Gita 01.06 – Their great warriors counterbalance our greater strength

Link1: Gita 01.06 – Their great warriors counterbalance our greater strength – The Spiritual Scientist

yudhāmanyuś ca vikrānta
uttamaujāś ca vīryavān
saubhadro draupadeyāś ca
sarva eva mahā-rathāḥ

Synonyms

yudhāmanyuḥ — Yudhāmanyu; ca — and; vikrāntaḥ — mighty; uttamaujāḥ — Uttamaujā; ca — and; vīrya-vān — very powerful; saubhadraḥ — the son of Subhadrā; draupadeyāḥ — the sons of Draupadī; ca — and; sarve — all; eva — certainly; mahā-rathāḥ — great chariot fighters.

 

Vikrāntaḥ means one who is very Vikrama or one who does valorous deeds and is courageous. Vīryavān is one who possesses great heroism. Saubhadraḥ refers to Abhimanyu. Draupadeyāś refers to the five sons of Draupadi. Yudhāmanyuś and uttamaujāś were powerful Panchala princes. They were brothers and leaders in their clan and were entrusted the very important responsibility of guarding the wheels of Arjuna especially on the day when Arjuna decided to penetrate into the Kaurava horde to kill Jayadrath before sunset in order to avenge the unfair slaughtering of Abhimanyu the previous day, the fourteenth day.

 For a kshatriya general to be the guard of somebody else may not seem to be a particularly glamorous position but the fact was that Arjuna was such a formidable warrior that he was unstoppable.  He had earlier at Virat single-handedly routed all the Kaurava generals along with their army. He had also routed all the formidable demons, Nivat, Kavachas and Kalak Kanyas whom even Indra had not been able to defeat. Arjuna had also defeated all the gods together at Khandava at the request of Agni. Arjuna had offered the Khandava forest to Agni as an offering for him to burn. Arjuna’s heroism was unparalleled and it was quite likely that knowing how unstoppable Arjuna could be, the Kauravas would try something underhand to try to check him. One such underhand thing could be they would try to destroy his chariot wheels and by that he may become immobilized. When he is in this disadvantageous position, they might overpower, conquer and even kill him. If they could not do that, Kauravas’ hope would be that they would be able to immobilize him and limit the damage that he could cause.

The Pandavas were also shrewd enough to know that the Kauravas would try a strategy like this and they chose warriors who were formidable and who would not let Arjuna’s chariot wheel get damaged. That’s how Arjuna could proceed breaking havoc in the enemy camp. So Uttamauja and Yudhamanyu were also slayed in the war eventually. They fought heroically and laid their life for Yudhishthira and Krishna. They attained an exalted destination thereof. The fact that Duryodhana while assessing the Pandava forces mentions them distinctively indicates how formidable they were as warriors and how much more formidable their reputation as warriors was. Even a person like Duryodhana who was besotted by pride and ultra confident about his victory believed that these two warriors were important.

There is no direct reference to either Bhima or Arjuna. It is not because of negligence but because of transcendence. It’s not that Duryodhana was transcendental to material conceptions, but Bhima and Arjuna were so formidable that they were at best referred to as reference points. There would not be anything that Duryodhana would give when the war took place. But he wanted his warriors to be cautious and that’s why he said that – yudhāmanyuś ca vikrānta, uttamaujāś ca vīryavān.

Both of these warriors were unable to do the duty when Arjuna entered into formidable battle zones and could no longer follow him. They also fought fiercely and let down their life. And now, saubhadro draupadeyāś ca, sarva eva mahā-rathāḥ. One who can fight with and kill a thousand warriors is called a maharatha. Both Baldeva Vidya Bhushan and Vishwanath Chakravarthi Thakur in their commentaries quote the verse which describes how the person who can fight with thousand warriors is called a maharatha. The person who can fight with unlimited warriors, more than thousand is called atiratha. The person who can fight up to one warrior is called a rathi. And a person who needs support to fight with another warrior is called  ardharathi. This is the technical definition of the word Maharatha.

It is not that all warriors are exactly maharathis. There are always people who were more proficient in particular places and in particular ways. Then they were less proficient. Just like we have somebody who is a tennis champion. Tennis champion can be of many ways. There can be a reigning champion, a former champion, a grand slam champion or a multiple grand slam champion. They are all in the league of champions. So, to be a maharatha means to be in the league of champions. We know Arjuna was the champion of champions. Even among all these he was by far the greatest. Because they were so formidable there is no mention to them. They are made as a point of comparison. Bhima Arjuna samayudhi.

Duryodhana earlier said, atra śūrā maheṣvāsā (BG 1.04). He said that they have powerful bows and arrows so Drona might try to assure him. Duryodhana thinks by saying that they have a small army we’ll be able to overcome their army easily but he says actually they have enormous firepower, it just needs to be organized properly. Pandavas are organized properly. They have a small army but they have big generals and they also have good organization skills. So, we must be careful. 

Saubhadro draupadeyāś ca – Saubhadra is Abhimanyu and Abhimanyu on the very first day of the battle itself fought with Bhishma. He checked Bhishma for a long time and Bhishma was going on a ravage and leaving a trail of devastation behind. Abhimanyu proved himself to be a hero in every way, almost equal to Arjuna and endeared himself to the Pandava warriors as one of their foremost commanders. He also impressed the Kauravas by his speed, skill and spirit.

 

On the thirteenth day when Drona formed the chakra vyuha, Abhimanyu gallantly, fearlessly at the behest of Yudhishthira entered into the chakra vyuha. Due to Jayadrath’s interruption and deception he was trapped and eventually six maharathas simultaneously attacked him and slaughtered him. But before that he wreaked havoc in the Kaurava army, defeating the generals like Karna, Duryodhana, Dushasana, Shalya, Ashwathama and Drona himself. None of them could stop him. Finally, they all attacked him together and killed him.  This happened on the thirteenth day. On the fourteenth day, Arjuna with the help of Krishna, beheaded Jayadratha and destroyed an entire division of the Kaurava forces who were trying to fend him.

Draupadeyāś ca refers to the five sons of Draupadi. There is Prativindya who was born of Yudhishthir. And there are four other sons, Suta Soma from Bhima, Shruta Keerthi from Arjuna, Shataneeka from Nakula and Shruta Karma from Sahadeva. Abhimanyu was killed on the fourteenth day and the other five sons were killed on the last night, eighteenth day, when Ashwathama carried out the brutal night slaughter.

“Ca” refers to other warriors. It refers to Ghatotkach who was also a formidable warrior. He was a Rakshasa born from Bhima and Hidimbhi . There was Iravan, another son of Arjuna who had also come. They were not draupadayesh ca but sarva eva maharatha. They are all maharatha. So, Duryodhana is saying that because they have so many maharathas, we have to be cautious. We cannot just become complacent because we have a bigger army. And earlier they said maheṣvāsā – they are formidable bowmen. Therefore, we have to be careful and cautious while dealing with them.  In this way, Duryodhana gives expression to the apprehension of his heart.

He doesn’t want to create diffidence in his followers. So, he will do a balancing act in the next verse saying that now he will tell about his own forces and then he will go on to talk about his forces from the eighth verse onwards.