Kurukshetra War
The Kurukshetra War, also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the Hindu epic poem Mahabharata, arising from a dynastic struggle between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura. The war is used as the context for the dialogues of the Bhagavad Gita.
Background
The Mahābhārata recounts the lives and deeds of several generations of a ruling dynasty known as the Kuru clan. Central to the epic is a dynastic conflict between two branches of this family—the five Pandava brothers and their cousins, the hundred Kauravas—over the throne of Hastinapura. The climactic battle takes place at Kurukshetra, literally the “field of the Kurus,” also called Dharmakshetra. According to the text, the site was chosen because sins committed there would be absolved due to the land’s sanctity.The war narrative occupies nearly one-fifth of the Mahābhārata, primarily in its sixth to tenth books. Krishna plays a pivotal role as mediator and as Arjuna’s charioteer. On the eve of battle, when Arjuna hesitates to fight his relatives and teachers, Krishna delivers a discourse on duty and existence, later compiled as the Bhagavad Gītā.
The conflict begins after failed negotiations to divide the kingdom. Both sides gather powerful allies from across the subcontinent: the Pandavas are supported by Drupada and Shikhandi, while the Kauravas are aided by Bhīṣma, Drona, Karna, and Shalya.
Historicity and dating
The historicity of the war remains the subject of scholarly discussion. The Battle of the Ten Kings, mentioned in the Rigveda, may have formed the core of the Kurukshetra war's story. The war was greatly expanded and modified in the MahabharataFile:Late Vedic Culture.png|thumb|left|The approximate extent of Āryāvarta during the late Vedic period. Aryavarta was limited to northwest India and the western Ganges plain, while Greater Magadha in the east was habitated by non-Vedic Indo-Aryans, who gave rise to Jainism and Buddhism.
File:Hitopadesha.jpg|thumb|left|Modern bronze sculpture of Chariot with Krishna and Arjuna during the Kurukshetra War.
Literary traces
Although the Kurukshetra War is not mentioned in Vedic literature, its prominence in later literature led British Indologist A. L. Basham to conclude that there was a great battle at Kurukshetra which, "magnified to titanic proportions, formed the basis of the story of the greatest of India's epics, the Mahābhārata". Acknowledging that later "generations looked upon it as marking an end of an epoch", he suggested that rather than being a civil war it might have been "a muddled recollection of the conquest of the Kurus by a tribe of Mongol type from the hills". He saw it as useless to the historian and dates the war to the ninth century BCE based on archaeological evidence and "some evidence in the Brahmana literature itself to show that it cannot have been much earlier".Puranic literature presents genealogical lists associated with the Mahābhārata narrative. There are two pieces of evidence of the Puranas: there is the direct statement that there were 1,015 years between the birth of Parikshit and the accession of Mahapadma Nanda, commonly dated to 382 BCE, which would yield an estimate of about 1400 BCE for the Bharata battle, which would imply improbably long reigns on average for the kings listed in the genealogies.
There are also analyses of parallel genealogies in the Puranas between the times of Adhisimakrishna and Mahapadma Nanda. Pargiter estimated 26 generations by averaging 10 different dynastic lists and assuming 18 years for the average duration of a reign, arrived at an estimate of 850 BCE for Adhisimakrishna and approximately 950 BCE for the Bharata battle.
Scholarly dating
Despite the inconclusiveness of the data, attempts have been made to assign a historical date to the Kurukshetra War. The existing text of the Mahābhārata went through many revisions, and mostly belongs to the period between c. 500 BCE and 400 CE. Within the frame story of the Mahābhārata, the kings Parikshit and Janamejaya are featured significantly as scions of the Kuru clan, and Michael Witzel concludes that the general setting of the epic has a historical precedent in the Vedic period, where the Kuru kingdom was the center of political power during roughly 1200 to 800 BCE. According to Professor Alf Hiltebeitel, the Mahābhārata is essentially mythological. Indian historian Upinder Singh wrote:According to Finnish Sindhologist Asko Parpola, the war may have taken place during the later phase of the Painted Grey Ware, c/ 750–350 BCE.
Popular tradition and archaeoastronomy
Popular tradition holds that the war marks the transition to Kali Yuga and dates it to 3102 BCE. A number of other proposals have been put forward:- Vedveer Arya gives a date of 3162 BCE, by distinguishing between the Śaka and Śakanta eras and applying correction of 60 years to the date given in popular tradition and based on Aihole inscription.
