Week 14: Buck's Mahabharata (pp. 307-412)Assignments - Reading Guide A - Reading Guide B - Mahabharata Resources |
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Your Reading A for this week is Buck's Mahabharata, pp.
307-349. You might want to read over the previous
reading guide to remind yourself of what has happened so far.
p.
307. Duryodhana and Bhima. Duryodhana makes
the waters of the lake impenetrable using powers of illusion. Speaking to Duryodhana
from outside the lake,
Yudhishthira proposes
that Duryodhana fight one of the Pandavas,
so Duryodhana emerges from the lake ready to fight. A duel
takes place between Duryodhana and Bhima,
who are both wielding maces. Finally, Bhima smashes Duryodhana's thighs, as
he had vowed to do long ago. Balarama is
outraged that Bhima fought unfairly. had broken the rules in his fight with
Duryodhana. The duel between Duryodhana and Bhima, like the great battle itself,
takes place on Kurukshetra,
or the "Field of Kuru." Kuru was
a distant ancestor of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Kuru had foreseen
that Kurukshetra would become a battlefield.
p. 316. Reflections after the battle. After the battle was
over, Arjuna dismounts form his chariot and it disintegrates into ashes. This
is because Drona had destroyed Arjuna's chariot two days before the end of
the battle and Krishna had managed to hold it together by the power of illusion.
Meanwhile, Sanjaya, together with Kripa, Kritavarman and Aśwatthaman go
to see the dying Duryodhana. They find him in agony, but still alive. 
Duryodhana
tells them how Death came into existence.
Human beings used to have wings and to live in the air, but they would fly
down to take a taste of the Earth. They grew heavy from tasting the Earth and
lost their wings so they came to rest on the Earth. Because people were immortal,
the number of people on the Earth grew larger and larger, and their weight
grew heavier and heavier. Earth could not bear the weight of the people and
begged Brahma to help her. Brahma was prepared to destroy the people with fire,
but Śiva begged Brahma not to destroy them all. Brahma held the fire in himself,
and Death came into existence.
Brahma made disease and war from the tears of Death. Duryodhana says he is
not sorry to die, because he is glad to have fallen in battle like a warrior
rather than to become a slave. Aśwatthaman still
wants to kill Krishna and the Pandavas.
Duryodhana tells Kripa to make Aśwatthaman the commanding general.
Aśwatthaman, Kripa and Kritavarman depart, leaving Sanjaya with
Duryodhana.
p. 322. The night raid. Aśwatthaman dresses all in black
in order to make his night raid on the Pandava camp (he does not know that
Krishna and the Pandavas have decided to sleep outside the camp that night).
Kripa urges Aśwatthaman to go back to sleep and not to attack the camp at night,
but Aśwatthaman insists to Kripa that he should go on the night raid with him.
Kripa and Kritavarman both agree to go on the night raid with Aśwatthaman.
Aśwatthaman finds the camp guarded by a pale giant dressed in a tiger skin,
with three eyes. This is a manifestation of Śiva. As Aśwatthaman launches
his weapons at the giant Śiva, Śiva swallows them up.
When Aśwatthaman offers himself up as a sacrifice to Śiva, he is able to
gain entrance to the camp. Inside the camp,
Aśwatthaman kills Dhrishtadyumna, Sikhandin and the Panchala allies (the Panchalas
are the armies led by king Drupada and his son Dhrishtadyumna).
Rakshasas enter the Pandava camp to feast on the blood and bones of the slain
warriors.
Aśwatthaman brings news to Duryodhana that he has killed Dhrishtadyumna
and Sikhandin, but Duryodhana is not happy with this. He tells Aśwatthaman
that he has done wrong to kill these people while the Pandavas were left alive.
Duryodhana dies, and Sanjaya loses the power of sight he had been granted
by Vyasa. Only a few survivors are left on either side after the great battle
and the night raid on the camp.
p.
333. The survivors. Vyasa composes the Mahabharata,
the story of the great battle, for the benefit of humanity.
