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Ashwatthama

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Ashwatthama
Ashwatthama (right) leaves after being forgiven by Draupadi and the Pandavas, 18th century Pahari miniature
Information
WeaponBow and Arrow, Sword
FamilyDrona (father)
Kripi (mother)
RelativesKripa (maternal uncle)
Bharadvaja (grandfather)
ReligionHindu, Hinduism

Ashwatthama (Sanskrit: अश्वत्थामा, IAST: Aśvatthāmā), also referred to as Drauni, was a warrior of the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. He was the son of Drona, and Kripi. In the Mahabharata, he served as a friend to Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas. He was trained in warfare along with the Kauravas, and the Pandavas by his father, Drona. He is also described as a Maharathi[1] who fought on the side of the Kauravas against the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra War, and was cursed by Krishna with immortality for his attempt to kill Uttarā's unborn child.[2] Ashwatthama had gained knowledge of various divine weapons, namely the Narayanastra, Brahmastra, Brahmashirastra, and many others.

Etymology

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According to the Mahabharata, Ashwatthama means "the sacred voice which relates to that of a horse".[3] He is so-named because it is believed that when he was born, he cried out like a horse.[4]

Some of his other names are:

  • Dronaputra (द्रोणपुत्र) - Son of Dronacharya
  • Guruputra (गुरुपुत्र) - Son of Guru Drona
  • KripiKumara (कृपिकुमार) - Son of Kripi
  • Acharyaputra (आचार्यपुत्र) - Son of Acharya (Dronacharya)

Birth and life prior to the war

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Ashwatthama was the son of Drona, and Kripi. He was born in a cave in a forest (in present-day Tapkeshwar Mahadev Temple, Dehradun, Uttarakhand). Drona performed many years of severe penance to please Shiva in order to obtain a son who possessed the same valiance as Shiva.

He was born with a divine gem on his forehead which gave him power over all living beings lower than humans; it also protected him from hunger, thirst, fatigue, old age, diseases, weapons, and deities. The gem made him almost invincible and immortal. Though an expert in warfare, Drona lived a simple life with little money or property. As a result, Ashwatthama had a difficult childhood, with his family not even being able to afford milk. Wanting to provide a better life for his family, Drona went to the Panchala Kingdom to seek aid from his former classmate and friend, Drupada, who had promised Drona that when he became king, he would share half of his kingdom with him. However, Drupada rebuked the friendship, claiming that a king and a beggar cannot be friends, humiliating Drona.

After this incident and seeing the plight of Drona, Kripa invited Drona to Hastinapura. Thus, Drona became the guru of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Ashwatthama was also trained in the art of warfare along with them.[1] Ashwatthama becomes an expert in warfare, learning various secrets and divine weapons.

During his time with the princes, Duryodhana observed Ashwatthama's fondness for horses and gifted him a well-bred horse. In exchange, Duryodhana gained the personal allegiance of Ashwatthama to himself and, by extension, to the Kauravas, in addition to Drona's duty-bound allegiance to Hastinapura.

When Drona asked his disciples to give him his dakṣiṇā; requesting the capture of Drupada, while the Kauravas failed, the Pandavas defeated Drupada and presented him before Drona. Drona took the northern half of Drupada's kingdom and crowned Ashwatthama as its king, with its capital at Ahichchhatra.

Role in the Kurukshetra war

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Aswathama FIres narayana Weapon on Pandavas

When Hastinapura offered Drona the privilege of teaching the Kauravas, both Drona and Ashwatthama became loyal to Hastinapura and fought on the side of the Kauravas in the Kurukshetra war.

On the 14th day of the war, he killed a division of Rakshasas, including Anjanaparvan (the powerful son of Ghatotkacha), and defeated Ghatotkacha, as well, but failed to counter his illusions. He also stood against Arjuna several times, trying to prevent him from reaching Jayadratha, but was defeated and ran away from the battlefield. However, during the entire process of protecting Jayadratha, Ashwatthama, at one point in time, successfully saved Duryodhana's divine celestial armour and life by using his Sarvastra arrow and destroying the powerful Manavastra arrow launched by an angry Arjuna towards Duryodhana.

Bhima kills an elephant named Ashwatthama. Folio from Razmnama.

On the 10th day of the war, after Bhishma fell, Drona became the supreme commander of the armies. He promised Duryodhana that he would capture Yudhishthira, but he repeatedly failed to do so. Duryodhana taunted and insulted him, which greatly angered Ashwatthama, causing a rift between Ashwatthama and Duryodhana.

