Jayadratha

Jayadratha was the king of Sindhu. He was the husband of Duśśalā, the only daughter of Dhṛtarāshṭra and Gāndhārī. Through this marriage he was the brother-in-law of Duryodhana, and he stood firmly with the Kaurava side.

During the Pāṇḍavas’ forest exile he abducted Draupadī while her husbands were away. Bhīmasena caught him and shamed him. He was given the pañcaśikhā haircut and made to say that he was Yudhishṭhira’s slave. Yudhishṭhira then let him go out of mercy. Jayadratha afterwards practised tapas (austerity) at Gaṅgādvāra and received a vara (boon) from Bhagavān Śiva. The vara let him hold back four of the five Pāṇḍavas for one day in battle. He used it on the day Abhimanyu was killed in the cakravyūha (the wheel formation). This made him the target of Arjuna’s greatest oath in the Kurukshetra war.

Marriage and alliance

Jayadratha was married to Duśśalā, the daughter of Dhṛtarāshṭra and Gāndhārī. This made him the son-in-law of Dhṛtarāshṭra and the brother-in-law of Duryodhana. It joined the powerful kingdom of Sindhu to the Kaurava cause, and his place among the Kauravas gave them a strong ally in the west. The Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva tells of this.

The abduction of Draupadī

During the Pāṇḍavas’ twelve years in the forest, Jayadratha was travelling through the region with his followers. He came upon the āśrama and found Draupadī alone, because the brothers were away. He was overcome by her beauty. He asked her to leave her husbands and come with him. She refused firmly. He then forced her into his chariot and drove off. The priest Dhaumya followed on foot.

When the Pāṇḍavas came back and found Draupadī gone, they went after her at once. Bhīmasena caught Jayadratha, took all his weapons and made him a captive. Draupadī was set free. Bhīma gave Jayadratha the pañcaśikhā punishment: he shaved his head except for five tufts. He made Jayadratha say in public that he was “the slave of Dharmarāja Yudhishṭhira.”

Yudhishṭhira noted that Jayadratha was Duśśalā’s husband. He also noted that it was not the kshatriya way to kill a captive who had been disarmed, when the wronged person was already safe. So he ordered Jayadratha’s release. This is told in the Vana Parva, Chapters 264 to 272.

Tapas at Gaṅgādvāra and the vara of Bhagavān Śiva

The shame burned deep in Jayadratha. He went to Gaṅgādvāra (Hardwar) and practised hard tapas to Bhagavān Śiva, wishing for the power to defeat the Pāṇḍavas. Bhagavān Śiva appeared and gave a vara with a set limit. Jayadratha could hold back four of the five Pāṇḍavas for one day in battle. These four were Bhīma, Nakula, Sahadeva and Yudhishṭhira. The fifth, Arjuna, was outside this vara. This is in the Vana Parva, Chapters 264 to 272.

Blocking the Pāṇḍavas at the cakravyūha

On the thirteenth day of the Kurukshetra war, Droṇācārya formed the cakravyūha. Abhimanyu went in alone, because he was the only Pāṇḍava warrior there who knew how to enter it. The other Pāṇḍavas, Yudhishṭhira, Bhīmasena, Nakula and Sahadeva, with their allies, tried to follow Abhimanyu into the formation to support him.

At this moment Jayadratha used his vara from Bhagavān Śiva. He stood at the entrance of the cakravyūha and held back all four Pāṇḍavas and their allies for the whole day’s fighting. The vara worked exactly as Bhagavān Śiva had said. He could not stop Arjuna, but Arjuna was far away on the other side of the field, fighting the Saṃśaptakas. So Abhimanyu was alone inside the formation with no support. The six greatest Kaurava commanders surrounded him and killed him.

Jayadratha’s use of his vara was the direct cause of Abhimanyu’s loneliness and death. The Pāṇḍavas, and Arjuna above all, understood this clearly. This is in the Droṇa Parva, Chapters 34 to 46.

Arjuna’s oath

That evening Arjuna came back to the camp and learned that Abhimanyu was dead. His grief was complete, and at once it turned into a warrior’s fury. Before all the Pāṇḍava allies, including Kṛshṇa, Yudhishṭhira, Dhṛshṭadyumna, Sātyaki and the whole host, Arjuna made a public oath of the hardest kind.

He named, one after another, the kinds of men whom the tradition condemns most: those who abandon their wives, those who claim puṇya (merit) they have not earned, those who run away in battle. Then he said: “Let me become such a one in every respect, and let me burn in naraka for all of that, if I do not kill Jayadratha before tomorrow’s sunset.” He added a second, harder clause. If the sun set before he had killed Jayadratha, he himself would enter the fire and die.

The oath alarmed the Kaurava camp. Jayadratha was terrified and asked leave to quit the war. Droṇa refused. He promised to guard Jayadratha inside a formation so strong that Arjuna could not reach him before nightfall. So the whole fourteenth day of battle was built around Arjuna’s effort to reach Jayadratha and Droṇa’s effort to stop him. This is in the Droṇa Parva, Chapters 72 and 73.

