Arishṭasena

Arishṭasena was a Kaurava warrior in the Mahābhārata. He lived through the first seventeen days of the Kurukshetra war. He was still with the Kaurava survivors on the night before the eighteenth day.

At the foot of the Himavat

Karṇa fell on the seventeenth day, and the Kaurava army was shattered. The warriors who were left withdrew northward to the foothills of the Himavat. Arishṭasena was one of them. The Śalya Parva (Chapter 6) names him with Śalya, Śakuni, the great Aśvatthāmā, Kṛpa, Kṛtavarman of the Sātvata line, Susheṇa and Dhṛtasena. These warriors spent that night at the foot of the Himavat.

The eighteenth day

In the morning the survivors gathered themselves. They were driven by the wish to avenge their fallen comrades and to serve the cause of their fallen king Duryodhana. They returned to Kurukshetra for the eighteenth and last day of the war.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapter 6