Declaration of Battle’s Start

Friends, my last post here, the first of this blog comprised Gita Mahatmaya (The Grandeur of Gita). Allow Me to now open the Gita itself; Chapter 1 is titled “Arjun’s Disorientation” – I, however, like bifurcating it into “Arjun’s Disorientation” as the second part while the first is “Declaration of Battle’s Start; beginning with Dhritrashtra's question:

धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सवः ।

मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत सञ्जय ॥ १-१॥

          Hey Sanjay, what have mine and my brother Pandu’s sons, gathered with the determined intent of war in the Dharmic land of Kurukshetra, already done? Gita: 1:1

Sanjay answered:

दृष्ट्वा तु पाण्डवानीकं व्यूढं दुर्योधनस्तदा ।

आचार्यमुपसङ्गम्य राजा वचनमब्रवीत् ॥ १-२॥

पश्यैतां पाण्डुपुत्राणामाचार्य महतीं चमूम् ।

व्यूढां द्रुपदपुत्रेण तव शिष्येण धीमता ॥ १-३॥

अत्र शूरा महेष्वासा भीमार्जुनसमा युधि ।

युयुधानो विराटश्च द्रुपदश्च महारथः ॥ १-४॥

धृष्टकेतुश्चेकितानः काशिराजश्च वीर्यवान् ।

पुरुजित्कुन्तिभोजश्च शैब्यश्च नरपुङ्गवः ॥ १-५॥

युधामन्युश्च विक्रान्त उत्तमौजाश्च वीर्यवान् ।

सौभद्रो द्रौपदेयाश्च सर्व एव महारथाः ॥ १-६॥

अस्माकं तु विशिष्टा ये तान्निबोध द्विजोत्तम ।

नायका मम सैन्यस्य संज्ञार्थं तान्ब्रवीमि ते ॥ १-७॥

भवान्भीष्मश्च कर्णश्च कृपश्च समितिञ्जयः ।

अश्वत्थामा विकर्णश्च सौमदत्तिस्तथैव च ॥ १-८॥

अन्ये च बहवः शूरा मदर्थे त्यक्तजीविताः ।

नानाशस्त्रप्रहरणाः सर्वे युद्धविशारदाः ॥ १-९॥

अपर्याप्तं तदस्माकं बलं भीष्माभिरक्षितम् ।

पर्याप्तं त्विदमेतेषां बलं भीमाभिरक्षितम् ॥ १-१०॥

अयनेषु च सर्वेषु यथाभागमवस्थिताः ।

भीष्ममेवाभिरक्षन्तु भवन्तः सर्व एव हि ॥ १-११॥

तस्य सञ्जनयन्हर्षं कुरुवृद्धः पितामहः ।

सिंहनादं विनद्योच्चैः शङ्खं दध्मौ प्रतापवान् ॥ १-१२॥

ततः शङ्खाश्च भेर्यश्च पणवानकगोमुखाः ।

सहसैवाभ्यहन्यन्त स शब्दस्तुमुलोऽभवत् ॥ १-१३॥

ततः श्वेतैर्हयैर्युक्ते महति स्यन्दने स्थितौ ।

माधवः पाण्डवश्चैव दिव्यौ शङ्खौ प्रदध्मतुः ॥ १-१४॥

पाञ्चजन्यं हृषीकेशो देवदत्तं धनञ्जयः ।

पौण्ड्रं दध्मौ महाशङ्खं भीमकर्मा वृकोदरः ॥ १-१५॥

अनन्तविजयं राजा कुन्तीपुत्रो युधिष्ठिरः ।

नकुलः सहदेवश्च सुघोषमणिपुष्पकौ ॥ १-१६॥

काश्यश्च परमेष्वासः शिखण्डी च महारथः ।

धृष्टद्युम्नो विराटश्च सात्यकिश्चापराजितः ॥ १-१७॥

द्रुपदो द्रौपदेयाश्च सर्वशः पृथिवीपते ।

सौभद्रश्च महाबाहुः शङ्खान्दध्मुः पृथक्पृथक् ॥ १-१८॥

स घोषो धार्तराष्ट्राणां हृदयानि व्यदारयत् ।

नभश्च पृथिवीं चैव तुमुलोऽभ्यनुनादयन् ॥ १-१९॥

अथ व्यवस्थितान्दृष्ट्वा धार्तराष्ट्रान् कपिध्वजः ।

प्रवृत्ते शस्त्रसम्पाते धनुरुद्यम्य पाण्डवः ॥ १-२०॥

हृषीकेशं तदा वाक्यमिदमाह महीपते ।

            I’ll restrict this post to the discussion of this much.

