Yudhiṣṭhira seeks the elders' blessing; the first day

Classical

On the first morning, when the conches were about to sound, Yudhiṣṭhira took off his coat of mail, put down his bow, and walked on foot towards the Kaurava army with folded hands. His brothers followed and so did Kṛṣṇa. Arjuna and the others protested. The Kaurava soldiers jeered, saying he was frightened, but he walked through the arrow-bristling lines to Bhīṣma's chariot and took his feet in his hands. ‘I salute you, invincible one,’ he said. ‘We will fight you. Give us your permission and your blessing.’

Bhīṣma answered that if Yudhiṣṭhira had not come in this way, he would have cursed him for his defeat. He was pleased. ‘Fight and win,’ he said. ‘Ask any boon you like.’ He added that a man is the slave of wealth, not wealth of the man, and that he was bound to the Kauravas by their bread, so that he could only speak like a eunuch, only offering advice and not battle. Yudhiṣṭhira asked how they could ever defeat him. Bhīṣma said he saw no one who could, and that his hour of death had not yet come; he asked him to come back another time.

Yudhiṣṭhira went on to Droṇa and received the same answer about wealth and bondage. Droṇa gave him his blessing: where Kṛṣṇa is, there is victory. Asked how he might be killed, Droṇa said no one could slay him while he fought, but that if he heard something very disagreeable from a man of credible speech, he would lay down his weapons. Kṛpa said simply that he could not be killed, that he too was bound, and that he would pray every morning for Yudhiṣṭhira's victory. Yudhiṣṭhira then went to Śalya, who gave him leave to fight, and promised, because Yudhiṣṭhira asked it as his boon, to weaken Karṇa's spirit in the war.

Kṛṣṇa meanwhile made one last attempt. He went to Karṇa and said he had heard that Karṇa would not fight as long as Bhīṣma lived. He invited him to join the Pāṇḍavas until Bhīṣma fell, and then return if he wished. Karṇa declined: he would do nothing against Duryodhana's interest and had given his life to him. The battle then began. Bhīṣma and Arjuna rushed at each other and neither could shake the other. Bhīma's roar frightened the horses. Śalya killed Uttara, Virāṭa's son, with a dart; Uttara's brother Śveta then charged Śalya, was surrounded by seven Kaurava warriors, and was finally slain by an arrow from Bhīṣma after a voice from the sky told the old man that his hour for Śveta had come.

That night Yudhiṣṭhira went to Kṛṣṇa, shaken. He said he could not even look at Bhīṣma, who was devouring his army like fire in dry grass. He wanted to give it all up and go to the forest rather than send more kings to their deaths. Kṛṣṇa comforted him: his brothers were heroes, and Dhṛṣṭadyumna, appointed commander of the Pāṇḍava army, and Śikhaṇḍin would be the end of Bhīṣma. Yudhiṣṭhira ordered Dhṛṣṭadyumna to form the Krauñca array for the next morning, and placed Arjuna at its head.

Told by Sañjaya → Dhṛtarāṣṭra

Who: Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Kṛpa, Śalya, Karṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Śveta, Uttara, Arjuna, Dhṛṣṭadyumna

Bound to

The covenants of battle, Vyāsa's gift of sight, and Yuyutsu's change of sides origin

Duryodhana tricks Śalya into joining the Kauravas boon

Days two and three: Bhīma among the Kaliṅgas, and Kṛṣṇa runs at Bhīṣma origin

Drona born in a pot; Dhrishtadyumna born from fire to kill him 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 XLII–L

See it on the tree · All stories

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