The covenants of battle, Vyāsa's gift of sight, and Yuyutsu's change of sides

Classical

When the two armies stood facing each other on Kurukṣetra, like two agitated oceans at the end of an age, the whole land behind them was empty except for the very young and the very old. Before a single arrow flew, the Kurus, the Pāṇḍavas and the Somakas met and agreed on the rules of fighting. Equals must fight equals: chariot-warrior against chariot-warrior, elephant-rider against elephant-rider, horseman against horseman, foot-soldier against foot-soldier. Each man must strike only after giving notice, and according to his fitness and courage. A duel of words was to be answered with words. Those who left the ranks must not be killed.

The covenant went further. No one should be struck who was unprepared, frightened, or already engaged with another. No one who was asking for quarter, retreating, or whose weapon was broken or armour off should be hit. Charioteers, animals, the men who carried weapons and the musicians who blew conches and drums were all to be left alone. When they had settled these terms, the warriors looked at each other with some wonder and then settled into their ranks, glad at heart. Almost none of these rules would survive the eighteen days.

Meanwhile Vyāsa, who could see past, present and future, came privately to the blind Dhṛtarāṣṭra, who was sunk in sorrow over his sons' evil policy. He told him the hour of these men had come, and that nothing could change it. He offered to give the king the power of seeing the battle with his own eyes. Dhṛtarāṣṭra refused, saying he could not bear to see his kinsmen slaughtered, but he asked that he be able to hear it all in detail. Vyāsa therefore gave the gift of divine sight to Sañjaya, who would be able to see everything, near or far, by day or night, and to report it faithfully.

The war began with a moment of uneasy courtesy. On the first morning Yudhiṣṭhira took off his armour, laid aside his weapons and walked across the no-man's-land towards Bhīṣma and the other elders to seek their blessing. As he walked, a ripple of contempt ran through the Kaurava ranks, who thought him a coward, but after he had received blessings from Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Kṛpa and Śalya, he turned and called out to the opposing army: whoever chooses us, we will choose as our ally.

One man did. Yuyutsu, a son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra by a vaiśya woman, stepped forward and told Yudhiṣṭhira that he would fight on the Pāṇḍava side, against his own brothers, if Yudhiṣṭhira would have him. Yudhiṣṭhira welcomed him warmly: ‘Come, we will fight your foolish brothers. On you rests the line of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and his funeral cake.’ Yuyutsu left the Kurus with a beating of drums and cymbals, and Yudhiṣṭhira put on his armour again and remounted his chariot. Yuyutsu would be one of the few Kauravas to survive the war, and later governed in the new regime.

Told by Sañjaya → Dhṛtarāṣṭra

Who: Yudhiṣṭhira, Yuyutsu, Vyāsa, Sañjaya, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Bhīṣma

Bound to

Sanjaya's divine sight origin

Bhīṣma's conditions: the rathas and atirathas assessed origin

Yudhiṣṭhira seeks the elders' blessing; the first day origin

The Bhagavad Gītā origin

Places: Kurukṣetra

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (read via archive.org copy of the sacred-texts text) Bhishma Parva, Sections I, II and XLII

See it on the tree · All stories

← Jyotisar: the banyan and the Gita · Yudhiṣṭhira seeks the elders' blessing; the first day →