Netflix’s animated mythological series, Kurukshetra, comes to a dramatic end this week with the release of the 2nd part of the 18-episode affair. While part 1 had ended with the strategic slaying of Dronacharya, dealing a significant blow to the Kaurav camp, we are now taken to the later stages of the epic war that would shape the history of Hastinapur and all of mankind. Kurukshetra Part 2 deals with all the developments that follow after the death of Dronacharya, as Lord Krishn guides the Pandavs to victory.
Spoiler Alert
What Is The Second Part About?
Kurukshetra part 2 begins with a frantic Ashwatthama running back towards the Kaurav camp, confused about why their soldiers are dejected and on the verge of giving up in the battle. As the leader of the Kauravs, Duryodhan rides on his chariot towards Ashwatthama, and he lets the latter’s uncle, Kripacharya, break the news about Dronacharya’s death to him. Ashwatthama is heartbroken and enraged, asking for the name of his father’s killer, and a messenger takes the name of Ashwatthama himself, surprising the young man. The messenger is right, though, as it was the half-truth uttered by Yudhishthir, about the death of Ashwatthama, although he spoke of an elephant and not the man, that had led to Dronacharya’s death, and the Kauravs are naturally ferocious about Yudhishthir and the Pandavs resort to lies and deceit.
Back at the Pandav camp, the recent event has caused some chaos as well, with most of them confused about what to feel with regards to Dronacharya’s death, particularly the manner in which he had been slain. Arjun is quick to remind Yudhishthir that such a use of a lie is dishonorable and unjust, stating that they too were acting greedily like the Kauravs in order to get the throne. Bhim chooses to defend his eldest brother though, as he believes that the Kauravs were the ones to first cross all lines of morality and honor, by causing shame to Draupadi at the royal court, and then by trying to drive the Pandavs out of the kingdom. Therefore, he chips in, the Pandavs must continue the war, and Lord Krishn supports this view as well, stating how the Kaurav army is already on the way.
Meanwhile, Ashwatthama wants to avenge his father’s death after learning that it was Dhrishtadyumna who had dealt the final blow against his father. Kripacharya is selected as the commander of the Kauravs temporarily, because of him being the only remaining elder on the battlefield, and he now tries to console his nephew, Ashwatthama, advising that the young man forget the role of a warrior for the time being and instead play the role of a dutiful son by grieving Dronacharya’s death. However, Ashwatthama cannot take his mind off his final mission, which is to kill Dhrishtadyumna to avenge his father’s death, and defeat the Pandavs in the process.
Who becomes the new commander of the Kauravs?
As the war begins once again, Ashwatthama unleashes the Narayan weapon onto the Pandavs, a superweapon that even his father had never dared to use, and Krishn has to help them out by using the powers of his mystical Sudarshan chakra. Ashwatthama also engages in a face-off against Dhrishtadyumna, but is unable to kill his sworn enemy, and has to instead retreat along with the other Kauravs in order to decide on who their new commander should be. Without the strategic plans of their last commander, Dronacharya, the army desperately needs a new individual to step up, and since Kripacharya is the interim commander, he puts forward his nephew’s name. However, Duryodhan’s younger brother, Dushasan, objects to this proposal, stating that Kripacharya is being biased towards his family ties in this case, and he instead proposes that the brilliant warrior, Karn, be made the new commander instead.
Thus, a war of words breaks out between the two sides of the Kaurav camp, with one side supporting Ashwatthama and the other side feeling that Karn should be their new commander. The two men themselves chime in and state why they will be the better leader. Karn reminds everyone that it was he who had slain Ghatotkach at a crucial stage of the war, and is therefore a far superior warrior. However, Ashwatthama takes an arguably dirty path by mentioning how Karn comes from a lowly family, as he is supposedly the child of a chariot driver, and is therefore not a warrior by caste or by birth. The argument also takes place in front of a ritualistic pyre that had been lit by Kripacharya for guidance with regards to selecting the next commander.
It is ultimately the fire that makes the selection, as it starts to glow extremely brightly, a signifier of Karn’s real paternal origin. Although Karn always knew himself to be an orphan, and was even bullied and looked down upon by everyone because of it, he is actually the son of the Sun God himself. Besides, the fire glowing brightly also makes it clear to Kripacharya that a commander should be selected not just based on their caste and clan, but rather on their heroic actions as well. Karn is undoubtedly a better and more experienced warrior than Ashwatthama in this regard, and thus it is he who is selected to be the new commander of the Kauravs.
What is Karn’s real identity?
