Kurukshtram

Hastinapura resulted in a battle in which a number of ancient kingdoms participated as allies of the rival clans. The location of the battle was Kurukshetra in the modern state of Haryana in India.

Mahābhārata states that the war lasted eighteen days during which vast armies from all over ancient India fought alongside the two rivals. Despite only referring to these eighteen days, the war narrative forms more than a quarter of the book, suggesting its relative importance within the epic, which overall spans centuries of generations of the warring families.

The narrative describes individual battles of various heroes of both sides, battle-field deaths of some of the prominent heroes, military formations employed on each day by both armies, war diplomacies, meetings and discussions among the heroes and commanders before commencement of war on each day and the weapons used. The chapters (parvas) dealing with the war (from chapter six to ten) are considered amongst the oldest in the entire Mahābhārata. Bhagavad Gita, a sacred text of Hindu philosophy, which recounts the conversation between the Pandava Arjuna and Krishna arising out of Arjuna's reluctance to fight members of his own family, is considered a later addition to Mahābhārata The Kurukshetra War is believed to date variously from 5561 BCE to 800 BCE, based on the astronomical and literary information from Mahābhārata. The mythology of the Kurukshetra War is also traced to the Battle of the Ten Kings mentioned in Rigveda.

The Kurukshetra War lasted eighteen days. It was fought only during daylight hours; fighting ceased at sunset. The armies met on a vast field in Kurukshetra; each day the battle was characterised by numerous individual combats, as well as mass raids against entire enemy divisions. The victor or the vanquished on each day was determined not by any territories gained, but by the body count. This was a war to the death. The victor was the survivor When the battle resumed on the fifth day, the slaughter continued. The Pandava army again suffered against Bhishma's attacks. Satyaki bore the brunt of Drona's attacks and soon could not withstand them. Bhima drove by and rescued Satyaki. Arjuna fought and killed thousands of soldiers sent by Duryodhana to attack him. The unimaginable carnage continued during the ensuing days of the battle. The sixth day was marked by a prodigious slaughter. Drona caused immeasurable loss of life on the Pandava side. The formations of both the armies were broken. On the eighth day Bhima killed eight of Dhritarashtra's sons and Arjuna's son Iravan was killed by the Kauravas. On the ninth day Krishna, once again overcome by anger at the apparent inability of Arjuna to defeat Bhishma, rushed towards the Kaurava commander, but Arjuna stopped him. Realising that the war could not be won as long as Bhisma were standing, Krishna suggested the strategy of placing a woman in the field to face him



At the end of the 18th day, only eleven warriors survived the war – the five Pandavas, Krishna, Satyaki, Ashwatthama, Kripacharya, Yuyutsu and Kritvarma. Yudhisthira was crowned king of Hastinapur. He renounced the throne after ruling for more than 30 years, passing on the crown to Arjuna's grandson Parikshita. He then left for the Himalayas with Draupadi and his brothers in what was to be their last journey. Draupadi and four Pandavas – Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva – died during the journey. Yudhisthira, the lone survivor and being of pious heart, was invited by Dharma to enter the heavens as a mortal.