The Kurukshetra war · Mahabharata questions
Who survived the Mahabharata war?
Tradition counts ten survivors: the five Pandavas, Krishna and Satyaki on the winning side, and Ashwatthama, Kripa and Kritavarma on the Kaurava side. Yuyutsu, who changed sides before the first day, also lived, as did Vrishaketu, the surviving son of Karna.
Out of eighteen armies the epic names very few living men at the end, and the list is short enough to memorise.
On the Pandava side: Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, with Krishna as charioteer and counsellor and Satyaki as the last great Yadava fighter. Their generation of heirs is gone. Abhimanyu died inside the chakravyuha on the thirteenth day, Ghatotkacha on the fourteenth night, and the five young sons of Draupadi were killed in their sleep by Ashwatthama after the fighting had ended. Dhrishtadyumna and Shikhandi died in the same raid.
On the Kaurava side: Ashwatthama, Kripa and Kritavarma, the three who carried out that night raid. All hundred sons of Dhritarashtra were dead, Duryodhana last. Kripa, as an acharya and a survivor of the older generation, later became the teacher of Parikshit.
Two more should be added to the traditional ten. Yuyutsu, son of Dhritarashtra by a woman of the household, crossed to the Pandavas when Yudhishthira called for anyone who wished to change sides before the first arrow, and he survives to be left in charge of the kingdom when the Pandavas depart. Vrishaketu, the youngest son of Karna, survives the war and is later favoured by the Pandavas once they learn that Karna was their brother.
The line of the Kurus itself came within one life of ending. Uttara, Abhimanyu widow, was carrying a child when Ashwatthama turned a weapon on her womb. The child, Parikshit, was born and lived, and the dynasty continued through him to his son Janamejaya, at whose snake sacrifice the epic is recited.