The Gurus of Hastinapur - Part 41

Once Bhurishravas fell, Arjuna turned his attention to Krishna. “Krishna, we can have no more diversions. I need to get to Jayadratha. The sun is going to set.”

Krishna nodded and the three warriors – Arjuna, Bheema and Satyaki hurried towards Jayadratha, who was still in the centre of the army.

Duryodhana saw this and turned to Karna. “Your time has come, my friend. You are the only one who can stop Arjuna. If you stop Arjuna today, then Arjuna would not be able to kill Jayadratha and Arjuna would kill himself. None of the Pandavas can live without each other. So if Arjuna goes, the other brothers would kill themselves and the war would be over.”

Karna let out a shuddering breathe nodding. Karna’s entire body was covered with blood from the day’s battle. “I will fight Arjuna till I can and as long as I keep shooting arrows at him, I can stop Arjuna.” Karna said resolutely. “But victory is something that only destiny can decide.” Karna said ominously driving towards Arjuna.

And so, Ashwattaman, Karna, Vrishasena, Duryodhana, Shalya and Kripa attacked the three warriors from the Pandava army.

And that battle was a gory sight.

The three people from the Pandava army and the august warriors from the Kaurava army. And leading the charge for the Kauravas was Karna.

Karna was fighting with Arjuna in a spirited fashion and doing his level best to stop Arjuna. But then Arjuna was not alone. He was here with two of the best warriors from the Pandava army. And Bheema and Satyaki supported Arjuna more than ably.

And soon it was Karna alone on one side against the three Pandava warriors and Karna was able to keep the three warriors at bay. Arjuna pulled out an arrow with all the power of the Sun and was about to fire it at Karna. If fired, the arrow would have burnt Karna to a crisp. But Ashwattaman fired the crescent shaped arrow at Arjuna, at the last minute, breaking the arrow just as soon as the arrow left Arjuna’s bow. It was said that the broken arrow broke fell through the earth burning the portions that it fell on.

Arjuna wanted to finish the battle quickly and killed Karna’s four horses and also killed Karna’s charioteer.

Karna was in the battlefield without his horses and his charioteer when Duryodhana yelled at Ashwattaman pointing him at Karna. Ashwattaman drove furiously at Karna and Karna got on Ashwattaman’s chariot and the Kaurava warriors attacked Arjuna together.

Arjuna first tried the Varuna astra – the weapon of water, to push the Kaurava warriors back. But unfortunately for Arjuna, though he was able to invoke the weapon, the Varuna astra did not stop the Kauravas. Despite the water, the Kaurava warriors still attacked Arjuna.

Arjuna then pulled out the weapon and darkened the skies around the Kauravas.

And then Arjuna took his entire fighting to another level. Using all the astras in his command, Arjuna soon fired an astra which confused the enemy. The Kauravas soon started seeing Arjuna all around them. And in the confusion, the real Arjuna pulled out his weapon with such light handedness that the soldiers did not know when they were hit and from which which direction.

The Kaurava soldiers just kept falling.

And Arjuna pulled out the Aindra astra immediately afterwards. The Aindra astra brought out the fiery burst from the skies like meteors hurling on the Kauravas. And as the Kaurava soldiers were screaming under the glare, Arjuna made the entire battlefield dark again and killed off the confused soldiers.

And all the devastation paid off.

 Arjuna saw Jayadratha in his line of sight for the first time, since the battle had started.