            Let me first translate these shlokas:

Seeing the well-fortified array of Pandavas’ Forces, King Duryodhana approached the Guru Dronacharya and said to him... (Gita 1:2) “Take a look at these haughty sons of Pandu, your pupils O Great Guru, arrayed into this grand fortification by (your friend) King Drupad’s mighty son (Drishtadyumna) (Gita 1:3) All these are brave warriors as great as Bhim or Arjun, as are also Yuyudhan, Virat and Drupad himself (Gita 1:4) Drishtaketu, Chekitana and the King of Kashi are mighty as lions among men, and so are Purujit, Kuntibhoj, and Shaibya (Gita 1:5) Mighty Yudhamanyu, Vikrant and Uttamauja are also as great warriors as (Krishna’s sister) Subhadra’s son (Abhimanyu) (Gita 1:6) and for your knowledge, let me now name the greatest warriors fighting on my side (Gita 1:7); yourself, Bhishma, Karna, and Acharya Krip are of course invincible, and so are (your immortal son) Ashvathama, Vikarna and Somdatti (Gita 1:8) and there are many more brave warriors willing to die fighting for me, equipped with different weapons, they’re great exponents of war (Gita 1:9) Protected by Bhishma the Great, my army is unbeatable while Bhima protected that army can surely be beaten (Gita 1:10) so placed all around Bhishma, you must all endeavor to protect him. (Gita 1:11) Happy hearing that (Bhishma) the grand patriarch of the Kuru Clan, loudly like a lion’s roar, blew his grand conch-shell Pratapavan to declare that he was ready with his army for the start of the battle. (Gita 1:12) And then all the assembled warrior kings and princes began blowing their respective conch shells filling the sky with y their fearsome sounds. (Gita 1:13) So, dressed in white, Madhava (God Krishna) and the Pandavas also blew their respective conch shells (Gita 1:14); God Hrishikesha (Krishna) blew the grand Panchjanya (a left-handed (conch shells are generally right-handed)  grand white conch-shell Krishna had obtained vanquishing Demon Panchjanya) while Dhananjaya (Arjun) blew his Devadattam and Bhima, the doer of deeds big like his stomach, blew the huge conchshell named Pondra (Gita 1:15) and Yudhishtira, the King among those sons of Kunti, blew his famous conchshell called Ananatvijaya while Nakul and Sahadeva, the youngest and twin Pandavas blew Sughosh and Manipushpak (Gita 1:16) The King of Kashi, Parmeshwasa, Shikhandi, Drishtadyumna, Virat, and Satyaki, all unbeaten great warriors (Gita 1:17), as also  Dhrupad and Dropadi’s (five) sons, all great kings including Subhadra’s huge armed son (Abhimanyu) blew their respective conchshells. (Gita 1:18) The sound of those conchshells, filled the earth and the sky with the roar of many lions piercing the hearts of Dhritrashtra's sons, (Gita 1:19) and they looked at Kapidhwaja (Arjun) positioned in the middle of the Pandavas with his mighty weapon the huge bow (Gandiva), apparently all set to fight. (Gita 1:20)

With reference to Gita 1:3, Prince Dhrupad and Brahmin Drona had been co-students and student-friends. Later, the Prince ascended the throne of Panchal, his natural destiny, while the poor Brahmin took up teaching warfare, and remained poor for want of students. The poor Brahmin could not even buy a cow to feed his lone son Ashwathama and whenever the child wanted milk, his mother fed him with white flour dissolved in water. Fed up with such dishonesty with the child, once she sent Drona to Panchal to get a cow from his student-time friend Dhrupad. Dhrupad however mocked him in the Royal Durbar (Court) with full attendance, telling him that only equals can be friends, and the poor Brahmin Drona cannot be a friend of the Great King of Panchal; student-time friendship ends with education. “I can donate a cow to you as a poor Brahmin but cannot gift one to you as my friend.” Dhrupad declared, and not willing to beg alms, Drona the haughty Brahmin returned home without a cow. Drona then went to Hastinapur, the Capital City of the Great Kuru Clan, and met his other Student-time friend Bhishma. Bhishma appointed him to teach warfare to the one hundred and six Kuru Princes. Following the ancient Indian practice of proclaiming the fees at the end of education, Drona demanded his fee in the form of defeating King Dhrupad in battle and producing him bonded before Drona. The Dhartarashtras (Dhritrashtra’s 101 sons) tried and failed, but the five Pandavas (Pandu’s sons) succeeded. Drona then told Dhrupad, “Now that I own the Kingdom of Panchal, I give half of it to you, retaining the other half for my son to inherit from me; thus creating equality in-between us friends, I take one cow from your half as a gift from one friend to the other.” And let him go.

