The parvas describing the war are named after the military leaders of the Kaurava army. Bhishma parva because Bhishma was the chief commander of the Kauravas for the first 10 days, Drona led from day 11 to 15, Karna from day 15 to 17 and Shalya on days 17 & 18.

Drishtadyumna was the son of King Drupada of Panchala and the brother of Draupadi. They were born of the fire sacrifice of King Drupada with the aim of taking revenge on Drona who had a dispute with Drupada, both of whom were close childhood friends. Drishtadyumna lived through 18 days of war but was killed along with the sons of Draupadi (upa Pandavas) by Ashwathama on the night that the war ended. The fact that he was chosen the supreme commander of the Pandava army shows how important the alliance with Panchala was to the Pandavas.

There were many reasons why Bhishma was chosen the supreme commander of the Kaurava armies by Duryodhana. Bhishma had the boon of iccha maran and could choose when to die. He was the most experienced and accomplished warrior of his age. Most importantly, he was the grandfather of the Pandavas who were emotionally attached to him and Duryodhana calculated rightly, that this would distract the Pandavas when they faced him. At the start of the war, the Pandavas blew their conches and this sent tremors in the Kaurava camp. It seemed they were well set to fight. But the sight of Bhishma and other elders on the Kaurava side brought and emotional weakness onto Arjuna and he sunk into paralysis. Krishna had to revive his will to fight, do his duty and not let down his army, by delivering the immortal message of the Gita in the middle of the battlefield.

In the Gita, Krishna explains all these points to Arjuna. Arjuna was refusing to fight elders like Bhishma & Drona inspite of his duty to take care of the kingdom by ridding it of bad rulers (Kauravas) and of providing good rulers (Pandavas). Krishna himself had not cared for family relationships when he killed his maternal uncle, Kansa and his cousin, Shishupala who had become tyrants. Of course, he gave both ample opportunities to change their behaviour. He did the same with the Kauravas, giving them multiple chances to rectify their behaviour.

Krishna dispelled the doubt of Arjuna in 700 verses. For this reason, Gita is considered the manual for living as doubts & indecisions are part of everyone’s everyday life.

Krishna shows the wrathful form of God (ugra roopa) to Arjuna. This form includes all the living and non living beings of the universe and is hence called Vishwaroopa. It was wrathful as Arjuna could see that all the Kaurava warriors were being consumed by the Vishwaroopa. Krishna wanted to convey that by siding with adharma, the Kauravas were morally dead already. Arjuna was just the instrument to achieve this (nimitta matra). In this episode, Krishna shows why he is an avatara. When the divine descends to earth for a purpose, it is called avatara. This is not to be confused with patana which means falling down.

Before the start of the war, Bhishma was rating warriors on both sides. He rated Karna as ardha-ratha (half a warrior) for not being able to keep his emotions in control. Karna felt insulted and declared that he would not fight till Bhishma was in the field. Both were wrong. Bhishma’s assessment was harsh and perhaps incorrect. In any case, as the supreme commander he should have not hurt one of his key warriors in this fashion. Karna who had sworn to follow his friend Duryodhana under all circumstances, was clearly letting him down by not fighting and handing an advantage to their adversaries.

Enemies can be defeated by four ways – sama (negotiations), dama (gifts or money), danda (forces) & bheda (sowing discord). Krishna used all four methods to defeat the Kauravas. He personally went to negotiate peace, he offered a good deal to Kauravas when Pandavas agreed to take few villages in compensation & he helped Pandavas prepare for war. As part of Bheda, he tried to wean Karna away to the Pandava side by telling him that he was the son of Kunti from before her marriage. If he switched sides, he would become the eldest Pandava, the undisputed king and a husband of Draupadi. Karna refused to take the bait.

Before the war starts, Yudhistira makes and appeal to the Kauravas to switch sides to Dharma. Only Yuyutsu obliges. Even Vikarna, who was the only Kaurava to oppose Draupadi’s humiliation in the sabha, stayed loyal to Duryodhana. Yuyutsu was a half brother of Duryodhana, being the son of Dhritrashtra from a maid. He was similar to Vidura, both were born to maids, both were loyal to Dharma and both were key advisers to their kings. Yuyutsu became a key adviser to Yudhistira after the war.

Bhishma caused havoc on the first 10 days of the war. Krishna was so upset that the Pandavas were not fighting him to the best of their ability, that he rushed to kill Bhishma with a chariot wheel – he of course had sworn not to use a weapon during the war. On the 9th day, Krishna told the Pandavas that Bhisma had the boon of choosing when to die. They should ask him and he would not refuse his secret and that was the only way to remove him. Bhishma told the Pandavas that he would not fight women and on their side was Shikhandin, originally born a woman and transitioned to a man. Shikhandin was the brother/ sister of Draupadi & Drishtadyumna. He/she was the rebirth of Amba, a princess who had sworn to kill Bhishma because he had humiliated her. On the 10th day, Shikhandin faced Bhishma who put his weapons down. Arjuna then shot the grandsire and he fell.

After Bhishma fell on the 10th day of war, he did not immediately die. He had the boon of choosing his time of death. He lived on after the end of war. He asked Arjuna to create a bed of arrows for him include a pillow called Shara-shayyaa (head -rest). He asked Arjuna to provide him water and Arjuna shot his parjanya-astra into the ground, bringing a stream of Ganga water into Bhishma’s mouth. Incidentally, the place where Bhishma had his Shara-shayyaa is commemorated as the modern town of Sirsa in Haryana. Sirsa is a linguistic variation of Shara-shayyaa.

