NINETEEN
Like bright thoughts, two arrows flew down at Drona's feet, two more at Bheeshma's and another two at Kripa's. Arjuna was still too far for them to see him clearly, but a grandson and a pupil greeted his elders! An inspired Uttara Kumara flicked his reins over his horses. As Arjuna's chariot flew nearer, another arrow hummed past Drona's ear and one more. Both spumed up into the sky. Then two shafts whistled past Bheeshma's face, almost brushing his cheek and two past Kripa's: Arjuna was announcing his intention to fight. The Kuru elders picked up their bows.
As the lone chariot skimmed along, Uttara Kumara was a superb sarathy and he hardly knew how himself. Arjuna cried, "I see Drona and Kripa. I see Karna at the head of the Kuru legion. I see my Pitama behind the crescent moon, but nowhere do I see Duryodhana."
His charioteer cried back into the wind that swept their faces like a river, "I see another force riding away to the west. Look, Arjuna, a banner in the wind!"
It was a golden banner, with a menacing black serpent upon it. Arjuna said with a smile, "They have decided Duryodhana must not meet me today. But I mean to fight him. Veer to the west; we must pass the crescent and follow my cousin. He has your father's herd with him and we are here to free the cattle."
Uttara Kumara swung his horses to the right. But by now they were too near the Kaurava phalanx to avoid it entirely. As the chariot stormed at them, some Kaurava warriors rushed forward to chal lenge Arjuna. The Pandava cried to his sarathy, "Go after the serpent banner, Uttara Kumara, go like the wind!"
The Matsya prince turned the chariot sharply, but some of Duryodhana's brothers were too close to evade. A tide of arrows rose from the Gandiva, driving them back, while Uttara Kumara's chariot flitted past one tip of the crescent moon.
Bheeshma cried, "He is after Duryodhana! Catch him quickly, or he will kill our prince."
Bheeshma turned his own chariot and went after Arjuna as hard as he could. Meanwhile Arjuna neared the Matsya herd. He said to Uttara Kumara, "Slow the chariot, let us free the cattle first."
Another fire-tide from the Gandiva and, in moments, a thousand men guarding the Matysa herd died. The rest fled. Exultant Arjuna roared to his charioteer, "Indra's Matali cannot match you today! After the serpent-banner again, Kumara."
As if he had been a sarathy all his life, Uttara Kumara went furiously after the fleeing Duryodhana. When the Kuru horsemen herding them fled, Virata's cattle turned and stampeded back home to their cowherds. Prince Uttara weaved through the milling herd and stayed on Duryodhana's trail. Bheeshma, Karna and the other Kurus barred his way.
As a mind does its thoughts, the Gandiva streamed arrows.
Karna peeled away from the main Kaurava force and plunged at Arjuna. As he went, Aswatthama cried at him, "If you lose, you can always ask Shakuni what to do next!"
Arjuna said to Uttara Kumara, "Ride into them, I will fight them all together. Look! Duryodhana has turned around. He is no coward that he would run from a battle."
Karna roared at Aswatthama, "Taunter, today you will see my arrows speak for me!"
Quickly Arjuna was in the thick of the Kurus, just as they wanted. He fought those awesome kshatriyas as disdainfully a lion does a jackal-pack. All together, they rained arrows on him; but Arjuna's archery was hardly a thing of the earth, so, too, the Matsya prince's skill with his horses! Arjuna's chariot was so quick it was impossible to aim at it, yet the Pandava's arrows were everywhere, finding chinks in Kuru mail.
Inevitably, Karna and Arjuna faced each other. Laughing easily, the shafts radiating from his bow like rays from the sun, Arjuna cried, "Here we are at last, face to face! I hear you brag there is no archer like you on earth. Words are cheap, prove yourself with arrows. I won't spare you today Karna, for everything you have said and done."
Karna's reply was to strike Arjuna's horses and sarathy with shafts like fire. The Matsya prince was imperturbable. Calmly, he plucked out Karna's barbs with one hand, while the other guided his horses as brilliantly as before.
When Arjuna saw Uttara Kumara bleeding, with a roar he lifted his own archery. Karna had his bow cracked in his hands. Wave upon wave of arrows flew at him from every side, from the sky and it seemed, up from the very earth. He could not face Arjuna. His horses killed and he himself bleeding, Karna leapt out of his shattered chariot and ran. Arjuna's arrows chased him from the field, in mock ery, one for every step he went. Of course, Arjuna would never kill an enemy in flight, but this revenge was sweet enough.
Drona rode up to challenge the Pandava. The master could not match his pupil today. Arjuna was no longer just the bowman his acharya had made him; he was much more. Yet, he never broke his guru's skin, but beat Drona back with a luminous tirade and then plucked the bow out of his hand with a shaft as subtle as prana, as breath.
Aswatthama came to help his beleaguered father. Arjuna shone in Uttara Kumara's chariot: his body as bright as a God's, his arrow-storm coruscating. Bheeshma and Kripa came to engage him and Arjuna beat them back effortlessly and cried to his young sarathy, "Ride at the serpent-banner, my prince! Duryodhana is the one I want."