With reference to Gita 1:4 to 1:6, Duryodhana tells Drona that Yuyudhan, Virat, Dhrupad, Drishtaketu, Chekitana, King of Kashi, Purujit, Kuntibhoj, Shaibya, Yudhamanyu, Vikrant, Uttamauja (Krishna’s sister), and Subhadra’s son (Abhimanyu) are all mighty lions among men and warriors as great as Bhima and Arjun dreaded by all the world’s warriors.

With reference to Gita 1:7 to 1:9, Duryodhana lists for Drona’s knowledge the greatest of the warriors on his side as Drona himself, Bhishma, Karna, Acharya Krip (Drona’s brother-in-law/wife’s brother and another teacher of the Kuru Princes), (Drona’s immortal son) Ashvathama, Vikarna, Somdatti, and many more. It’s pertinent here to note the difference in-between the two lists with the observation that notwithstanding Duryodhan’s numerically larger army of eighteen akshohini (corps) as against eleven akshohini of the Pandava’s army, the latter had larger numbers of mightier and dreaded warriors.

With reference to Gita 1:15, Dhananjaya, meaning immensely wealthy, is one amongst Arjun’s ten names: Jishnu (according to Hindu philosophy god is a creation of Nar (man) and is therefore called Narayana, literally meaning coming from Nar, and Jishnu is to Vishnu as Nar is to Narayana), Falguna, Arjuna, Vijaya (victor(y)), Kirti (accomplisher), Swetavahana (possessor of the white chariot), Vibhatsu (dreaded), Krishna (black), Sabyasachi (ambidextrous), Dhananjaya (immensely wealthy), Gudakesa (one who’s conquered own sleep), Partha (son of Pritha/Kunti), Paramtapa (Supreme Penancer) and Kapi-Dhwaja (ape motiffed; the ape-god Hanuman resided upon Arjun’s flag) yes, the names really are more than ten, but Arjun is normally referred as having ten names.

With reference to Gita 1:18, long arms are a great asset for warriors, especially archers, and one having arms long enough to hang down unto covering own knees is awed and called Ajanubhuj; both Arjun and his son Abhimanyu were Ajanubhuj; as had been Ram the archer God in the Ramayana.

With reference to Gita 1:16 to 1:20, In the Ancient Indian Tradition of War, the warring sides first chose a battlefield, congregated there, and when ready to attack, the attacker announced it with the blowing of conch shells that the defender reciprocated to announce his preparedness, after which the Supreme Commander of the attacker forces blew the final conch-shell ordering the attack. Some famous conch shells including Krishna’s Panchjaya, Bhishma’s Pratapvan, Bhima’s Pondra, Arjun’s Devadattam, Pandu’s Ananatvijaya, Nakul’s Sughosh, and Sahadeva’s Manupushpak sounded terrifying like lion roars and filled their enemies’ hearts with fear of fighting them; here it so dreaded the Dhartarashtras.

Here’s Philip Glass Opera for your viewing pleasure:

I thank Google for the title picture and YouTube for the Philip Glass Opera.

I’m a common man like you, and I believe in:

योगिनामपि सर्वेषां मद्गतेनान्तरात्मना ।

श्रद्धावान्भजते यो मां स मे युक्ततमो मतः ॥ ६-४७॥

Karmyogis, my true followers finally become one with me. Gita: 6:47

          So, I am destined to one day become Krishna, and so can you. All you have to do is keep reading my posts here, keep discussing them to thoroughly understand them, and keep applying them to your actions in whatever you do in your routine life; to improve your chance of greater success, and keep earning money – and in case my advice enables you to earn sufficiently more than before, keep sharing some of the extra earnings with me through donations.

I am no Sanyasi, viz. I’ve NOT renounced the world; I can earn, and accept payments or donations to accumulate wealth; rather, it’s my duty to earn and amass wealth to the extent. The study of the Gita is a never-ending work of extensive research needing lots of funds, and it also adversely affects my business. Anybody desiring to support my cause may please send me money by UPI, online bank transfer, RTGS, or Cheque/DD. Rameish Agrawaal is my literary pseudonym while my official name is Ramesh Kumar Agrawal and my particulars are given below.

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