Jayadratha
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In the epic Mahabharata, Jayadratha is the king of Sindhu. He is married to Dushala, the sister of the Kaurava brothers.
Boon from Shiva
Jayadratha insults Draupadi, the wife of the Pandavas, by attempting to abduct her and forcibly marry her. After the Pandavas capture him, he is saved from death by Yudhisthira, who proclaims him his slave. Desiring to avenge his humiliation, Jayadratha performs a tapasya to please Shiva. He asks for the power to defeat the Pandavas, but Shiva says that is impossible - but he does grant Jayadratha the power to hold all the Pandava brothers at bay for one day in battle - all except Arjuna.
In the War
The Sindhu king sides with Duryodhana in the Kurukshetra War. Jayadratha uses his boon when he stops the Pandava brothers from entering the near-impenetrable Chakra Vyuha, that Arjuna's son Abhimanyu enters, depending solely upon the support of the rest of the army to get out. Trapped inside, Abhimanyu is murdered by unfair means.
The Pandavas are startled that Jayadratha was able to hold the most powerful warriors in the world at bay. Arjuna blames Jayadratha for Abhimanyu's death, and vows to kill him the next day.
Arjuna's revenge
Having pledged to enter the fire if he failed to kill the Sindhu king Jayadratha, whom he held principally responsible, by the end of the day, Arjuna in the process kills an entire akshauhini, or more than hundreds of thousands of soldiers. In the climactic moment, the sun is close to setting and thousands of warriors still separate Arjuna and Jayadratha. Seeing his friend's plight, Lord Krishna, his charioteer raises his Sudarshana Chakra to cover the Sun, faking a sunset. The Kaurava warriors rejoice over Arjuna's defeat and imminent death, and Jayadratha is exposed in a crucial moment, where upon the Lord's urging, Arjuna looses a powerful arrow that decapitates Jayadratha. This note of the act of protection of Krishna of his righteous friend and disciple will be incomplete without adding that Jayadratha's father, the old and sinful king Vridhakshtra had blessed his son that anyone who caused his head to fall to the ground would cause his own head to burst. Jayadratha's head is carried by the arrow to his own father's hands, who was meditating near the battlefield; who in his shock drops the head and himself dies of his own blessing.
Aftermath
After the war, Arjuna fights with the Sindhu army when it refuses to honor Yudhisthira as the World emperor. When Dusshala, his half-sister comes out and begs for her son, the young king's life, Arjuna stops fighting and makes amends.
See also
- Mahabharata (1999) by Krishna Dharma
- Hindu mythology, Wars of Hindu mythology
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