Vaiśampayana is
a pupil of Vyasa, and he is reciting the Mahabharata to King
Janamejaya who
is a a descendent of the Pandavas. (Remember from the opening
chapters of Buck the story of Janamejaya and his father Parikshit and
the snake-lord Takshaka?).
The three survivors of the Kaurava army are Kripa, Kritavarman and Aśwatthaman.
Kritavarman returns to his home in Dwaravati (Dwaraka),
Kripa slowly begins to make his way back to Hastinapura,
and Aśwatthaman destroys his chariot and weapons and then goes walking by the Ganges.
Dhrishtadyumna's driver is the only one of the Panchalas who escaped the raid.
Aśwatthaman had burned a tree where Dhrishtadyumna's driver had been
hiding.
Vyasa brought the tree back to life, along with Dhrishtadyumna's driver. As
the lone survivor of the raid, he goes to tell the Pandavas and Krishna
the next day about what happened in the camp. Bhima is outraged and follows
Aśwatthaman's trail from the camp. Krishna urges Arjuna to hurry in pursuit,
in order to stop Bhima from attacking Aśwatthaman.
Aśwatthaman is in possession of the Brahma-astra,
or the deadly Brahma mantra.
Drona had taught the Brahma weapon to both Arjuna and to Aśwatthaman. When
Bhima finds Aśwatthaman he attacks him, but the arrow will not fly.
Aśwatthaman picks up a blade of grass, preparing to launch the Brahma weapon.
All the trees and animals tremble when Aśwatthaman prepares to launch the
Brahma weapon.
Arjuna also speaks the words of the Brahma weapon to counteract Aśwatthaman.
Krishna and Vyasa restrain the weapons of Aśwatthaman and Arjuna while they
struggle to recall the weapons. Vyasa helps Aśwatthaman to recall the Brahma
weapon, and Krishna assists Arjuna. Afterwards, Aśwatthaman removes the jewel
from his forehead and gives it to Arjuna. The child in Uttara's womb
had been killed by the force of Aśwatthaman's weapon, but Krishna brings the
child back to life (this child will be Parikshit, the father of Janamejaya;
note that Buck omits the character fo Abhimanyu, so that Parikshit here is
said to be Arjuna's son by Uttara). Meanwhile, Arjuna finds Drona's body and
places Aśwatthaman's jewel in between Drona's eyes.
p. 340. The funerals. Sanjaya brings Dhritarashtra from Hastinapura
to Kurukshetra, while Vidura and Yuyutsu bring
the widows. Vyasa comes to Dhritarashtra and tells him the story of a man
who was fleeing from fierce animals when he fell into a pit, so that he was
hanging upside-down suspended above a serpent. Amidst these and other dangers,
there was also a honeycomb in a tree above him, dripping down honey. The man
ate that honey, and kept hoping to stay alive. [This is a famous story that
spread from India all over Asia and all over Europe too; it is found in medieval
European story collections and in later
European literature.] The broken chariots are used to make the funeral
pyres. Meanwhile, Duryodhana had kept an iron statue of Bhima that he used
to practice hitting. Krishna presents this statue to Dhritarashtra who, thinking
he is holding his son's murderer in his arms, squeezes the statue until it
shatters.
Dhritarashtra is distraught when he thinks he has killed Bhima.
After shattering the statue, Dhritarashtra is able to embrace and bless
the Pandavas.
Yudhishthira asks Gandhari to
lay her curse upon him and she turns away, but not quickly enough, and her
anger burns Yudhishthira's toe black.
Yuyutsu brings Duryodhana's body to the pyre. The widows of the slain soldiers
try to reassemble their bodies.
Yudhishthira reveals to everyone that Karna had
been their brother (Kunti had
finally confessed to him that Karna was her son). Funeral pyres are lit for the
bodies of Jayadratha and
Śalya, of Duryodhana
and his brothers and Śakuni,
of Drona and Karna, of Drupada and Dhrishtadyumna and Sikhandin, of Virata and Uttara.
Vyasa enters the Ganges and a vision of an army rises up, and the dead Drona
later leads the ghostly army back into the river.
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