The Story

The 13th day of battle between the Pandavas and Kauravas in the epic Mahabharata has just come to an end. While Arjuna was distracted on the far side of the battlefield, the Kaurava forces lured his son Abhimanyu into their Chakravyuha (Wheel-Formation) and brutally killed him. The Pandava forces were unable to follow Abhimanyu into the formation due to the insurmountable defense of the Sindhu King Jayadratha.

Burning with rage, Arjuna makes a terrible promise: To kill Jayadratha before sunset the next day or to kill himself. This sets the stage for the most epic battle of the entire war: The 14th Day.

The Kaurava Commander-in-Chief Dronacharya has assembled his forces into three battle formations. First is the square and solid Shakatavyuha (Cart Phalanx). Behind this is the Padmavyuha (Lotus-Formation), positioning himself at its head. Lastly, near the base of the lotus, he arranges the most powerful Kaurava warriors straight as a needle (Suchivyuha) with the precious Jayadratha at the eye of the needle.

15 Kilometers separate Arjuna from his target: A hundred thousand horsemen, Sixty thousand chariots, three million foot soldiers, fourteen thousand elephants, and then six supreme warriors.

And so begins Arjuna’s glorious and terrible quest. With his golden chariot and four white horses ready, Krishna takes their chariot forward into the enemy’s cart formation. Warriors attack him from all directions but Arjuna has no patience for them. He draws his bow and waves of enemy warriors fall.

Taking apart the cart formation, their chariot storms the edge of the lotus formation, where they encounter Dronacharya. They duel for hours with no end in sight, so Krishna quickly takes their chariot around and avoid further confrontation with the Acharya.

They forge ahead deeper into the lotus formation, encountering Kritavarma, Duryodhana and many other Kaurava warriors. But today, Arjuna appears to be the God of Death incarnate and smashes through the last petals of the lotus formation, breaking it apart entirely.

The powerful warriors of the needle formation surround Arjuna. Bhoorisravas, Karna, Ashwatthama, Kripacharya, Shalya and others attack Arjuna simultaneously.

In the mean time, Dronacharya tries to capture Yudhistira. His efforts are thwarted by Bheema and Satyaki.

Fending off several attacks, Krishna expertly guides Arjuna through the sea of enemy warriors. His eyes are constantly watching the west and Arjuna catches the message that there is little time to waste.

Then suddenly, darkness sets across the battlefield. The enemy warriors start cheering at their victory and let down their guard. Krishna assures Arjuna that this is an illusion and instructs him to act. Arjuna invokes the power bestowed by Shiva and fires a flaming arrow from his bow, beheading Jayadratha in one swift strike.

Before the enemy forces could protest at this treachery, the clouds part and the last rays of the blood-red sun bathe the battlefield.

Arjuna has fulfilled his vow.

The battle however did not stop at sunset as it had on the previous days. Under the blanket of night, the soldiers lit torches and continued fighting. Being of Rakshasa descent, Bheema’s young son Gatotkacha becomes more powerful under the cover of darkness and rains terror upon the enemy forces.

Desperate to curb the violent destruction of their army, the Kaurava warrior Karna invokes his divine Shakti weapon, which he had been saving to use exclusively against Arjuna, and hurls it with all his might at Gatotkacha. Realizing what is about to happen, Gatotkacha grows to an enormous size. The Shakti lights up the night sky and crashes into the giant Gatotkacha. He falls upon the Kaurava army like a mountain and crushes thousands of them underneath.

And so ends the 14th day of the Mahabharata battle.

Philosophy of the Formations

In direct contrast to the Crescent Moon formation used by the Pandavas on the previous day, the 14th day channels the anger and rage of Arjuna into the laser sharp focus of the Eagle formation as it hunts for its prey, powerfully tearing through all obstacles and challenges in its path and keeping its eye only on its intended target.
In various mythologies, Eagles were often depicted as being very old and wise creatures, such as in the tales of Garuda or in Celtic folktales. They are also strong allies in The Lord of the Rings, rescuing Gandalf from his prison atop Isengard and later coming to the aid of Frodo and Sam when all hope seems lost. Eagle feathers represent courage and bravery in various cultures, where they are used to adorn clothing or headgear. The symbols of the Roman and German empires were both eagles. The eagle is also now prominently featured in the American iconography.
The Kauravas on the other hand, try a combination of three different formations: The Cart, the Lotus and the Needle.
Carts in mythology take many interesting forms. The Gordian knot was a chariot in ancient Greece tied to a post with an impossible knot, which Alexander the great undid by simply cutting through the rope, foretelling his ability to find innovative solutions to complex problems.
The lotus on the other hand, represented the Sun and rebirth in ancient Egyptian cultures, owing to its behavior of closing up at night and almost receding into the water. In buddhism, the lotus represents spiritual awakening, owing to its ability to repel the marshy waters in which it grows and remain clean. In Hindu philosophy, the primordial lotus grows from Vishnu's navel and represents the birth of time and the creation of the universe. Greek mythology had an island of lotus-eaters who would consume a narcotic and remain in a state of apathy to the rest of the world.
And lastly the needle, which has an odd place in mythology. The spinning needle curses a princess to sleep for an eternity when she accidentally pricks herself in the story of Sleeping Beauty. The needle and spinner are also used by Rumplestiltzkin to spin straw into gold for the princess in exchange for her firstborn child.
Taking all of this symbolism into account, we could form an image in our minds of the Kauravas making a desperate promise to protect Jayadratha, trying to throw out seemingly impossible challenges at Arjuna and trying to keep him distracted and away from his true goal.

