At the center of the Mahabharata is a war in which Yudhishthira estimates over 1.6 trillion people die. This war features larger-than-life heroes and villains who can fill the horizon with arrows, survive for months after receiving a mortal blow, and slay tens of thousands of enemies with powerful celestial weapons or even just a regular club. In the poem, there is a huge difference between the common soldiers, who die anonymous deaths, and the great warriors like Arjuna, who perform astonishing deeds that get recorded in great detail. The major combatants follow an elaborate code of conduct, with one of the most famous scenes being when Pandava leader Yudhishthira puts aside his weapons and asks his enemy Bhishma for permission to fight the war—because even though Bhishma is his enemy, he is nevertheless still an elder in Yudhishthira’s family and thus deserves respect. By focusing on the deeds of mighty warriors, the poem presents a glorious version of warfare, where even many “villains” like Bhishma, Drona, and Karna are noble fighters who deserve praise for their honorable conduct and skill with weapons. It also highlights how the present era—the so-called Kali Age—is less glorious than the days of the Kurukshetra War, when these heroes walked the earth.
Still, despite the glorious nature of war in the Mahabharata, war also frequently leads to tragedy. In one of the poem’s most harrowing moments, the Kaurava warrior Aśvatthaman offers a tribute to Śiva, the god of destruction, and then conducts a deadly night raid in which he almost single-handedly slaughters most of the remaining Pandava warriors (including the sons of the five Pandava brothers)—right when it seems like the Pandavas are on the verge of victory. Because of actions like the night-raid, by the end of the war, the death toll includes not just anonymous soldiers but also many of the named heroes as well. The overwhelming scale and immense detail of the battles in the Mahabharata help convey the glorious nature of a past era while also depicting the tragic consequences of violence, even for epic heroes who can slay thousands of enemies but still can’t escape their own fates—which, of course, is that they too will eventually die.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Heroism and Warfare ThemeTracker
Heroism and Warfare Quotes in Mahabharata
But even as the priests talked, some saying one thing, some another, Arjuna stood next to the bow, unmoving as a mountain. The afflicter of his enemies walked around it in respectful circumambulation, bowed to it with his head, then took hold of it in joyful excitement. In the time it takes to blink, he strung it; and he took up five arrows and swiftly pierced the target through the opening. It fell to the ground.
‘I choose fame in the world, O Sun, even over life itself; for he that has fame gains heaven, whilst he that has none perishes.’
When Kunti’s son the wealth-winner heard Krishna’s words, he chose Krishna Keśava, though he would not fight in battle.
Hear, lord of the earth, how those heroes, the Kauravas, Pandavas and Somakas, fought on Kurukshetra, that place of asceticism. The mighty Pandavas came to Kurukshetra with the Somakas and advanced against the Kauravas, for they were eager for victory. Accomplished Vedic scholars all, they revelled in warfare, hoping for victory in combat but prepared for death on the battlefield.
The blessed lord replied, ‘I am Time, the destroyer of worlds, fully developed, and I have set out here to bring the worlds to their end.’
The hero who had laid waste the entire Kuru army, like an elephant in a lotus pond, now lay resplendent in death, like a wild elephant slain by hunters.
And he performed this last find and astonishing foe-slaying feat: at the time he was pierced in the heart by the Spear, he appeared, O king, huge as a cloud, or a mountain; then that Rakshasa prince fell headlong to earth from on high, body torn, limbs stilled, lifeless and speechless, but gigantic in form. Bhima’s son Ghatotkaca, doer of fearful deeds, fell with the terrifying, fearful form he had assumed; and thus even in death he smashed on whole section of your army, bringing terror to the Kauravas.
‘Karna, if you challenge Arjuna to battle, you are a hare challenging a mighty elephant with tusks like plough-shafts, its temporal glands bursting with rut. If you want to fight the son of Kunti, you are a silly child poking with a stick a deadly poisonous king cobra in its hole, its hood expanded.’
The glorious standard of Karna the mighty chariot-fighter was now destroyed by the noble wearer of the diadem with a razor-edged, gold-shafted arrow that he shot with the greatest of care; and with the fall of that standard there fell too the Kurus’ fame and dharma, and their hopes of victory, sir, and all that they held dear, and their very hearts.
Bhima of fearful deeds brought down that club with an impact like that of a thunderbolt, and it smashed Duryodhana’s two handsome thighs.
Seeing these most wonderful happenings, and the honour paid to Duryodhana, the Pandavas felt ashamed; they grieved mightily to hear it said that Bhishma, Drona, Karna, and Buriśravas had been killed unfairly. But Krishna, seeing them anxious and downcast, proclaimed in a voice sounding like thunder or drums, ‘Duryodhana here with his swift weapons, and those other valiant chariot-fighters, could not have been slain by you on the battlefield in a fair fight. That is why I devised these stratagems, lords of men—otherwise the victory of the Pandavas could never have happened.’
Drona’s son Aśvatthaman watched that owl carry out its guileful attack at night. The bird’s behaviour filled him with new resolve, and he said to himself, ‘This bird has given me good advice in warfare!’
‘Here is the jewel, and here am I.’
This Bharata that emerged from the lips of Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa is without measure;
holy purifying and auspicious, it drives away sin.
If a man studies it as he hears it recited,
what need has he to bathe in the waters of holy Lake Pushkara?
