Duryodhana - The Fight With Bhima (Gada Yudh)

The Fight With Bhima (Gada Yudh)

When Duryodhana faces the Pandava brothers and Krishna alone, Yudhisthira makes him an offer that he may pick any of the Pandava brothers to fight against one-to-one with a weapon of his choice, and that if he defeats that Pandava, Duryodhana shall be deemed the victor of the war.

Duryodhana picks his archnemesis Bhima over the other Pandava brothers whom he could have effortlessly overwhelmed with his skill at fighting with the mace(he could have chosen any other but he ensured fair fight). Both possessed exceptional physical strength and had been trained by Balarama in mace fighting and wrestling to equal degrees of prowess. After a long and brutal battle stretching many hours, Duryodhana begins to exhaust Bhima.

At this point, Krishna, observing the fight, calls out to Bhima and signals him by repeatedly clapping his own thigh with his hand. To others it would appear like applauding the fight, but as Krishna intended, Bhima was reminded of an oath he had taken after the game of dice to crush Duryodhana's groin as retribution for insults to Draupadi. Bhima viciously attacks Duryodhana with a mace and strikes his groin, and Duryodhana finally falls in battle, mortally wounded.

Although Duryodhana bemoans that he was slain by unfair means, given that it was illegal to attack below the waist according to the rules of mace-fighting.

Duryodhana cries out, "I have no interest in becoming a king now, I have lost all interests in this world which is fake and temporary, slain in battle I shall spend the rest of my (after)life in heaven in the company of my friends, relatives and well wishers. You defeated us by cheating and trickery, otherwise the likes of Bhishma, Drona, Karna amongst others were unconquerable. The victory which you obtained is not true victory and your names will bear black stains in the future. I have always been a good son, loyal friend, caring brother, and terrible enemy, while I lived I stamped my foot on the heads of those who dared oppose me in anyway, I am happy to have died fighting and thank everyone who laid his life down for me, I die happy."

It was each Kaurava's aim to protect Duryodhana till his last breath and so every one had vowed that they would fight for him till the end of their lives, so when Duryodhana died, it was after all those who had protected him; he had millions of people protecting him, yet he lost the war. Duryodhana was always going to be the last person to die.

Krishna said "Yes, these men truly were invincible, while fought against fairly, but I had to uphold dharma".