Arjuna and the Trigartas

This was the first battle of Arjuna’s digvijaya (his journey over the earth) as guardian of Yudhishṭhira’s Aśvamedha horse. The Trigarta warriors, sons and grandsons of the Trigarta kings who had died at Kurukshetra, attacked the horse’s escort out of the old hatred. Arjuna beat them, but held to Yudhishṭhira’s standing order and spared every one of them.

Before the horse was let go, Yudhishṭhira had given an order. No lasting enmity was to be made with any king whom the horse’s journey brought into conflict with the Pāṇḍavas. The text shows Arjuna recalling this order in the middle of the battle, and weighing his kshatriya (warrior) feeling against his brother’s command.

The ambush

The horse, freed to wander the earth at will, moved north out of Hastināpura at the head of Arjuna’s escort. In every land it entered, it drew warriors. Among the first to face Arjuna were the Trigarta warriors. They were mahārathas (great chariot-warriors) of known fame in every land. They had never given up their hatred of Arjuna. When they learned that the yajña-horse had entered their land, they armed themselves and surrounded it, meaning to seize it.

Arjuna saw what they intended. He first tried to turn them from the fight with gentle words. They answered with a shower of arrows. (Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 74)

The fight

Sūryavarmā, the ruling king of the Trigartas, pressed forward and loosed hundreds of curved-notch arrows at Arjuna with great skill. His warriors too rained arrows on him, eager to bring him down. Arjuna smiled and cut Sūryavarmā’s arrows to pieces in mid-air with shafts from his own bow. Sūryavarmā fell to the ground under the barrage. He was wounded, not killed.

Sūryavarmā’s younger brother Ketuvarmā, a youth, then rushed forward to avenge him. Arjuna, “the destroyer of enemy heroes”, pierced him in turn with sharp arrows. A third Trigarta warrior, the still younger Dhṛtavarmā, called bāla (“the boy”) in the text, rushed at Arjuna with the same eagerness. Arjuna was struck by the boy’s courage and glad to face so brave an opponent. He let the boy have a moment of success in the exchange. He watched the fire of the boy’s attack with private delight before he checked it. In this fight Arjuna cut down eighteen of the supporting Trigarta warriors with arrows as forceful as Indra’s vajra (thunderbolt).

The army was broken and could not win. The surviving Trigarta warriors surrounded Arjuna once more, this time to submit: “We are all your kiṅkaras (servants), under your rule. Command us, son of Kuru. We shall do whatever pleases you.” Arjuna answered simply: “Kings, save your lives. Obey our command.” Holding to the restraint Yudhishṭhira had laid on him, he spared every one of them. (Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 74)

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 74