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71.THE EIGHTH DAY
WHEN the eighth day dawned, Bhishma
arrayed his army in tortoise formation.
Yudhishthira said to Dhrishtadyumna:
"See there, the enemy is in kurma vyuha
(tortoise formation). You have to answer
at once with a formation that can break it."
Dhrishtadyumna immediately proceeded
to his task. The Pandava forces were
arrayed in a three-pronged formation.
Bhima was at the head of one prong,
Satyaki of another, and Yudhishthira at
the crest of the middle division. Our
ancestors had developed the science of
war very well.
It was not reduced to writing but was
preserved by tradition in the families of
kshatriyas. Armor and tactics were
employed suitably to meet the weapons of
offence and the tactics that the enemy
used in those days.
The Kurukshetra battle was fought some
thousands of years ago. Reading the story
of the battle in the Mahabharata, we
should not, having the practice and
incidents of modern warfare in mind,
reject the Mahabharata narrative as mere
myth with no relation to fact.
Only about a century and a half ago, the
English admiral Nelson fought great sea
battles and won undying renown.
The weapons used and the vessels that
actually took part in Nelson's battles,
would seem almost weird and even
ridiculous if compared with those of
modern naval warfare.
If a hundred and fifty years can make so
much difference, we must be prepared for
very strange things in the procedure and
events of a period, so long back as that of
the Mahabharata war.
Another matter to be kept in mind is that
we cannot expect, in the books of poets
and literary writers, accurate or full details
about weapons and tactics, although the
narrative may be of battles.
Military affairs were in ancient times the
sole concern of the military order, the
kshatriyas. Their culture and their training
were entirely their own charge.
The principles and the secrets of warfare
and the science and art of the use of
military weapons were handed down from
generation to generation by tradition and
personal instruction.
There were no military textbooks and
there was not any place for them in the
works of poets and rishis. If a modern
novel deals in some chapters with the
treatment and cure of a sick person, we
can not expect to see such details in it as
might interest a medical man. No author
would care, even if he were able, to
include scientific details in his story.
So, we cannot hope to find in the epic of
Vyasa, precise details as to what is
tortoise formation or lotus formation. We
have no explanation as to how one could,
by discharging a continuous stream of
arrows, build a defence around himself or
intercept and cut missiles in transit, or
how one could be living when pierced all
over by arrows, or how far the armor worn
by the soldiers and officers could protect
them against missiles or what were the
ambulance arrangements or how the dead
were disposed of.
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