Knowing it would be impossible to defeat an armed Drona that day since Arjuna refused to kill his guru, Krishna suggested a plan to disarm Drona by some means of contrivance. Bhima would then proceed to kill an elephant named Ashwatthama, and then claim to Drona that he has killed his son. Disbelieving his claim, Drona approached Yudhishthira, knowing of Yudhishthira's firm adherence to Dharma and honesty. When Drona asked for the truth, Yudhishthira responded with "Ashwatthama is dead, the elephant." Adding the word elephant indistinctly so that Drona could not hear it.[5]

Dhrishtadyumna used this opportunity to kill the grieving Drona as revenge against Drona's killing of his father, Drupada. After learning of the deceptive way his father was killed, Ashwatthama became filled with wrath and invoked the Narayanastra against the Pandavas.

When the weapon was invoked, violent winds begin to blow, the sound of thunder echoed, and an arrow appeared for every Pandava soldier. Knowing that the astra ignores unarmed people, Krishna instructed all the troops to abandon their chariots and disarm. After getting their soldiers to disarm (including Bhima with some difficulty), the astra passed by harmlessly. When urged by Duryodhana to use the weapon again, desirous of victory, Ashwatthama said that if the weapon were to be used again, it would turn on its user.

The Narayanastra destroyed one Akshauhini of the Pandava army. However, after the use of Narayanastra, a terrible war between both armies took place. Seeing his Narayanastra fail to kill the Pandavas, Ashwatthama invoked the Agneyastra and launched it toward all the visible and invisible foes. The weapon soon overpowered and encompassed Arjuna with several fiery flaming arrows and created havoc within the Pandava army. Upon witnessing this sight and realising the seriousness of the situation, Arjuna used his Varunastra to subdue the effects of the Agneyastra, but by then it completely destroyed another Akshauhini of the Pandava army, which only Arjuna and Krishna managed to survive. This shocked Ashwatthama as he fled the battlefield confused and in doubt about his knowledge and skills. Later, Ashwatthama defeated Dhrishtadyumna in direct combat but failed to kill him as Satyaki and Bhima covered his retreat, in the process engaging in a battle against Ashwatthama. Ashwatthama defeated both the warriors and made them retreat from the battlefield, as well.[6]

Ashwatthama fired millions of arrows at a time, which resulted in the stupefaction of Arjuna himself. Ashwatthama again tried to overpower Arjuna, but at last, Arjuna defeated him by piercing his body with several arrows which made him unconscious and his charioteer took Ashwatthama away from Arjuna.

King Malayadhvaja of the Pandya Kingdom, one of the mightiest warriors of the Pandavas, fought against Ashwatthama. After a long duel of archery between them, Ashwatthama rendered Malayadhvaja weaponless and got an opportunity to kill him on the spot, but he spared him temporarily for more fighting. Malayadhvaja then proceeded against Ashwatthama on an elephant and threw a powerful lance, which destroyed the latter's diadem. Ashwathama beheaded Malaydhavaja, cut his arms and also killed six followers of Malayadhvaja. Seeing this, all the great warriors of the Kaurava army applauded Ashwatthama for his act.[7]

After the terrible death of Dushasana, Ashwatthama suggested Duryodhana make peace with the Pandavas, keeping in mind the welfare of Hastinapura. Later, after Duryodhana was struck down by Bhima and faced death, the last three survivors from the Kaurava side, Ashwatthama, Kripa, and Kritvarma, rushed to his side. Ashwatthama swore to bring Duryodhana revenge, and Duryodhana appointed him as the Commander-in-Chief after Shalya was slain earlier during the day.

Along with Kripa and Kritavarma, Ashwatthama planned to attack the Pandavas' camp at night. When Ashwatthama reached there, he encountered Shiva in a terrifying ghost form guarding the Pandavas' camp. Not recognizing him, Ashwatthama fearlessly started attacking the terrifying ghost with all his powerful weapons but failed to inflict even any damage upon it. Shortly, a golden altar manifested before him and he offered himself as a sacrificial libation in exchange for passage into the camp. Shiva appeared in his true form in front of Ashwatthama and offered him a divine sword. Then Shiva himself entered the body of Ashwatthama, making him completely unstoppable.[8]

After Ashwatthama entered the camp, he first kicked and awakened Dhrishtadyumna, the commander of the Pandava army and the killer of his father. Ashwatthama strangled the half-awake Dhrishtadyumna as the prince begged to be allowed to die with a sword in his hand, ultimately choking him to death. Ashwatthama proceeded with butchering the remaining warriors, including Shikhandi, Uttamaujas, Yudhamanyu, Upapandavas and many other prominent warriors of the Pandava army. Even though many warriors tried to fight back, Ashwatthama remained unharmed due to his body being possessed by Shiva. Those who tried to flee from Ashwatthama's wrath were hacked down by Kripa and Kritavarma at the camp's entrances.[9]

After the slaughter, the three warriors returned to Duryodhana. After relaying to him the deaths of all the Panchalas and the Upapandavas, he congratulated Ashwatthama for achieving what Bhishma, Drona, and Karna could not before breathing his last breath.[10]

Ashwattama gets arrested and is brought to Draupadi by Arjuna.