While it is revealed that Karn’s father is the Sun God, Surya, there is more to be learnt about his parentage, for his mother happens to be Kunti, the mother of the five Pandav brothers. After Karn becomes the new commander of the Kaurav army, Kunti visits him one afternoon while in disguise, as she has to cross over to the enemy side for this meeting. It is here that she reveals a fantastic tale from her past, when Sage Durvasa had come to visit the kingdom of her adoptive father, Kuntibhoj, and she had made acquaintance with the erratic sage. Although she initially feared Durvasa because of the stories she had heard about him, Kunti grew very close to the learned man in the weeks that followed, as she served him as a dedicated student. By the end of Durvasa’s stay, he too was extremely pleased with Kunti, and granted her a special boon, which would soon change her life.
Kunti’s boon was that whenever she would recite the special chants that Durvasa had taught her, and dedicate the chants to any deity in her mind, the deity would appear and bless her with a capable son. But as Durvasa left, Kunti was scared that she would forget the chants, or would be unable to recite them properly, because of which she immediately sat down and started reciting, simply to practice the chants. However, she had Surya in her mind while doing so, which meant that the Sun God now suddenly appeared in front of her and left her with an infant boy on her lap, which happened to be Karn. Fearing social persecution and moral judgment, since she was an unmarried woman with a child, Kunti had abandoned the baby by placing it in a basket and floating it away on the river behind the royal palace.
At present, Karn is both pleased and saddened to learn of this secret about his parentage, as he is happy to know the identity of his real parents, but is also disheartened at how Kunti had abandoned him, and had never thought about him. Ultimately, he promises Kunti that she will still be left with 5 sons by the end of the war, as either he or Arjun would live by the end of their fierce clash. Just a day or two later, Karn and Arjun finally face each other on the battlefield at Kurukshetra, where Karn’s chariot falls into a ditch and he has to momentarily set aside his weapon to try and pull the chariot out. He lets Arjun know of this as well, expecting the latter to abide by the codes of warfare and not attack an unarmed man. Although Krishn reminds Arjun how his son, Abhimanyu, had also been slain while being unarmed, suggesting that he should simply get the job done, Arjun cannot bring himself to do it.
Eventually, Karn pulls out his bow and tries launching the Anjalikastra, but is unable to do so because of a curse put on him by one of his gurus, Parashuram. When Parashuram had learnt that Karn, a non-Brahmin boy, had lied about his identity and taken lessons from the guru under this false identity, he had grown furious. Driven by utter rage, Parashuram had cursed Karn that he would forget all the lessons of warfare at a moment when he would need to use them the most, and so when Karn tries to launch the superweapon at present, he simply cannot remember the chants required to do so. Ultimately, Arjun kills Karn and ensures that he is the 5th son of Kunti who stays alive. Days later, when Kunti tells her sons about the real identity of Karn after the war is over, Arjun is overwhelmed by extreme guilt and grief over having slain his own brother.
How does Duryodhan meet his end?
After most of the Kaurav army is wiped out in the war, Duryodhan leaves the battlefield and goes to Lake Dwaipayana for a long penance in order to acquire all the strength and courage required to defeat the Pandavs. By now, Duryodhan has lost countless family members at the hands of the Pandavs, including his younger brother, Dushasan, and so is filled with rage and vengeance. On the other side, the Pandavs realize how they have almost won the war, but need to first defeat Duryodhan, the main overlord of the Kauravs, they start looking for their cousin. A group of drunkards lead them to Duryodhan at Lake Dwaipayana, and make him break his penance and walk out from under the water with harsh and challenging words.
Much to the disappointment of most of them, including Krishn, Yudhishthir announces that only one of the five brothers will be fighting Duryodhan, as all five of them pouncing on him would be unfair, and they start wondering whom to pick. Bhim is the only logical choice, as Duryodhan had already mentioned that he wanted the final battle to be fought with a mace, and Bhim is the only one skilled with the mace. Since the Pandavs take too long to decide who their warrior is going to be, Duryodhan himself picks Bhim, keeping the terms of the battle all fair and square.
However, what follows can arguably be seen as unfair, as Bhim strikes the lap of Duryodhan and crushes the bones of his leg, maiming him and essentially leaving him defeated. As striking the opponent below the waist is considered a tremendous breach of conduct in mace-fighting, Bhim’s last act in the battle of Kurukshetra is considered unfair by some. However, Bhim had a very personal reason behind this attack, as he still remembered the treacherous and vile acts of the Kauravs against Draupadi at the royal court. In one of the most shameful acts, Duryodhan had proudly pointed to his lap and stated that Draupadi had to sit on it as an act of ultimate humiliation, and Bhim had made the promise on that very day to shatter Duryodhan’s lap and take revenge against this incident. Thus, Bhim does not hesitate in executing this specific attack, and does not care about the ethics and morals while fighting such a vile opponent. A maimed Duryodhan lies by the side of the lake, and is visited by the remaining few members of the Kaurav army, before he takes his last breath.
