Arjuna learns of Abhimanyu's death and vows to slay Jayadratha or burn

Classical

At the end of the thirteenth day Arjuna drove back toward camp with Kṛṣṇa, having killed many Saṃśaptakas. On the way his voice shook and he said that his heart was afraid, his limbs weak, and that omens were all around him. He asked whether his elder brother and his friends were safe. Kṛṣṇa told him that all was well with Yudhiṣṭhira and that only some small evil must have happened elsewhere. They said their evening prayers and went on, talking about the battle. But the camp, when they reached it, had no music, no songs, no bards, and the warriors would not meet his eyes.

Arjuna called out to them, asking why every face was pale and why he could not see Abhimanyu. He had heard that Droṇa had formed the circular array, and he reminded them that only the boy among them knew how to break it, though he had never taught him how to come out. Had they sent the child in? He then poured out his love for his son: his gentle manner, his obedience, his looks, how he had always come to greet him after battle. He feared for Subhadrā and Draupadī, and said he did not know what he could say to them.

Yudhiṣṭhira told him what happened. Droṇa had tried hard to seize him, and the Pāṇḍavas had held him off, but they could not pierce the array. They asked Abhimanyu, who was as strong as Arjuna, to open the way, and he plunged in like Garuḍa into the sea. The others followed him, but Jayadratha, with Rudra's boon, stopped them all. Six great car-warriors then surrounded the boy and, with his chariot gone, Duḥśāsana's son struck him down. Hearing it, Arjuna cried out for his son and fell senseless to the ground.

When he recovered he was furious and trembling. He swore that the next day he would kill Jayadratha, who had been the cause of the boy's death, unless the king left the Dhṛtarāṣṭras or begged protection from Kṛṣṇa or Yudhiṣṭhira. Whoever tried to guard him, even Droṇa or Kṛpa, he would cover with arrows. If he failed, he said, he would go to the worlds reserved for those who kill their parents or teachers, who betray trust or strike a brāhmaṇa. He listed many such sins one after another and asked for the fate of each of them to be his if he did not keep his word.

Then he added a second oath. If the sun set tomorrow without Jayadratha being dead, he would enter a blazing fire in front of them all. No god, demon, human, bird, serpent or ancestor, he said, could protect his enemy, and even if Jayadratha went to the underworld or the sky he would cut off his head within the night. He stretched Gāṇḍīva, and its sound rose to the sky. Kṛṣṇa blew Pāñcajanya and Arjuna blew Devadatta, and shouts and instruments rose in the Pāṇḍava camp, which the spies of the Kauravas heard.

Kṛṣṇa afterwards told Arjuna that he had been rash to swear without consulting him, and that his spies reported how the Kauravas, terrified by the Pāṇḍava shout, had learned the oath. Jayadratha, shaken, asked leave of the kings to run away to his home. Duryodhana told him not to fear, since he would stand among the Kṣatriyas. Arjuna replied that the six great warriors together were not half his strength and that he would reach Jayadratha through Droṇa's own line. That night the omens grew worse, and neither Kṛṣṇa nor Arjuna slept.

Told by Sañjaya → Dhṛtarāṣṭra

Who: Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa, Yudhiṣṭhira, Jayadratha, Abhimanyu, Subhadrā, Droṇa, Duryodhana

Bound to

Day thirteen: the wheel array and the death of Abhimanyu origin

Jayadratha's boon from Śiva: why one man could hold back four Pāṇḍavas boon

The night before: Kṛṣṇa's promise, Arjuna's dream journey and the Pāśupata weapon origin

Abhimanyu learned the chakravyuha in the womb mirror

Jayadratha slain: the darkened sun and the head in his father's lap curse

Places: Pāṇḍava camp, Kurukṣetra

Where this comes from

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

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← Jayadratha's boon from Śiva: why one man could hold back four Pāṇḍavas · The night before: Kṛṣṇa's promise, Arjuna's dream journey and the Pāśupata weapon →