Death of Dronachcharya by lie

Dronachcharya’s death.

Drona  (Dronachcharya) was the commander and general of the Kauravas after the death of Bheeshma who was killed by Arjun with Sikandi as a shield, as Bheeshma could never be vanquished because of his holy birth and his prowess as a great warrior. Sikandi being a woman in his previous birth , Bheeshma did not attack him as he could not fight a woman even in the previous birth. In addition Sikandi as Amba in his previous birth had took the new birth to avenge her shame by Bheeshma. So Bheeshma was killed by the relentless arrows of Arjuna and  fell down in the battle ground. He could  die as per his wish and hence he waited for the auspicious time to die in the battle field.

Dronachcharya took the leadership of the Kaurava army and led it to destroy the Pandava’s army and many were killed by him and he could not be stopped by even Arjun. So lord Krishna devised a plan to kill him. Dronachcharya was very fond of his only son, Aswathama and told Yudhishtra that “this Brahmin (Drona) would not die as he had powerful arms and also he was so talented a warrior and hence could be killed only by deceit. Hence he told Bheema to tell a lie that Aswathama was killed in the battle field. Yudhishtra was initially not willing to tell this lie and did not agree but Krishna said that if Drona had to be killed this lie had to be told. 

So Bheema killed an elephant named Aswathama and loudly cried ‘Aswathama was killed”.  Hearing this Drona was shocked and asked Yudhishtra whether this was true as he believed that Yudhishtra would not tell a lie? Yudhishtra said “Yes it is true and that Bheema killed the Aswathama, the elephant.” But when he said ‘the elephant ‘ he just mumbled the words so that nobody heard it.   Yudhishtr’a chariot  which was always going a little up on the ground by a few inches suddenly touched the ground after he uttered this lie. Hearing the words of his son’s death from none other than Yudhishtra who was not supposed to tell any lie to anyone and never said lies in his life, Drona was astounded with grief and dropped his bow and arrow and sat on his chariot. Then Lord Krishna asked Arjun to continue the fight and Arjun went on shooting arrows on his former Guru (teacher). In the mean time  Dhrishathumnan who was born to kill Drona climbed his chariot and killed him by stabbing him with his sword. Drona died on the battlefield in a treacherous manner. Drona, the son of the famous sage Bharadwaja  died and his athma (soul)  went to the heaven.