Ch. 1, Verses 4–9, Part 1: Heroes versus heroes

Duryodhana compares the two armies

Introduction

Having roundly criticized his teacher Droṇa in the previous verse

Ch. 1, Verses 2–3: Sañjaya depicts Duryodhana’s nervousness

for teaching the Pāṇḍavas the art of war, Duryodhana launches into a comparison of the heroes fighting for the two armies. His assessment spans six verses, and can be split symmetrically into two pairs of three verses each for the Pāṇḍava side and for the Kaurava side. This pakṣa, we will take a look at this comparison.

A cautionary note

Before we dive into the verses for this pakṣa, though, a cautionary note: These verses are going to feel different from the previous verses we have seen. They consist mostly of lists of names of heroes, many of whom would be obscure even to Hindus who grew up with the Mahābhārata story. It’s difficult to imagine that there is a great deal of interesting material to extract out of these verses—but I will do my best, nevertheless!

I have therefore organized the commentary on these verses into two parts:

• Part I contains reflections and insights that follow quite directly from the verses and the patterns encoded in them.

• Part II is a bit more speculative; in it, I will use patterns from Part I as a clothes-hanger, if you will, in order to set up a well-known ancient Indian philosophical framework: the school of Sāṅkhya.

In order to keep this content readable, I will only post Part I today. Part II will be posted next week (in a slight departure from our fortnightly schedule).

The verses for this pakṣa

Let us now take a look at the six verses in question, along with their translations.

atra śūrā mahêṣvāsā Bhīmâ-(A)rjuna-samā yudhi | 
Yuyudhāno, Virāṭaś ca, Drupadaś ca mahā-rathaḥ || (BhG I.4)
Dhṛṣṭaketuś, Cekitānaḥ, Kāśi-rājaś ca vīryavān | 
Purujit, Kuntibhojaś ca, Śaibyaś ca nara-puṅgavaḥ || (BhG I.5) 
Yudhāmanyuś ca vikrānta, Uttamaûjāś ca vīryavān | 
Saubhadro, Draupadeyāś ca — sarva eva mahārathāḥ || (BhG I.6)

Duryodhana lists out the heroes on the Pāṇḍava side over three full verses:

“Here are champions, master archers, rivals to Bhīma and Arjuna in battle: Yuyudhāna Sātyaki, Virāṭa, Drupada the master chariot-warrior, Dhṛṣṭaketu, Cekitāna, the heroic lord of Kāśi, Purujit, Kuntibhoja, Śaibya bull among men, Yudhāmanyu the valiant, Uttamaujas filled with heroism, Abhimanyu son of Subhadrā, and the sons of Draupadī—each and every one of them a master chariot-warrior.”

asmākaṃ tu viśiṣṭā ye, tān nibodha dvijôttama! | 
nāyakā mama sainyasya saṃjñârthaṃ tān bravīmi te || (BhG I.7)
bhavān, Bhīṣmaś ca, Karṇaś ca, Kṛpaś ca samitiñjayaḥ | 
Aśvatthāmā, Vikarṇaś ca, Saumadattis tathaîva ca || (BhG I.8)
anye ca bahavaḥ śūrā mad-arthe tyakta-jīvitāḥ | 
nānā-śastra-praharaṇāḥ sarve yuddha-viśāradāḥ || (BhG I.9)

Duryodhana then turns to his own forces, summing up the state of the Kaurava army:

“And as for our side, o best of Brahmins, recognize the most distinguished ones. I will list for you by name the generals of my forces: You, Bhīṣma, Karṇa, Kṛpa victorious in battle, Aśvatthāman, Vikarṇa, and similarly Bhūriśravas son of Somadatta. And there are many more champions who have renounced their lives for my sake, all experts in battle with various mêlée and ranged weapons.”

Part I: Concrete insights

The Pāṇḍava heroes

This is a very long list of names, and it would seem hard to get anything useful out of it for now: Duryodhana simply seems to be stating the obvious, that there are many great heroes on the Pāṇḍava side. But as we look more closely, we see some interesting patterns emerge.

Looking beyond the obvious

The list does not include any of the Pāṇḍava brothers themselves—and this is not because Duryodhana was underestimating their valor in combat! Duryodhana has had to taste defeat on many an occasion at the hands of one or the other of the five Pāṇḍavas, and for all his faults, he does not underestimate their strength. In fact, he goes so far as to say that each of these warriors is Bhīmâ-(A)rjuna-sama: “equal to Bhīma and Arjuna” in fighting. Through alliances and friendships, the Pāṇḍavas have greatly increased their strength.

How many warriors are there?

Let’s count the number of warriors named who are not Pāṇḍavas or their descendants: from Yuyudhāna to Uttamaujas, we have a list of eleven mahārathas “master chariot-warriors”. Simply note this number for now; we will see its significance in just a bit.

If we count all the combatants in this list, along with the previously-named commander Dhṛṣṭadyumna, we see that Duryodhana has named eighteen warriors on the Pāṇḍava side apart from the 5 brothers themselves. Again, just note this for now; we will see how it matters in just a bit.

Sons of women

Finally, observe that the last six warriors in this list are not called out with their own names, but with their matronymics, their mothers’ names: 

• First comes the famous (and tragic) Abhimanyu, Saubhadra “son of Subhadrā” and Arjuna. 

• We then have the five Draupadeyas “sons of Draupadī”, one with each of the Pāṇḍavas: 

  • Śrutavindhya, fathered by Yudhiṣṭhira; 

  • Sutasoma, by Bhīma; 

  • Śatânīka, by Nakula; 

  • Śrutasena, by Sahadeva; and 

  • Śrutakarma, by Arjuna. 

