The eleventh was put under the immediate command of Bhishma, partly to protect him. The safety of the supreme commander Bhishma was central to Duryodhana 's strategy, as he had placed all his hope on the great warrior's abilities. Dushasana , the younger brother of Duryodhana, was the military officer in-charge of Bhishma's protection. When the war was declared and the two armies were facing each other, Arjuna realised that he would have to kill his dear great-granduncle Bhishma , on whose lap he had played as a child, and his respected teacher Drona , who had held his hand and taught him how to hold the bow and arrow, making him the greatest archer in the world.
Arjuna felt weak and sickened at the prospect of killing his entire family, including his cousins, and friends such as Ashwathama. Despondent and confused about what is religious, what is right and what is wrong, Arjuna turned to Krishna for divine advice and teachings. Krishna, who Arjuna chose as his charioteer, advised him of his duty. This conversation forms the Bhagavad Gita , one of the most respected religious and philosophical texts in the Hindu religion.
Krishna instructs Arjuna not to yield to degrading impotence and to fight his kin, for that was the only way to righteousness. He also reminded him that this was a war between righteousness and unrighteousness dharma and adharma , and it was Arjuna's duty to slay anyone who supported the cause of unrighteousness, or sin.
Krishna then revealed his divine form and explained that he is born on earth in each aeon when evil raises its head. It also forms one of the foremost treatise on the several aspects of Yoga and mystical knowledge. Before the battle began, Yudhisthira did something unexpected. He suddenly dropped his weapons, took off his armour and started walking towards the Kaurava army with folded hands in prayer. The Pandava brothers and the Kauravas looked on in disbelief, thinking Yudhisthira was surrendering before the first arrow was shot.
Yudhisthira's purpose became clear, however, when he fell on Bhishma's feet to seek his blessing for success in battle. Bhishma, grandfather to both the Pandavas and Kauravas, blessed Yudhisthira. Yudhisthira returned to his chariot and the battle was ready to commence. When the battle commenced, Bhishma went through the Pandava army wreaking havoc wherever he went. Abhimanyu , Arjuna's son, seeing this went straight at Bhishma, defeated his bodyguards and directly attacked the commander of the Kaurava forces.
The Pandavas suffered numerous losses and were defeated at the end of the first day. Virata 's sons, Uttara and Sweta, were slain by Shalya and Bhishma. Krishna consoled the distraught Yudhisthira saying that eventually victory would be his. The second day of the war commenced with a confident Kaurava army facing the Pandavas.
Arjuna, realising that something needed to be done quickly to reverse the Pandava losses, decided that he must try to kill Bhishma. Krishna skillfully located Bhishma's chariot and steered Arjuna toward him. Arjuna tried to engage Bhishma in a duel, but the Kaurava soldiers placed around Bhishma to protect him attacked Arjuna to try to prevent him from directly engaging Bhishma.
Arjuna and Bhishma fought a fierce battle that raged for hours. Drona and Dhristadyumna similarly engaged in a duel during which Drona broke Dhristadyumna's bow numerous times.
Bhima intervened and rescued Dhristadyumna. Duryodhana sent the Kalinga forces to attack Bhima and most of them lost their lives at his hands. Bhishma immediately came to relieve the battered Kalinga forces.
Satyaki , who was assisting Bhima, shot at Bhishma's charioteer and killed him. Bhishma's horses, with no one to control them, bolted carrying Bhishma away from the battlefield. The Kaurava army had suffered great losses at the end of the second day.
On the third day , Bhishma arranged the Kaurava forces in the formation of an eagle with himself leading from the front, while Duryodhana's forces protected the rear. Bhishma wanted to be sure of avoiding any mishap.
The Pandavas countered this by using the crescent formation with Bhima and Arjuna at the head of the right and the left horns, respectively. The Kauravas concentrated their attack on Arjuna's position. Arjuna's chariot was soon covered with arrows and javelins. Arjuna, with amazing skill, built a fortification around his chariot with an unending stream of arrows from his bow.
Abhimanyu and Satyaki combined to defeat the Gandhara forces of Shakuni. Bhima and his son Ghatotkacha attacked Duryodhana in the rear. Bhima's arrows hit Duryodhana, who swooned in his chariot. His charioteer immediately drove them out of danger. Duryodhana's forces, however, saw their leader fleeing the battlefield and soon scattered.
Bhishma soon restored order and Duryodhana returned to lead the army. He was angry at Bhishma, however, at what he saw as leniency towards the five Pandava brothers and spoke harshly at his commander.
Bhishma, stung by this unfair charge, fell on the Pandava army with renewed vigor. It was as if there were more than one Bhishma on the field. Arjuna and Krishna attacked Bhishma trying to restore order. Arjuna and Bhishma again engaged in a fierce duel, however Arjuna's heart was not in the battle as he did not like the idea of attacking his great-uncle. During the battle, Bhishma killed numerous soldiers of Arjuna's armies.
The four-day battle was noted for the valour shown by Bhima. Bhishma commanded the Kaurava army to move on the offensive from the outset. While Abhimanyu was still in his mother's womb, Arjuna had taught Abhimanyu on how to break and enter the chakra vyuha. But, before explaining how to exit the chakra vyuha, Arjuna was interrupted by Krishna. Thus from birth, Abhimanyu only knew how to enter the Chakra vyuha but didn't know how to come out of it.
When the Kauravas formed the chakra vyuha, Abhimanyu entered it but was surrounded and attacked by a number of Kaurava princes. Arjuna joined the fray in aid of Abhimanyu.
