01The Acharya takes command
With Bhishma lying on his bed of arrows, Duryodhana turned to the teacher of both houses. Drona was anointed commander on the eleventh day, and Karna, who had kept out of the fight while Bhishma led, now took the field. Duryodhana asked for one thing only: take Yudhishthira alive. A captured king could be sent back to the forest after another game of dice. Drona agreed, with a condition. Arjuna must first be drawn away, for no one could seize Yudhishthira while the Gandiva stood beside him.
02The samshaptakas
So the Trigarta princes under Susharma swore the samshaptaka oath. They would kill Arjuna or die, and would never turn back. They called him out to the south of the field, and Arjuna, bound by a warrior’s word, went. On the twelfth day, between these fights, he also faced old Bhagadatta of Pragjyotisha on his great elephant Supratika, and brought both down. Each time Arjuna was away, Drona pressed hard towards Yudhishthira. Each time he came back in time.
03Abhimanyu in the chakravyuha
On the thirteenth day Drona drew up the chakravyuha, the wheel formation, while the samshaptakas again kept Arjuna busy. Only Arjuna and Krishna knew how to break it. Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s son by Subhadra, sixteen years old by tradition, knew how to go in but not how to come out. He went in, and the Pandava brothers who were to follow him were held at the breach by Jayadratha of Sindhu, who had won a boon from Mahadev to hold back all the Pandavas but Arjuna for one day. Inside, alone, Abhimanyu fought Drona, Kripa, Karna, Ashvatthama and the rest together. They cut his bow and his chariot, and he fought on with a wheel in his hands until the son of Duhshasana struck him down with a mace.
04Before the sun sets
Arjuna came back to the camp that evening and found it silent. When he heard how his son had died, he swore before Krishna and his brothers that he would kill Jayadratha before the next sunset, or enter the fire himself. The whole Kaurava host was set around Jayadratha on the fourteenth day, with Drona at the gate. Arjuna went around Drona, and through the Kaurava army for most of a day. Satyaki and Bhima broke through after him. As the sun was going down, Arjuna’s arrow took Jayadratha’s head.
05The night battle and Ghatotkacha
That day the fighting did not stop at dusk. Torches were lit and the armies fought on into the night, the only time in the war. In the dark Bhima’s son Ghatotkacha, born of Hidimba, grew mighty with his rakshasa powers and broke the Kaurava ranks. Duryodhana begged Karna to stop him. Karna had one weapon that never missed, the Shakti that Indra had given him in return for his armour and earrings, and he had kept it for Arjuna alone. To save the army he hurled it at Ghatotkacha, who fell dead. Krishna rejoiced, for Arjuna was now safe from it.
06“Ashvatthama is slain”
On the fifteenth day Drona slew his old rival Drupada and King Virata. No one could stand before him. Krishna said that Drona would put down his weapons only if he heard that his son was dead. Bhima killed an elephant named Ashvatthama and shouted that Ashvatthama was slain. Drona did not believe it and asked Yudhishthira, who had never spoken a lie. Yudhishthira said it, and said the last word, “the elephant”, so low that it was not heard. His chariot, which had always run four fingers above the earth, touched the ground.
07Drona’s end, the Narayanastra
Drona put down his bow, sat on his chariot in yoga and fixed his mind on the Supreme. Dhrishtadyumna, born from Drupada’s sacrificial fire to slay him, climbed up and cut off his head. Arjuna cried out against it, but it was done. Ashvatthama, wild with grief, loosed the Narayanastra on the Pandava army. Krishna told every warrior to get down from his chariot and drop his weapons, because the astra spares those who submit. Bhima refused at first and stood in its fire until Arjuna and Krishna pulled him down. Then the astra passed.
Famous verses
तमतथ्यभये मग्नो जये सक्तो युधिष्ठिरः । अव्यक्तमब्रवीद्राजन्हतः कुञ्जर इत्युत ॥
Sunk in the fear of untruth, yet set on victory, Yudhishthira said, O king, indistinctly: “the elephant is slain.”Mahabharata 7.164.106 (BORI CE)