The death of Jayathradhan

Jayathradhan was the son of  Vruththrashathran who was the king of Sindh. He did lots of penances and yagha and got a son and named him as Jayathradhan. When  Jayathradhan was born a voice came from heaven which said that “ this boy  would be very famous and well-known warrior but would be killed by his head removed from his body and would go to Heaven by a very famous Kshatriya warrior.” 

Vruththrashathran even though knew that all those who were born had to die got angry and cursed “The man who kills my son and throws his head on the earth would have his head blown to pieces and would die.”

After Jayathradhan attained age his father  Vruththrashathran gave him the kingdom and went to forest to do penance.

When Jayathradhan came to know of the vow Arjuna had taken to kill Jayathrathan the next day before sun light goes, he remembered the the Voice from above and was frightened of death. He went to Duryodhana and said that he would go back home and would not fight. But Duryodhana consoled him and assured him of the power of Drona, Bheeshma, Karna and many other warriors  generals of his who would do anything to protect him from Arjuna and would save him as Arjuna, if he could not kill Jayathradhan on that day’s evening, he would commit suicide. This was good news to Duryodhana, as if Jayathradha was protected for that day, the death of Arjuna was sure. This had made Jayathradhan  brave and agreed to fight .

Duryodhana called Drona and told them to do everything to protect Jayathradhan in any way so that if Arjuna could not kill him within that evening he would die of his own. 

Drona did arrange his army and chariots under the able leadership of Karna, Poorsivaras,  Asvathama, Salliyan, Kirubar and other generals  and a lot of soldiers under their command so that nobody could come near Jayathradhan.

First  Duryodhana’s brother  Dhurmarshnan called out to Arjuna to come and fight him. Arjuna took the call and fought with him . He and another brother of him Duchchadhanan were defeated by Arjuna and they withdrew. Drona now faced Arjuna. Arjuna asked his permission to move on and kill Jayathradhan but Drona did not allow him and asked him to fight him. Arjuna just went past him thus avoiding him as he could not defeat him in war. 

  Arjuna went on defeating many which included Krudhvarma, Sudhatshinana , Surudhayitha and many others.  Surudhayitha threw his mace on lord Krishna and it turned back and came and hit him as he used it to kill a man of no armaments as per a curse. His mother Parnasai  had requested  Lord Varuna to protect her son from all enemies and could never be killed by anybody. Varuna liked her but said “I would give a very powerful  mace to him but if he used it on any man without any arms or ammunition it would return  back and kill him.”

Duryodhana fought with Arjuna and wearing the shield of Drona he was not getting hit so Arjuna hit him where the shield was not protecting him and he was injured heavily and moved out. One by one all the Generals of Kauravas came and fought Arjuna including Karna, Poorisavasu,

 Aswaththaama,kirubar,salliyan,salan, Virushsenan and  Jayathradhan came in their chariots and fought Arjuna. The fighting went on for a very long time. Then it was getting dark and evening was approaching with sun getting set. Duryodhana and the Kauravas were very happy as they knew that If Arjuna could not kill Jayathradhan that evening then Arjuna will kill himself. Jayathradhan was hiding behind the other generals.

Seeing this  Krishna made the sun disappear in clouds and thinking that the sun had set Jayathradhan came out and challenged Arjuna and all Kauravas cheered him. Immediately Krishna  allowed the Sun to be seen again. Then Arjuna sent an arrow and killed him by beheading him and Lord Krishna asked him to sent the head to his father as the head if falls on the floor of the earth then the person who dropped the head would have his head blasted. So Arjuna sent another arrow and took the head and carried it to the lap of Vruththrashathran who was doing penance. When Vruththrashathran saw something falling on his lap he got up and the head fell down and immediately Vruththrashathran’s head blasted into many pieces. Thus Arjuna’s vow was achieved and his life saved and Jayathrathan was killed.Duryodhana felt very sad as he lost his trusted friend, general and his brother-in-law as his sister was married to Jayathradhan

The Death Of Abhimanyu.

The death of Abhimanyu

Abhimanyu was the son of Arjuna and his  wife   Subhadra who also was the sister of Krishna.  Abhimanyu was a great warrior and had learnt all the techniques and nuances of war from his father. Once when Arjuna was telling his wife about how to break out of a Padma  Viyuham, one  way  of fighting in war , she fell asleep and the child in her uterus learnt it but before  Arjun could tell about the break out of the Viyukam he found her sleeping and stopped his narration. The child inside her Uterus, Abhimanyu,  could only learn about entering the Padma viyukam but not to break out of it.

So during the war of Pandavas and Kauravas  at Krushetra, Abhimanyu did so many heroic fights and excelled himself in defeating and killing many of the enemy warriors. Duryoadhana was very much worried about the fighting spirit and prowess of Abhimanyu and the way he was able to kill many of his generals and army men and hence  wanted to kill him in deceit. So he told Droanachaarya to go fighting Arjuna and isolate Abhimanyu in the battle field.  As Arjuna fought some other kings, Droanacharya started attacking the Pandava army and killed many and destroyed its forces. Then Yudhishtra called Abhimanyu to attack Droanacharya by entering the Viyukam. Abhimanyu agreed but told Yudhistra that he could enter the Viyukam but cannot come out of it. Yudhishtra then said that when Abhimanyu broke the Viyuka he would be followed by the other generals and army into the viyuka of Kauravas and would support him.

So on the twelfth day Abhimanyu enetered the war and killed lots of Kaurava army and its generals and did great feats on the war field. Enemies were afraid to come near him. On the thirteenth day Abhimanyu entered the Padma Viyukam and broke into it. The Pandavas tried to follow him  but the Viyukam was immediately closed with Jayathrathan, the able and powerful king and brother in law of Duryoadhana , closing the viyukam. So Abhimanyu was alone inside the Viyukam fighting many Kauravas and their army and many were killed and many were injured by his valour.  Finally many generals of the Kauravas like Duryoadhana, Droana, Salliyan, Karna, Asvathama, Kirupar, Jayathrathan and others jointly fought with him. Finally Abhimanyu lost his chariot, horses and was on the field fighting when one son of Duchadhana hit Abhimanyu on the head when he was getting up and killed him in a treacherous way when he was not having any weapon and was getting up. This was against all norms of a war and Abhimanyu  was killed by deceit.

The killing of Abhimanyu has infuriated Arjuna so much he was about to commit suicide and only Krishna stopped him saying it was fate that Abhimanyu has to be killed like this and hence urged Arjuna to avenge the death of Abhimanyu by killing all those who killed him jointly.

So Arjuna vowed to kill Jayathratha the next day before the sun sets down  failing which he would kill himself.