The Armour of Mantras

Prince Sudakshina of the Kambojas was dead. Srutayudha was dead. The divisions that had been drawn up for the single purpose of keeping one man out had been opened like a seam, and Arjuna's car was already through and running, and the dust of it was two miles ahead of the last of his arrows.

Duryodhana turned his horses and went to find Drona at the gate of the array, where the old man had stood since morning.

"He is through," the king said. "That tiger among men has crushed this host and passed it. Advise me. Tell me what is to be done now, before he reaches Jayadratha. You are our only refuge."

Drona said nothing, and the silence did to Duryodhana what silence always did.

"The Dhananjaya fire," the king said, "urged by the wind of his own anger, is eating my troops like dry grass and straw. The men set to guard the ruler of the Sindhus have seen him pass and they no longer believe they can hold him. Every king in this army held it settled that Dhananjaya would never get past Drona alive. He got past you in full view of us all. I did think my army weak. Now I think I have no army."

He should have stopped there. He did not.

"I know you are devoted to the welfare of the Pandavas. I lose my reason, brahmana, trying to think what to do. I have tried in every way I know to please you, and you do not carry any of it in your mind. We are devoted to you and you never seek our good. You take your livelihood from us and you work our harm. Until today I did not know that you were a razor steeped in honey."

Sanjaya, telling it afterward in the hall at Hastinapur, did not soften the words, and the blind king did not ask him to.

"If you had not granted me the boon about humbling and checking the Pandavas," Duryodhana said, "I would never have stopped the ruler of the Sindhus from riding home to his own country. Fool that I am, expecting protection from you, I gave him my word and made him a gift to death. A man may come out again from inside the jaws of death. There is no coming out for Jayadratha once he is inside the reach of Dhananjaya's arms."

Then the anger went out of him all at once, the way it did, and what was left was a frightened man.

"O you who own red steeds," he said, "do something. Do not be angry at the ravings of an afflicted man. Protect the ruler of the Sindhus."

"I do not find fault with what you have said," Drona answered. "You are as dear to me as Ashwatthama. I tell you that truly. But now act on what I say."

He pointed with his bow at the drifting dust to the east.

"Of all the drivers of chariots in the world, Krishna is the first. His horses are the first of their kind. Give Dhananjaya the smallest opening and he is through it and gone. Do you not see that the arrows shot from his bow are falling a full two miles behind his own car as he goes? I am burdened with the weight of my years. I cannot go that fast. And the whole Partha army is on our front line at this moment."

"Then send another."

"I have made a vow," Drona said. "I swore in front of every bowman on this field and in the hearing of all the kshatriyas that I would seize Yudhishthira. He is standing at the head of his troops now, and Dhananjaya has left him. I will not abandon the gate of my array to chase Phalguna and let the king of the Pandavas walk free behind me. It is fitting that you go yourself, properly supported. He is alone. He is your equal in birth and in deeds. Do not be afraid. You are the ruler of the world. You are a king. You are a hero, famed and accomplished in the beating of enemies. Go yourself, O subjugator of hostile towns, to the place where the son of Pritha is."

Duryodhana stared at him.

"Preceptor, how am I to resist Dhananjaya, who has gone past you, the foremost of all wielders of arms? The chief of the celestials himself with the thunderbolt in his hand can be beaten in battle. Arjuna cannot. He has beaten Kritavarma, the ruler of the Bhojas. He has beaten you, who are like a god. He has killed Srutayus, and Sudakshina, and Achyutayus, and Mlecchas by the myriad. How shall I stand in front of that? How do you even think me fit for it today?"

He said the last of it very quietly.

"I am dependent on you like a slave. Protect my fame."

And Drona, who had refused him a general's help and a general's excuse, gave him instead the thing no one else on that field could have given him.

"You speak truly," he said. "Dhananjaya is irresistible. Even so, I will do that by which you shall be able to bear him. Let every bowman in the world see today the wonderful sight of the son of Kunti held in check by you, in the very presence of Vasudeva."

"This armour of gold of yours," Drona said, "I will tie on your body in such a way that no weapon used by any man will be able to strike you in battle. If the three worlds should fight you today, with the asuras and the celestials, the yakshas, the uragas and the rakshasas, and every human being besides, you need feel no fear. Neither Krishna nor the son of Kunti nor any other wielder of weapons will be able to put an arrow through it. Get into that coat of mail and go quickly against the angry Arjuna. He will not be able to bear you."

