In the story of the war of Kurukshetra, one is left to
wonder which was the greatest of the fights, who was the best among the
warriors, who was feared the most. There is no one answer, nevertheless, there
were many legendary warriors and many bloody fights. One of them was king
Bhagadatta, the warrior from east. Here is the story of this great warrior in
the battle of Kurukshetra. In the book Mahabharata, Second Chapter of the Drona
Parva is titled, The Twelfth Day at Kurukshetra; the Fall of Bhagadatta.
Bhagadatta was the Pragjyotishadhipati, king of
Pragjyotishpur, a region in modern day Guwahati in Assam. Vajradatta and
Pushpadatta are his sons and the former succeeded the kinship after
Bhagadatta’s death.
In the war of Kurukshetra, he sided with the Kauravas. He
had long history of enmity with the Pandavas side. His father was Narakasura who was killed in the hands of Krishna. During Rajasuya yagya, Arjuna fought
against Bhagadatta for 8 days and after a defeat was made to acknowledge
Yudhistheera as a fellow king. Again during Ashwamedha yagya, Arjuna fought
against Vajradatta, his son.
Bhagadatta was the oldest of all warriors in the battlefield,
much older than Bheeshma and Drona. He was all wrinkled up, golden white long
hair that gave him a look of a lion. He had to tie a silk cloth on his forehead
so that the flap of his eyebrow skin is held in place and do not fall over to obstruct
his vision. He rode a huge elephant, Supratika. It was also said that the sight
of the monarch resembled Indra himself in prowess and was Indra's good friend.
During the war, he contributed 1 akshouhini army. He was acknowledged as one of
the Maharathas from Kauravas side along with great warriors like Drona,
Aswathaman, Vrishasena, Satyavan, Alambhusha and Karna.
Supratika, Bhagadatta's elephant was a warring machine. He
was an almost undefeatable elephant and has been decked up with golden armour.
He carried the seat for the king and his royal flag staff. He was the most
dreaded of all animals in the battlefield.
Ghatotkatcha, the mighty son of Hidimba and Bheema, was a
dreaded rakshaasa prince on the side of Pandavas. Ghatotkatcha instilled fear in the heart of
the Kauravas camp and so did Bhagidatta with his army of caused havoc in the
Pandavas camp. They were both of great strength and skill. They both came from
the eastern frontiers, but were on opposite sides of the war.
On the fourth day of Kurukshera war, there was a raid on
Bheema by Bhagadatta’s division. Bheema was stuck in his chest by a shaft by Bhagadatta.
Bheema swooned, sat on the chariot holding the flag shaft. Rakshasa Ghatotkatcha,
who was the son of Bheema, was outraged and there and then disappeared from the
view. He reappeared in a moment creating a terrible illusion of a fierce form
riding on a four trunk Airavata created by his powers of illusion. He created
illusion other heavenly elephants, viz., Anjana, Vamana, and Mahapadma,
followed him on a wild procession ridden by rakshasas. Then Ghatotkatcha urged
his own elephant to battle, desirous of slaying Bhagadatta with his elephant.
And those other elephants, excited with fury and each endued with four tusks,
urged by rakshasas of great strength, fell from all sides upon Bhagadatta’ s
elephant and afflicted him with their tusks. And the elephant of Bhagadatta,
thus in pain, uttered loud cries that resembled the thunder of Indra. And
hearing those terrible and loud cries of that roaring elephant, Bheeshma, the
commander of Kauravas asked all the kings, to retreat for the day. This was a
victorious day for the Pandavas.
On the seventh day, there was another confrontation between
them. Ghatotkatcha attacked Bhagadatta and showered him with shafts and arrows.
Huge weapons were hurled at each other and at last the king struck Ghatotkatcha
in all his four limbs. He stood still for a while and then mustered all
strength and threw a magical golden shaft towards the elephant Supratika. Bhagadatta
with a swift action broke the shaft in three, instilling fear to Ghatotkatcha.
Ghatotkatcha fled away from the encounter that day in retreat to fight again
another day.
On the twelfth day of the Kurukshetra War, Duryodhana sent a
large army of elephants against Bheema. Bheema killed all the elephants with
his mace. This news spread fast, and reached Bhagadatta. Bhagadatta, charged
against Bheema on his elephant and crushed his chariot killing his horse and
charioteer under the feet of the Supratika. Bheema escaped by jumping off his
chariot and got underneath the elephant between its legs. He injured the
elephant by severing its organs causing pain. Enraged Supratika caught Bheema
with its trunk around his neck but Bheema managed to escape from its hold and
again got underneath the elephant. He also tried to hurt the elephant further
but was waiting for other elephant from his side come to his rescue. The
Kauravas army thought Bheema had been slain by the beast, and started to
celebrate. Yudhishtheera, Bheema's elder brother, was struck in grief and asked
king of Dasarna to charge on Bhagadatta with his division of Elephants. A
battle that took place between Supratika and Dasarna's elephant, Supratika
crushed Dasarna's elephants to death. In this melee Bheema ran away to safety,
to the relief of the Pandavas.
Many warriors Abheemanyu and Satyaki tried to stop Bhagadatta
but in vain and he was towards Yudhishthir’s position charging. Bhagadatta with
his elephant began to crush down the troops of the Pandavas like a wild
elephant. Krishna rode Arjuna to confront Bhagadatta and Supratika. A fight
started with Arjuna on his chariot and Bhagadatta on his elephant, both
equipped with arsenal. Bhagadatta tried to smash Arjun's chariot with his
elephant. But he could not succeed before Krishna’s skills. Bhagadatta tried
all his astras and javelins, which were cut to pieces by Arjun. Arjun cut the
bow of Bhagadatta and all the javelins thrown by him. Arjuna was able to
destroy the flag staff mounted on the elephant seat. Bhagadatta was raging like
a madman, he threw the Vaishnavastra. Arjuna would have been killed that day
but Krishna stood up and took the hit of the weapon on his chest, where on
impact it became Vaijayanti-mala garland around his neck.
As this was against the rule of war for the charioteer to
participate in active war, Arjuna asked for the reason. Krishna explained that Vishnu
gave this astra to the mother of Narakasura and in his deathbed he gave it to
his son Bhagadatta. The astra is sure to kill the person at whom it is aimed.
Nothing could stop him, not even Indra himself. Since Arjuna was his loved one,
he had to come shield him. And since the Vaishnavastra is back
with Krishna, who is Vishnu in his full incarnation, Bhagadatta is no longer
immune from all the astras and weapons. His dreaded elephant too has become
like any ordinary elephant. Do not lose time.
As advised by Krishna, Arjuna sent out a fine arrow to the
head of Supratika, splitting the head. He than send another arrow to cut the
cloth tied around Bhagadatta’s forehead holding his eyelids in place. This
momentarily blinded him. He took a crescent tip arrow and stuck Bhagadatta in
the chest, killing him. The king fell from his seat to the ground dead.
Arjuna stepped down from his chariot and went around the
fallen Bhagadatta by way of pradakshina to pay his last respect to one of the
greatest warriors, his father’s friend. Arjuna was Indra’s son.
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DISCLAIMER:
These narrations are from various stories that were narrated to me and some that were read in various publications, watched on television and internet over time.