His death at Arjuna’s hands on the fourteenth day

The fourteenth day was the most dramatic day of the Kurukshetra war. Arjuna cut through the whole Kaurava army and passed every obstacle that Droṇa placed in his way. By evening the sun was near the horizon, and Jayadratha had still not been reached. It looked as if Arjuna’s oath would not be kept.

Then Bhagavān Kṛshṇa used his divine power. He hid the sun for a short time with his Sudarśana Cakra, so that it looked like sunset. The Kaurava forces, Jayadratha among them, believed that the sun had set and that Arjuna’s time had run out. Jayadratha came forward, feeling safe, to see Arjuna’s shame.

At that moment Kṛshṇa took away the illusion, and the sun shone again. He told Arjuna to shoot at once. Arjuna loosed an arrow. With divine guidance he sent it to carry Jayadratha’s severed head through the air and set it in the lap of his father Vṛddhakshatra. Vṛddhakshatra was sitting in meditation in a forest some distance from the battlefield. When Vṛddhakshatra rose from his meditation, the head fell from his lap to the ground. At that instant his own head burst into a hundred pieces. This was his own vara: whoever caused his son’s head to fall to the ground would meet this end.

Jayadratha died and his father died. Arjuna’s oath was kept before sunset. This is in the Droṇa Parva, Chapters 72, 73 and 78.

Duśśalā’s grief on the battlefield

In Chapter 22 of the Strī Vilāpa Parva (part of the Strī Parva), Gāndhārī found the body of Jayadratha on the Kurukshetra battlefield. Beside him, weeping without comfort, was Duśśalā, who was Gāndhārī’s own daughter and Jayadratha’s wife, and was now a young widow. This meeting of mother and daughter over the body of the son-in-law is one of the most personal moments of grief in the Strī Parva. His death by Arjuna’s arrow on the fourteenth day had been Arjuna’s best known keeping of an oath.

Gāndhārī grieved not only for Jayadratha but for Duśśalā, her only daughter, now widowed at the edge of the battlefield. Duśśalā had no sons among the dead to comfort her. The sight of her daughter in this state was among the griefs that Gāndhārī bore with the most difficulty in her whole walk over the battlefield. This is in the Strī Parva, Chapter 22.

The Saindhavas’ attempt at revenge

Years after Jayadratha’s death, the Pāṇḍava Aśvamedha horse entered the land of Sindhu under Arjuna’s guard. The Saindhava princes were kin of Jayadratha. They still could not bear the memory of his death at Arjuna’s hands. They surrounded Arjuna on foot, hoping at last to avenge him. The battle came with fearful omens: the sun grew dark, the wind turned violent, and meteors struck the disc of the moon. For a short time Arjuna was overwhelmed by their arrows and fell into a brief mohā (swoon). He recovered with the support of the devas and drove them off completely.

During the battle Duśśalā, Jayadratha’s widow, came in person. She brought into the field the infant child of Suratha, to beg Arjuna’s mercy for the tired Saindhava warriors and for the child’s line. Arjuna was moved by her plea and by the memory of Gāndhārī and Dhṛtarāshṭra. He put down his weapon and gave peace to all the Saindhava warriors. This is in the Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapters 77 and 78.

Named in the śrāddha and the mahādāna

Dhṛtarāshṭra wished to perform śrāddha (rites for the dead) for Bhīshma, Droṇa, Somadatta and Bāhlīka before leaving for the forest. He asked Yudhishṭhira’s clear consent to include Jayadratha the Saindhava among them. He asked this openly, because of Jayadratha’s part in the death of Abhimanyu and his place as the Pāṇḍavas’ enemy. Jayadratha was then named among those for whom Dhṛtarāshṭra performed the ten-day dāna-yajña (a rite of giving). This is in the Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapters 11 and 14.

Named among the warriors in svarga

Janamejaya heard how the heroes of both hosts had gone up to the celestial world. He asked the ṛshi about the fate and stay of the great ones. Among those he named were Bhīshma, Droṇa, King Dhṛtarāshṭra, Dhṛshṭaketu, Jayatsena, Satyajit, the sons of Duryodhana, Śakuni, the sons of Karṇa, and King Jayadratha the Saindhava, together with Ghaṭotkaca.

Jayadratha had fallen by weapons in righteous battle. He was cleansed of his deeds, and with the fallen kings of Duryodhana’s host he reached the higher lokas. Some reached the mansion of Mahendra, some the world of Kubera, and some that of Varuṇa. This is in the Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 5.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 264–272
• Mahābhārata, Droṇa Parva, Chapters 34–78 (Chapters 34–46, 72–73 and 78 are cited above)
• Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Chapter 22
• Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapters 11, 14
• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapters 77–78
• Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 5