THE STORY OF DEFEAT AND RETREAT OF ARJUNA DURING ENCOUNTER WITH SAMSAPTAKAS FOOT SOLDIERS

THE STORY OF DEFEAT AND RETREAT OF ARJUNA DURING ENCOUNTER  WITH SAMSAPTAKAS FOOT SOLDIERS

Arjuna was famous for fleeing and cheating in battle. He was the only warrior who was defeated by all categories of warriors be it supreme warriors like Karna, Drona, Ashwatthama, Vabruvahana and Bhagadatta or ordinary warriors like Bamboodhari Robbers, Sandhava foot soldiers and Samsaptakas foot soldiers. Let’s see one of the most pathetic defeat of arjuna

[Image Source (Google) : Mahabharata Star Plus]

Some Facts

• Arjuna had advantage of celestical (bow/string/chariot/horses/standard/quiver) and protection of 3 supreme gods (lord krishna/lord hanuman/lord shiva). On other hand, Samsaptakas had nothing except ordinary weapons

• Samsaptakas were already weakened by lord hanuman as uproar of hanuman (monkey) neutralized their energy

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PART – 1 : SAMSAPTAKAS FOOT SOLDIERS DEFEATING AND CAPTURING ARJUNA IN BATTLE

BORI CE  (Karn Parv , Section 37)

   Translation by B.Debroy –

All of them surrounded maharatha Pandava. O descendant of the Bharata lineage! Swiftly and powerfully, they attacked his horses, his chariot wheels and his chariot and roared like lions. O great king! Some of them seized Keshava by his mighty arms, while others seized Partha, as he was cheerfully stationed on his chariot. In the field of battle, Keshava flung his arms around and brought all of them down, like an elephant against a wicked elephant. In the encounter, on seeing that Keshava had been oppressed on the chariot, Partha became angry

Explaination -

• On 17th day of kurushetra, Samsaptakas foot soldiers had surrounded the chariot of Arjuna (Same condition like Gandharva battle)

• They divided themselves into two groups. One group mounted upon the chariot of Arjuna and another group surrounded his divine chariot

• The first group of soldiers captured both Arjuna and Krishna [Gandharvas failed to capture bowless, chariotless, driverless and intoxicated Karna but Arjuna was captured by foot soldiers. Even Arjuna could not saved his charioteer. He was lucky as his charioteer was krishna otherwise his charioteer would have been dead.LOL]

• Lord Krishna was able to shake his arms but Arjuna couldn't move even by an inch let alone shaking his arms. Before foot soldiers could drag Arjuna out of his divine chariot, Lord Krishna threw down all foot soldiers who captured Arjuna 

• Only after this, Arjuna was able to defeat second group of foot soldiers which surrounded his indestructable celestical chariot protected by hanuman but he was defeated by first group

• First group of foot soldiers conquered Arjuna as they successfully captured Arjuna. If we removed krishna from this scene then humiliating defeat of Arjuna is 100 time worst than that of Duryodhana (Gandharvas were celestical who captured Duryodhana but foot soldiers were ordinary)

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PART – 2 : ACCORDING TO SUMMARY OF MAHABHARATA, ARJUNA USED TO FLEE FROM BATTLE WITH SAMSAPTAKAS IN KURUSHETRA (IT WAS HABBIT OF ARJUNA TO RUN AWAY FROM EVERY ENCOUNTER)

BORI CE (Adi Parv, Section - 2)

Translation by B.Debroy –

[Souti to Brahmana]

Then follows the wonderful Drona Parva with many accounts, where Partha had to retreat before the sanshaptakas in battle

NOTE THIS – Partha had to retreat before Sanshaptakas (अर्जुन को संशप्तका से पलायन करना पड़ा)

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[Image Source (Google) : Mahabharata Star Plus]

CONCLUSION 

Overall, arjuna was never match for even ordinary foot soldiers of samsaptakas as he used to get captured by those soldiers and held track record of running away from samsaptakas. Irony samsaptakas (humiliators of arjuna) were single handedly defeated by Karna during his digvijaya conquest still SSC failed pandava fanatics (Slayer of English and common sense) are begging before us to accept arjuna second best after Karna. LOL 

SOURCE : BORI CRITICAL EDITION OF MAHABHARATA