Above: Map of Ancient India (click map to enlarge)
All wars create landmark in the human history and teach us some lessons through the outcomes. Human race has always been at war, with the right warring against wrong and vice versa.
Above: Picture of lord Krishna
The same happened in Ancient India, the was between the Kauravas and Pandavas is well known for Lord Krishna’s teachings in the Bhagvad Gita. Kauravas and Pandavas were sibling families, with one righteous and the other always siding with wrong and evil. The war took place to give Pandavas their rightful place as the kings of Hastinapur.
Above: Painting of the battle of Kurukshetra
The was was fought in Kurukshetra, a land mass in now Haryana, India. The war itself lasted only for 18 days, but it resulted in loss of life of almost three million people. For this battle of Justice each state participated in the war, with the exception of King Rukmi of Vidarbha and brother of Lord Krishna, Balarama.
Though the war was fought fiercely, there was a huge amount of emotional turmoil in this war since both the warring faction were in fact families. The Pandava army was led by Dristadyumna and the Kaurava army was led by Bhishma.
Bhisma loved Arjun one of the brothers among Pandavas the most as his grand child, therefore had laid down certain rules before accepting commanding position in the Kaurava army, that was he will not fight with or command Karna, and he will not harm any of the Pandava brothers.
Above: Painting of Krishna and Arjuna on a chariot
Arjun at the moment of war, saw no one but family with whom he would have to fight. He lost heart and asked his friend Krishna, who became Arjuna’s charioteer (you can also say it means someone who shows the way) the reason why he should be fighting his family and some of the people whom he loved the most.
Above: Painting during the discourse of ‘Bhagavad Gita’ on a battle field before the climactic war
In order to guide Arjuna and the Pandavas, and to explain to them why the war was inevitable Lord Krishna created Bhagvad Gita on the battle field. All the chapters in the Holy Gita show humans the correct choice to be made and also serves as a guiding path. After convincing Arjuna and Pandavas, the war began at blowing of a conch.
Both the sides included the army on feet as well as the horses, elephants and chariots. It has been misinterpreted that Krishna made Arjuna go to war, Krishna always knew wars did not serve purpose except to create havoc, but then he saw that there was no other way to create a good society for people other than going to war.
Above: Picture of bloody and climactic battle during Kurukshetra War
The weapons included the bow and the arrow, swords, mace, spear and dagger. This is seen as the bloodiest wars of Indian history with largest number of people dying in a single day. Several war tactics like the chakravyuha ( encircling the enemy in large circle and killing it), kamal vyuha ( lotus formation), etc were used in this war. Abhimanyu, knew the tactic of breaking chakravyuha, but he did not know the tactic of getting out of one, therefore, though he ended up saving army from chakravyuha, could not get out of it and was killed, Arjuna in a fit of rage killed almost thousands in a day alone.
This war was also known as the dharmayuddha (ethical war) and therefore laid down ethical rules for the war. There was no battle after the Kurukshetra war, the Pandavas ruled the country in peace. There were only ten survivors of the war, five pandavas, Krishna and Satyaki, and three on the Kaurava side, Ashwathama, Kripa and Kritavarma.
Below: Map of Kurukshetra District
source: http://www.warchat.org/history/history-asia/kurukshetra-war-32-bc-ancient-india.html