He called for water, and touched it, and began to speak the mantras.

Men who were standing near enough to see it stopped what they were doing and stood watching, and afterward they said it was the strangest thing they saw in eighteen days. The old commander of a broken army, in the middle of a lost morning, working with his hands at the buckles of a young king's cuirass and reciting over him as though over a sacrificial fire.

"Let the Vedas bless you," Drona said, "and Brahman, and the brahmanas. Let the higher classes of reptiles be a source of blessing to you. Let Yayati and Nahusha and Dhundhumara and Bhagiratha and all the other royal sages do what is good for you. Let blessings come to you from creatures that have one leg, and from those that have many legs, and in this great battle from the creatures that have no legs at all. Let Swaha and Swadha and Sachi do what is good for you. Let Lakshmi and Arundhati do what is good for you. Let Asita and Devala, Viswamitra and Angiras, Vasishtha and Kasyapa do what is good for you. Let Dhatri and the lord of the worlds and the regents of the points of the compass and the six-faced Karttikeya give you what is beneficial. Let the divine Vivaswat benefit you completely. Let the four elephants of the four quarters, and the earth, and the firmament, and the planets, and Sesha, that foremost of snakes who holds the earth on his head from underneath, give you what is for your good."

Duryodhana stood with his arms lifted and his eyes shut and let the old man dress him.

"Do you know," said Drona, "where this came from?"

"Long ago, son of Gandhari, the asura named Vritra put out his strength in battle and defeated the best of the celestials. They came away from him in thousands with their bodies mangled, the dwellers in heaven, with Indra at their head, emptied of energy and might, and they went to Brahman and asked him for shelter.

"'O best of gods,' they said, 'be the refuge of the gods, who are crushed by Vritra. Rescue us out of this great fear.'

"And Brahman spoke to Vishnu, who was sitting beside him, and to Sakra and the rest of those cheerless ones, and what he said was true and not comfortable.

"'The gods with Indra at their head are always to be protected by me, and the brahmanas also. But the energy of Tvashtri, out of which Vritra was made, cannot be beaten. Tvashtri performed ascetic penances for a million years and then, with the permission of Maheswara, he made Vritra. It is by the grace of that god of gods that your enemy has been able to strike you. And you cannot see the divine Hara without going to the place where Sankara stays. Go to the mountains of Mandara. There is the origin of ascetic penances, the destroyer of Daksha's sacrifice, the wielder of Pinaka, the lord of all creatures. See him, and you will be able to conquer Vritra.'

"So they went to Mandara with Brahman in their company, and they saw there that heap of energy, that supreme god with the splendour of a million suns. Maheswara welcomed them and asked what he could do for them, and said, 'The sight of my person can never be fruitless. Let the fruition of your desires come out of it.'

"And the dwellers in heaven said, 'We have been emptied of our energy by Vritra. Look at our bodies, beaten and bruised with his strokes. Be our refuge.'

"Then the god of gods, who is called Sarva, said: 'You know how this thing was made, out of the energy of the divine artificer, terrible, and not to be resisted by anyone without ascetic merit. As for me, it is certainly my duty to help the dwellers in heaven. O Sakra, take this armour off my body. Put it on, chief of the celestials, and utter these mantras in your mind while you do it.'

"And so the boon-giver gave the armour, and the mantras with it, which the wearer must say. Protected by it, Sakra went against the host of Vritra, and though every kind of weapon was hurled at him in that dreadful battle, the joints of the armour could not be cut open. And then the lord of the celestials killed Vritra."

"Afterward," Drona said, "Indra gave that armour to Angiras, whose joints are made up of mantras. And Angiras taught the mantras to his son Brihaspati, who has a knowledge of all mantras. And Brihaspati taught them to Agnivesya of great intelligence. And Agnivesya taught them to me.

"It is with the help of those mantras, best of kings, that I am tying this on your body now."

He went round behind the young man and drew the last of the fastenings tight.

"I am joining its pieces with Brahma strings," he said. "In days of old Brahma himself put it in this way on Vishnu in battle. As Brahma put this celestial armour on Sakra in the war that came of the carrying away of Taraka, so I put it on you."

