18th Night & The Evergoing Curse

Yes, the title might seem to be strange. Today’s story is about a strong but underrated story of Mahabharata- Ashwathama and Krishna’s curse.

For those who are not familiar with the character Ashwathama, I will give a small introduction about him.

Ashwathama was the son of Guru Dronacharya and his wife Kripi. Kripi was the sister of Krupacharya. Drona and Kripi waited for long for a baby. It is believed that Drona did many years of severe penance to Lord Shiva for a son. When Lord Shiva was pleased, Lord Shiva himself was incarnated as Ashwathama. He was born with a jewel in his head, which made him devoid of normal human limitations like hunger, thirst, and fatigue.

Shiva blessed Ashwathama with a boon that made him immortal. He being a ‘Chiranjeevi’ was impossible for any person to defeat him or kill him. Krupacharya, Ashwathama, Hanuman, Vibheeshana, Mahabali, and Vyasa are some other immortal souls as per the Hindu mythology.

His father, Dronacharya, trained him, along with the Pandavas and Kauravas. Since childhood, he was a good friend of Duryodhana, another major character of the Mahabharata. Ashwathama is one strong character in Mahabharata story: A Brahmin by birth, but a Kshatriya by karma.

Now back to our story.

Kurukshetra war also called the Mahabharata war, lasted for 18 days. Drishtadhuymna, son of Drupada, killed Dronacharya, father of Ashwathama, and guru of both Pandavas and Kauravas on the 15th day.

On the 18th day, the whole army size of Kauravas was limited to Duryodhana, Ashwathama, Krupacharya, and Krithavarma. The final day had a mace fight between Duryodhana and Bheema. Ashwathama, Krupacharya, and Krithavarma wanted to help Duryodhana during the fight, but they had to witness this whole event as mere spectators, as interference from their side to save their friend would have affected the honor and pride of Duryodhana. The day ended with Duryodhana’s defeat at the lakeside.

After the fight when Pandavas went back, Ashwathama and the other two went near Duryodhana, who lay there disappointed and brutally injured. They were devastated to see the king of such a mighty empire lying helplessly in a forest with no one to take care of. Sun had set. During the ancient wars, it was a rule that every king and the army had to stop the day’s battle after dusk. But despite knowing the fact that the sun had set, Duryodhana made Ashwathama the chief of the Kaurava army and asked him to kill all the Pandava brothers and to show their blood on his sword so that he could leave this world peacefully to be in Yamaloka. Like Duryodhana, Ashwathama was also in deep hatred and anger against Pandavas for the betrayal with which the Pandavas had killed his father.

With the order he received, He and his friends started to walk towards the tents of Pandavas. In between, they took rest under a banyan tree. Ashwathama fully agitated over the thoughts, looked upon the banyan tree, the sight that he saw, stirred new ideas and thoughts into his mind. He could see an owl attacking some crows, taking the advantage that owls are night travelers and could see through darkness whereas crows could not. It is believed that owls and crows are enemies since time immemorial. Watching that scene, a wicked smile bloomed on Ashwathama’s face. He thought of this crooked idea of killing the Pandava brothers during sleep and for this, he shared the idea with the other two. Krupacharya and Krithavarma tried to stop Ashwathama from doing such a disgraceful act, as it did not seem an upright act to attack a warrior during sleep.

All the efforts by them went into vain, Ashwathama was absolutely determined, leaving Krupacharya and Krithavarma with no other choice than to agree with him and to accompany him for the attack. Ashwathama prayed and sought blessings from Lord Shiva and he received a divine sword from him. They reached the Pandavas camps and went straight to Dhrishtadhumna’s tent. Asking Krupacharya and Krithavarma to wait outside the tent, Ashwathama went inside alone and kicked Drishtadhuymna, his father’s assassin, who was sleeping peacefully and woke him up. With full rage, Ashwathama held his hair and kicked him on the chest and neck innumerous times, and killed him mercilessly.

He came out of the tent and with the help of Krupacharya and Krithavarma set all the tents on fire. They killed all those who were running for their lives in the camp. The sword was fully covered with innocent blood. Ashwathama next went to Pandavas tent, he saw the five of them sleeping, even without a second thought, his anger in full rage, he killed all of them and sent them straight to Yamaloka with his sword.

Owing to the dark, Ashwathama couldn’t identify the five who were sleeping. He thought it would be the Pandava brothers. Instead, they were the five sons of Droupadi with the Pandavas namely Prathivindhya, Suthasoma, Sathaneeka, Shruthakarma, and Shruthakeerthi.

At night, the Pandava army tried to attack back those who were engaged in the mass murder. But in the middle of the dark night, the army men couldn’t identify their kith and kin and many killed their own me.

The trio killed many of the Pandava army men and they burnt many tents and items as their offerings to Agnideva. With the satisfaction they gained from the mass murder on the 18th night, they traveled back to Duryodhana who was lying by the lakeside.