Bhima appeared on the scene with his mace aloft and started attacking the Kauravas. Duryodhana sent a huge force of elephants at Bhima.
When Bhima saw the mass of elephants approaching, he got down from his chariot and attacked them single handedly with his iron mace. They scattered and stampeded into the Kaurava forces killing many.
Duryodhana ordered an all-out attack on Bhima. Bhima withstood all that was thrown at him and attacked Duryodhana's brothers, killing eight of them.
Bhima was soon struck by an arrow on the chest and sat down in his chariot dazed. Duryodhana was distraught at the loss of his brothers. Duryodhana, overwhelmed by sorrow at the loss of his brothers, went to Bhishma at the end of the fourth day of the battle, and asked his commander how could the Pandavas, facing a superior force against them, still prevail and win.
Bhishma replied that the Pandavas had justice on their side and advised Duryodhana to seek peace. When the battle resumed on the fifth day , the slaughter continued.
The Pandava army again suffered against Bhishma's attacks. Satyaki bore the brunt of Drona 's attacks and soon could not withstand them. Bhima drove by and rescued Satyaki. Arjuna fought and killed thousands of soldiers sent by Duryodhana to attack him. The unimaginable carnage continued during the ensuing days of the battle. The sixth day was marked by a prodigious slaughter. Drona caused immeasurable loss of life on the Pandava side.
The formations of both the armies were broken. On the ninth day Krishna, overcome by anger at the apparent inability of Arjuna to defeat Bhishma, rushed towards the Kaurava commander,The wheel of a fallen chariot in his hands. Bhishma lays down his arms and is ready to die at the hands of the Lord,but Arjuna stops Him,reminding of His promise not to wield a weapon. Realizing that the war could not be won as long as Bhishma were standing, Krishna suggested the strategy of placing a eunuch in the field to face him.
Some sources however state that it was Yudhistira who visits Bishma's camp at night asking him for help. To this Bhishma says that he would not fight a eunuch. As you can see from the bas-relief, the soldiers on foot and commanders on chariots are advancing from left to right. They belong to the Kaurava army and are fighting against the Pandava army in the famous Battle of Kurukshetra described in Mahabharata. On the top portion of this bas-relief is Bhishma, the commander of the Kaurava army and the grand-uncle of both the Kauravas and Pandavas, lying on the bed of arrows fired at him by Arjuna.
Bhishma led the Kaurava army for the first ten days of the battle. Krishna knew Bhishma took an oath not to fight the other gender. As per the plan, Shikhandi accompanies Arjuna in his chariot on the tenth day of the battle.
We can only make our best guess with the information available and remain open to changing our interpretation. The interpretative process goes back and forth between asking what the imagery in the mural refers to, and seeking in the mural what we might expect to find, given our knowledge of the story.
View the mural for a more specific attempt to identify figures and events. The following are some characters and events we might expect to find in a depiction of the battle. The following are some features of the mural that seem significant, though the specific meaning may be unclear. A guide at Angkor Wat will probably provide the best means of reading and interpreting the mural on site.
These annotations are no substitute for a guide who can answer follow up questions and offer the kind of insights that only local knowledge can provide. Visitors are still welcome at Angkor Wat, but it remains a sacred site, so if you have the privilege of visiting please pay attention to the Apsara authority recommendations and abide by all their advice to respect and preserve this magnificent treasure for all humanity for millenia to come see the brochure and video.
This includes appropriate dress for men and women and respectful photography. Also, please do not touch. Some stone is quite soft and a grain of sand may remain on your hand. Around 2 million foreignors visit Angkor Wat each year.
How many grains of sand are in a block of stone? Decorative details especially can be quickly worn away. William Pascoe and Kaspar Paseko , Do not copy or re-use the mural image without permission of the Apsara Authority. This image is provided for educational use and not for profit basis only. Images were taken using my William Pascoe own phone Samsung A3 in panorama mode. This produced several long images due to interruptions by other onlookers. I attempted to use microscopy image stitching plugins available in Fiji to combine the segments but none were able to make good matches.
However, Vidura uncovered the plot and smuggled himself and the Pandavas out through a tunnel. They lived disguised as holy men in the forest for a number of years until their got word of an archery contest for the hand of the maiden Draupadi. Arjuna entered the contest and won. They returned home to Kunti and told her they had received "alms". She, being busy with work, told them to share it equally.
Thus they obeyed their mother and all five marred Draupadi. When Dhritarashtra heard the Pandavas were alive, he invited them back. However, during their absence, Duryodhana became crown prince.
To appease both his son and nephew, Dhritarashtra partitioned the kingdom and gave the Pandavas the city of Indraprastha modern Delhi to rule over. Shakuni convinced Duryodhana to challenge Yudhisthira to a game of dice. Shakuni owned a magic pair of dice that gave him the desired numbers at his will.
He used this and his own guile to persuade Yudhisthira to gamble all of his wealth away to Duryodhana. Eventually, they convinced Yudhisthira to gamble away his brothers, then himslef and then Draupadi.
Duryodhana won all the games and so enslaved the Pandavas and their wife. He took her to his father's court, whereupon he and his brothers humiliated her by abusing her. Eventually, Duryodhana ordered her to be disrobed, as she was now a slave with no rights. However, Dhritarashtra and his senior counsellors objected. Draupadi prayed to Vishnu to save her and when Durodhana was unwinding her clothes, Vishnu made them magically increase in length until Duryodhana gave up.
Dhritarashtra ordered all the Pandavas' belongings returned to them.
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