Which Character in the Mahabharata
was the Most Chivalrous?
Written by Dr. Seshadri
Kumar, 29 May, 2014
Copyright © Dr. Seshadri Kumar. All Rights Reserved.
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This question was asked on quora about a year ago, and I am
reproducing here the answer I gave there for the benefit of my readers who do
not have access to quora. Here is the
answer in its context in quora.
My answer follows.
***
If by chivalry we mean nobility of character, the ability to
keep your word under all circumstances, devotion to duty, and fairness in war,
Bhishma towers above anyone else in this regard.
Before I talk about Bhishma, I'd like to dispose of other
contenders that may be spoken about, so that my reasons for picking Bhishma
will be clear.
Arjuna:
Arjuna is often spoken about as a very chivalrous
warrior. His speech to Uttara before
they meet the army of the Kauravas and defeat them bespeaks his nature as one
who despises none, for which he has earned the name Bibhatsu. (Bibhatsa is the term in Sanskrit for the
emotion of disgust, and the Bibhatsu means one who shows disgust towards no
one.) Arjuna, instead of despising
Uttara for his cowardice, seeks to embolden him to raise himself and show the
courage that is expected of him. There
are many other incidents in his life which show his chivalrous nature. Yet there are three incidents in the war
which show him to be less than chivalrous.
Although he does these unchivalrous acts at the bidding of Krishna, that
doesn't excuse the fact that they are unchivalrous.
The first is the killing of Bhishma. Knowing fully well that Bhishma would not
fight a woman, Arjuna fights behind Shikhandi and kills Bhishma. The second is the slaying of Bhurishravas,
who was fighting Satyaki. Satyaki was
prostate and defeated, and Bhurishravas was about to kill him. Arjuna shot an arrow that cut off the hand of
Bhurishravas who was about to kill Satyaki.
By attacking an opponent who wasn't even facing him, Arjuna committed an
unchivalrous act. The third, of course,
is the killing of Karna. By killing
Karna, who was not fighting him, who had laid down his bow and arrows and was
trying to extricate the wheel of his chariot from the ground, Arjuna again was
unchivalrous. In my mind, these three
acts make Arjuna ineligible.
Karna and Drona:
To try to burn your enemies in a lac palace or cheat them at
a game of dice would automatically disqualify someone who hopes to be labeled
chivalrous, but in addition, Karna also has behaved unchivalrously on the
battlefield. He helped kill Abhimanyu,
along with 5 other great warriors of the Kauravas, when Abhimanyu was fighting
them singlehanded after being trapped in the Chakravyuha. On Drona's advice, Karna shoots arrows to cut
off the reins of the horses using which Abhimanyu was steering his chariot - and
that too from behind. This act
disqualifies both Karna and Drona.
Karna is a mixed bag, however, since he did give up his
greatest protection, his armour, in order to adhere to his vow that he would
refuse no gift to anyone after his prayers.
He also spared the life of his brothers Yudhisthira, Bhima, and Nakula
on the battlefield in order to keep his promise to his mother Kunti that he
would only kill Arjuna or die by Arjuna's hand.
Drona has one more strike against him - the treatment of
Ekalavya, the Nishada prince who learned archery on his own, using only a clay
image of Drona as an inspiration, and became a better archer than even
Arjuna. Because of caste bias and
because of his favoritism towards Arjuna, Drona commits the very ignoble act of
asking Ekalavya for his thumb as guru dakshina, knowing fully well that having
given that, Ekalavya could never again hope to be as good an archer.
Duryodhana:
Although Duryodhana behaved egregiously almost his whole
life, scheming against the Pandavas - incidents like the palace of lac, trying
to poison Bhima, cheating at the game of dice, etc. - for the entire duration
of the war he behaved chivalrously - with the exception of the death of
Abhimanyu. He died a warrior's death,
and his death was achieved unchivalrously by Bhima striking him below the
navel, which was a violation of the rules of war.
Krishna:
I don't think I need to say much about why Krishna doesn't
deserve this title - most everything he achieved in the Mahabharata war was
done by behaving without chivalry - these include the deaths of Bhishma, Drona
(killed because of a lie about the death of his son), Karna, Duryodhana, and
Jayadratha (darkening the sky and making people believe the sun had set when it
really hadn't). Krishna, of course,
justifies everything by saying that the ends (the defeat of the Kauravas)
justify the means (trickery). Be that as
it may, what he did certainly wasn't chivalrous.
Yudhishthira:
Yudhishthira is often regarded as a noble person. Indeed, often in the epic he is considered to
be the epitome of dharma. Even people
like Bhishma defer to his understanding of Dharma. But Yudhishthira has three fatal strikes
against him. The first one, which is the
only one Vyasa seems to consider, is the fact that he lied on the battlefield
about Ashwatthama. The Pandavas, on
Krishna's urging, decide that they will tell Drona the lie that his son
Ashwatthama is dead. Drona does not
believe it and, to verify it, comes to Yudhishthira to ask if the news is true
- for he is very sure that Yudhishthira would never tell a lie, not for the
kingship of the three worlds.
Yudhishthira proves him wrong - and goes along with the lie,
with the consequence that Drona lays down his weapons and goes into yoga, upon
which Dhrishtadyumna cuts his head off.
It is for this sin that Yudhishthira spends a sixteenth day of his life
in hell.
But in my opinion, Yudhishthira had two other strikes
against him. One was his excessive
fondness for dice. In the final ascent
to heaven that the five brothers and Draupadi attempt, Bhima asks Yudhishthira
what his crime was that he was falling down from the mountain. Yudhishthira replies that he was overly
attached to food and was a glutton. If this is the standard, surely addiction
to gambling should be a higher crime? In
addition, Yudhishthira abandoned his wife, enough in my mind and for my
understanding of chivalry to be considered ineligible. For more on this, see Can
you Compare Today’s Rape Victims to Draupadi?
So now, having disposed of his rivals, I come to Bhishma.
A man who would keep his word at any cost; a prince who gave
up kingship for the sake of his father's happiness; a young man who gave up
married life simply so his father could marry the girl he had set his heart on;
who served his king and kingdom like a loyal and faithful knight until his
death; and who, even when his life depended on it, refused to break his oath
never to fight a woman and hence ultimately gave up his life in the cause of
dharma - Bhishma is my vote for the most chivalrous person in the Mahabharata.