They were devastated to see him with the jackals and vultures around him waiting for his death to pound upon the body. Ashwathama showed him the sword covered in the warm blood of the Pandavas. They cried beside him cursing Bheema, his brothers, and Krishna for all the disgraceful tricks he had advised and supported. Ashwathama said “It is a painful incident that we had to let you die before us. We should have sacrificed our life for our king. Now we have to live our life with a heavy heart. Without you, we don’t have any peace of mind or happiness throughout our life. But we did what we could do. We killed Drishtadhuymna as well as the sons of Droupadi. Yes Pandavas don’t have any children now”

Listening to that, Duryodhana instead of being happy, was shocked and embarrassed. He felt cheated and was devastated by what he heard. He told Ashwathama that Bheema might have wounded him, but it was because of him that he is going to breathe his last. He condemns him for deceiving him as his hostility was towards Pandavas and not his sons. He accused Ashwathama of committing a sin by killing the innocent unarmed Pandava children while sleeping.

In a few versions of the same story, it is said that Ashwathama did all these not because of Duryodhana’s order but as a courtesy to his friend and king Duryodhana and it is been said Duryodhana breathes his last even before Ashwathama reached back.

After Duryodhana breathes his last, Ashwathama, disappointed and bewildered, went away on his chariot.

When Pandavas returned, Sathyaki, the army chief of Pandavas, one of the survivors of the dreadful night, described the incident of bloodshed to them.

One minute. Aren’t you curious where the Pandavas were when this bloodshed was happening?

Yes, so here it goes. Lord Krishna had asked Pandavas and Panchali to camp near the river Okhavathi for that night. After returning to the camps the next day morning, they were stunned to see the place in fire and their soldiers lying dead covered in blood. They realized they also would have been the moths to the flamy rage of Ashwathama’s fierce revenge. They realized the bitter truth that all their victory had now turned as a failure in all senses as all their successes were solely due to the army men, who now weren’t there anymore.

With a heavy heart, filled with pain and rage, Droupadi told Yudhishthira “Aren’t you lucky to rule the kingdom even after our children had been killed mercilessly? I want you to avenge Ashwathama who killed our sons in sleep and I want you to wear the jewel that he has on his head else I will offer myself to Agnideva”

Knowing the determination of Droupadi and her vows better than anyone, Bheema went after Ashwathama tracking the chariot wheel marks.

Sri Krishna asked Yudhishthira why he did not stop Bheema from going after Ashwathama as Ashwathama had many powerful arrows including Brahmasheersha, which has the power to destroy Earth. Yudhishthira knowing the power of the arrow went after Bheema with Arjuna in the chariot. When they reached the banks of the Ganga River, they could see Bheema and Ashwathama all ready for a battle. Seeing Pandava brothers against him, he was stunned but he gained his senses back in a second, and without much choice, he used Brahmasheersha arrow against Bheema.

Krishna advised Arjuna, who already knew the technique to use Brahmasheersha, to use it against Ashwathama. Both Ashwathama and Arjuna shot their arrows to the sky. The Brahmasheersha arrows showered flames and lightning with loud, frightening thunder, creating a terrifying environment. Knowing the extent of destruction it could cause, all the sages including Narada and Vyasa presented themselves before the warriors and asked both of them to retrieve their arrows before they could collide with each other in order to avoid the danger against Mother Earth. With their advice Arjuna retrieved but Ashwathama who didn’t learn how to retrieve Brahmasheersha couldn’t do it. He told Vyasa that he had used the AgniTejoMantra to destroy Pandavas. There was no other option other than directing the astra towards Uthara’s (widow of Abhimanyu) womb. He did that and hence, gave an end to the last heir of the Kuru dynasty.

Lord Krishna was angry at Ashwathama for all the undesired outcomes of the night. Krishna cursed Ashwathama “People will consider you as the assassin of innocent kids and as a sinner. For all the sins you did throughout the lifetime, you will be roaming around all places with blood and puss oozing out of his injuries and you will cry for death.” Knowing he was immortal and has to suffer throughout his life, Ashwathama with a heavy heart went away into the forest.

Bheema along with Krishna and Arjuna went back to Hastinapura. Draupadi took the jewel from Bheema and gave it to Yudhishthira to wear it on his neck.

There are various beliefs about whether Ashwathama is still alive roaming with the wounds and puss on his body or whether he bypassed the curse of Lord Krishna.

According to a Kannada version of Mahabharata, it is believed that Ashwathama met Parashurama and begged him to save him from the curse of Lord Krishna. Since Ashwathama was a follower of Shiva, Parashurama decided to help him. Parashurama and Durvassav advised him to worship Shakthi, who is considered to be the supreme of all modes of worship. When Pandavas met Ashwathama after 36 years of the war, they saw Ashwathama with Parashurama and Durvassav indicating that he bypassed the curse.

Another version of the beliefs of people, says that Ashwathama is living peacefully with some tribes of Himalaya. Some believe that a person who was spotted in Madhya Pradesh for a head injury, where the doctors couldn’t stop the bleeding could be Ashwathama.

We still don’t know whether the 7 Chiranjeevi named at the starting of the story are still living among us as a person or not.