Then he stepped back and sent the king to the fighting.

What went out from the gate of the array was not one man. There went with Duryodhana a thousand infuriated elephants, and a hundred thousand horse, and mighty car-warriors behind them in numbers no herald counted, and every kind of musical instrument sounding at once, so that the noise of it reached the Pandava line before the dust did. He rode out toward Arjuna's car like Virochana's son going out in the old story, and a loud uproar went up among his own troops at the sight of their king moving forward like an ocean with no bottom to it.

He had been the man who stayed at the centre and sent others. Now he was going out himself, in gold, on the fourteenth day, and the army cheered him for it.

Krishna saw him first.

"Look, Dhananjaya, at this Suyodhana who has come across us," he said. "I call it wonderful. There is no car-warrior equal to him. His arrows reach far. He is a great bowman, accomplished in weapons, and hard to beat in battle. The mighty son of Dhritarashtra strikes hard and knows every mode of warfare. He was brought up in great luxury and even the foremost of car-warriors think highly of him. And he hates the Pandavas as he has always hated them. For all those reasons I think you should fight him now."

The reins were loose in his hands. He was already turning the horses.

"Victory or its opposite rests on him as on a stake at dice," Krishna said. "Vomit on him the poison of the anger you have been carrying so long. This is the root of every wrong done to the Pandavas, and he is inside the range of your shafts. Why has king Duryodhana, who wants a kingdom so badly, come out to fight you? By good luck it is that he has arrived within reach of your arrows. Do that, Dhananjaya, by which he may be deprived of his very life. He has never once felt distress. He is out of his senses with the pride of wealth. He does not even know what you are.

"Remember the deprivation of your kingdom by deceit. Remember your exile into the woods. Remember the wrongs done to Krishna. He cheated king Yudhishthira at dice. Slay him without a scruple, this wicked wight who is always angry, always cruel, the very embodiment of avarice. Slay him as Purandara slew Vritra, as Indra of old slew the asura Jambha. If he is killed by you, then you can go through this masterless host as you please. Cut the very root of these wretches. Let the closing bath of this hostility be taken now."

"So be it," Arjuna said. "This should be done by me. Leave everything else and go where Duryodhana is. I will cut off the head of that wretch who has enjoyed our kingdom for so long without a thorn in his side. Shall I not, Kesava, avenge the insult of Draupadi dragged by the hair, who deserved no such thing?"

They urged the white horses forward, both of them glad, and blew their conchs.

On the other side of the field, seeing that gladness, the Kauravas gave their king up for dead. Men in his own army said aloud, "The king is slain, the king is slain," and the sound of it travelled down the line.

Duryodhana heard it and laughed at them.

"Let your fears be dispelled," he called back. "I will send the two Krishnas to the region of death."

Then he turned to Arjuna, and there was no fear in him at all, though every circumstance was calculated to inspire it.

"Partha, if you are begotten by Pandu, use on me now, without wasting a moment, every weapon you have, celestial and earthly, and everything Kesava has of either kind. I wish to see your manliness. They speak of many feats of yours achieved out of our sight. Show me those feats that have won the applause of so many brave men."

He struck first. Three shafts of great force into Arjuna, aimed at the vitals. Four into the four horses. Ten into the centre of Vasudeva's chest, and then a broad-headed arrow that cut the whip out of Krishna's hand and dropped it on the ground.

Arjuna answered without hurrying, the way he did, and shot fourteen shafts whetted on stone with beautiful feathers on them.

They slid off.

He shot nine more, and then five, keen-pointed, and those slid off too.

Krishna looked back over his shoulder at his friend, and Sanjaya, who was watching from close enough to see faces, said that in eighteen days he never saw that expression on Krishna's face again.

"I am seeing something I have never seen," Krishna said. "Like hills moving. Shafts sped by you, Partha, are becoming abortive. Has your Gandiva decayed in power? Have the might of your grip and the strength of your arms become less than they were? Is this not to be your last meeting with Duryodhana? Tell me, for I am asking you. My amazement is great, Partha. I have watched all these shafts of yours fall on Duryodhana's car without the slightest effect. What misfortune is this, that these terrible arrows of yours, endued with the might of the thunder, that always pierce the bodies of foes, produce nothing?"