- B. N. Achar used planetarium software to argue that the Mahabharata War took place in 3067 BCE.
- Dieter Koch dates the war to 1198 BCE using planetarium software on the basis super-conjunctions mentioned in the text.
- Kesheo Lakshman Daftari, one of the members of the Calendar Reform Committee which prepared the Indian national calendar, holds that the war took place in 1197 BCE.
- V. S. Dubey claims that the war happened near 950 BCE.
Associations with archaeological cultures
According to Parpola, the war may have taken place during the later phase of the Painted Grey Ware culture, c. 750-350 BCE. He noted that the Pandava heroes are not being mentioned in the Vedic literature from before the Grhyasutras. Parpola suggests that the Pandavas were Iranic migrants, who came to South Asia around 800 BCE.
Excavations in Sinauli unearthed burials with the remains of carts belonging to the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture. Several authors proposed to relate the Rig Vedic culture and the war to the OCP, instead of the PGW. While the carts are dated to 1800–1500 BCE, Gupta and Mani state that "in the present state of archaeological evidence OCP seems to be a stronger contender for the Mahābhārata association", dating the war to the 4th millennium BCE. Parpola sees the finds as ox-pulled carts, indicating support for his proposal for a first wave of Indo-Aryan migrations into the Indian subcontinent at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, prior to the migration of the Rig Vedic people.
Mahabharata account of the war
Beginning
In the beginning, Sanjaya gives a description of the various continents of the Earth, the other planets, and focuses on the Indian subcontinent, then gives an elaborate list of kingdoms, tribes, provinces, cities, towns, villages, rivers, mountains, and forests of the ancient Indian subcontinent. He also explains the military formations adopted by each side on each day, the death of each hero and the details of each war-racing.Krishna's peace mission
As a last attempt at peace is called for in Rajadharma, Krishna travels to the Kingdom of Hastinapura to persuade the Kauravas to see reason, avoid bloodshed of their kin, and to embark upon a peaceful path with him as the "divine" ambassador of the Pandavas. Duryodhana is insulted that Krishna turns down his invitation to accommodate himself in the royal palace. Duryodhana plots to arrest Krishna and insult, humiliate, and defame him in front of the entire royal court of Hastinapura as a challenge to the prestige of the Pandavas and declaration of an act of open war.At the formal presentation of the peace proposal by Krishna in the Kuru Mahasabha at the court of Hastinapura, Krishna asks Duryodhana to return Indraprastha to the Pandavas and restore the status quo, or at least give five villages, one for each of the Pandavas; Duryodhana refuses. Krishna's peace proposals are ignored and dismissed, and Duryodhana publicly orders his soldiers to arrest Krishna despite warnings from the elders. Krishna laughs and displays his divine form, radiating intense light. He curses Duryodhana that his downfall was certain at the hands of the one who was sworn to tear off his thigh. His peace mission utterly insulted by Duryodhana, Krishna returns to the Pandava camp at Upaplavya to inform the Pandavas that the only course left to uphold the principles of virtue and righteousness is war. During his return, Krishna meets Karna, Kunti's firstborn, and asks him to help his brothers and fight on the side of dharma. However, as he is being helped by Duryodhana, Karna says to Krishna that he would battle against the Pandavas as he had a debt to pay.
War preparations
Duryodhana and Arjuna go to Krishna at Dvaraka to ask for his and his army's help. Duryodhana arrives first and finds Krishna asleep. Duryodhana chooses a seat at Krishna's head and waits for him to awaken, while Arjuna sits and waits at Krishna's feet. When Krishna woke up, he saw Arjuna first and gave him the first right to make his request. Krishna tells Arjuna and Duryodhana that he would give the Narayani Sena consisting of gopas to one side and himself as a non-combatant to the other. Since Arjuna is given the first opportunity to choose, Duryodhana worries that Arjuna would choose the mighty army of Krishna. When given the choice of either Krishna's army or Krishna himself on their side, Arjuna chooses Krishna. Arjuna asks Krishna to be his charioteer, who agrees. Both Duryodhana and Arjuna returned satisfied.The Pandavas gather their armies while camping at Upaplavya in Virata's territory. Contingents arrive from across the country.