The Battlefield — Kurukshetra

Kurukshetra was chosen as the battlefield.

Both the Pandavas and the Kauravas had spent months gathering allies, and every kingdom of Bharatavarsha had taken sides. What assembled on that battlefield was the whole world of that age, drawn into a single reckoning.

The scale was staggering. Eighteen Akshauhinis, vast military divisions, had assembled in total. The Kauravas stood with eleven such divisions and Pandavas with seven.

Then the conch shells sounded from both sides simultaneously, filling the sky with a sound that was less a signal than a declaration. The earth trembled. The air grew thick with anticipation, with dread, that every man on that field could feel in his chest.

It was at this moment that Arjun turned to his charioteer Shri Krishna and made a quiet request. He wished to see, before the first arrow flew, all those who had gathered to fight. He asked Shri Krishna to drive the chariot to the centre of the battlefield, into the open ground between the two armies, so that he could look upon them fully.

Shri Krishna did as he was asked and Arjun looked.

He saw there gathered his fathers, grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, and grandsons, fathers-in-law and dear friends, men whose faces he had known his entire life with affection and love.

Something broke inside him - his certainty.