Bhānumanta
Bhānumanta was the king of Kaliṅga. He fought on the side of the Kauravas at Kurukshetra. On the second day of the war, Bhīmasena killed him in the great fight with the Kaliṅga army. His son Śakradeva fell in the same battle.
The king of Kaliṅga
Kaliṅga was a strong kingdom on the eastern coast. It joined Duryodhana in the great war. Bhānumanta, as its king, brought his army and war elephants to Kurukshetra. The Kaliṅga force had a fine elephant corps and foot soldiers.
He fought for Duryodhana as a king loyal to him, together with other kings of the east.
Death on the second day
On the second day of the war, the Kaliṅga forces met Bhīmasena, the second of the Pāṇḍavas. Bhīma’s attack on the Kaliṅga army was terrible. In that fight Bhīmasena killed Bhānumanta, the king of Kaliṅga, on the second day of the war.
This was part of a larger sweep by Bhīma through the Kaliṅga forces. Bhānumanta and his son Śakradeva both fell in the same battle. This broke the Kaliṅga force (Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 54).
Mourned in the Strī Parva
In the Strī Parva, Gāndhārī walks over the battlefield with Kṛshṇa. She turns to the fallen king of Kaliṅga. She says that the women of the Kaliṅga king gather around their brave lord as he lies dead, and weep. Their bodies are like flower garlands faded by the sun, yet their beauty still shines. The king who fell to Bhīma on the second day is mourned here at the end of the war, in the grief of his wives (Strī Parva, Chapter 25).
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 54
- Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Chapter 25