Drona: The Start of the End

In many ways, with the start of Drona’s reign as commander began a lowering a moral ethical standards in the war, not particularly because of him, but nevertheless. But Abhimanyu’s killing marked the start of the real end of morals and ethics in warfare. All that the great teacher had taught was laid to waste by his wards on both sides. One might say that it was started by one side. But there is no denying the fact that it was continued by the other. Tons of analysis and justifications have been written on them. Suffice it to say that the last few days of the war especially after the thirteenth day on which Abhimanyu was killed were not the best display of moral and ethical warfare.

Devastated and enraged by Abhimanyu’s death, Arjuna directed his wrath into another promise that sent the shivers down Jayadrata’s spine. While Jayadrata threatened to run away if Duryodhana and his army didn’t protect him, Duryodhana saw it as an opportunity because Arjuna had vowed to jump into the fire if Jayadrata’s life doesn’t end by the end of day fourteen. When Arjuna began day fourteen with a bang, Drona tried his best to divert Arjuna into combat. But at the bottom of his heart, he knew that his favourite student, when determined, cannot be stopped, and that too with Krishna was on his side, it was futile. For Drona, Jayadrata was as good as dead. It did turn out that the teacher was right and divine intervention ensured that his pupil could, after all, stand up to his promise.

But the standards of war declined with the armies not ending hostilities even during the night of the fourteenth. Bhima’s son Ghatotkacha was killed at night. Finally, Drona decided to stop proceedings considering the soldier’s wellbeing. But Duryodhana again suspected that it was due to a lack of commitment from Drona when Kauravas had the upper hand. That led to an angry Drona showering his fury on day fifteen of the war.

Drona, in particular, targeted the Panchala and Matsya armies, for whom he anyway had no special love, in the morning of the fifteenth. Their kings Dhrupad and Virata were casualties of Drona’s prowess. Even Drishtadyumna’s sons who stepped forward seeing their grandfather slain weren’t spared by Drona. Bhima goaded Drishtadyumna to step ahead and fight with Drona. Knowing fully well that it was his life’s purpose to kill Drona, Drishtadyumna stepped ahead but was no match to Drona’s power and had to retreat to safety.

The Pandavas were filled with fear seeing their teacher in such form. Something had to be done else the entire army would perish soon. They ran to, who else but, Krishna for help on handling Drona’s terror. Krishna reminded Yudhishthira that when he had gone to seek Drona’s blessings before the war, he had told him the way to stop him. If he was given a highly disturbing news from a trustworthy source, he would drop his weapons, Drona had said. Krishna told Yudhishthira to go tell Drona that Ashwatthama is dead.

This proposal by Krishna was received with shock by Yudhishthira and Arjuna. This would be highly immoral and unethical, they said, which was right. At that time, Drona was on a rampage and in the heat of the moment, he used the Brahmastra which led to the extermination of thousands of ordinary soldiers from the Pandava side. This was terribly shocking and could be construed as unnecessary and unethical use of mighty weapons on those without the ability to respond to it. It was an act against the code of conduct of warfare that the teacher himself had taught. At that moment, Drona could see his father Bharadwaj and other sages in the skies, chastising him from the heavens for using the Brahmastra. There was a distinct change in Drona’s demeanour.

While Yudhishthira and Arjuna hesitated, Bhima decided that enough was enough. He caught hold of an elephant named Ashwatthama and banged his head with his mace with all his might and cracked it open killing the elephant. He then went about shouting in jubilation with the loudest war cry he could muster, that Ashwatthama is dead. The Pandava army shouted slogans in delight. Drona saw Bhima celebrate and heard the sloganeering. Ashwatthama is dead, he heard Bhima howl. But he knew Bhima and his tendencies for both playing pranks and using devious aggression from past experience. It was then that he approached Yudhishthira to check if that was indeed the truth. Yudhishthira had never spoken lies and looked at him with hesitation. Krishna spurred the virtuous Pandava that a lie spoken to protect lives in defence, especially against a warrior who himself had used unethical means in war isn’t a lie. It was then that Yudhishthira went towards Dronacharya and declared Yes, Ashwatthama is dead. Dronacharya was shocked with Yudhishthira’s affirmation. After the declaration, Yudhishthira also said in a soft voice, “The elephant not the man.” But at exactly that time, Krishna blew his conch, amidst bugle and the trumpet sounds, so that Yudhishthira’s soft clarification could not be heard by Drona.

