Bhavaan bheeshmascha karNasch Kripascha
samitinjaya
Ashwathamaa vikarNascha
soumadattistataivacha ||8||
"Thyself, Bheeshma, Karna, Kripacharya
who are all war winners and we also have Ashwatthama, Vikarna and son of
Somadatta (BhuriSharavas)"
Bheeshma was a great warrior and
nobody had any doubts about that. He was also a man who was elder to
Dronacharya and he was responsible in bringing Dronacharya to Hastinapura as a
guru for both Pandavas and Kauravas. He was a man acclaimed to be on the
righteous path. He was now the Commander-in Chief. By mentioning Drona's name
before that of Bheeshma Duryodhana is trying his level best diplomatically to
prevent the defection.
Karna was a great warrior, had been
victorious in many wars and was close to Duryodhana's heart. It is only
unthinkable that he would not mention his name. If he had an option he would
have mentioned his name first, but he knows very well that both Dronacharya and
Bheeshma would be upset by this. Moreover Karna was not in the battlefield as
he had decided that he would not fight as long as Bhishma was the CIC.
He then cleverly mentions the names
of Kripacharya (Drona's brother-in-law) and Ashwathama (Drona's son). As
mentioned earlier, attachment to Ashwatthama was the greatest weakness and that
blinded him to fight for Duryodhana than for Dharma. Duryodhana highlights
Ashwatthamas name only to harness this weakness of Drona. All this probably
indicates that even Drona was uncertain similar to his favorite pupil Arjuna.
If Arjuna was uncertain whether to participate in the war, Drona was uncertain
about the side on which he would like to be in the war and Duryodhana was
making sure that Drona was fighting on his side.
Vikarna was one of the hundred
Kauravas. He was the only one in the entire Hastinapur assembly who objected
the way in which Kauravas had snatched the kingdom of Pandavas in the game of
dice and the way in which Draupadi was treated in the aftermath. Neither Drona
nor Bheeshma had objected the heinous way in which Draupadi was treated. By
mentioning Vikarna's name he wanted to say that the only person who objected
him was also on his side and those who were silent spectators during that time
were equally culpable as him if they were thinking that Duryodhana was
wrong. Hence defection at the time of
war was not the right thing to do.
Soumadatti - Son of Somadatta - Bhurishrava.
Somadatta was the son of Bahlika who was the elder brother of Shantanu. Somadatta
wanted to marry Pruthe (later Kunti) who was sister of Vasudeva against their
wishes. Sini - father of Yuyudhana fought on behalf of Vasudeva a bitter fight to
defeat Somadatta. Because of this Bhurishrava and Yuyudhana (Satyaki) were
bitter enemies. This was again their personal war akin to that of Drona and
Drupada.
