In the epic Mahābhārata, Jayadratha (Sanskrit: जयद्रथ) was the king of Sindhu Kingdom (so he is also called as Saindhava). He was married to Dushala, the only sister of the 100 Kaurava brothers. He was the son of the sinful king Vridhakshtra.
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When the Pandavas were in exile, one day Jayadratha saw Draupadi. He proposed to marry her. But, Draupadi refused to marry him. Then, Jayadratha abducted Draupadi and was moving towards his kingdom. The Pandavas who returned to their hut did not find Draupadi in the Ashram. So, Yudhishtra asked Bheema and Arjuna to find out the whereabouts of Draupadi. Arjuna and Bheema came to know about the abduction by Jayadratha. Both of them defeated Jayadrath and brought him before Yudhishtra. Draupadi suggested that Jayadrath should not be killed, in order to prevent Dushala from becoming a widow. She suggested he be treated like a slave. So, Yudhishtra ordered him to be treated like a slave. Bheema shaved the head of Jayadratha leaving five spots of hair on his head and set him free.
Jayadratha desired to avenge his humiliation from Pandavas by defeating them in the battle field. So, Jayadratha performed a rigorous tapasya in order to please lord Shiva. Lord Shiva appeared before Jayadratha. Jayadratha asked the lord to give him enough strength so that, he can defeat all the Pandava brothers in a war single-handedly. But, the Lord was unable to give such a boon to Jayadratha. But, instead gave him a garland by using which, he could hold all the Pandavas at bay for one day when Arjuna and Lord Krishna were not around. Although Lord Shiva loved his devotees equally and generally did not ignore the tapasya of rakshasas, asuras, yet he always found ways to protect dharma and never allowed the evil to triumph over good.
One day Jayadratha met his father Vridhakshtra who was a sage. He asked his father to grant him a boon by which he could choose the time of his death just like Shantanu who gave a similar boon to Devavrata (i.e. Bhishma). His father expressed his inability to grant such a boon. But, instead he said that who ever caused the head of Jayadrath to fall on the ground, will be killed immediately by having his own head burst into 100 pieces.
Jayadratha fought on the side of Duryodhana in the Kurukshetra War. On the 13th day of the Mahabharata war, when the Chakravyuha was launched by Dronacharya, then Jayadrath made use of the first boon granted to him by Lord Shiva. He was able to hold all the Pandava brothers at bay except Arjuna and Krishna who were busy battling elsewhere with Susharma and his brothers. Jayadratha allowed Arjuna's son Abhimanyu to enter the battle, but effectively closed the opening created by Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu who did not know how to exit from the Chakravyooha got trapped and gets killed in a brutal way by the Kauravas treacherously. After the end of the battle, Jayadratha kicked the dead body of Abhimanyu and rejoiced around it.
The Pandavas were startled and enraged after finding that Jayadratha (whose life was once spared during the Draupadi's abduction episode in the past) was able to hold the world's most powerful warriors at bay. Arjuna blamed Jayadratha to be the cause for Abhimanyu's death. He vowed to kill him the very next day before sunset, failing which Arjuna would kill himself by jumping in a pyre of fire.
Dronacharya arranged a combination of 3 vyoohas in order to protect Jayadratha from Arjuna. Bheema, Satyaki and Arjuna all put together destroyed 5 Akshauhini of Kaurava army. At a climactic moment, the sun had nearly set and thousands of warriors were still between Arjuna and Jayadratha. Krishna soon realised that Arjuna was unable to reach Jayadratha before sunset. So, he sent his Sudarshana Chakra to in order to mask the sun and thereby causing a solar eclipse in order to create an illusion of sunset. The Kaurava warriors rejoiced over Arjuna's defeat and were looking forward for his imminent suicide. Jayadratha came before Arjuna and laughed at Arjuna's defeat. In the meantime, the Sun appeared suddenly. Then, Krishna suggested Arjuna that the sun has not yet set. He pointed his hand towards Jayadratha and asked Arjuna to kill him without wasting further time. Arjuna shot a powerful arrow that decapitated Jayadratha. In order to avoid Jayadrath's head from falling on the ground, Krishna advised Arjuna to shoot the arrow in such a way that the head gets carried and fall on the lap of Vridhakshtra. Vridhakshtra was meditating in a place very close to the battlefield. The head of Jayadratha gets carried and fell into his father's lap. His father got up in shock as he did not know what fell on his lap. The head of his son falls on the ground and his head bursts into 100 pieces and gets killed. Thus, Vridhakshtra becomes the victim of his own boon granted to his son. Thus, Lord Krishna saved Arjuna and saw to it that both Jayadratha and Vridhakshtra are killed in the same stroke.
In the entire Mahabharath battle, Lord Krishna is the cause of all the causes. He is the kingpin (or sutradaari) for all the happenings in the world. However intelligent a person may be in seeking or possessing any boon that should effectively make him immortal, Lord Krishna always found the loopholes in such boons to destroy that person. Consequently, Lord Krishna suggested a way out by which the second boon of Jayadrath backfires in order to protect Arjuna. Lord Krishna knew various secrets of every person encountered in Mahabharath. He knew the boons and curses possessed by various individuals. He knew the art of cracking every formation. He had the knowledge of all the astras, including how to neutralise a given divine weapon. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of every person. He exploited the weaknesses to cause their downfall from time to time.
Most of the pauranic movies based on Mahabharath flatters and projects lord Krishna to be the cause for every event (or incident) encountered in Mahabharath. But, it has to be understood that the original Mahabharath composed by Vedavyasa never states such a thing about Krishna. Krishna was a person who never intervened in anyone's matter unnecessarily on his own. For example, Krishna participated in the Kurukshethra battle only after Arjuna and Duryodana themselves voluntarily came to seek his help in Dwaraka. He gave his Narayani sena to Duryodana and became a charioteer to Arjuna.
Lord Krishna considered the war to be a last resort. He made every effort to establish peace between Pandavas and Kauravas. But, once the peace negotiations failed and embarked into war, then he became a ruthless strategist. Further, it was Gandhari who first pointed out that Krishna was the cause for the destruction of the Kuru race and cursed him.[1] Later, Barbareek attributed the cause behind Pandavas victory to the policies and strategies adapted by lord Krishna. The great sage Utanka also believed just like Gandhari that Krishna had a power to stop the bloodshed of Kurukshetra war. When the great sage was about to curse lord Krishna, then lord Krishna revealed his Vishwaroopa (Universal form) to him. The sage immediately recognized that Krishna was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The destruction of Kauravas and protection of the Pandavas was the need of the hour in order to establish Dharma on earth. So, he withhold his curse on Lord Krishna. Thus, many people including Bhishma who were contemporary to lord Krishna themselves believed that Krishna was the cause for everything in the world. Consequently during the end of Dwaparayuga, any problem (or dispute) either used to emerge from Krishna or would get solved through him.
After the war, Arjuna fought with the Sindhu army when it refused to honour Yudhisthira as the Emperor of Bharatvarsha. When Dushala (his cousin) came and begged to spare her son's life. So, Arjuna spared his life and negotiated with them.
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