Drona kept his weapons down and sat down on his chariot. He grieved on his son’s death. He was in utter sorrow due to his attachment to his son Ashwatthama. He prayed to the heavens to forgive his act of using the Brahmastra. He declared to Duryodhana to take care of the war as he would not be fighting any more. He told the sages that he wanted to leave his body. He sat on his chariot with his eyes closed in meditation.

It was at that time that Drishtadyumna stepped ahead in a moment of anger seizing the opportunity. He held Drona by the locks of hair on the brahmin teacher’s head. And while his eyes were closed in meditation, Drishtadyumna chopped Drona’s head off with his sword and ended his life. Drishtadyumna celebrated immediately that he had met the purpose of his life that his father Dhrupad had given him birth for and thus fulfilled his preordained destiny.

Drona’s death was received with shock and anger from the Kaurava side. It was a blatant violation of code of warfare as per them. Even on the Pandava side, Yudhishthira did not approve of the way in which Drishtadyumna took advantage of Drona laying arms based on the lie he had spoken. Arjuna was angry at the way in which Drishtadyumna had killed his teacher. Bhima, on the other hand, asked Arjuna to control himself and reminded him that he was on the battlefield and not in school. His teacher was his opponent who was wreaking havoc with his army. Drona also hadn’t exactly covered himself in glory by the means he had used to eliminate Abhimanyu yesterday, and thousands of soldiers today with the Brahmastra. He had to be stopped and Drishtadyumna did the right thing. This was not the time to have divided opinions but to fight the enemy unitedly, Bhima insisted. Eventually, the Pandavas and Drishtadyumna reconciled, and Drona’s death became another epoch making event in the war that they had to leave behind, and move ahead.

At a literary level, Drona’s end was inevitable for the story to move forward. To that end, the characters played their role and Drona’s death at the hands of Drishtadyumna was known, even to him. The only literary question was how.

At a moral and ethical level, there is no doubt that the method of Drona’s slaying indicated the start of the end of the war. It became a no holds barred fight from here on. One can always debate who started it and who continued it. But in the overall relative sense, there is no doubt that the Pandavas had the higher moral ground as the Kaurava side had shown no respect for virtue or code of conduct not just in the war but even before it. With power vested in their hands, and with powerful warriors like Drona on their side, there was no choice for the Pandavas but to use means that may not qualify as moral and ethical in a strict absolute sense, but may be justified on a relative basis.

But at a spiritual level, one can see that the Lord Krishna knew this. He said nothing but orchestrated everything. He knew that the Pandavas were virtuous and would not resort to the means required to defeat the Kauravas, especially Drona and Bheeshma due to their attachment to the elders, without his spurring. He had the right characters preordained for that purpose to achieve his goal of extermination of the elders who happened to side with evil. To that end, Shikhandi for Bheeshma and Drishtadyumna for Drona were preordained by the Lord to do what they did. Arjuna in case of Bheeshma, and Yudhishthira in case of Drona, played the roles of instruments for the Lord to achieve His goal. At that level, one can then reconcile the morality of the means with the spirituality of Krishna’s purpose. To that extent, the Pandavas who were Krishna’s true friends and devotees, ended up being tools to achieve His end.

Drona, while he might have erred in the heat of the war by strategising Abhimanyu’s death and using the Brahmastra in fury, lived a mostly virtuous life adhering to the principles of dharma. His failing was that he was a brahmin who couldn’t overcome his warrior like interests, and a teacher renunciant by birth who couldn’t control his anger due to his householder attachments.

The end of Drona paved the road for the rest of the war to meet it’s own logical and karmic end. It was truly the start of the end.

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