This excerpt is from the book "Bhimsen" by Prem Panicker and is written from Bheem's POV.
I am just posting those parts that are related to Arjun. It's after he returns from the Virat Yudha and is now describing it to his bhrata... 😆😆
Pages 222-224
The dust cloud approached rapidly, but at this distance it was
impossible to tell if it was friend or foe. I halted the Matsya troops and
quickly organized them into a defensive formation.
"It is the Matsya banner"this must be Prince Uttara returning," my
charioteer, who was standing up in the chariot and peering into the
distance, announced suddenly; at my signal, he whipped the horses
and raced the chariot forward towards the advancing troops.
I was apprehensive - had been ever since I had learnt from King Virat
that while we were off recovering out cattle from Trigarthan's raiders,
Prince Uttara had led a section of the Matsya army against the
attacking Kauravas.
"He has never fought a battle"he is just a boy," King Virat lamented,
while ordering me to take our troops and rush to help. "And they tell
me he has taken that eunuch, Brihannala, as his charioteer!"
That was at the insistence of Draupadi, who in her guise as Malini told
Queen Sudeshna that Brihannala had served for a time as charioteer
to no less than Arjuna himself.
I couldn't help laughing out loud at the sight: holding the reins of the
lead chariot sat Arjuna, still dressed in the garb of a woman. The
flowers braided into his hair, and the soft colors of his robe, presented
an incongruous sight in tandem with the breastplate and arm
protectors of the warrior. I noticed he had Gandiva, his favorite bow,
slung across his shoulder.
"I have told them not to breathe a word of my part in the battle,"
Arjuna said, as my charioteer took over Prince Uttara's reins and
Arjuna jumped into my chariot. "The Kauravas will have known it was
me even with this disguise, but I thought it best for now to let Uttara
pretend he had won the battle."
It was, Arjuna told me as we drove at a leisurely pace back towards
the palace, a surprisingly easy affair. "Uttara was brash and boastful
when we set out, but once we left the palace he panicked, like I
thought he would."
Arjuna had driven the chariot to the grove in the forest where, before
entering Matsya, we had hidden our weapons. They were tied neatly in
individual bundles; I had climbed the tallest tree I could find and
stashed them in the forks of branches.
I found a skeleton in the forest and with a rope, tied it to one of the
lower branches so passers-by would see it. I learned later that locals
had spread the story that the tree was haunted by the ghost of the
person who had committed suicide - the story spread and so did the
fear, to the point where no one would go near the place.
Armed with his favorite bow, and with his quiver packed with the
weapons he had acquired during his travels, Arjuna handed over the
reins to the young prince and directed him to drive towards the
enemy.
"It wasn't a very large army," Arjuna told me. "Some 400 soldiers -
they must have planned a quick raid to try and uncover us. But all the
main warriors were there"Duryodhana leading, Karna, Kripa, Drona..."
Bhisma was there too but he stayed in his chariot off to one side,
watching but taking no active part in the battle.
"I wasn't sure about the quality of the Matsya army, and whether they
would take orders from me, so I decided to take the Kauravas by
surprise. They were drawn up in battle array, clearly waiting for us to
get within arrow range. I stopped just short, and shot a stream of fire
arrows, the Agneyastra, and built a wall of fire just ahead of the
Kaurava army. Their horses panicked; there was much confusion."
Under cover of the flames Arjuna attacked the leaders, cutting down
Duryodhana's horses, then Drona's. "The one who gave me the most
trouble was Kripa," Arjuna said. "The others proved easy to handle,
but Kripa fought back and he was good - I had to kill his horses and
charioteer with poisoned arrows, the Nagastras, and render him
helpless before he gave up."
It was the first opportunity my brother had to try out his newly
acquired skills and weapons, and he was ecstatic at the outcome. "The
Nagastra is okay, but the Agneyastra is key - just fantastic," Arjuna
said with the enthusiasm he reserves for talk of war.
"I hadn't realized it before, but it's not the fire alone that makes the
arrows so deadly, it's the accompanying smoke. The powder you coat
on the arrowheads produces clouds of thick black smoke - it hangs
over the opposing army, confusing them, and lets you get closer and
attack."
But it was his newly developed ambidextrous skill, Arjuna said, that
paid the richest dividends. "You know how when skilled archers face
each other, we organize our own defenses to counter the style of the
opponent. All those hours of practice I put in during my wanderings
paid off - I kept switching the bow from right hand to left, changing
the angles of attack and breaching their defenses with ease.
Duryodhana and Drona had no clue how to handle my attacks; they
were among the first to retreat."
His duel with Karna, brief but intense, was what pleased Arjuna the
most. "The suta putra ran from the field, bleeding," my brother
laughed. "I was battling Kripa when he attacked me. I shot an
Agneyastra between his horses. They panicked and before they could
recover, I cut down the lead horses with poisoned arrows. He jumped
off the chariot and fought on foot; I switched hands, cut down his bow,
pierced his armor, wounded him high on the shoulder with that other
arrow I showed you, remember, the one with a crescent head? I was
getting ready to kill him with a Nagastra, when he turned and ran, like
the coward he is."
We drove through the gates of Matsya and went our separate ways.
Arjuna, who had removed his breastplate and armguards and given
me his bow and quiver to hide, went back to his room in the ladies'
quarters and I, suddenly assailed by the hunger pangs I had been
denying in course of a very long day, slipped into the kitchens to see
what I could find to eat.
CID