The Pandavas and Krishna, who were away during the night, now returned to their camp. Hearing the news of these events, Yudhishthira fainted, and the Pandavas became inconsolable. Bhima angrily rushed to kill Drona's son. They found him at Sage Vyasa's ashram near the bank of the Ganges.[11]

Ashwatthama, believing his time had come, invoked the Brahmastra against the Pandavas from a tiny blade of grass to fulfill the oath of killing them. Krishna told Arjuna to fire his own Brahmastra as an anti-weapon against Ashwatthama to defend themselves. Vyasa intervened and prevented the destructive weapons from clashing against each other. He asked both Arjuna and Ashwatthama to take their weapons back. Arjuna, knowing how to do so, took it back.[12]

Ashwatthama, not knowing how, redirected the Brahmastra toward the womb of the pregnant Uttara in an attempt to end the lineage of the Pandavas. Krishna saved Uttara's unborn child from the effects of the Brahmastra, on the request of Draupadi, Subhadra, and Sudeshna. Ashwatthama was then made to surrender the gem on his forehead and cursed by Krishna that he would roam in the forests till the end of Kali yuga with blood and pus oozing out of his injuries, and with no one to talk to.[13] Ashwatthama then went to the forest never to be seen again.[14]

Lineage

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A theory is proposed by historians R. Sathianathaier and D. C. Sircar, with endorsements by Hermann Kulke, Dietmar Rothermund and Burton Stein.[15] Sircar points out that the family legends of the Pallavas speak of an ancestor descending from Ashwatthama and his union with a Naga princess. It was the son born from this union, that would have started this dynasty. This claim finds support in the fact that Kanchipuram was where the Pallavas would dwell, and this was earlier a part of the Naga Kingdom.

A further corroboration is that the gotra of the Pālave Maratha family is Bharadwaja (grandfather of Ashwatthama), same as the one which Pallavas have attributed to themselves in their records.[16]

There is a shrine for Ashwatthama in the famous Ananthapadmanabhaswamy temple of Thiruvananthapuram.

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Literature

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The Sapta Chiranjivi Stotram is a mantra that is featured in Hindu literature:

अश्वत्थामा बलिर्व्यासो हनुमांश्च विभीषण:।
कृप: परशुरामश्च सप्तैतै चिरञ्जीविन:॥
सप्तैतान् संस्मरेन्नित्यं मार्कण्डेयमथाष्टमम्।
जीवेद्वर्षशतं सोपि सर्वव्याधिविवर्जितः॥


aśvatthāmā balirvyāsō hanumāṁśca vibhīṣaṇaḥ।
kṛpaḥ paraśurāmaśca saptaitai cirañjīvinaḥ॥
saptaitān saṁsmarēnnityaṁ mārkaṇḍēyamathāṣṭamam।
jīvēdvarṣaśataṁ sopi sarvavyādhivivarjitaḥ॥

— Sapta Chiranjivi Stotram

The mantra states that the remembrance of the eight immortals (Ashwatthama, Bali, Vyasa, Hanuman, Vibhishana, Kripa, Markandeya, and Parashurama) offers one freedom from ailments and longevity.

References

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  1. ^ a b "The Mahabharata, Book 5: Udyoga Parva: Uluka Dutagamana Parva: section CLXVIII". www.sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  2. ^ Chaturvedi, B. K. (2020). Srimad Bhagwat Puran. Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd. p. 16. ISBN 978-81-288-2252-0.
  3. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 7: Drona Parva: Drona-vadha Parva: Section CXCVII".
  4. ^ "Sanskrit – Asien.net".
  5. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 7: Drona Parva: Section CXCI".
  6. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 7: Drona Parva: Drona-vadha Parva: Section CCI". www.sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  7. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 8: Karna Parva Index". www.sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  8. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 10: Sauptika Parva: Section VII".
  9. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 10: Sauptika Parva: Section VIII".
  10. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 10: Sauptika Parva: Section IX".
  11. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 10: Sauptika Parva: Section XIII".
  12. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 10: Sauptika Parva: Section XV".
  13. ^ Chaturvedi, B. K. (2020). Srimad Bhagwat Puran. Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd. p. 16. ISBN 978-81-288-2252-0.
  14. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 10: Sauptika Parva: Section XVI".
  15. ^ Stein, Burton (2016). "Book Reviews: Kancipuram in Early South Indian History, by T. V. Mahalingam (Madras: Asia Publishing House, 1969), pp. vii-243". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 7 (2): 317–321. doi:10.1177/001946467000700208. ISSN 0019-4646. S2CID 144817627.: "...the rather well-argued and plausible stand that the Palavas were indigenous to the central Tamil plain, Tondaimandalam..."
  16. ^ Vaidya C. V. (1921). History Of Medieval Hindu India. p. 281.
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