Trigarta Brothers
The five Trigarta brothers were kings of the Trigarta kingdom. They fought on the Kaurava side in the war at Kurukshetra. Bhīshma names them among the Kaurava forces in his Rathātiratha-Saṃkhyāna (his count of rathas and atirathas, the chariot warriors), and he names Satyaratha among them.
In the Kurukshetra war
The Trigartas were a kingdom with an old rivalry against Virāṭa’s kingdom of Matsya. The Trigartas had raided Matsya for cattle, and this appears in the Virāṭa Parva. In the Kurukshetra war the five Trigarta brothers took the side of Duryodhana and the Kauravas.
In the Rathātiratha-Saṃkhyāna, Bhīshma names Satyaratha among them and rates the Trigarta brothers as rathas.
In his battle plans, Dhṛshṭadyumna sets Draupadī’s five sons against the Trigarta kings together (Udyoga Parva, Chapter 164).
The sons of the slain Trigartas
During his digvijaya (tour of the quarters) as guardian of Yudhishṭhira’s yajña horse, Arjuna came to the Trigarta lands. The sons and grandsons of the Trigarta warriors who had died at Kurukshetra were by now mahārathas (great chariot warriors). They still held enmity toward Arjuna. When they learned that the horse had entered their land, they surrounded Arjuna, meaning to seize it.
Arjuna first tried to turn them back with gentle words. They answered with a shower of arrows.
Yudhishṭhira had given a standing order not to kill the kin of warriors already slain in the war. Arjuna kept to it and held himself back. He warned them again: “Fools who do not know dharma, turn back. Your lives are worth more than this.”
Three of them then fought him in turn:
- Sūryavarmā, king of the Trigartas, pressed the attack. A hail of arrows struck him down, but he was not killed.
- Ketuvarmā, Sūryavarmā’s younger brother, came to avenge him. He was wounded in the same way.
- Dhṛtavarmā, a young warrior, charged next. Arjuna was pleased by the boy’s courage and did not wish to end so young a life. He let him enjoy a moment of triumph in the fight, and then overcame him as well, again without killing him.
In the same fight Arjuna also cut down eighteen of their supporting warriors with arrows “matching Indra’s vajra”.
The Trigarta warriors saw that they could not win. They gave in together and said: “We are all your servants, under your command.” Arjuna accepted and spared them all, as Yudhishṭhira had told him.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva, Rathātiratha-Saṃkhyāna Parva and Chapter 164
- Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 74