotkaca himself. Bhīṣma told him that a king should protect himself and should fight kings; he must leave the Rākṣasa to others, and he named Bhagadatta, who was a match for Indra, as the man to send. Bhagadatta then went out against the son of Hiḍimbā; his elephant and arrows struck Bhīma's horses and charioteer and forced him to leap down with his mace, until Arjuna came up and Bhīma told Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna in detail how Irāvān had been killed.

Told by Sañjaya → Dhṛtarāṣṭra

Who: Ghaṭotkaca, Duryodhana, Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Bhīma, Aśvatthāman, Bhagadatta, Irāvān

Bound to

Ghatotkacha: the shakti that saved Arjuna, and Gatotkaca in Java mirror

Iravan in the Sanskrit epic: Naga son of Arjuna, killed by Alambusha origin

Aravan: voluntary sacrifice, widowed Krishna-as-Mohini, Koovagam mirror

Indra's dart spent on Ghatotkacha origin

Hidimbi, Bhima and her Manali temple birth

Days four to six: Bhīma, Ghaṭotkaca, Bhagadatta and the arrays origin

Places: Kurukṣetra

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (read via archive.org copy of the sacred-texts text) Bhishma Parva, Sections XCII–XCVI

See it on the tree · All stories

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