Horses and elephants perished around Arjuna, footsoldiers and horsemen in incredible thousands, in moments. Duryodhana, mortified, saw his dreams of victory scattered like straws in a gale, all his heroes' valor consumed by the majestic Pandava. His cousin's blinding archery cut down his serpent-banner and shrouded him in swift fear. He, too, turned his chariot and fled.
Exhilarant Arjuna cried after him, "Duryodhana, come back and fight like a kshatriya! Do you love your life so much that you abandon your honor for it?"
It seemed Arjuna's taunt was sharper than his arrows and Duryodhana turned his chariot around. Karna also rode back at his friend's right hand. Drona, Bheeshma, Kripa and Aswatthama surrounded Arjuna again, but the son of Pandu, Indra's son, was implacable. He was a fire and they could not contain him.
So far, no astra had been invoked. Now the Kauravas pressed Arjuna all together and he would have to kill some of them if they fought on. He also feared for his sarathy, the Matsya prince's, life.
Arjuna invoked an astra, no apocalyptic weapon, but one that would quell the enemy. Drona and Kripa, Aswatthama, Duryodhana, Bheeshma and Karna saw the Pandava turn his bow over their heads. A silver shaft floated languidly at them. They turned their eyes up at it, for it shone so hypnotically on its strange, slow flight. From that arrow what seemed to be a shower of fireflies fell on the Kaurava army, like snow.
Bheeshma laughed, "The sammohanastra!"
Next moment, the Kuru heroes, their footsoldiers and horsemen were all covered in the rain of stardust and enchanted by that weapon of sleep, they fell on the ground or in their chariots. The army of Hastinapura lay like a sea quieted, not a man moving.
A delighted Arjuna said to Uttara Kumara, "my prince, you were perfect! We beat them as much by your chariotry as with my arrows. Do you remember what your sister asked for? Go and fetch the mantles of the Kurus for her dolls. And when they wake up, let Duryodhana and the others know they were beaten."
Uttara Kumara leapt down from the chariot-head. He took Acharya Kripa's glistening cape of white silk, Karna's fulvid yellow one. Arjuna cried to him, "Don't leave Duryodhana's blue cloak, or Aswatthama's crimson one."
But when the prince approached the supine Bheeshma, Arjuna said, "Don't go near the Pitama. The sammohana will not hold him for long; he knows its mantra. Come away, we have enough souvenirs."
Even as Uttara Kumara, his arms full of silks and jewels, climbed back into the chariot, Bheeshma awoke with a roar and gave them battle. After a short, fierce fight, Arjuna's arrow plucked his bow from the ancient warrior's hands. Arjuna folded his palms reverently to his Pitama and told prince Uttara, "Ride home now, our mission is accomplished."
In a while, the other Kauravas awoke from the astra's slumber. Karna roared, "After him! Arjuna won't escape me today."
Bheeshma laughed at him. "Haven't you had enough shame for one day? Arjuna has stripped you of your mantles and jewels. He has taken your honor. He could have had your lives; but he is too noble to kill sleeping men, even if they are his enemies. Let us admit defeat and ride back to Hastina."
As he spoke, a conch sounded at the shoulder of an undulation in the earth. They looked up and saw Arjuna's chariot framed against the sky. Shimmering, dreamlike arrows appeared again, seemingly out of nowhere. They flashed down at the feet of Drona, Bheeshma and Kripa, in salutation and farewell. Another shaft streaked at Duryodhana and knocked the crown from his head! Then, they saw the Pandava's chariot no more.
Duryodhana howled, "Back! Back to Hastinapura! And never speak of this black day."
The Kuru army turned home, leaving its dead on the field of its humiliation. Some way off, on the road back to Virata, Arjuna asked Uttara Kumara to stop the chariot. The Pandava said, "Your cattle have gone home. Now send word back to the city that you vanquished the Kuru army by yourself. As for me, I must be Brihannala again."
"I can't do that! You beat the Kurus. How can I even dream of telling such a lie?"
"Do it for my sake. Your father must not yet learn that the Pandavas are in his city. When the time comes, in a day or two, he will know everything. Until then you must keep up the pretence."
Reluctantly, Uttara Kumara agreed. They drove back to the cremation-ground in the forest. Arjuna returned the Gandiva to the winding-sheet; he took down Hanuman's banner and folded it away; the great vanara and the other spirits flew out from it and vanished into the air. Arjuna peeled off his archer's gloves and put them back with his silver quivers. He tied the bundle up, so it resembled a corpse once more and hoisted it back into the sami tree.
The Pandava untied his hair and put on Brihannala's silks again. He walked round the great tree in pradakshina, climbed into the sarathy's place, took the reins and with Uttara Kumara back in the archer's seat, they drove toward the city of Virata.1
1. The battle between Arjuna and the Kurus is described in great detail and some 30 pages, in the original text.