War of Kurukshetra (Part 2)

Every war has a set of rules that warriors and kings are not allowed to break. Let's talk about the greatest war fought according to Hindu mythology. The Mahabharata, being the largest and mightiest war fought, had a list of rules broken from both sides, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. In my opinion the killing of Abhimanyu was when the rule breaking actually started. Basically, Abhimanyu was killed in the Chakravyuh, a war strategy given by Dronacharya. The war strategy was only limited to when Abhimanyu alone entered the maze. The major rules of war were broken when he was attacked by six warriors namely, Duryodhan, Karna, Shakuni, Drona, Ashwatthama and Dusshasan. Although young Abhimanyu had immense power and intelligence and fought to his very last. It is a known fact of war that each warrior can only be attacked by one warrior and no warrior can attack an unarmed warrior. In the Chakravyuh, both these rules were very badly broken with the aim of killing a great warrior from the side of the Pandavas. To begin with, arrows were shot at Abhimanyu, and at the time he most needed his weapons to fight they were taken away from him by Karna. After his bow was taken away, he was brutally attacked by warriors who were armed and much older and more experienced than him. He fought until he was stabbed to death, with the aim of weakening the Pandavas. Abhimanyu's unfair death was a turning point in the war. The Pandavas fought with the aim of avenging Abhmanyus death as well as the insult shown to Draupadi at the palace of Hastinapur. On the other hand there were rules broken also from the side of the Pandavas when Jayadratha was slain after sunset, the rule of war states that no warrior should be killed at sunset and before sunrise. Another rule was broken when Bhima killed an elephant named Ashwathama which eventually led to the death of Drona. But eventually i think that it was only fair as all these incidents took place only after the death of Abhimanyu where the major rules of war were evidently broken. It is unfair to blame the Pandavas for breaking the rules of war as they had lost a great warrior due to the unfair means of their enemies. However, I believe that Abhimanyu's death is what led to the Pandavas being more adamant on fighting for dharma and justice.

- Priyal

by Chandni