Dharma Yuddha (dharma-yuddha)

Dharma yuddha is righteous war fought under agreed rules: combat ceases at sunset, equals fight equals, no one strikes the unarmed, the fleeing or a charioteer, and no blow lands below the waist in a mace duel. The Mahabharata sets these rules out formally on the eve of Kurukshetra and then breaks every one of them in turn, usually at Krishna's suggestion and usually to Pandava advantage. By the eighteenth day the code exists mainly so that Balarama and Duryodhana can point at what is left of it.