Sunday, November 1, 2015



Day 1
Overview
The first day of battle ended with a slight victory for the kuru army. Bhisma showed his prowess on the battlefield by killing the great hero Sweta before sunset.
At the start of the day the armies got the first chance to see each other. The warriors of the pandavas were afraid at first of the kuru army due to its large size. Even some of the hero’s upon seeing Bhisma and Drona together on the field of battle started to shake. This fear however was soon dispelled when Arjuna went before all the troops and gave a speech to Yudhisthera about how Bhima would lead them to battle. He stated all the qualifications of Bhima and how he would be there shelter in the battle like how Indra is the shelter of the gods. The whole army started to celebrate and chant the name of Bhima in his glorification. Bhima along with other key hero’s went to the front and the army gathered behind him. At this point the fear now belonged to the kuru’s who seeing Bhima at the head of the army armed with his massive mace began to shake and could not even look at him.
While the army of Pandavas was forming Dhristadyumna met Duryodhana on the field and they discussed the various rules of
engagement. After this was over Dhristadyumna bluntly informed Duryodhana that he did not expect the kuru’s would hold to them
and that if the Kauravas cheated the Pandavas would respond in turn
Duryodhana was furious upon hearing this and went to Drona and spoke about the array of the Pandavas and how the Kuru’s should relay on Bhisma like how the Pandavas relay on Bhima.
Bhisma blew on his conch shell and the Pandavas returned with there own. It was at this point that the battle had officialy started.
Arjuna left his place in the formation and seeing his grandfather and other relatives was overcome with emotion. He began to cry and dropped his bow. Krsna and him spoke the Bagavad Gita for about an hour and Arjuna took up his bow and returned to the army
At this point Yudhistera took off his armor and went to his
seniors on the field of battle and asked there permission to
fight, which they granted. They all lamented that they had to
fight against Yudhistera and blamed the fact that they had to fight for Duryodhana on greed.
When Yudhistera returned into position the kuru army blew the conch shells and beat on drums once again. All the Pandavas responded by blowing on there own, except Bhima who’s roars rose above the sound of the instruments. Bhima roared like a angry bull and caused all the animals of the kuru army to cry in fear simply by the almost supernatural volume of his voice.
The two armies who had been waiting for the war a long time charged at each other with much anticipation and excitement. At the start there was a great chaos and the warriors hacked and shot each other with various weapons. Each of the main fighters for the Pandavas had a particular person which they were supposed to fight in the war. This was told to them at the start every day by Dhristadyumna who was general of the army. Many single combats ensued between particular great warriors. Protected by a group of key fighters Bhisma broke free from fighting Arjuna and started destroying the united forces from Kashi, Karusha, Chedi and Panchala. While Bhisma massacred the Pandava army one brave hero stepped forward to challenge him. Abhimanyu and Bhisma fought a great battle and many people feared for the life of Bhisma due to the fighting ability of Abhimanyu.
Soon Abhimanyu was fighting not only Bhisma but also all his protectors and suporting forces single handedly. Abhimanyu began to waver due to the large number of warriors he was fighting ,so
Bhima and some other pandava warriors joined to support Abhimanyu and the confrontation became general.
Bhumanjaya charged at Shalya from the back of his elephant and killed the horses of Shalya. Shalya responded by throwing a
iron dart at Bhumanjaya and killing him. Shalya then leapt from his chariot and cut the head off the elephant with a large sword.
Sweta was the brother of Bhumanjaya and was a great warrior. When he observed that his brother was slain he charged at Shalya
to kill him. Imediatly 7 kuru Maharaths intercepted him and began to fight him. Sweta single handedly out matched all them
destroying there various weapons and humiliating the lot of them. Bhisma then came forward to fight against sweta and a magnificent battle ensued. Bhisma and Sweta fired volleys of arrows wounding
not only there foe but also the troops supporting them. Bhisma caused huge piles of corpses to form on the feild. In a short span of time over 10,000 chariots, elephants and other warriors
were smashed to pieces. Not a single person in the surrounding area was left un-struck by Bhisma. Sweta also killed thousands of Kuru’s while firing at Bhisma. Duryodhana became worried about
Duryodhana due to the prowess that Sweta was showing and ordered a large number of Maharaths to support Bhisma. They all fired at Sweta a huge shower of arrows however he destroyed all there arrows and broke the bow of Bhisma and his standard. Bishma became enraged and killed the horses and chariot driver of sweta and broke his chariot. Sweta leapt from his chariot and tossed a flaming dart which Bhisma split in half with an arrow. Then Sweta took up a mace and threw it a Bhisma with great force. Bhisma could see that it was incapable of being countered so he jumped off his chariot just in time. His chariot and horses were completely destroyed and reduced to ashes. Bhisma got on a new chariot and shot a Bhramastra at Sweta which shot through his heart and killed him.