This is the first mention of women, even indirectly, in the Bhagavad-Gītā. It suggests, if indirectly, the key role that these women play in the eventual victory of the Pāṇḍavas:

• Draupadī’s role in the war, as well as in acting as a source of strength for the Pāṇḍavas, is extremely well known: she impels them to fight the war as a way to avenge her disrobing in the Kaurava court.

• Subhadrā, though sometimes ignored, is also crucial for two different reasons:

  • As Kṛṣṇa’s sister, she is yet another reason for the extremely close bond between Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna.

  • Fittingly, it is through Subhadrā, and not through Draupadī, that the Kuru dynasty’s lineage is preserved: it is Abhimanyu’s son Parikṣit, still gestating in his mother Uttarā’s womb during the Mahābhārata war, who will eventually ascend the throne. 

The Kaurava heroes

As we have seen before, the particle tu that follows the word asmākam “our” signals a change of topic, as well as some potential unease on Duryodhana’s part. He declares to Droṇa that he is only going to focus on the most distinguished warriors on the Kaurava side—presumably those who can match up to and potentially best the previously-named Pāṇḍava heroes. We must presume this, for, in stark contrast to his enumeration of the Pāṇḍava heroes, Duryodhana rattles off the names of his leaders in just a single verse (I.8). 

The world’s worst pep talk?

If this is supposed to be a motivational speech, it seems to fall rather short! Granted, some of the names that Duryodhana lists are perhaps the greatest fighters in the world: Bhīṣma, Droṇa, and Karṇa are easy rivals for even the best of the Pāṇḍavas, while Kṛpa and Aśvatthāman are no slouches themselves. Read as a sign of (over-)confidence, this suggests that Duryodhana thinks these seven warriors alone are a match for the Pāṇḍavas. (And again, note that number!)

But such confidence seems somewhat misplaced given the fear and contempt that Duryodhana has already expressed towards his guru Droṇa. (He seems to over-compensate for his disrespect in these verses, praising Droṇa, perhaps faintly, as dvijôttama “best of the twice-born (Brahmins)”, and referring to him with the respectful pronoun bhavān when enumerating the Kaurava heroes.)

Where are all the adjectives?

Notice, also, that only person in this list gets a personal epithet: Kṛpa alone is called samitiñjaya “victorious in battle”, an appropriate title for someone who will eventually survive the Mahābhārata war. None of the other Kaurava generals named here are given other titles. In stark contrast, no less than four Pāṇḍava generals are praised as great warriors, heroic, or even (my favorite) nara-puṅgava “bull among men”.

Now one could argue, of course, that the Kaurava generals named here are so famous that they don’t need additional qualifiers to glorify them: their names alone suffice; they are already viśiṣṭa “qualified, distinguished”. But of course there is no shortage of adjectives elsewhere in the Mahābhārata to describe the ferocity and courage of warriors like Bhīṣma and Karṇa. As a result, their absence does seem to suggest some diffidence on Duryodhana’s part.

From a structural perspective, the absence of adjectives shortens the length of the list so that all seven names can fit into a single verse. This gives rise to a clipped, rushed feeling, as these names all tumble out of Duryodhana’s mouth one after another. He seems to be jumping from one person to another, as if he is unsure of them and of himself.

They may be willing, but are they able?

Read with this diffidence in mind, these verses illustrate Duryodhana’s concern that his forces may not be enough to handle the Pāṇḍavas. He is not concerned about their loyalty — they are all tyakta-jīvita: they have all already renounced their lives for him, they are willing to go down fighting for Duryodhana. The verbal tense is particularly telling: their lives are already forfeit even before the war starts. Their doom is thus foreordained, as is Duryodhana’s eventual defeat.

The issue is: are they good enough to overcome the nagging doubt in Duryodhana’s heart? They may be battle-hardened veterans; they may be skilled in forms of combat; they may even be capable of taking on the numerically inferior Pāṇḍava forces. But the Pāṇḍava threat looms so large in Duryodhana’s mind that his words of confidence seem to betray his hidden fears.

The two armies compared: number patterns

Here is where the issue of army size comes into play. Though not mentioned in the Gītā itself, the Kaurava army is known to be substantially larger than the Pāṇḍava army: the former has eleven akṣauhiṇīs of troops (each one a large combined-arms division including infantry, cavalry, chariots and elephants), while the latter has only seven akṣauhiṇīs. The two combine for a round eighteen akṣauhiṇīs, just like the eighteen days of the Mahābhārata war itself, and the eighteen cantos of the Mahābhārata text itself.

But now look back at the number of heroes mentioned on either side: only seven for the Kauravas, as opposed to eleven for the Pāṇḍavas! And these are just the heroes fighting for the Pāṇḍavas who are not themselves Pāṇḍava by blood. The clincher is the fact that Duryodhana enumerates a total of eighteen heroes just for the Pāṇḍavas: this is a clear marker of completeness for the Pāṇḍavas. 

To me, at least, this difference in enumeration strongly suggests that we should understand the Pāṇḍavas to be stronger than their numbers suggest and, conversely, the Kauravas to be weaker despite their numerical superiority.

Looking ahead to Part II

We have looked in some detail at some of the patterns revealed by Duryodhana’s speech. In Part II next week, we will look at a slightly more speculative, but potentially deeply enriching, interpretation of these same patterns.

|| Sarvaṃ Śrī-Kṛṣṇârpaṇam astu ||