TWENTY-ONE
His mind an angry fire, Duryodhana rides away from Drona. He meets two other Pandava warriors who broke into the padma vyuha at Arjuna’s chariot-wheels: Yuddhamanyu and Uttamaujas still range the inner petals of the Acharya’s lotus. Duryodhana attacks them. He wounds Uttamaujas’ horses, but Yuddhamanyu sets on him ferociously and then Uttamaujas, also, from different directions. They smash Duryodhana’s chariot-wheels and luckily for the Kaurava, Shalya is at hand to rescue him from the Panchala brothers. Their laughter follows him, like smoking oil in his ears.
Meanwhile, Bheema does his best to slip past Karna and reach Arjuna. It seems the only way past is to kill him. Bheema sees his enemy smile at him. He thinks he must be dreaming, that it is not a mocking smile he sees on Karna’s haughty lips. The son of the wind tells himself his mind is playing tricks on him; he must be more tired than he had thought. Arrogant, spiteful Karna could not be smiling at him with such fondness in his eyes!
As the duel progresses, even Bheema has to admire his opponent’s virtuosity. Though he would never admit it, it is archery Arjuna would be proud of. Sweat covers Bheema’s body; this is harder than he had thought. He grits his teeth and shoots his arrows more quickly still. But his adversary is so calm he might not be fighting at all. Then, Karna shoots the armor off Bheema’s chest. The fond smile widens to see the look of dismay on the Pandava’s face. With a roar, Bheema breaks Karna’s bow again. He strikes him with two arrows that crash through his breastplate; and while Karna stumbles briefly, Bheema breaks his chariot-wheels.
Karna leaves the field in a Kaurava prince’s chariot; Bheema surges on toward Arjuna. By Arjuna has been spared having to face Karna so far, because of Bheema’s presence nearby. But the Vayuputra does not get far: out flits Karna from the suchimukha again, the cryptic smile still on his face. Cursing loudly, Bheema attacks him. Suddenly, the images of their long exile come steaming back to the Pandava and he decides to kill the sutaputra if he can. In that rush of anger he breaks two bows in Karna’s hands, in quick succession and is astonished to see a gleam of approval in his enemy’s eyes! Bheema cannot believe this. Beside himself because he thinks Karna is taunting him, he fights with renewed fury.
By now, Karna the kshatriya is roused. Knitting his brow, the lord of Anga draws blood with a clutch of mind-swift arrows that whistle at his antagonist from extraordinary angles. Yet Karna has the disadvantage of knowing this is his brother. He has two battles on his hands: the one against Bheema and the other with himself; while, Bheema just wants to kill an enemy. At being struck, he fights more fiercely, his roars shaking the field.
Bheema’s archery is hardly less than Arjuna’s now and seeing Karna beaten back, Duryodhana cries to his brother Durjaya, “Fly to Karna’s side, or the beast will have his life today!”
Durjaya is one of Duryodhana’s bravest brothers and he rides at Bheema at once. The very sight of him is tonic to the Pandava. Bheema gives a shout of joy and strikes Durjaya’s head off with a crescent-tipped shaft worthy of Drona. Karna wails. He knows each of Duryodhana’s brothers well, has been close to them all. Bheema shatters Karna’s chariot once more. Karna leaps out and stands on the ground, battling on, torn between love and rage.
Duryodhana has lost count of his brothers Bheema has killed today. Like a losing gambler, he sends another one against his cousin; now, he sends Durmukha who is one of the finest archers in both armies. But Bheema is no more the student of archery he had been in Drona’s asrama: today, he fights for revenge. Nine arrows so quick they are like a single unbroken one greet Durmukha. All nine crash into his chest. They rip through his armor, part flesh, bone and gristle and the Kaurava dies without shooting at the son of the wind. Bheema’s ecstatic yell echoes across Kurukshetra.
Guilty, that he may have saved Duryodhana’s brothers if it weren’t his own brother that faced him, Karna feels faint in his chariot and has to sit abruptly on its floor. The raging Bheema stills shoots at him. He cuts the armor off his body. Karna jumps up again and strikes him with an arrow deep in his shoulder. He aimed at his heart, but turned his hand away at the last moment. Bheema’s reply is so savage that Karna has to ride away for a time.
Suicidally emboldened that Bheema has killed so many of them, almost as if now they have as much stake in the next world as this one, five more of Duryodhana’s brothers charge the Pandava. Durmarshana rides with these. Bheema grins like a lion seeing a herd of tender deer. In a bloody blur, he kills all five. They die astonished, that the lumbering Bheema is more of an archer than they had dreamt.
Karna flares back into battle. He has decided to face Bheema as just an enemy now: it is his ksha-triya dharma. Another duel begins. As daylight softens, every moment, Karna and Bheema light up the dharma kshetra with astras.
