Sātyaki
Sātyaki, also called Yuyudhāna, was one of the foremost Yādava warriors. He was a devoted disciple of Arjuna in the science of archery. He belonged to the Sāttvata (Vṛshṇi) branch of the Yādava clan, was counted among the defenders of Dvārakā, and was a chief Pāṇḍava ally in the war at Kurukshetra.
He fought on through the ten days of Bhīshma’s command and beyond. He lost all ten of his sons to Bhūriśravas on the fifth day, killed Alambusha on the seventh day, and stayed one of the most active Pāṇḍava mahārathis through the whole war.
Lineage and character
Sātyaki, also known as Yuyudhāna, was of the Sāttvata branch of the Yādava clan. He was one of the greatest warriors among the Vṛshṇis. He learned archery from Arjuna himself and was counted among the best bowmen of his age. This showed how close the Yādavas of Dvārakā were to the Pāṇḍavas. His ten sons came with him to Kurukshetra and fought on the Pāṇḍava side.
Defence of Dvārakā
In the Vana Parva, in the Saubhavadha Upākhyāna, Sātyaki is one of the Yādava warriors who defend Dvārakā when Śālva attacks with the Saubha vimāna (flying city). He stands there with Pradyumna, Ugrasena, Uddhava and others. This shows that he was a senior warrior-prince of the Yādava assembly.
At the marriage of Abhimanyu and Uttarā
In the Virāṭa Parva, Sātyaki is named among the great Yādava warriors who went to Upaplavya, a city in the Matsya kingdom. They went to attend the marriage of Abhimanyu and Uttarā at the end of the Pāṇḍavas’ thirteen years of exile. Sātyaki came with the Yādava party led by Kṛshṇa and Balarāma, which also included Kṛtavarman, Akrūra and Sāmba. This gathering pointed ahead to the great alliance that would stand together in the Kurukshetra war.
The Kurukshetra war
Sātyaki fought on the Pāṇḍava side throughout the war. He was counted among the mahārathis, warriors who can fight ten thousand enemies at once. He was one of the most active Pāṇḍava commanders on all ten days of Bhīshma’s command.
Day 5: the loss of his ten sons
On the fifth day Bhūriśravas, the Kaurava mahāratha and son of Somadatta, fought Sātyaki’s ten sons and killed all of them. All ten had come with their father to fight for the Pāṇḍava cause, and all ten fell in the engagement of one day. The grief of this loss was deep. The enmity between Sātyaki and Bhūriśravas kept driving their meetings through the rest of the war, until Bhūriśravas himself was killed.
Day 7: the killing of Alambusha
On the seventh day Sātyaki killed Alambusha, the rākshasa warrior who fought with māyā (magic). His defeat at Sātyaki’s hands was one of the notable Pāṇḍava successes of the middle days of the war.
Day 10
On the tenth and last day of Bhīshma’s command, Bhagadatta attacked Sātyaki. Sātyaki held his ground. Duryodhana saw the Pāṇḍava attack growing stronger. He gave orders to surround Sātyaki and hold him back, because Sātyaki was one of the key Pāṇḍava commanders and the battle around Bhīshma’s protection was at its peak.
The Droṇa Parva: Somadatta and Bhūri
In the Droṇa Parva Sātyaki kept driving through the Kaurava formations. In Chapter 162 he killed Somadatta, the father of Bhūriśravas, in direct combat. Somadatta was a mahārathika of the Kuru-Bāhlīka line, whose presence at Kurukshetra continued his family’s long service to the Kaurava cause.
In Chapter 166 Sātyaki also killed Bhūri, a Kaurava warrior of the same wider line, with a śakti (spear). This Bhūri is a different person from Bhūriśravas. The killing of Bhūriśravas is recorded separately, in Chapters 143–144 of the Droṇa Parva, and happened in different circumstances.
The quarrel between Sātyaki and Dhṛshṭadyumna
On the fifteenth day Dhṛshṭadyumna killed Droṇācārya. Sātyaki then broke out in fierce anger. The Pāṇḍavas and Kṛshṇa stood in ashamed silence. Sātyaki called Dhṛshṭadyumna a naradhama (lowest of men). He said that killing an unarmed man who sat in yoga-samādhi was brahma-hatyā (the killing of a brāhmaṇa) of the worst kind. He threatened to crush Dhṛshṭadyumna with his gadā (mace).