Twenty-eight arrows. Arjuna counted them as they went and knew what he was looking at before the last one struck.

"I think, Krishna, that this armour has been put on Duryodhana's body by Drona," he said. "Tied as it has been tied, it is impenetrable to my weapons. The might of the three worlds is in it. Only Drona knows it, and I learned it from that best of men myself. Maghavat could not pierce it with his thunder. And you know all this. What happened in the three worlds, what exists now, and what is in the womb of the future are all known to you. No one knows it better. Why then do you seek to confound me?"

He drew again while he was speaking.

"The chief of the celestials gave this armour to Angiras. From him Brihaspati got it, and from Brihaspati it came to Purandara, and the lord of the celestials gave it once more to me, with the mantras that are to be uttered in the wearing of it. Cased in it by Drona, Duryodhana stands here fearlessly. But what a man wearing such armour ought to do, he does not know. He wears it only as a woman wears a thing. Watch now, Janardana, the might of my arms and of my bow. Though he is protected by such a coat of mail I will still vanquish the Kuru prince. Even if this armour were divine, even if Brahma himself had made it, that wretch struck with my arrows shall not be protected by it."

He inspired some arrows with mantras and began to draw them on the bowstring, and while he was drawing them Ashwatthama, watching from a distance, cut them off in the air with a weapon that baffles every weapon.

Arjuna lowered the bow.

"I cannot use that twice, Janardana," he said. "If I do it will kill me and my own troops with me."

Meanwhile Duryodhana pierced each of the two Krishnas with nine shafts like snakes of virulent poison, and then poured more on them, and the Kaurava army beat their drums and roared like lions, because for the first time in fourteen days their king was standing in front of Arjuna and nothing was happening to him.

Partha licked the corners of his mouth. He cast his eyes over the man's body, looking for one place, any place, that the coat did not cover well, and there was none.

So he went after what the coat did not cover.

With sharp-pointed shafts, each one like Death himself, he killed the four horses. Then the two Parshni charioteers on either flank of the car. Then he cut the bow in the king's hands, and then the leathern fence that cased his fingers, and then he began to cut the car itself into pieces, and with a pair of keen arrows he made Duryodhana carless.

And then he pierced both the palms of the Kuru king.

That is the whole of it. The armour of Maheswara, given away off a god's own body, carried down through Indra and Angiras and Brihaspati and Agnivesya to an old brahmana at the gate of a broken array, held. Nothing went through it. It was the hands that came out of it that were shot, and a man who cannot close his hands cannot hold a bow, and a great bowman with two pierced palms standing on the ground beside the wreck of his chariot is simply a man in expensive clothing waiting to be rescued.

They came for him from every direction. Thousands of cars, elephants in their war harness, horses, and great bodies of foot behind them, all rushing at the one spot to get their king out, until neither Duryodhana's car nor Arjuna's could be seen from anywhere on the field.

Arjuna began to kill them. Car-warriors and elephants went down by hundreds with their limbs off, and the ones who were being killed and the ones who were already dead alike failed to reach the car they were reaching for, and in the end the chariot of Partha stood alone and motionless with a full two miles of dead and dying between it and the nearest press of troops on every side.

"Draw your bow quickly and with great force," Krishna said. "I will blow my conch."

So Arjuna drew Gandiva with great force and shot dense showers of shafts and made a loud noise stretching the bowstring with his fingers, and Kesava, his face covered with dust, blew Panchajanya as loudly as he could. And at that blare and at that twang the Kuru warriors, the strong ones and the weak ones together, fell down on the ground where they stood. The car came out of the press like a cloud driven by the wind.

The guards of Jayadratha, further east, heard the two sounds and understood what they meant, and began to shout, and to blow their own conchs, and to fill the earth with noise as men do when they have decided not to think.

And behind all of it, in the middle of his own rescued army, Duryodhana was helped onto another chariot with his hands ruined, wearing a coat of mail that the arrows of the greatest archer alive could not scratch.

He had asked for protection and been given it, exactly as asked. Drona had told him to go and fight his own enemy, and had made him proof against every weapon in the world, and had not been able to make him into a man who could win. The armour was Maheswara's and the mantras were true and the lineage was unbroken from Indra down, and none of it taught him one thing about the war he had started.

That evening the sun went down with Jayadratha dead and the man in the golden coat still living.