Kalingaveera Varunaputra Shrutayudha

The First Battle of Kalinga

The untimely death of the young prince of Hastinapur had created chaos all across the world . The one who was supposed to drive the epic into its fate by his arrogance had perished too early . This was not just a shock to the mortals but to the Gods too . Only few knew about the reason behind the change of the plot yet they too were surprised by sudden prominence of an unlikely character in the story . The way he got rid of the son of Gandhari was well known to the king of Gods and this reminded him of someone from a different era . The very name of the unsung warrior was enough to scare the wits out of the son of Aditi . And here this new found menace was resembling him in almost each of his abilities .

When the two friends had begun their journey from Hastinapur neither of them had any idea of what awaited them . While Duryodhana had come up with the plan of abduction of the princess banking on his friend , Karna was resolved to prove himself amongst the royals . Never in his wildest of dreams had he thought of being the reason of his friend's demise . His arrow tricked by a devil's illusion got the better of his instincts resulting in the mishap . The incident had left a lasting impact on the son of Kunti who was rotting in burning hell despite being alive . Perhaps death would be a relief when guilt eats up one's soul making him lose the willpower to face the world .

Hastinapur was stunned beyond limits when the spies delivered the news . The mighty king of Hastinapur was uncontrollable as he himself throttled the unfortunate man . The two queens fainted as soon as they were informed about the tragedy that struck their first borns . The cousins despite all their differences were gloomy with the set of Kauravas absolutely inconsolable . The Pandavas set of cousins took the responsibility of their cousins at this time of grief . As the initial phase of mourning passed the official messenger of Kalinga arrived with the formal minutes of the incident pressing upon the burden of the accident on the king of Anga . However the Kauravas weren't ready to accept the fact that one of the close aides of their brother would stoop so low . Kunti was thankful to the almighty however as she came to know about her first born being alive even after the fiasco .

The ferocious son of Ganga had stood like a rock for his family until this moment. He despised the son of the charioteer from the first day itself but was not convinced enough to believe that he could backstab the one who offered him kingship . He was ready to send an official declaration of war and his proposal was supported even by the King who was burning in vengeance . Each and every one in Hastinapur in favour of an allout war led by the mighty son of Ganga except one . The one who was though aggrieved at the sudden demise of his favorite nephew , was clever enough to see through the issue . The son of Subala knew very well about the valourous son of Radha and hence concluded that someone had outplayed the two friends . Moreover he thought it would be absolutely a great opportunity to finally get his revenge . Only he had to make things go a bit slower in pace .

Shakuni brought forward the issue of the marriage of the only daughter of the king which was previously fixed with the king of Sindhudesh , the dates of which were nearing close . The invitations had been started flowing prior to the unexpected event . A sudden postponement might not go well with the alliance . But a befitting reply was necessary to show off the mighty of the Kurus . Hence the responsibility of handling Kalinga was given to the next generation . Pandavas were ready for the job and so were the Kauravas but the friction between them wasn't unknown to anyone . The debate on the regiment taking up the issue was however resolved with the Kauravas getting the first opportunity .

The inexperienced sons of Dhritarastra were ready to hand over the responsibilities of their sister to their cousins so as to avenge their eldest . However they were joined by their would be brother in law in the middle of their journey . Even the king of Northern panchal joined them owing to his friendship with the Kuru princes . The combined forces of Sindhudesh , Panchal and Hastinapur entered the outskirts of Kalinga all ready to demolish the nation . Jaydratha , the King of Sindhudesh was quite aware of the incidents that took place previously but was overconfident of his boon . Hence he had joined the bunch of newbies in an attempt to prove his point .