Dhṛshṭadyumna answered that Sātyaki’s own killing of Bhūriśravas was an equal or greater adharma. Bhūriśravas had been seated in a vow of fasting until death, and one of his arms had already been cut off.
Sātyaki charged at Dhṛshṭadyumna with his gadā. At Kṛshṇa’s command, Bhīmasena seized Sātyaki and, after a struggle of six steps, held him back. Sahadeva also came and spoke calming words about the bond between the Pāṇḍavas, the Pāñcālas and the Yādavas. The two men came close to blows, but it was stopped. The Mahābhārata presents this exchange as a debate on the ethics of war.
The Strī Parva: named by Gāndhārī
In Chapter 24 of the Strī Parva, Gāndhārī’s survey of the dead and the warriors passes to the Pāṇḍava allies. She names Sātyaki among those who fought on the side of dharma. She recalls his great valour and his place as Arjuna’s best disciple in archery. Sātyaki survived the war. He was one of the very few men left on the Pāṇḍava side.
At Bhīshma’s death
Sātyaki was one of the mahārathis who survived the war. When Yudhishṭhira went to receive Bhīshma’s last words at the coming of Uttarāyaṇa, Sātyaki went with Kṛshṇa and the Kuru household from Hastināpura to Kurukshetra. This was fifty-eight nights after Bhīshma fell on his śaraśayyā (bed of arrows).
The Mausala Parva: the drunken quarrel and his death at Prabhāsa
The Vṛshṇis and Andhakas held a great drinking festival at Prabhāsa, in the thirty-sixth year of Yudhishṭhira’s reign. Sātyaki drank deeply and lost all self-control. Before the whole gathering he taunted Kṛtavarman. He asked what kshatriya would kill men asleep as if they were dead, as Kṛtavarman had done in the night killing of the sleeping warriors with Aśvatthāmā. Pradyumna, foremost among chariot-warriors, praised Sātyaki’s rebuke.
Kṛtavarman answered with a scornful gesture. He taunted the Yādavas in turn for their cruel killing of Bhūriśravas, who had lost his arm. Sātyaki then recalled before Kṛshṇa the whole account of how Kṛtavarman had slain in the night the sons of Draupadī, Dhṛshṭadyumna and Śikhaṇḍī. He swore an oath, sprang up, and cut off Kṛtavarman’s head with his sword in Kṛshṇa’s presence.
As Sātyaki turned to kill others, the Bhojas and Andhakas closed in on him from every side. They were driven by Kāla (Time) and mad with drink. They beat him to death with the eraka grass that had turned into the mushala (iron club) of the śāpa (curse). Kṛshṇa knew that the hour of doom had come, and he did not hold back his anger against them. Pradyumna rushed to defend Sātyaki and was also killed. Then the mutual destruction of the Yādavas broke out fully. Chapter 3 also mentions the quarrel over the Syamantaka gem and Satyabhāmā’s weeping appeal to Kṛshṇa as part of this last calamity.
The Svargārohaṇa Parva: longed for and seen in svarga
Sātyaki gave up his life at Prabhāsa, by the weapons of the hour of fate. Through his kshatriya-dharma he reached the celestial world. When Yudhishṭhira first reached svarga (heaven) and did not see his kinsmen and allies, he named Sātyaki among the mahārathas whom he longed to see. He named him with Dhṛshṭadyumna and the sons of Draupadī, and he refused to take pleasure in svarga without them. Later the illusion of naraka (hell) was dispelled, and Indra led the king through the divine assemblies. There Sātyaki was seen shining among the great chariot-warriors of the Vṛshṇi and Andhaka houses, glorious in his own station.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 14–16
- Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 72
- Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapters 43–122
- Mahābhārata, Droṇa Parva, Chapters 101–202
- Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Chapter 24
- Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīshma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 167
- Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapter 3
- Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapters 1, 4