Jayadratha Closes The Breach
Shining as a thunderbolt and causing thunder on impact with the ground, Abhimanyu’s chariot darted towards the Kaurava militias; an impressive procession of heroes followed him closely. And as easily as a knife penetrates butter, under the eyes of the admired acarya, the young son of Arjuna miraculously entered the vyuha, causing an effect similar to an explosion. Within seconds the prodigious boy left behind a trail of death and destruction. Quickly, Duryodhana tried to prevent him from entering, but was barely saved by Drona.
In a few moments Abhimanyu had already arrived at the heart of the padma-vyuha. Karna, Shalya, Bhurisrava and Duhssasana faced him, but were badly defeated and forced to retreat. The soldiers, as they fled, shouted:
“You can’t fight Abhimanyu. He is a terrible combination between Krishna and Arjuna. What can we do against him?”
And the confusion caused by fighters and fugitives became total. As he fought a graceful smile lit up Abhimanyu’s face. The Kauravas fell by the thousands before him.
Drona and Kripa had phrases of admiration for his extraordinary class; but Duryodhana, when he saw that the acaryas had paused to praise the son of Arjuna instead of attacking him, became furious.
“It’s your fault that Abhimanyu got in,” he shouted. “If it had been someone else, you wouldn’t have let him, but because you love Arjuna and his son too much, you allowed him to penetrate our formation. We have to push him back, or it will be a disaster for us.”
And he himself threw himself at the boy. However, after a few seconds, he was seriously injured and had to flee to save his life.
At one point, while spreading terror and death in the enemy ranks, Abhimanyu realized with consternation that he was alone, that his uncles had not been able to follow him. What happened?
Having seen Abhimanyu approaching at dizzying speed, Jayadratha had guessed his intentions so, as soon as he saw that the boy had disappeared in the ranks of the Kaurava army, he had led his troops into the breach that had been created, and had prevented the passage of the Pandava heroes. The thing was unbelievable: Jayadratha alone had managed to block the Pandavas and their allies: a feat that would usually have been deemed impossible by everyone. How could this have happened?
It is worth remembering the episode during which Jayadratha, after trying to kidnap Draupadi, was beaten and humiliated by Bhima. But after countless austerities, Shiva had granted him the blessing of being able, for once, to defeat all the Pandavas together, except Arjuna. That day Jayadratha had made use of the capacity that had been accorded him. However valiantly the Pandavas had fought, Jayadratha had seemed invincible; meanwhile the breach created by Abhimanyu had closed and the padma-vyuha reformed.
To his horror, Yudhisthira realized that the boy was left alone among hundreds of thousands of enemies.
This is a section of the book “Maha-bharata, Vol. 2”.
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