druShTakEtushcEkitanaha kashirajascha
veeryavaan
purujitkuMtibhOjashca shaibhyashca
narapuMgavaha ||5||
Yudhamanyushca vikranta uttamoujashca veeryavaan
saubhadrO draupadEyaashca sarvaEva
maharathaha ||6||
"Duryodhana further enumerates all the
leading warriors on the side of pandavas like Drushtaketu, Chekitana,
Kashiraja, Purujit, Kuntibhoja, Shaibhya, Yudhamanyu, Vikranta, Uttamouja, son
of Subhadara (Abhimanyu) and 5 sons of Draupadi. He says all these (15 people) are
great human beings and at the same time great warriors."
If we include Bheema, Arjuna,
Yuyudhana, Virata and Drupada, in his list of warriors on the Pandavas side he
highlights 20 warriors. It is to note that name of Lord Krishna is not
mentioned because Krishna said that he would take part only as a charioteer for
Arjuna and that he would not use any weapons during the Mahabharata war. There
is a philosophical message in this that one has to fight his/her own war and
God is there only to guide us but not to fight.
There is probably an order in the
way Duryodhana mentions the names of the warriors with the youngest mentioned
last. But it looks like he broke this convention when he mentioned Yuyudhana
first. This highlights the importance he attaches to Yuyudhana. It is also
notable that Abhimanyu and sons of Draupadi gets mentioned along with other
great warriors. Everybody knows about the valor of Abhimanyu when he single
handedly fights the entire Kaurava army for an entire day in eighteen day
battle (amounts to 5.56% of the battle) and it takes 6 maharathas to kill him.
He also mentions Draupadi's sons though their role is not much highlighted
either because they were really great warriors or because they were on his hit
list and he desired to eliminate entire Pandava family.
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