James Baquet

The Kurukshetra War is the kernel of one of India’s two great epics, “The Mahabharata.” (The other epic, “The Ramayana,” also details a great battle.) Though some have doubted its historicity, there is no doubt that the epic poem in which it is contained has had an immense effect on the culture of India.

Kurukshetra is a place. Today it is a city, located 160 kilometers from the nation’s capital at New Delhi. But the name means “the field (kshetra) of King Kuru,” who happens to be an ancestor of the two groups of cousins at the heart of the two opposing armies, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. It is where the battle took place. (Incidentally, the designation “cha” (刹) for a Chinese Buddhist temple is actually a shortened form of “cha duo luo,” a transliteration of kshetra.)

Fought sometime before the Common Era, the war claimed the lives of many warriors — and all because of a game of dice.

It seems that after around 10 generations, Kuru’s kingdom had become divided between the two clans. As the epic relates, Dhritarashtra led the Kauravas, and his cousin Yudhishthira ruled the Pandavas. The two leaders played at dice. Dhritarashtra cheated, taking advantage of Yudhishthira’s gambling addiction, and the Pandavas lost everything.

The agreement was that the five Pandava brothers (with their sole wife Draupadi) would go into exile for 13 years; but at the end of that time, Dhritarashtra (always the cheat!) refused to yield, and war became the only way to resolve the disagreement.

Each army fielded thousands of chariots, elephants and horses, and millions of men. The intense battle lasted for a full 18 days.

When it was over, all 100 of the Kaurava brothers were dead (save one, who fought for the Pandavas), and only four members of their vast army remained alive. Though the Pandavas also lost prodigious numbers, the five brothers survived, and Yudhishthira became king of the reunified Kuru Kingdom. After reigning for 36 years, he and his brothers and their wife renounced everything and set off for the Himalayas. All died along the way except Yudhishthira, who was taken bodily into heaven.

Vocabulary:

Which words above mean:

1. brought together again

2. writing of a word in a different set of characters

3. give up

4. branch of a large family

5. abnormally large

6. gave up

7. authenticity of an account

8. only

9. inability to give something up

10. physically, in the flesh