Karna is at his best; but Bheema matches him shaft for shaft. Both have their armor shot off their backs; both are bloody. Yet again, Bheema strikes Karna deeply in his arm and the panicstricken Duryodhana sends five more of his brothers to rescue his friend. Bheema roaring, Bheema rapturous, Bheema fighting like two Arjunas, shoots them down in a garnet flurry, while Karna howls in shock.
Bheema roars, “Forty-nine, Duryodhana! Send me more.”
Karna fights on. Around the two kshatriyas, soldiers collect to watch them duel. Arjuna, Krishna and Satyaki watch, cheering Bheema loudly. Even they cannot help admiring Karna’s archery; it is so sublime. Of the Kaurava army, Bhoorisravas, Drona, Kripa and Shalya applaud both warriors, regardless. Yuddhamanyu and Uttamaujas are there, too and they shout encouragement only to Bheema.
Trembling in every limb, Duryodhana sends seven more of his brothers to Karna’s side. Nothing would please the Kaurava more than to see Bheema killed. The seven surround Bheema. He laughs uproariously at them, beckoning to them to come closer with his huge hands, as he might little boys. But when the Vayuputra sees the seventh Kaurava who rides against him, his laughter dries up. In grief, mighty Bheema roars, “Ah, Vikarna! Why have you come to me to die?”
On the day of the gambling in Hastinapura, Vikarna was the only Kaurava who spoke for Draupadi. Bheema cries, “I have sworn to kill all hundred of you and I mustn’t break my oath. Oh, I curse this war that you must die with the sinners. Vikarna, forgive me!”
And he strikes Vikarna’s head off. The other six he has already killed and Karna’s roars of outrage rock Kurukshetra. Blind, furious Karna reverts to an old and habitual hatred; he forgets he is fighting his brother. Once more, Bheema the Pandava, Bheema the enemy, stands before him, having killed fifty-six of Duryodhana’s brothers. A gasp goes up from those who watch, because Karna is transformed into another, unearthly archer, for whom the Pandava is no match at all. Quicker than seeing, Karna splits Bheema’s bow, he severs the reins in his sarathy’s hands, he wounds that charioteer with a shaft through his chest. All this happens in a wink and Bheema stands with a bewildered look on his face. He cannot believe this is the same man he sent scuttling from battle, three or four times.
Again, the maddening smile curves Karna’s lips. Bheema casts a heavy lance at him. Serenely and as if he has a day to do it, Karna divides that spear along its length, as it flies at him; the halves hum past him harmlessly. Bheema lifts a shield to protect himself; an arrow like a shard of lightning smashes it into dust. Bheema flings a sword at Karna like a knife-thrower; Karna cuts it down easily.
Far from beaten, Bheema leaps out of his chariot. He lays hold of the first thing that comes to hand and hurls it at Karna: pieces of broken chariots, fallen soldiers’ swords and shields, rocks. Then he sees the carcasses of elephants he himself killed and Bheema picks these up and casts them at Karna! Still smiling, at times laughing aloud at the Pandava’s antics, Karna cuts everything down; he truncates the elephants in the air.
Inexorably, Karna closes on Bheema. Bheema stands before him, chest heaving, uncowed. Karna raises his bow, with an arrow fitted to it, aimed at the Pandava’s heart. Just a kshatriya now, his enemy in the eye of his shaft, Karna draws back his bowstring. At the heart of that long moment, he sees Kunti’s face before him. He remembers his oath to her that he would not kill any of her sons except Arjuna. Suddenly, he sees not a dangerous enemy whom he has at his mercy, but his brother. Karna stays his hand. Instead, he reaches out and prods Bheema with his bow on his great chest, reviling him.
Bheema stands shaking, helpless and Karna cries, “Pandava, you are a glutton and a fool besides, that you dare challenge me. Go back to Virata’s kitchen; you belong there more than on a battlefield. Or go back to the forest and spend your days gathering fruit and roots. Look at you, your face red and helpless as a child! Go home, boy: this is a man’s war and no place for you.”
From a way off, Krishna sees all this. He knows he must come to Karna’s rescue, or how will he spare Bheema’s life before all the Kaurava army? The Dark One cries to Arjuna, “Karna has Bheema at his mercy, he taunts him like fire!”
Arjuna swirls around and covers Karna with a scream of narachas, which home into Karna’s body like cranes into the krauncha mountains. Gratefully, that warrior turns away from Bheema; he allows Arjuna to chase him off. Satyaki rides up to Bheema. The Pandava climbs into his chariot and they ride away, Bheema still trembling, humiliated by a brother he does not know. Arjuna pursues Karna briefly, his dark sarathy glad he had told Surya’s prince who he really was, or Bheema would have lost his life. In rage for Bheema, Arjuna looses an astra after Karna. Aswatthama sees the weapon burning across the field and cuts it down. With a roar, Arjuna turns on his guru’s son.