The Map of the Battlefield

Inspiration

It has been a long-time dream of mine to illustrate some part of the great Kurukshetra war features so prominently in the Indian epic Mahabharata.

The war, which takes place over a span of 18 days, covers nearly one-third of the entire epic and yields in-depth details about the preparations for the war, the big players, the battle formations and the epic encounters.

Chief amongst my fascinations were the banners that flew atop each hero's chariot, sort of like a pirate ship or naval armada flying their colors of allegiance.

The second angle of my fascination comes from my love of strategy videogames such as Age of Empires 2, Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and Warcraft 3, which represent giant armies from a top-down view.

The third inspiration came from the descriptions of the armies in the Mahabharata. The text goes into detail explaining that the units of warfare such as the Footman (Padha), Horseman (Ashwa), Chariot (Ratha) and Elephant (Gaja) formed the foundation of the strategy game Chaturanga which later evolved into the modern game of Chess.

The last part of my inspiration came from a visit to the German History Museum here in Berlin, where I saw a shield that was presented to the King, painted with the various sigils of the houses that stood in support of his rule.

And with this final piece of inspiration in hand, I set off with my drawing.

Research

I spent a lot of time researching the heroes, their banners, their armies and the various battle formations they employed. There were some cases where I just wasn't able to find any specifics and had to take a bit of artistic license in interpreting the information. Here's what I found:

The Kurukshetra war was fought between the forces of the Pandavas (5 brothers, sons of Pandu) and the Kauravas (100 brothers, sons of Dritharashtra) over a dispute of who had the right to rule the kingdom.
The sizes of the armies were measured in a unit called an Akshauhini, which consisted of a combination of forces in the ratio 1 Elephant: 1 Chariot: 3 Horsemen: 5 Footmen multiplied by a factor of 21870
The skill level of a warrior was scaled as follows: Rathi (capable of fighting 5000 warriors at once), Athirathi (capable of fighting 12 Rathis or 60000 warriors), Maharathi (capable of fighting 12 Athirathis or 720000 warriors)
The Pandava army was composed of 7 Akshauhinis
The Kaurava army was composed of 11 Akshauhinis

The Story

Despite being massively outnumbered, the Pandava army has a secret weapon who goes by the name of Arjuna. This Pandava warrior is clearly the hero of the war. He features prominently in a vast portion of the battles and rallies everyone behind him with his feats of skill in warfare.

After 12 days of intense bloodshed, the realize that the best way to end the war swiftly is to distract Arjuna and capture the eldest Pandava brother Yudhistira. And so they enlist the aid of the Samsapthaka armies of Trigartha and the Narayani Sena of the Yadavas to challenge Arjuna and drag him out to a remote part of the battlefield. The Kaurava commander-in-chief Dronacharya, then employs the Chakravyuha or the Wheel battle formation, since it was rumored that only Arjuna knew the secret of entering and breaking it.

The confounded and desperate Pandava forces first try a counter-attack through the Crescent Moon formation but then turn to Arjuna's young son Abhimanyu, who knew the secret of entering the Chakravyuha but knew not how to exit or break the formation. With strong reassurances from the other Pandava heroes that they would follow him and give him support, Abhimanyu set forth entering the maze-like rotating wheel formation.

However, the Pandava forces are halted by the insurmountable defense of Jayadratha, the king from Sindh, and are unable to follow the young prince.

Trapped away from his army and with no escape route in sight, Abhimanyu strengthens his resolve and goes on a rampage, defeating many enemy heroes and decimating a vast array of Kaurava forces. In the end, feeling like they set a trap for a kitten and caught a lion instead, the desperate Kaurava forces surround Abhimanyu on all sides, abandon all rules of chivalrous warfare and succeed in killing him.

There are three direct consequences to this:
- All the rules of chivalry and ethics of warfare are completely abandoned
- The death of Abhimanyu spurs the noble Pandavas onward to finish the fight by any means necessary
- It sets up an even more epic 14th day of battle, with Arjuna swearing a terrible oath to kill Jayadratha or end his own life

Philosophy of the Formations

The Moon has very many symbolic meanings in different cultures of the world. The Waning Moon represents surrender, contemplation and meditation. The New Moon represents new beginnings and rebirth. The Waxing Moon represents growth and manifestation. The Full Moon represents clarity and fulfillment.
In this case, the crescent moon takes on a very special meaning. Having two tips, it could represent for the Pandavas, a lack of desire to tackle their problem head-on and instead trying to circumvent it somehow. They were always hesitant about fighting with their cousins, relatives and teachers, and constantly doubting whether they were doing the right thing. This strong desire to avoid the primary conflict led to the death of Abhimanyu, which in turn had a dramatic impact on the course of the battle as well as the formation used by the Pandavas the very next day.
The Kauravas on the other hand, utilized the Chakravyuha or an ever-twisting snake-like circular maze formation. The ancient Egyptian and Greek philosophers viewed the world as a constant cycle of life-death, creation-destruction and imagined it as an Ouroboros, the snake swallowing its own tail. In Alchemy, the Ouroboros is associated with the Philosopher's Stone, which is said to hold the secret to immortal life. In Norse mythology, this takes the form of the world-snake Jörmungandr, which grew so large that it could encircle the entire world and hold its tail between its teeth. Jörmungandr was also foretold to bring about Ragnorok, or the end of the world and the destruction of the Gods. In Vedic philosophies, it is believed that the power of the Kundalini lies coiled like a snake holding its own tail.
This symbolism could be taken to imply that the Kauravas strongly believed that they were going to bring about the destruction of the God-like Pandavas and award themselves eternal glory by winning this battle.

Pandava Forces