Drona took over as the supreme commander of Kaurava forces after Bhishma fell on the 10th day. He was an astute war strategist. He decided to keep Arjuna, the best Pandava warrior, away from the main battle. He constituted a special force of samasaptakas who had the task of fighting Arjuna to death. He then designed the chakravyuh on the 13th day, which could only be penetrated by Arjuna. In desperation, the Pandavas turned to Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu, who knew how to enter the chakravyuh but not how to get out. He was in his mother’s womb when Krishna was telling her about the chakravyuh. She fell asleep when he came to the portion of how to exit. The Pandavas knew this and tried to follow him into the chakravyuh to help him but were stopped. Inside, Abhimanyu fought a lone battle that has become the byword for bravery down the ages. It took seven major Kaurava warriors to kill him unfairly.

Jayadratha was married to Dushala, sister of Kauravas. He had been humiliated by Pandavas after he had tried to abduct Draupadi earlier. He propitiated the gods and got a boon that he would be able to defeat Pandavas other than Arjuna once. That day arrived when Abhimanyu entered the chakravyuh in the absence of Arjuna. The other Pandavas tried to follow him to give him protection but they were held off by Jayadratha. Arjuna understood that it was Jayadratha’s action which caused his son’s death. He foolishly vowed to kill Jayadratha the next day, otherwise he would enter fire. This allowed the Kauravas to arrange an elaborate mechanism to protect Jayadratha. Arjuna found the going tough. Krishna then created the illusion of sunset via an eclipse. Jayadratha triumphantly came out of his security setup. Arjuna promptly killed him. That has an interesting story too. Jayadratha’s father had done Tapasya and got the boon that whosever became responsible for causing his Jayadratha’s to fall on the ground would have his own head exploded. Arjuna thus severed Jayadratha’s in a manner that the arrow carried his head into his father’s lap. Startled, he stood up and the head fell to ground. Jayadratha’s father’s head exploded.

Samba was married to Lakshanakumari, daughter of Duryodhana. His son, Lakshanakumar fought with Abhimanyu on the 13th day and was killed. Samba was wayward in his ways at times. He once was imprisoned by Duryodhana. Krishna did not help Samba then as he knew that Duryodhana was right, for once.

Drona had an unhealthy attachment to his son, Ashwatthama. Krishna knew that he would lay down his arms if he found that his son had died. Krishna asked Bheema to kill an elephant also called Ashwatthama. He then told Yudhistira to inform Drona that Ashwatthama had died. Yudhistira told Drona that Ashwatthama ‘elephant’ had died. While he was uttering this, Krishna blew his conch Panchajanya furiously when Yudhistira used the word for elephant. It was heard as Ashwatthama had died. Drona knew that his son was a skilled warrior and hard to kill. But when he heard the news from Yudhistira whom he knew as a staunchly truthful man, he accepted it reluctantly. He laid down his weapons. Drishtadyumna, who had been born to take revenge on Drona killed the unarmed guru. Ashwatthama was enraged when he found out the sequence of events. He would extract a terrible revenge.

Ghatotkacha was the son of Bheema & Hidimba who was the sister of Hidimbasura that Bheema killed during the Pandavas’ stay in the forest before their marriage. After Jayadratha’s killing on the 14th day, the war continued into the night. Being a rakshasha, Ghatotkacha was a deadly fighter in the dark. He wreaked havoc on the Kaurava forces and in panic, Duryodhana forced Karna to use his divine weapon to kill him. Unfortunately, he could use the weapon only once. In a way, Ghatotkacha saved Arjuna. As a huge rakshasa, when Ghatotkacha died he fell on a half akshauni of Kaurava soldiers and killed them. Thus, he did great service to the cause of Dharma on the Kurukshetra battlefield, inspite of being a rakshasa.

Shalya was the maternal uncle of the Pandava brothers Nakula & Sahadeva, sons of Madri. He was also one of the most senior kings of the land. That why, Duryodhana asked him to be Karna’s charioteer. Duryodhana knew that Karna had an inferiority complex for being raised in a suta(charioteer) family. He thought that making a renowned kshatriya as his charioteer would stoke Karna’s ego. Shalya was furious at this proposal. But Duryodhana calmed him down by saying that even a God like Brahma acted as charioteer for Shiva when he fought asuras in the Tripura story.

Karna was born to Kunti by the grace of son god. He was born before Kunti was married. To save her image, Kunti abandoned Karna in a basket and left it on the river. The baby was found by a childless couple Radha & Adhiratha, who was Dhritrashtra’s charioteer. Karna was thus brought up in a suta family. He sometimes faced snide remarks about this. His story was somewhat similar to Krishna’s. Like Karna, Krishna was of royal blood but was abandoned by his friends and brough up in a much humbler home. He also faced many unpleasant comments. But unlike Karna, Krishna remained unaffected by these. Karna also carried a grudge against his birth mother. While one can blame Kunti for abandoning Karna, she tried her best. She filled the basket in which she had floated the infant Karna, with riches. Adhiratha found the baby along with the basket filled with riches. He named his new found son Vasusena, one who brings wealth.