What happens to Ashwatthama?
Before dying, though, Duryodhan makes one final demand of Ashwatthama—that he kill the Pandavs by any means necessary and avenge the deaths of all the fallen Kauravs. Ashwatthama accepts, and he realizes that the only way to kill the Pandavs would be by murder, which he is not hesitant to consider since the lines of ethics and moralities regarding warfare have already been blurred numerous times. Thus, with a few of his men, Ashwatthama travels to the Pandav camp and sneaks into the tent of Dhrishtadyumna, killing the man and also Shikhandi. He then enters the tent that he knows to belong to the five Pandav brothers, and slays the five men in the darkness. Severing their heads, he brings them back to Duryodhan to prove that he has completed his mission. However, it is now that Ashwatthama makes the shocking discovery that he had not murdered the Pandav brothers, but their five sons.
The Pandavs are obviously enraged by this horrific act, and they seek out Ashwatthama to seek revenge. This is when Ashwatthama gears up to use the Brahmashirastra, the most powerful and devastating superweapon accessible to mankind, showing that he is not ready to back down. Arjun has to invoke the same weapon in order to defend against Ashwatthama, but Sage Vyas now enters the scene and reminds both sides how the use of such deadly weapons will completely destroy everything in nature and on Earth. Agreeing with his words, Arjun immediately backs down, but Ashwatthama refuses. Although he seemingly brings down the power of the Brahmashirastra, Ashwatthama does use the weapon to kill the just-born child of Abhimanyu and Uttara, meaning Arjun’s grandchild.
This is when Lord Krishn steps in once again, as he is truly enraged by the audacity of Ashwatthama. Earlier, when Draupadi had asked her husbands to kill Ashwatthama for having murdered their sons, it was Krishn who had asked her to calm down and be more forgiving, also reminding her how a grandchild was on the way. But now, when the villainous Ashwatthama kills this very grandchild, Krishn takes his celestial form and curses Ashwatthama to a life of misery and suffering, one that would never end, and yet each day of which will be filled with extreme pain and grief. Krishn also uses his godly powers to bring Uttara’s baby back to life, and proclaims how the child would one day become the ruler of a prosperous kingdom, which an unnaturally old Ashwatthama would have to witness and be frustrated by.
Does Yudhishthir finally become King of Hastinapur?
Finally, as the battle of Kurukshetra ends, the victorious Pandav army returns to the capital of Hastinapur in order to celebrate their win, but are saddened by the extreme death and suffering caused by the war. They are particularly perturbed by Dhritarashtra and Gandhari, the current king and queen, who had not just lost numerous family members in battle, but all of their 100 sons. The elderly couple show their anger and resentment against the Pandavs, but ultimately have to come to terms with the result of the war. It was, after all, their son who had refused to accept the peace treaty that the Pandavs had earlier proposed. On the other side, Yudhishthir is once again back to square one, his heart heavy with grief and guilt, for having killed not just his cousins, but even a brother, in the form of Karn. He wonders if he is fit to be king, and has doubts over sitting on the throne of Hastinapur. However, it is once again Krishn who helps expel all doubts in Yudhishthir’s mind, as he reminds the Pandav leader about how their triumph in the war symbolized their victory over the obstacles that had kept them away from what was technically their birthright. Finally, Yudhishthir agrees to be the new King of Hastinapur, and he visits all his elders for blessings, including Bhishma, who is still alive but tormented by the bed of arrows that he lies upon. Thus, in the end, Yudhishthir is the new king of Hastinapur, and the Pandavs begin their rule over the kingdom.
What is Lord Krishn’s last reminder to Gandhari?
In Kurukshetra part 2’s ending, Lord Krishn has another conversation with Gandhari, along with an even more direct conversation with the viewers, drawing a connection between the war of Kurkshetra and our modern world. Gandhari tries apologizing for having earlier cursed Krishn, as she had felt that he had unfairly sided with the Pandavs in the war. Gandhari’s curse had mentioned that Krishn’s entire lineage would also be killed someday in the future, and his home city of Dwarka would be flooded and lost forever. Now Krishn reveals that he is prepared for all these happenings, as he does not find it odd or unnatural that all mortal remains must perish one day. He expresses his readiness at having to give up his mortal body some day as well. Ultimately, Lord Krishn predicts how the world will be destroyed and the final stage, the Kali Yuga, will begin, where there will be moral and spiritual decay everywhere. Based on Krishn’s description, it does seem like we are indeed living in the Kali Yuga, as Kurukshetra tries to connect the philosophy with the extreme despair of the modern world.
