Day ten: Śikhaṇḍin and Arjuna fell Bhīṣma; the bed of arrows, the pillow and the water

Classical

On the tenth day the Pāṇḍavas marched out at sunrise with Śikhaṇḍin at their head, Bhīma and Arjuna guarding his chariot wheels, Draupadī's sons and Abhimanyu behind, then Dhṛṣṭadyumna, Yudhiṣṭhira with the twins, Virāṭa and Drupada. Bhīṣma pushed through them and killed ten thousand warriors that day, as he had promised. The Kaurava side fought desperately to keep Arjuna away. Duḥśāsana held Arjuna back for a long time, and Arjuna cut down warriors by thousands in the Kaurava army.

Arjuna called to Śikhaṇḍin, ‘Go to the grandsire; do not be afraid of him today. I will throw him down from his chariot.’ Bhīṣma would not shoot at Śikhaṇḍin, keeping his vow. Arjuna, with Śikhaṇḍin in front, pierced Bhīṣma's body with arrows until there was no space of two fingers' width that was not pierced. Bhīṣma took up a sword and shield, but Arjuna cut the shield into pieces before he could get down. The Kaurava defenders broke, and around Bhīṣma's chariot there was one cry: ‘Throw him down! Seize him! Cut him to pieces!’

A little before sunset Bhīṣma fell from his chariot with his head to the east, in the sight of Duryodhana and his brothers. But he did not touch the ground. The arrows that stuck out of him held him a hand's breadth in the air, like a bed. Rain fell on him, the earth shook, and the sun was in its southward course. A voice said, ‘Why should Gaṅgā's son die when the sun is going south?’ He answered, ‘I am alive,’ and told the rishis who came as swans from Lake Mānasa that he would not leave his body until the sun began its northern course. By the boon his father gave him, death would come at his own wish.

The armies laid down their weapons. Some wept and some fled, while others praised Bhīṣma. Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas gathered round. Bhīṣma said, ‘My head hangs down. Give me a pillow.’ Kings brought soft cushions of delicate fabric, but he turned them away with a smile, saying they did not suit a hero's bed. He asked Arjuna to give him a pillow. Arjuna, tears in his eyes, took up Gāṇḍīva, charged three arrows with mantras and set them under Bhīṣma's head to hold it up. Bhīṣma was pleased: ‘That is the pillow for a hero's bed,’ he said, and told the kings to dig a trench round him. When physicians came to pull out the arrows, he sent them away with gifts. ‘Burn me with these arrows still in me,’ he said.

Next morning all the kings came, with girls throwing sandalwood and fried grain on him and women and children staring like creatures gazing at the sun. Bhīṣma said his body was burning and his mouth was dry and asked for water. The kings brought golden jars of cool, sweet water, but he said he was beyond human enjoyments. ‘Arjuna, give me water.’ Arjuna mounted his chariot, bent Gāṇḍīva, charged an arrow with the Parjanya weapon, and pierced the earth on Bhīṣma's right. A jet of cool, pure, scented water rose up and slaked the old man's thirst. The kings waved their garments in wonder. Bhīṣma praised Arjuna, and told Duryodhana to make peace while Kṛṣṇa's wrath was still held back, and Duryodhana became cheerless at his words.

Told by Sañjaya → Dhṛtarāṣṭra

Who: Bhīṣma, Arjuna, Śikhaṇḍin, Duryodhana, Duḥśāsana, Kṛṣṇa

Bound to

Bhishma's bed of arrows: why? (karma explanations) curse

Bhishma on the bed of arrows gives the thousand names origin

Day nine: Bhīṣma's fury, Kṛṣṇa charges again, and how Bhīṣma can be defeated origin

Karṇa meets the fallen Bhīṣma; Droṇa made commander and the promise to seize Yudhiṣṭhira origin

Ambā curse

The eight Vasus, Vasishtha's cow, and Bhishma's birth curse

Bhishma: a Vasu, a cow, and Bhishma Ashtami origin

Places: Kurukṣetra, Lake Mānasa

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (read via archive.org copy of the sacred-texts text) Bhishma Parva, Sections CIX–CXXIII

See it on the tree · All stories

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