|| Srimad Bhagavath Mahapuran||

|| Om Namo Bhagavathe Vasudevaya||

Chapter – 6 – The death of Duryodhana

Sutha Pauranika continued “ Maharishi Vedavyasa upon receiving the instruction from Maharishi Narada began to contemplate upon the  Lord and envisioned the supreme Lord.  He witnessed the sufferings and miseries of the souls in the material existence daunted by illusion, he felt terribly sad for the living beings.  Maharishi Vedavyasa soaked in extreme bliss after envisaging the glorious form of supreme Lord but seeing the miserable plight of the souls in the material world he was extremely disappointed.  This urged him to write a great scripture that could wave off the miseries and sorrows of living beings on the Earth.  He described the magnificent incarnations of the supreme Lord in it. I shall describe the same to you all.”

Sutha Pauranika began to describe the marvelous myths of Srimad Bhagavath Mahapuran, he narrated the legends from the great epic Mahabharath.   The great war of Kurukshetra was got over, numerous warriors were killed in the battle, a few of Pandavas and four of Kauravas Duryodhana, Kripacharya, Krithavarma and Ashwaththama have remained.  Duryodhana was severely wounded in the battlefield; he immersed himself in the water to cool himself from the fury against the Pandavas.   Ashwaththama who was the closest companion could not bear the troubles of Duryodhana.  It was the dark night hours, and the rule of the war is warriors are not allowed to handle weapons after the sunset or harass the enemies in the dark hours, but Ashwaththama was broken that rule, entered in the Pandavas camp and approached their chamber where five Pandavas were supposed to sleep and chopped off their heads, in fact, it was the tent of the children of Pandavas who were fallen asleep.  Thus the five sons of Pandavas were brutally killed by the ignorance of Ashwaththama who was unaware of the fact as it was too dark, he brought the heads of the five children thinking that it’s the heads of Pandavas and showed to Duryodhana, who eagerly wished to see the head of Bhima.  Ashwaththama handed the head to Duryodhana, it was mercilessly crushed between his two hands and realized that it was not the head of Bhima. Soon he looked upon it, alas! It was not the lifeless head of the Pandavas, it was their children’s head. Duryodhana screamed out of utter dismay “ Ashwaththama, you have made a grave sin. It is not the heads of Pandavas, you have brutally killed the children of Pandavas. This is intolerable; you have put an end to the clan of Pandavas which is unjustifiable. The Kaurava dynasty has come to an end, we have no right to end their clan.” Though Duryodhana was a man of evil, he had certain principles which he wished to follow always, seeing the cruel end of the Pandava dynasty,  Duryodhana deeply regretted the ignorance of Ashwaththama and left his mortal coil.